Amorana wrote:
My biggest problem with the original idea was, and remains, that you can only recover 2 hours per day (which unfairly affects casual players more than non-casual and is also a deterrent to new players), and the fact that brute would either make xping while recovering not worth it (i.e. being a slightly or somewhat violent expert stat-sized player gives almost no xp) or would make death-growth gain easily abused (i.e. if the stat size does affect brute, you stay in a state of death recovery so that you can always have a lower brute while teaming with bigger friends in order to power-level yourself to myth.)
It's not that it's complex. It's just highly-flawed.
Amorana - here are some things to consider
1) Casual players will always be at a disadvantage under any system. If you play less you grow/advance less and recover from death more slowly. This is not any different then it is now. However, the numbers given by Gorboth are easily adjusted and could also include a time passage variable.
So if, for example, a casual player could have recovered at 2 hours per day over 5 days they will also recover if they have played 5 hours total over a 7 day time period. So the quickest you can recover is 5 days if you play 2 hours a day but you will recover in 7 days if you have played a total of 5 hours in that time period. A sliding scale can solve problems new players may have with this.
2) I think the recovery over time idea only works if brute is left in place so you don't end up being a somewhat violent expert. This is very important and I assumed it would work this way. If it doesn't then its not such a good idea.
3) If two characters have the same amount of quest exp the smaller character gets more of a decrease in brute than the larger and so would benefit more from the decrease in brute during recovery than the larger. Therefore, if characters use this to grow faster, the smaller characters will have more of an advantage then larger ones. This is not a bad thing...Let players 'abuse' this if they want. It will probably mean that the average size gap will shrink over time which can only be a good thing.
What does this solve?
Well...I am pretty sure the recovery over time solution is only meant to lessen the severe penalty which larger characters suffer when they die. That is what seemed to initiate this discussion and is what the idea addresses most directly. It might mitigate the size gap problem after awhile but that problem is better solved by other solutions most people, unfortunately, don't want to consider.
With regards to the 5%-no recovery solution consider this:
1) Initially (mid to late 90's) players didn't mind dying (that much) because size difference was not that great and growth was easier and quicker.
2) Now players are focused on growth and want to avoid death at all costs.
3) With recovery the gains you made before death are made back at a faster rate. Any punishment without a recovery period completely erases some amount of growth and is in some sense a permanent punishment.
If you want PvP then you can't permanently punish players who engage in it and if you do punish players in this way you can't expect them to engage in PvP. You simply cannot have it both ways.
The 5% solution is definitely a step back and will do nothing to promote PvP.
The recovery over time solution solves the problem of death for larger characters, makes death less harsh for smaller players, allows a way to grow faster if you like being dragged around by bigger characters and is intended to, hopefully, promote PvP. We should at least give this a trial run to see how it works in practice.