Permadeath in Don't Starve Together announced as OPTIONAL

[J20hawkz]

Don't Starve Together has been announced by JoeW to have an option to turn permadeath on or off. What are your thoughts? Should there now be alternate ways of reviving such as coming back as a ghost? I know some of you have raised different ways of reviving a friend once they have died. But is that all necessary now? Obviously if you find permadeath a challenge turn it off.

Edit 1:

With Permadeath being an option, I personally feel there is no need to have any new/alternate ways of reviving. The mechanics we have in place for Don't Starve is more than enough. 

Anyone new/wants to play casually in Don't Starve can set permadeath to off and enjoy playing with friends without the risk of losing your entire game. 

For those who enjoy the tense nature of Don't Starve with permadeath are you satisfied with how it will work and the risk it will run if you die and can't come back to the same world you worked so hard to build with your friends? Are you happy to let them carry on playing in that world while you wait? Are you happy to start a new game with other friends? Will you be happy to start a new game if a friend you wanted to play with died and can't come back?

Please share your thoughts. 

Poll is set to Multiple Choice.

Ok this has got to be one of the most talked about things right now. I know many of you have shared your opinions and honestly they are all awesome, but let's see how many people are for Permadeath and how many people are against it for Don't Starve Together.

I'm going to keep things very simple, but feel free to say why you voted for or against it in the comments below.

Permadeath is what it is. You die in DST that's it, you don't come back to that world, the friends you are playing with can't call you back until they start a new server with a new world.

Edit: There should definitely be Permadeath in Don't Starve Together. But it shouldn't work the same way as Don't Starve. We still need to be fearful of dying and losing everything, but not losing everything that causes you to keep starting new games over and over just because the friend you want to play with keeps dying.

That's my opinion anyway. What's yours?

[NergalJr]

I'm against permadeath in Don't Starve Together. But all of your items, chests, walls, whatever, should be gone. So you can't just come back and pluck everything back up where you died.

[J20hawkz]

I'm against permadeath in Don't Starve Together. But all of your items, chests, walls, whatever, should be gone. So you can't just come back and pluck everything back up where you died.

Awesome idea. But don't forget to vote mate.

[Toros]

Permadeath should absolutely be a thing, because we have resurrection options (meat effigies, amulets, touchstones).  An ally dying gives living players a mission (Bring Tom back to life) with an appropriately high cost.  (Effigies are expensive)

 

If there isn't permadeath, I can't imagine there being any difficulty at all to DST.

 

Best way would be to use steam login, and per server/world, you need to be resurrected with a meat effigy after your first death.

 

If you wanted to make things easier, use a timer before you can respawn, something like 1-4 hours.

[Pyromailmann]

Yes and no, as an option for enable/disable permadeath yes. But if you enable permadeath you should still have the corpse on the ground you can give it an amulet or take the skull (would give the skulls a use but remove the unlock of Webber in DST)  and put it in a grave so it'd also revive the player but leave them at lower health, hunger and sanity than an amulet, effigy or touch stone.

[Spazmatic]

Yes, permadeath should be a thing. You're playing an uncompromising wilderness survival game with permadeath in the SP mode, this should also be one of the core mechanics in DST. If the game was a true sandbox game there would be no need for permadeath, but Don't Starve is NOT a true sandbox game.

[J20hawkz]

Ok added a third option and allowed multiple choice.

[TheKingofSquirrels]

Unless there is some kind of punishment to replace it (and no, loosing you inventory doesn´t count), perma-death should definitely stay. 

[Vanderer]

I'm rather undecided, so a yes/no option is what I went for.

 

However, if permadeath was not permitted, I think there should be one heck of a payout to get revived. 

 

However, if permadeath was permitted, I think a good option would be to somehow allow the permadeath player to, I guess, observe the rest of the game. See what their friends are doing, if they wanted too. I'm not sure if chat implementation for the dead player would be a good thing or not, *I'd be pretty happy myself to talk to my dead/living starvers*  but it would be nice to see what your friends/team are up to from time to time. Sort of like a 2 way mirror to see into the world of the living from the world of the dead. You couldn't do anything of course, you could only watch, like a livestream don't starve, except watching your still alive friends play.

