Why are people against PermaDeath!?

[SoCareless]

I feel perma-death would be great, but to please people maybe add a very difficult task/craft  to revive a fallen friend.  Where the task is difficult enough that death is almost certain when attempting to revive the friend who died. 

 

 

This would either revive the fallen friend/s or kill the living friends.  This way creating a new game would be a no-brainer.

 

 

Friend/s Dies Begin Event/Quest.    

 

• Begin task of reviving fallen friend within 3 days. (after 3 days, the remains have rotted and cannot be revived).  The task can include crafting something/visiting a special place and doing  some ritual.  (**Maybe dead friend becomes like a ghost and can still spectate but only has vision of friends.

 

• Task can be very difficult and usually results in death of rescuer.  This would serve as a way to resurrect the fallen or to eliminate the living.

 

• If the living friends really want to play with their friends they have to attempt the task.  Either way its a win.  You die trying to resurrect your friend, or you resurrect the fiend.  (this would cause a loss of resources and time, ultimately making "Don' Starve" more difficult.

 

-Some helpful balances

• The item crafted requires killing a mob (gets harder the more days pass)
• Items required are rare and difficult to obtain.  
• Items cannot be obtained unless a friend has died (Must begin a special event, this will prevent hoarding)
• All resurrecting materials are destroyed when and if event is completed.  After three days (when the corpse has rotted), the even is failed, and materials are also destroyed.

 

[BeastNips]

I posted this in a perma-death poll originally, so that's the thread I refer it when I mentioned comments and votes. It just explains the problem with optional (on/off anyway) perma-death for a great deal of players, and suggests ways to handle the death mechanics in multiplayer. Enjoy. 

 

 

The Problem With Perma-Death Being Optional

While getting the most number of votes, this seems to be less popular in the comments, possibly suggesting many players didn't want any of the three options, but preferred optional perma-death over the other two- best of a bad situation. The issue for players like me is that we like having a death penalty, a real death penalty, but we can't see ourselves playing very much when we have to restart every time someone dies. On the other hand, if we remove perma-death we won't play for very long either, as it's just too easy and removes the thrill of don't starve. A perma-death on/off option would be a loser either way, I would assume or hope many players would agree. 

 

 

Resurrection

I think it's fair to say many believe there should be some way to resurrect a player. This seems reasonable since death-proofing is available in singe player, the mechanics just need to be tweaked. I would suggest Meat Effigies and Touchstones should be activated then bound to the player that activated them, as having multiple uses may unbalance the game, and effectively be no perma-death. The fairness of this may or may not remain applicable depending on how multiplayer is balanced. [Important] A Meat Effigy or Touchstone would be rebound if a new player touches it after the initial player, switching the death-protection to the new player. 

 

What happens when you die?

While the ghost ideas have been utterly destroyed (to say it lightly), I don't believe they aren't without some merit. The problems with this are boredom, due to both the length of time it may take to resurrect, and/or the limited functionality with the world; a further problem is that a ghost may explore the world unhindered.

 

I propose when a player dies they become a ghost. The ghost will:

• Be immune to physical damage.
• Be unable to interact with the world.
• Be unable to venture beyond discovered terrain (corresponding to living players maps)
• Emit light equivalent of a low-burning campfire.
• Reduce sanity of nearby players within the light radius.
• Will not starve or go insane.
• Can be resurrected by various items. 

 

The ghost player becomes a scout, capable of keeping tabs on the already explored environment. This removes the insta-win of ghosts exploring the world, yet leaves something for the player to do (check on the size of spider farms, tree growth etc). 

 

Returning to Life.

If a ghost activates a Resurrection item - a Meat Effigy, Touchstone or amulet on the floor - the ghost will be returned to life as if they had died and had been resurrected. This removes the need for a new resurrection item.

 

Exploring is Boring!

Yes, you're right. But frankly... Don't get killed, eh? Death is a punishment, so be punished. However this shouldn't always be the case. This idea would be a mid-cost item that would allow ghosts to gain corporeal form within a limited radius. Probably a structure would be most suitable. This would allow a radius (maybe as large as a full-burning camp fire) in which the ghost gains physical form and can interact with the world. This item would cost less than the Meat Effigy, but still be hard to come by. This would allow the ghost to tend the farm and do general base type things, alleviating the boredom slightly. If the ghost leaves the radius it become incorporeal again. Ghosts can not damage anything.

 

Summary

I feel the changes would address many of the concerns players have:

1. If you die without death-proofing then you're dead (or a ghost), but players can now use death proofing retrospectively, providing one player remains alive. 
2. Death carries a significant penalty, but it doesn't require a restart. (unless everyone dies)
3. If all players become ghosts, the game ends.
4. Ghost will have something to do by default (scouting explored areas), and more to do if the living players put in some work (corporeal-form-generator). However this play-ability is limited, giving a real penalty to death. 
5. Ghosts will not assist players in combat.
6. Resurrection uses standard items/structures instead of adding new things.
7. A optional perma-death on/off function (standard restart with no items when set to off) for players that don't wish for death at all. However if perma-death is enabled it is possible to resurrect players. Hardcore perma-death would be possible too with no resurrection options. 

 

Additional Note

It would be nice if the ghost form was similar to insanity, in the sense that it's a negative thing, but yields advantages (nightmare fuel etc). It would be interesting if some multiplayer-unique item required a player in ghost form to get, therefore being an additional thing players must do at some point. However this would not stay true to keeping singleplayer as an equal experience. 

 

[Pyromailmann]

I know why people don't want permadeath.

First off, we have a collective group of people who are new to the forums which is great to know more people are coming to Klei's forums.

Second (I find this one to be a better reason) some people that have brothers, sisters and other family members that play multiplayer games together and like to keep playing together.

[Ringmaster]

Solution: Get friends who are better at the game.

 

Alternative Solution: Each player that dies places a maximum cap on certain stats for everyone else (e.g. sanity or health), similar to the mechanics of a meat effigy. Assuming that there is a portal/door similar to the one depicted by Klei, they may emerge from it during the full moon. If all players are dead at the same time it's game over. Otherwise, they could respawn from a random grave. Players may also have the option to construct a meat effigy (if they are shared between players) or to apply meat into the body of the deceased to revive them at will. Of course, if a player dies during a full moon then they should respawn during the next two nights of the full moon.