Ghosts and Sanity

[Klinx]

tl;dr: Ghosts can only drain the sanity of their killer and only if they are NEAR said killer. A tool can be crafted from the prestihatitator that can banish ghosts and send them to another part of the map far away from the user.

 

Honestly I really LOVE the ghost feature, it's really cool and it fits in with the game, however it's got a lot of downsides to it.

 

Now I'm sure at least one person has mentioned something about this; the sanity. Player ghosts should not drain everybody's sanity all across the map, because I'm sure a good majority of us all know by now how it feels to work so hard on a public survival server, have everything nicely done up to the point that you feel you can survive several winters, only to die from something stupid and then get kicked from the server for being a ghost, and then they just won't let you back in.

 

I'm not sure whether this is actually a bug or not but I suggest something a little different. What I thought of with the whole ghost mechanic, is that instead of draining everybody's sanity, you should only be able to drain the sanity of the one who killed you; only being able to do so if you are actually NEAR them. That way you can actually haunt them as part of some pay back, but of course if this were to get added in then I suppose ghosts would have to be able to go through wormholes.

 

On that note there should also be a way to banish ghosts of whom you haven't killed but they are still haunting your stuff and burning everything just to be a little b****. This could be some kind of wand or tool that you'd have to make using one of the dark machines like the prestihatitator. Upon banishing them the ghost could be sent some where else on the map far away from the user.

 

But of course this is all just something I came up with on a whim. You guys let me know what you think or if you have anything else to add.

[rezecib]

@Klinx, I think you're looking for Endless Mode.

 

But really, the solution to being kicked as a ghost is to have the sanity drain continue if you leave. The only way the sanity drain should stop is if you revive the ghost. If a ghost does leave, maybe it leaves behind a grave that you can give revival items to in order to stop the drain.

 

I think you're misinterpreting the purpose of the sanity drain. Survival Mode is supposed to be a forced-cooperative experience. The sanity drain is there to make you want to resurrect them, or to bring you down if you can't afford to-- its partially bringing back the impact of death that existed in single-player.

 

If you don't want forced cooperation, you can play Endless Mode, where ghosts don't drain sanity, or Wilderness Mode, where there are no ghosts.

 

Edit: It sounds like you've had experience with Survival PvP servers. Survival was never intended to be used with PvP, and in my opinion it should warn the host when they set those two settings together ("Are you sure you want Survival PvP? Endless PvP might be what you're looking for, instead").

[Kokkaku]

To be honest, I never understood the Sanity drain for all players, It really should just be all the players within a certain range, any player that can see you should be effected by the sanity drain but thats it.

[Mysanthil]

To be honest, I never understood the Sanity drain for all players, It really should just be all the players within a certain range, any player that can see you should be effected by the sanity drain but thats it.

 

As Rez said, it's to force cooperative play. PvP Survival makes no sense, I'm ignoring it.

If it's a sanity drain aura, I can ignore the ghost and not be punished for my uncooperative behavior.

[Klinx]

@Rezecib My mistake for misinterpretation. I really like this idea however, but thank you for sharing the purpose of the whole mechanic. I never did think of that.

 

I'd like to know what you think of my banishing ghosts idea though aswell.

[rezecib]

@Klinx, That sort of thing (some way to prevent ghosts from entering an area, or a way to banish them) has been suggested a number of times. I think this is the best-documented version of it, posted by Zillvr. But yeah, I'd like to see more ways to interact with ghosts. They are pretty ideal for griefing, so I think there really is a need for some way to combat it. Having a dual-purpose ghost relocation item (banish if used on a ghost, summon a ghost to your if used on yourself) would fit the different needs of different modes quite well (you'd probably want to use the summoning in Survival, both in Endless, and banishing in Wilderness).