[NergalJr]

Permadeath would be a nightmare if all you could do after you get killed by a tentacle is watch your friends play. That's ridiculous. What if I wanted to enjoy a long session with one of my friends? I don't want to restart the server every time I got killed by one of those damned tentacled creatures that pop out of swamps, just so me and my friend can play together.

[TheKingofSquirrels]

Permadeath would be a nightmare if all you could do after you get killed by a tentacle is watch your friends play. That's ridiculous. What if I wanted to enjoy a long session with one of my friends? I don't want to restart the server every time I got killed my one of those damned tentacled creatures that pop out of swamps, just so me and my friend can play together.

 

Well I would think that once everyone dies, you just keeping playing it as a single-player game. 

Yes, I agree, it would be frustrating...But that´s the point. That´s how it is i single-player as well, when you die and loose everything it´s probably one of the most infuriating things imaginable. I don´t see why they wouldn´t apply that to multi-player.

Also, you have to realize that there is no Don´t Starve without perma-death, it simply would´t work.

[RalphKastro]

Permadeath should absolutely be a thing, because we have resurrection options (meat effigies, amulets, touchstones).  An ally dying gives living players a mission (Bring Tom back to life) with an appropriately high cost.  (Effigies are expensive)

That could work, but should be something more expensive than a Effigy(to fix in people's mind "better safe than sorry")

[TheKingofSquirrels]

I'm rather undecided, so a yes/no option is what I went for.

 

However, if permadeath was not permitted, I think there should be one heck of a payout to get revived. 

 

However, if permadeath was permitted, I think a good option would be to somehow allow the permadeath player to, I guess, observe the rest of the game. See what their friends are doing, if they wanted too. I'm not sure if chat implementation for the dead player would be a good thing or not, *I'd be pretty happy myself to talk to my dead/living starvers*  but it would be nice to see what your friends/team are up to from time to time. Sort of like a 2 way mirror to see into the world of the living from the world of the dead. You couldn't do anything of course, you could only watch, like a livestream don't starve, except watching your still alive friends play.

 

But then the spectator would just explore the world and  tell the surviving players where everything is. 

Maybe you could be a Ghost, like an actual Ghost from the game, similar to the way it works in Spelunky. That way, you could still help players fighting monsters and maybe there could be a way you could be brought back to life. 

[J20hawkz]

My idea in the PvP in PvE thread was to allow spectating of players only. So basically when you die the camera is fixed on any surviving players. You see their character as they see it on their screen and only switch between each character by clicking the mouse. There is no camera free roam.

[ARamblingSpider]

Wow, it's sad to see so many people not wanting perma death.

[jbeetle]

I say there should be as much permadeath as there is in the current version, that is to say, very easily avoided (especially with the help of multiple people).

[Zeklo]

Heck.... I guess I'd say yes to perma-death. There just needs to be an alternative/better way to revive friends that makes then not have to wait an hour before they can play again. I've gave my ideas but none of them seem good enough. Like I've said before a semi-interactive ghost char could work after death so they can play some what... but still.

 

I don't know a good way honestly. I want dying to be bad yes, but I don't wanna have to wait around doing nothing for an hour until my friends revive me. Heck it would be a bummer if I wait around 45 minutes for them to revive me and then they die. Then I just spent 45 minutes doing nothing when we could've just restarted. I'm sure klei knows what they're doing because if they don't... multiplayer will be a big bust.

[Deceiven]

Of coarse it should, and having an option to have it turned off or on is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

 

Permadeath IS don't starve. Giving people an option to have it turned off may sound desirable at first, but I know for a fact if I've had an option to just respawn every time I died I would not be still playing this game to this day. The game is just so much more rewarding and intense when you know all your effort is at constant risk of being lost, players would be unwittingly limiting their Don't Starve experience with such a feature...

[Toros]

That could work, but should be something more expensive than a Effigy(to fix in people's mind "better safe than sorry")

 

I disagree, simply because beard hair is pretty difficult to get, and 4 meat goes a long way (and food is going to be tight in multiplayer games, especially winter).  I mean, touchstones are free, and you don't want things to be so difficult that people just restart the game when someone dies.

