Player corpses

[Stark]

Since my last comments on the "talk of exp and 8x40" topic, I have since started a new character (Timber), and have been enjoying the game again. The increased xp gain is being enjoyed. My thanks again to all the immorts that make this game possible that I can keep coming back to.

I had made an off topic mention of this topic and I wanted to visit it in its own thread. Currently, having a corpse full of equipment laying about the world is the most dangerous situation you can find yourself in, because the moment your eq isn't on your living person, it's at a serious risk of loss. Server crash? You're out of luck till you can petition an admin. Your internet connection died? Ouch! Who knows what will become of your stuff! Real Life issue that forces you to leave? Too bad, because your game will be screwed for awhile when you get back.

Everything that your character holds dear is sitting in that rotting carcass. My proposed solution: why not make your corpse tied to your character and saved along with the equipment in it? Let's say you died at kobold sage, but you have to log off (because of RL issues or frustration), so you rent (or void), but your corpse is saved and disappears with you while you're away. You can now log on the next day, and your corpse will appear in the world with you and you can fight your way back to the kobold sage to reclaim your corpse, gear, and dignity at your leisure.

There's some loose ends that would need to be tied up

Probably only save 1st corpse
Have notifications that you've got a corpse sitting out there and subsequent corpses won't be saved
Still pay rent penalties on gear in corpse
?

Should probably have the corpse persist in the world for a period of time after the player logs off if you don't want players to circumvent mob looting mechanics by just not logging back in till someone is sitting on top of where the corpse will appear.

[Stark]

...and on the topic of having your corpse looted, I would suggest we just get rid of corpse looting. The above suggestion saves all your gear all the time, even when you're dead, UNLESS a mob loots it from your corpse. Then you're in danger of permanently losing it again at the whims of the server. Why create this terrible burden on the player? As if dying and losing time, xp, or levels weren't enough, losing a valuable piece of equipment can be much much worse.

[Stark]

These changes would be a HUUUUUUUUUGE improvement to the friendliness and accessibility of the mud. Some might argue that's a bad thing, but I think most would agree to it.

More than once, I've had 20 minutes on my hands where I decide to log into sloth and kill a quick eq mob or 2. But then disaster strikes, and I'm killed and looted. At this point, I'm screwed because I have to choose between either blowing off whatever I was supposed to be doing in 20 minutes, or leave the mud and be steaming all day, wondering what happened to my corpse and equipment. I don't think the game should be this terribly hostile to people who have RL schedules who happen to make an ingame mistake at the wrong time.

[Insomniac]

We could just get given EQ and EXP for free...that would be a huge improvement in mud friendliness and accessibility...

Come on, there has to be some element of challenge in the game!

[Stark]

We could just get given EQ and EXP for free

Someone always has to say something like this when a suggestion at making the game hate you a little less is offered.

Tying your corpse to save to your person just means that you aren't FORCED to go retrieve it RIGHT NOW or else screw you over. If you're lucky, this process only takes a couple minutes. But if you're unlucky, it can take hours to get to the corpse and find all the looted pieces. And you HAVE to do it RIGHT THEN or you're screwed. I would say that it's not taking anything away from the game to be able to just quit playing at that time and do your corpse retrieval later.

[Greedo]

I can definitely sympathize with your situations stark. I have been in similar situations where I'm about to leave for work and i tell myself "one more mob" and it ends up being my demise. I've lost a fair amount of gear from not being able to recover my corpse. Heck i even lost 8 gems from getting looted and not knowing it. Frustration usually gets the better of me and I lament on the death of my poor little thief. However, I will also say that every time I've gotten frustrated I've forced myself to strategize better and ultimately those horrible deaths have made me a better player. Sometimes being put in an agonizing situation isn't always a bad thing, especially if you become a better player or person in the end. Hang in there stark.

[Stark]

Thanks for the sympathy, Greedo. It's not as if I've been in those situations recently or have lost any eq recently. And losing exp and levels should be enough of a death deterrent to make most people think about a tactics change in favor of better playing styles.

Really, it's just a quality of life issue. Saying it makes the mud more "friendly and accessible" was probably a bad word choice to me. Because I know a lot of the regulars aren't for "friendly and accessible", so just think of it as an "improved quality of life" fix. It's the one time you're forced to stay and play the game whether you want to or not. Am I really the only one who plays the game that thinks that's a bad idea? But I think one more consideration should be made, and that's for brand new players. Very often, I find whole sets of newbie equipment walking around on mobs on the chessboard. How often did a brand new player die, lose his stuff to a looter, and quit in alarmed frustration? I couldn't say, but their eq found on the mobs suggests that this happens.

[Mug]

How often did a brand new player die, lose his stuff to a looter, and quit in alarmed frustration?

ok that might be true so lets put a graveyard on vk like many games have and
let level 15 and under chars come back there with corpse in hand and a warning that after level 15 they wont get this sweet gift of easy corpse retrieval. but losing eq is the only reason i dont have 99% or 100% explored cause i dont mind losing exp or levels but the thought of losing me eq to a 400mil mob scares the poop out of me and keeps me from going to those crazy spots where i would get smashed in a round and looted all to hell.
thus i like the mob loot system, simply cause it keeps me in check and those be my 2 cents

[Stark]

Alright, so keeping looting seems to be the consensus. What about just the first part of my suggestion, saving your corpse when you log out, and making it fade out of the world after a tick or two (so that mobs can still loot it), and then come back when you log in. That would at least solve problems of mud crashes causing you to lose everything, or make things not a total loss if you simply had to log out of the game.

[*Isabo*]

Good day, Stark.

Player corpses with something in them are saved and survive crash/reboot/whatever. It was coded way back on S3.

If it is not working or game not doing it right, please, let us know.

Best regards.

[Stark]

Well, I guess I'm just behind the times then. Like I said, it's been awhile since I've lost a corpse due to mud crash. Glad it's been fixed at least.