Character death should carry more weight

[moisan4 26]

Carry more weight, like dying and losing everything, and having to start all over from a spawn point Km away? That sounds hardcore to me, good idea! Seriously though, waiting after you die is ridiculous. It's a game, you play it for entrainment value, sitting and doing nothing isn't fun. I'd just alt-tab out of the game, watch some TV or surf the net until it was time to play again. And if I had to do that, I'd find another game to play. If it's realism you want, you realise once you die you're dead right? So each player should only get one life then you're banned from all severs for life if you die once. Now that's hardcore! Sorry if I seem sarcastic, I'm usually a positive guy, but the OP's suggestion is ridiculous.

[aversionfx 63]

I think that dying needs to be more significant. Losing your stuff is not enough of a deterrent to play safe (the entire point of a survival). Because the process of dying and respawn is so short, people will behave recklessly; something they wouldn't do if death actually had consequences. In the event of a real crisis, people will behave in a way as to actually stay alive. They will still kill each other for food, and other supplies they might be lacking. However, a lot of the behavior you currently see in game would die out. Namely people suiciding to get a better spawn, and sprinting into incredibly dangerous situations (such as Cherno or Elektro).

Currently, I don't think the scope of DayZ can fit a penalty for dying. In a lot of MMOs, the penalty for death was losing experience, or some other valuable commodity. In DayZ, because weapons and equipment are fairly easy to come by, losing all of your gear upon death is a very minor setback. The items themselves are not valuable enough to avoid conflict (which is what survival is about), but there is no actual character progression. I'm pretty sure Rocket has said that he wants to add "RPG elements," and if that were true, then that would create an enviroment in which players actually want to play safe and survive

Also, all the people hating on this: grow up, you sound like a bunch of children. When did video gamers grow such a sense of self-entitlement? You people make me sick..

[aversionfx 63]

This game has more of a death penalty than 99% of games out there. You don't lose anything in most MMOs for example.

If there was a respawn timer above 5 minutes people would leave this game pretty quick.

1. You're clearly a kid, and haven't played any of the original MMOs : all of them had death penalties. Actual consequences that made you actually think about the danger you were getting yourself into.

2. Good. I don't think DayZ is intended for the people who want quick thrills. The more children like you that leave the game, the better the community will be.

I would be more than willing to accept a 15-30 minute period that I couldn't play the game, so long as all of the wonky detection and other issues got sorted first.

[Lukio (DayZ) 24]

I actually dont find this to be true at all. I am paranoid of dying. As soon as I hear gun fire I run zig zag away from the town whether its directed at me or not. There is no need for this imo.

Ok - but once you die - does it affect you on the same emotional level like for example encountering another player? For most people once there character dies, this does not affect them at all, they just click away the You are dead screen, click on respawn and jump back into the fray, possibly try to do a corpse run. This idea is about making character death also have an emotional impact and cause the player maybe to reflect on the death.

I think that dying needs to be more significant.

This is the word I've been fishing for all the time, not a native speaker :-D

Character Death needs to be more significant indeed!

Edited July 15, 2012 by Lukio

[moisan4 26]

@Iceman28001

You had the right approach, make an even more ridiculous suggestion than the OP. So funny, I should have used humor in my response too. Much better than being serious and a sourpuss about a bad topic. Thanks for the laugh.

[vesmo 21]

If I die, I want to be reincarnated based on my previous character's humanity.

Humanity Level:

Very Good: Human

Good: Bird

Neutral:Dragonfly

Bad:Pig

Very Bad:Cow

Then forced to play as these and work my way back up to human.

How might one work their way up? Some examples

Cow -> Pig. Get eaten. Congrats you helped a survivor for the first time in your life.

Pig -> Dragonfly. Get eaten. Congrats you helped another!

Dragonfly -> Bird. Fly in front of a dirty bandit's scope. Land in bandit's eye. Provide a companion to, forever alone, survivor.

Bird -> Human. Poop bomb 5 bandits.

'

Since this forum seems to be filled with dimwits, this is a joke. +1 To harder to find loot though :).

HEY, I'm pretty sure Cow is supposed to be highest up that list ;)

[vesmo 21]

Ok - but once you die - does it affect you on the same emotional level like for example encountering another player? For most people once there character dies, this does not affect them at all, they just click away the You are dead screen, click on respawn and jump back into the fray, possibly try to do a corpse run. This idea is about making character death also have an emotional impact and cause the player maybe to reflect on the death.

