[MUD-Dev] Permadeath or Not?

[Jeff Freeman]

At 03:15 PM 12/11/00 -0700, Kwon Ekstrom wrote:
> Jeff Freeman wrote:

>> I stack the deck against the killers, so they're weaker than their
>> would-be victims.

> You stack the deck against the killers?  How would you do that?

Should say, I stack the deck against anti-social killers.

The nature of resurrection works against killers: Players can
resurrect other players any number of times.  The more friends you
have, the more likely someone will be there to save you from death.
Killers have fewer friends.

Second, players can't use one another's gear.  So if someone has a
magic sword then even if you kill him and steal his sword, you can't
use it.  Killers find less powerful magic items, because they spend
less time killing monsters and more time killing players.

Third, most of the powerful magic items are player-made anyway -
killers participate in the economy less often than other players -
mainly because they aren't allowed to shop, train or work in the
towns, so they have less powerful magic items.

Finally, they can't go into town and buy training in their skills (and
there's some skill loss on death, even if they do get resurrected by a
friend).

So they wind up having lower skills, poorer equipment and there's a
lower chance that anyone will help them out when they die, so they die
more often.

Now if they are not antisocial, then they can get away with a bit
more.  But its hard to kill people (especially in a world with
permanent death) without being antisocial.

At 03:15 PM 12/11/00 -0700, Kwon Ekstrom wrote: >If both people are
players, the difference between the 2 chars would >be simply that one
feels more inclined to prey on his or her neighbors.

And skills, and loot, and so on.

At 03:15 PM 12/11/00 -0700, Kwon Ekstrom wrote: >If you're talking
about simply making their rolls worst if they start >the fight, why
allow pk?  That in itself would limit people from pking >for
legitimate reasons.

I don't.  But in order to be successful in Ackadia, you have to be
social.  By "successful" I mean, you get all the r33t skills, kewl
equipment, powerful allies, and so on.

That stacks the deck against the killers.


--
  http://home.swbell.net/skeptack/

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