Perhaps I haven't been paying enough attention to this discussion, but I've lost sight of what changing the death penalty is a solution for. What is the existing 'problem' that this change is intended to resolve? In my estimation there are a few possibilities, of course if I miss the mark with all of the please correct me.
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1) People rage quit Genesis when they die because of the time and effort required to return to their original stats.
- I'd be curious to know how real of a problem this is. I find it difficult to believe that someone would quit purely because they do not
want to put the time and effort back into their character to get back to their previous stats/level. Indeed, I find it more likely that
the decision to quit is brought on by other factors. I don't remember who mentioned it in this thread already (and I'm admittedly too
lazy to go find out), but [b]how[/b] that character died seems to be more of the problem than [b]the fact[/b] that they died. A few
examples off the top of my head would be things like:
a) dying due to a bug
b) dying due to Mages
c) dying due to lag
d) dying to a super myth
In all the above cases, it would be things like the fact that a bug killed them and the wizards are unwilling to restore or a Mage
killed them and the wizards are unwilling to nerf or lag killed them and the internet is unwilling to apologize or a super myth killed
them and the wizards are not willing to deal with the size gap among characters. Don't misunderstand me as saying these are
legitimate reasons or statements. In any case, when coupled with something else that is somehow infuriating, I believe it is at
that point that people quit in a fit of rage. The important point to take away from this is that I'm not so convinced that the simple
fact of death/death penalty is what causes people to quit when they die.
2) The current system is not fair when considering size of players.
- I would argue that any system that imposes a flat percentage penalty, equally, to everyone that dies will foster this same problem.
Regardless of standing opinions on the infamous size gap between players in Genesis, it is fairly clear that it exists. On a flat
percentage based system, there will always be a 'sweet spot' where dying puts a massive damper on anything and everything that
character wants to do. Similarly there will also always been a 'null zone' where dying just has no noticeable effect on the character
and they are in a semi-invincible state where, for example, they are free to perform crappy RP with little consequence.
3) The current system imposes too harsh of a penalty
- If the current penalty is too harsh, I'm not sure how we've landed on 5% with no recovery. I suppose it is a true statement that 5%
is less than 20%, so if that is how we would measure the harshness of a penalty then we have solved this problem. I don't think,
though, that the loss of xp is what ends up making a penalty harsh or not. I think, in the end, it comes down to how much effort does
the player need to reinvest into their character to return to the snapshot moment of their death. Using that, instead, as a measure of
harshness, I don't think we've made any ground when comparing the two systems. My feeling is that 20% loss with recovery will
take the same amount of time to regain as 5% loss with no penalty. So, we've changed the numbers and concept, but really gained
no ground.
I also think it's very important that we stop considering things like 'how do we
want the system to work' and consider things like 'how will players abuse this system'. Is that a crappy way of looking at the world/game? Sure. However, in the end, it will always been the negative things that make people leave. Who's to say the following scenario does not happen:
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Jhael pisses off a super myth. Said super myth determines that death is the recourse for Jhaels actions, and carries out said
sentence. Aforementioned super myth then deigns that one death was not enough of a punishment, afterall the old system
was a 20% penalty. Jhael is killed again. Super myth is not quite satisfied that Jhael has learned her lesson, and a third death
is imposed upon Jhael.
We can argue whether or not this scenario is likely to occur until we're blue in the face, but the fact of the matter is that there is nothing preventing this from happening. Under the most recently proposed system, there is also nothing to mitigate the effects of such an occurrence. We already have precedent for multiple deaths being imposed upon a single character, what's to say that is going to magically stop upon changing the death penalty?
In a discussion such as the one we find ourselves in, it's very easy to lose track of the goal. I hope the takeaway of this post for most, if not everyone, is that we need to ask real questions about the problem before we can propose a solution which will have a positive effect on the game.