If I die to another player, I usually stop playing for a while (or if I just started I might continue). But it will affect me, I'll kick myself if I died because I was too careless, will wonder what I could've done differently. Or indeed in some cases, if I die in the end of epic circumstances, I will be exhilarated. I understan what you are looking for, but I don't agree with adding something gamey to make death more significant. People already give it different meanings. From the sounds of it, you have grown a bit bored of the game and don't react to it the way you used to (at least I know that's true for me).

And yes, your loot is everything in this game if you are playing lone wolf and not RPing the shit out of your character. And the loot reducing and difficulty upping, I'm all for that. But something else to make death more meaningful? I don't see it happening, though I'll be glad if I'm proven wrong and rocket comes up with some kickass mechanic ^_^

[starwarsfan@gmx.de 450]

Penalizing death is the wrong apporach to this. What you need to do is add some sort of 'character creation' where you need to create a unique character each time you die. Choose what your character looks like, give him a name, a place of birth andwhatnot, you get the picture. If you've spent time creating your character you will get(or at least most people will) emotially attached to your character and through that death becomes a whole new meaning to it.

My two cents.

[Greensoxxx 3]

We all know that death currently doesn't mean much

It does to me, people always say don't get attached to your stuff and all that but I do, when I die I stop playing for a few hours and even days, because I hate the fact all my hard work is gone.

[heretic (DayZ) 76]

Sorry OP, but I think that this is possibly the worst idea I've (bothered to) read on the forums so far. Ok, we know that Rocket has described this as an anti-game.. but your suggestion is a tad too much in my opinion. Real life consequences (i.e timers) for in game misfortunes! No.

The current system works well enough. Players who care about their 21 day old survivor, already have an emotional investment in that character and will care when he/she is killed. Players that are just gaming don't really care about anything other than their lost loot anyway.

I think that it reflects the PvE vs. PvP discussion in some ways. Some like to role play and others just like to play. Attempts to make a player (as opposed to a role player) feel anything are unlikely to work, because that's the way they're wired. Trying to equalize the significance of a characters demise to the two broad types of player are doomed to failure. To some, a character death already carries enough weight... to others it'll only ever be an inconvenient pause in their personal hunt for that next player kill!

[Lukio (DayZ) 24]

Ok - just to keep everyone on track. This is NOT about penalizing death, once again the suggestions I listed are ideas, not necessarily the way it must be. The main penalty for dying obviously is loosing all your gear and any progress you have made.

Its about making the experience of your character dying to have more of an emotional impact, being more significant than it currently is. Its also not about role play, but just being more connected to your character and your previous story you experienced in the game. Maybe its too much to ask from people who just kill - respawn - kill - respawn all the time, but imo it would brilliant to have a proper ending to the adventures you had with your character, not just a "You are dead" screen.

[jesquik 75]

If I die, I want to be reincarnated based on my previous character's humanity.

Humanity Level:

Very Good: Human

Good: Bird

Neutral:Dragonfly

Bad:Pig

Very Bad:Cow

Then forced to play as these and work my way back up to human.

How might one work their way up? Some examples

Cow -> Pig. Get eaten. Congrats you helped a survivor for the first time in your life.

Pig -> Dragonfly. Get eaten. Congrats you helped another!

Dragonfly -> Bird. Fly in front of a dirty bandit's scope. Land in bandit's eye. Provide a companion to, forever alone, survivor.

Bird -> Human. Poop bomb 5 bandits.

'

Since this forum seems to be filled with dimwits, this is a joke. +1 To harder to find loot though :).

I don't agree with this entire thread.. except for this post! Best post of the year :)

[starwarsfan@gmx.de 450]

Ok - just to keep everyone on track. This is NOT about penalizing death

What you suggested is in the eyes of most people a penalty for death, as it keeps you from playing the game. That's a fact.

Its about making the experience of your character dying to have more of an emotional impact, being more significant than it currently is.

I'd like you to read my previous post, in which I actually made a constructive suggestion as to how support your idea and respond to that instead of 'whinning' about everyone telling you they don't want a penalty for death. Then maybe we could have a real discussion about how to make you feel more attached to your character or how to make the death screen more 'appealing' and emotional, depending on what you really wanted from this thread.