Death Penalties

I loved the way that demons souls took. But this would scare the casuals away. There should be some kind of "hardcore mode" So you are in a dungeon and you die, you have one chance to get back to your corps. If you die during that, all the xp that you earned in this dungeon is away. Maybe thats a little bit to cruel, but i hope you guys find a way to make in intressting. In most rpg´s you die and nothing happens. You should give the players a reason to concentrate and pay attention. This will elevate the game experience to a whole new level. If you slash and grind through a dungeon while knowing: "hey i could die anytime, but it doesnt matter" you dont play with that much passion. If there is something on the line, people will get deeper into the game.

Just my 2 cents.

i think the best way is to reward people not dieing and punishing the people dieing.

reward : give people 1 kill point for each mobs kill higher then your level at each 100, 1000, 5000, 10000, 25000.... you got a new title each time you die it reset.
people love to show off

punish : maybe reset the area you die in, so if you die at the boss you need to find it again in a new map and gonna make you kill more mobs and give you more exp to help you kill the boss next time.

ps: sorry for my english doing my best

I don't like the idea of people getting punished for dieing. having to replay the segment is punishment already.

The entire fact that they died is an indicator that the area was too hard or that they was unlucky/unprepared. I dont see why one should add insult to injury by making it harder.

@Guy above me.

If there is no penalty, then it becomes an accessory to your abilities. IE: Using it to teleport to town.

Death serves in videogames to create tension and make the user have something to fear, which, in turn, if intelligently executed, can create a better experience (not for the death itself, but for the fear).

If you ask me the more level you got the more death penalty is good.

No death penalty should be only in "Babies league" :)

Edit: Also not to make it "a pain in the ass" for high level players ,the more you die in a row the peanlty must be lowered.

Any idea on having some kind of "fighting through hell" to get back is horribly tedious and pointless from my perspective, a real game turn off.

I like EXP penalty, but it is pretty old school, can be tedious, and doesn't impact max level characters unless you can de-level. I don't know if you want a "de-level" kind of game, but it is an option in certain difficulties.

I like the idea of a monster group getting a buff based on your death, this hurts your team, makes you really sorry you died, makes you feel like an idiot, and makes you want to hurry up to get back and help. Some kind of area wide buff on the monsters that remains until they die. I would encourage that combined with a personal xp loss, and I vote for being able to lose a level. I also think it is reasonable to have these penalties increase in effect to be stronger for rapid deaths of the same player in a row, to a max. Maybe 1 monster, the one who lay the final blow or whatever, becomes a morphed version or something in the same persons 3rd death in a row over a time period.

I don't know if you really need a death penalty, tossing the player to town is enough in my opinion. Maybe if you'd grant the player the possibility of choice - either you resurrect in town, at no penalty, or you ressurect at the spot, but get a weakened debuff for like 1 minut or whatnot.

EXP loose,boring,dropping items,no way,but i have an idea,when you die,the Death Ripper stands behind you,and follow you,run baby run,or the Death Ripper will Steal your Gold and EXP and damage your Armor,everytime he can Catch you,the Death Ripper follows you longer,for more Death,max time 5 mins,that is a mini game,and a fear,and a fun^^

Got my idea after reading trough first few pages of this thread.

When you die you get a small moral penalty. This works like a debuff decreasing all or some major stats. But the debuff persists even trough time so only way to get rid of this morale debuff is to kill enough enemies... you could have like this special bar on top of your screen or something. If you die constantly the bar rises bigger and bigger and debuff would become stronger too, until it reaches some fixed value.

You could also kill lower level enemies to "rise you self-esteem" lol... but that would take longer.

yeah something like that.. that way it would not be permanent penalty (unless you really suck and die all the time) but would be harsher than just sending you to town.

I think it should be incremental for the difficulty levels. So in the first you just get sent back to town, then maybe halfway through the game you start losing exp or in game currency (if implemented), then the next difficulty you get a debuff or the monsters get a buff, then in the highest level and I don't know if it is possible, but perhaps the monster takes posession of one of your items and you have to hunt that monster down to get it back.


This type of system integrates many of the suggestions on this forum into one scheme. It allows newer players to adjust and improve their playing in the earlier areas without fearing too much consequence. Then as you improve as a player the cost of death increases. Losing the item even if just briefly will make even the best player cringe, but not stop playing the game because they get it back.

Personally I would hate dying because of my idea, but that doesn't mean it isnt good.

Overall, a system like this would allow players to gain comfort with the game at the early levels then weed out the weaker players at higher levels, successive deaths, successive loss of items, will force players to bring an enhanced level of strategy or call in the help of friends.