Death penaltyFollow

The only problem with this method is that there's no penalty for someone who has a maxed level.

And that's the core of my problem with death in FFXI: too often, on a lot of monsters/bosses, it's simply out of your control and at the mercy of the RNG gods. Death, Deathga, Doom, Doomga, -enDeath, -enDoom, Chainspell Death, Charm, 30-60 seconds terror, etc. The game just became a massive "FU" when it came to TP moves and even though they "Promised" to tone it down when Adoulin came out just look at the monsters they put out and realize it was a damned lie.

Hell, just look at the Salvaga II Hydra "Trembling sometimes deals severe damage with no warning (1700+)". That's a killer on over half of the jobs in the game and there's NOTHING you can do about it. Throat Stab moves are bullsh*t in and of themselves but with those you have warning and a good healer can take care of you. A move that randomly says "NOPE ONE SHOT!"? No thanks, I'll pass.

You pulled too many monsters and couldn't survive? That's your fault. No one argues that fact and you accept that death because you yourself caused it. Went into a fight without Protect and Shell and didn't bother to wait to be buffed? That's on you, you know it, and you eat the death.

The RNG rolled dice when you're a full health and said "YOU DIE, TRY AGAIN NEXT TIME" and you wonder why people quit? Ultima countered two of your attacks and you die instantly because you're a dual-wielding class and each hit just relfected almost 1400 damage? That's the game saying "Go play something else because my developers don't care about your enjoyment!" and you leave because if the game can't play fair, why should you bother paying them? That's how a lot of people felt and it's justified in a lot of FFXI.


Edited, Jun 21st 2013 6:40pm by Viertel

+1 for fear death, lose XP.

I'm with Sandpark. I've never been "scared" of a death penalty. Death penalties are all about the best way to inconvenience the player, the best way to make the game less fun at some point if you ***** up. Not to say it shouldn't be there, but let's call it what it is.

Is there a way to penalize the gamer for deaths without making it annoyingly tedious where fun is actively being drained from the game? I pretty much agree with Sandpark again, I like his suggestions. They work towards making the game harder or more challenging for a certain period of time. This is much better than something that simply adds to grind. If you do add to grind (such a delevel), give the grind a cap (a limit as he suggested).

It is an MMO, whether you die or not you will be performing the same actions over and over again. Adding challenge is a different twist than simply adding some more "and again" to the "again and again" repetitive actions we will already be doing.

Edited, Jun 21st 2013 9:03pm by decoyninja

I personally always play HC in Diablo and most other games where it exists. Sure it sucks when I die because of lag and I really wish there was something you could do to prevent that sort of thing, but in the end it is definitely worth it. I think Diablo is boring if I don't play HC. The thrill and excitement I get is just so much higher for every little thing I do that I know is even remotely dangerous. Now can I get the same type of thrill some other way? Yes I can, just like you suggested pleasure works the same way albeit for me generally less strongly, but if I can have both why wouldn't I want it?

I remember popping and soloing Despot for the first time, holy moly my adrenaline was pumping hard in the beginning and there are several other situations where fear was not the main factor for my enjoyment, but that does not mean it can't add to the experience. Now I understand if people don't want harsh penalties for dying I mean to each their own, but personally depending on the situation I can definitely see the point.

For XI I have to say thought that generally the things that made me fear death was not the exp penalty or weakened state, it was honstly just the fear that I would not be able to complete the content for different reasons. Traveling took such a long time that if you died and had to start over because there was no raise available you might not do it, either because of time constraints or because you couldn't get back there solo, but the party would not start over etc. The exp penalty was more of a nuisance to me, just like having to pay to repair my gear after dying doesn't make me fear death it just annoys me when I don't have enough money.

I dunno, I think there are different way of getting added excitement to the game by upping the stakes for death, but I am not sure I've seen the perfect one for the MMORPG genre as of yet (HC works great for Hack ´n Slash imo).