 

It also gives Wilson a strong niche as a support character.

[NeoDeusMachina]

I definitely hope permanent death remains part of Don't Starve, even in Together. This is something that makes Don't Starve, well... Don't Starve. There are already a couple of methods that allow someone to resurrect and these methods should still be availabie in DST.

 

What I would do is, whenever one of the players in the game permanently dies, a pop-up message appears for the other players warning them of the death of one of their survivor friend and asking them if they want to keep playing or not. If they do, well, the world remains the same and everything the dead player has build remains (because why would it magically disappear anyway?). At this point, it would be a player by player decision. Those who choose not to keep playing will despawn (as if they died, but without leaving a skeleton). A message for the dead player AND those who chose not to keep playing would then appear, showing the number of days survived (like when you die in single player). It would be impossible for the dead player AND those who decided not to keep playing to rejoin the game in the future. Those who decided to keep playing would, however, be able to resume the game and keep playing in the same world in the future (provided they don't die).

 

Let's suppose the 4 players all know each other and made the game specifically to play together, then they would just have to restart. How would that be diferent from a single player game ? When you die, you die and you need to restart. Except now the remaining players could keep the game to play later on if they desire.

[AlbinoWyvern]

Permadeath should definitely be a thing. You usually don't die in the game unless you make some really big mistake, and with other people to help out it'll be even more difficult to end up dead. That said, it would be great if they added a method of ressurecting a fallen ally.

[LadyAzure]

Okay a bit off topic..but when I voted I clicked on yes, then clicked on no it should be optional..because i changed my mind...but then hit okay and it took both of my choices...anyway I think it should be determined upon world creation. I say this because if you are playing with a friend do you really want to wait if one of you die? I think anyone who plans ahead to play with friends will pick this choice. So it makes sense that players going in solo would vote for once you die your dead. However playing with friends your not going to wait around for them if you die first. So I think it is good to have the choice when you are customizing your world this way everyone is happy. Yes it may be hard to find lobbies, maybe..but when enough people get the game it will work out I think.

[NeoDeusMachina]

Okay a bit off topic..but when I voted I clicked on yes, then clicked on no it should be optional..because i changed my mind...but then hit okay and it took both of my choices...anyway I think it should be determined upon world creation. I say this because if you are playing with a friend do you really want to wait if one of you die? I think anyone who plans ahead to play with friends will pick this choice. So it makes sense that players going in solo would vote for once you die your dead. However playing with friends your not going to wait around for them if you die first. So I think it is good to have the choice when you are customizing your world this way everyone is happy. Yes it may be hard to find lobbies, maybe..but when enough people get the game it will work out I think.

 

Say you play with a single friend and he dies. You can vote to keep playing (thus keeping the world available to you if you want to keep playing solo eventually) and just restart a game with your friend. Voting ''keep playing'' still allows you to save & quit and restart another game, you just don't lose the possibilty to play the game in which you haven't died yet (which seems fair).

[ARamblingSpider]

I have a good feeling Klei's going to add this as an option or no perma death, and even then most people are going to turn off perma death.

[J20hawkz]

I have a good feeling Klei's going to add this as an option or no perma death, and even then most people are going to turn off perma death.

I reckon the casual gamers will alternate between permadeath being on and off. The more "hardcore" Don't Starvians will have it set at "on" all the time. It's good to have that choice.

Personally I'm undecided, for me Don't Starve should stick true to what it is. Don't Starve Together should be a different game that makes it stand out on its own, not directly associated with what we have grown to love from Don't Starve.

So for me DST should be similar to Don't Starve but have certain things about it that as fans we can say "Yeah well Don't Starve had this that I loved about it, but then again Don't Starve Together had this that is pretty awesome too" and so begins the DS vs DST fanbase era!

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Klei decided on a whole new way how death works in DST, but I wouldn't be surprised if they used the same death mechanics from DS.

Makes sense? I know I'm just rambling now.