A cure for surplus.... kinda..

[Rokien]

So, I feel that we don't have a proper death penalty on the game. I have a cure for that, and to make it where you don't hit surplus for getting 8 hours of exp. You make surplus part of the death penalty. When you die, you go into surplus for x amount of time for x amount of exp loss. When you die again, and that time has not expired, the time resets and you go more into surplus. Example: *I die* I am now losing 15% exp. *I die again* I am now losing 50% exp per kill. Something like that. Share you ideas, and thoughts.

[Abriael]

So, basically you want to remove a timesink made to give casual players an advantage, to add one to put them at a disadvantage? It doesn't really have anything to do with the reasons why surplus was implemented, and it doesn't add any challenge or real thrill to the game.

Nah. I'd rather them remove the timesink altogether, without adding any. Timesinks don't add any challenge, they're just there to waste people's time. And we waste plenty time already in many areas of the game (like running).

[Rokien]

I'm not really saying for time sync purposes. I just think it would be a good death penalty. Every game, even casual games have a worse death penalty then this game does.

[Abriael]

I'm not really saying for time sync purposes. I just think it would be a good death penalty. Every game, even casual games have a worse death penalty then this game does.

Really? I know quite a few games that do NOT have a sizably worse death penalty than this game does. Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, Rift...
Basically any modern MMORPG developer did away with harsh death penalties. Why? because they're nothing else than a useless timesink and challenge should be added by actually creating challenging encounters, and not by giving a mere delusion of challenge with a death penalty that is nothing else then a waste of gaming time.

Besides, there are several threads about death penalty, maybe you should have posted there.

[Rokien]

Ya, but that is my fault for not looking around. D:. I also kinda wanted to get my idea out. Also, never played EQ, didn't know that they did that. Also, I was talking every game in general. Like if you havnt saved in a while(I know thats your own fault) and you die, you have to back track an hour or so or longer. I know iv done that many times. I'm sure most people have as well.

[Abriael]

Ya, but that is my fault for not looking around. D:. I also kinda wanted to get my idea out.

Like everyone that posts in this forum. If everyone opened his own thread to "get his idea around" the forums would be quite the mess (and actually too many do, and that's one of the reasons why the forums are already quite the mess).

As for backtracking in other games, that's why developers have been pushing to reduce the problems, with automatic checkpoints, autosave, quicksave and other features.
It's in a developer's interest not to make people feel like they are wasting their time. Which is exactly what harsh death penalties end up achieving.

[Kazimir]

So, basically you want to remove a timesink made to give casual players an advantage, to add one to put them at a disadvantage? It doesn't really have anything to do with the reasons why surplus was implemented, and it doesn't add any challenge or real thrill to the game.

Nah. I'd rather them remove the timesink altogether, without adding any. Timesinks don't add any challenge, they're just there to waste people's time. And we waste plenty time already in many areas of the game (like running).

Surplus was not added as a timesink, it was to get people to level more classes to utilize the action & traits system, instead of just rushing to 50 on one. Even with surplus you can hit 50 in a month so it's not like it's much of a penalty anyway.

The only reason why people complain about it is they want to hit the cap as soon as possible. But I guess I can understand why, the process of leveling in this game is so boring right now you can't really stop to enjoy it.

[Abriael]

Surplus was not added as a timesink, it was to get people to level more classes to utilize the action & traits system, instead of just rushing to 50 on one. Even with surplus you can hit 50 in a month so it's not like it's much of a penalty anyway.

The only reason why people complain about it is they want to hit the cap as soon as possible. But I guess I can understand why, the process of leveling in this game is so boring right now you can't really stop to enjoy it.

You actually described a timesink pretty much perfectly. Timesinks are mechanics in place, between other things, to make people take more time to reach the endgame. The fact that it also encourages people to play different classes (I would say almost forces) is more of a consequence than a cause, and so it was described both by Tanaka and Komoto.

[Nephera]

So, I feel that we don't have a proper death penalty on the game. I have a cure for that, and to make it where you don't hit surplus for getting 8 hours of exp. You make surplus part of the death penalty. When you die, you go into surplus for x amount of time for x amount of exp loss. When you die again, and that time has not expired, the time resets and you go more into surplus. Example: *I die* I am now losing 15% exp. *I die again* I am now losing 50% exp per kill. Something like that. Share you ideas, and thoughts.

Eq2 did this but they ended up reducing the penalty to virtually nothing, they called it experience burden.

[Evangela]

lol, your signatures are dead!