[MUD-Dev] Alternatives to Permadeath

[Brian Bilek]

szii at sziisoft.com wrote:

> Off the cuff, I hate it.  =P

> From a player's point of view, my character LIVES in this world.
> Even while not out adventuring/slaying monsters/questing he should
> be honing his skills in town, doing katas every morning,
> researching in the library, etc.

> I dislike decaying ANYTHING because it's a never ending battle,
> much like trying to keep a house clean with a child around.  I
> don't play games to simply try and "keep up" my standing.  I want
> to advance.

I completely agree with this statement.  Anything that takes away
from my skills or achievements should be due to my actions directly,
my mistakes, or the actions of another player, where such
interaction is allowed.  It simply isn't 'fun', because I'm not
playing enough or playing in a certain way enough, to lose stats.

(some great suggestions cut out)

To me, death needs to have an affect on a player's character.  One
that is strong enough to discourage recklessness, but not strong
enough to discourage play.  My thoughts lean towards a system with
multiple achievement tracts, where some are affected by death.

Take a three-tract system:

  1) Stats and abilities.  The mainstay of the CRPGer.  These are
  granted through personal achievement, on an exponential scale,
  with death taking only a low percentage out if any.

  2) Comparative rank.  This can be for PvP oriented and for non PvP
  oriented skills.  Certainly you earn PvP ranks by defeating others
  in a controlled environment - a "grand master" should truly be the
  one best in the world or server.  I envision the ranks affecting
  training - you must find a trainer to advance past certain skill
  milestones, and players with the highest ranks are necessary to
  acheive the highest levels.  The ranks would be skill limited of
  course...high ranks would require high skill in addition to the
  other method of achievement.

  For non PvP skills, perhaps some complex task must be puzzled out
  to achieve the higher ranks (or finding a trainer).  I envision
  some way to competitively achieve the rank, in comparison to
  others, without combat.  The rank would allow certain actions to
  be performed, or some differentiation of products.

  3) Religious/Guild/Political affiliation...or something else tied
  very closely to life and death.  Perhaps 'family honor,' or
  somesuch.  A third ranking of some sort.  Only those players who
  achieve high comparative rank in certain skills and have high
  religious or political favor in their chosen sect can earn certain
  prestigious positions of power.

As you can see, this is sort of off the cuff as well.  But I think
that the issue of permadeath can be addressed through finding more
ways to benefit the player who never dies rather than punish the
ones who die more severely.

-Brian

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