What's the point of death if it literary means nothing?
sabreman
usa Join Date: 2016-01-02 Member: 210765Members
usa Join Date: 2016-01-02 Member: 210765Members
I'm playing on survival and death pretty much only means that I get teleported and have to swim back to my previous location. I feel like there should be some harsher consequences, cause at this point I could just use dying as a way of refilling my hunger and thirst.....
Comments
It seems the opinions are deeply divided on this issue.
Don't know, maybe a sort of difficulty.ini with all relevant options could help?
Losing everthing you collected since you last entered a base is a good mechanic in my book. You know when i usually die? When i'm out adventuring and collecting rare stuff ... and most important, when i don't expect it.
I sort of save my materials inside my seamoths storage boxes, but dying with your seamoth in a hard to reach area can give you a lot of work to recover the damn thing.
Also, what is the point of penalties for death in a game where you can save and reload your game anyways? If you wanna talk exploiting mechanics for gameplay advantages, think about that for a second.
Hehehe, captivating Captain!
I think losing stuff on death is fine. its not to punishing, but it is punishing.
And with us no longer picking up fragments but scanning them, that problem is also a thing of the past.
- Bad Lauck Mate, Restart!
You're welcome!
Exactly my thoughts on this issue! I could easily just do a quick 'save' before entering dangerous waters and the reload that if I die so there doesn't really seem to be much point to heavy death penalties.
I too almost always die in some unexpected way when I'm pushing myself to the limits (just one more node!) and my inventory is full. This is a pretty steep penalty of time and resources especially when resources are finite.
I think that death should have more consequences than it does now, but still not make the game too difficult. Maybe it give your base some damage and use some power? Maybe a respawner that you build damages the hull of your base.
That way it gives you a reason to build bulkheads to control flooding if you died too many times at the same base and some chambers flooded. Maybe once the "spawning" room / device becomes flooded you can no longer spawn at that base until you repair it.
I'm not really sure how charge flippers could be balanced though, because after you have a welder and charge flippers the penalty would basically disappear again. Unless the welder is given durability and eventually dies even if you keep charging it or putting new batteries in. Getting crash powder is not very fun, I would much rather collect food any day!
You already wrote this in your post but that's a penalty that also loses meaning. It's basically what I meant with not really being able to think of any meaningful penalties. It's just frustrating to repair, especially when you have the charge flippers. Not only did you die, now you have to clean up your base which just takes time. Doesn't cost you any resources.
I think some kind of damage debuff would be the simplest. Maybe you move slower and need to eat/drink more often for a while. Using first aid to shorten the amount of time you're injured. It doesn't cost resources more than the ones you might have lost when you died. You can keep on playing somewhat unhindered and it will go away on its own.
I thought about it and also suggested the welder have a durability. That way it eventually will cost you crash powder. Also that's exactly what I am suggesting is a simple frustration for death. A new player can survive and explore just fine without a base and just use the lifepod and still enjoy the game even if they die frequently.
I think a debuff like that is too harsh of a punishment. It effects their ability to survive, so it will create a death spiral where one death triggers more frequent deaths in the future. If you can't find water and die, and now you swim slower and need more water, the problem has compounded. You won't easily be able to escape from that spiral.
Since bases are purely a luxury as far as survival is concerned, flooding a whole base with water and being unable to respawn in it is a choice they can make and be responsible for. As long as they understand that respawning in a base damages it. Like some ns2 style infantry portal device that "overloads" their base, dealing some damage.
They're NOT good mechanics for a game like this. For survival sandboxes like this, the existing mechanic of losing any loot you were holding is sufficient. It provides an inconvenience, but avoids significant frustration or any risk of a spiral like RaisonBran mentions above.
I do like the idea of requiring an actual base to respawn, though. We could do it with some type of medical facility, and if you don't have it then you ONLY respawn at the escape pod (no more respawning in the cyclops or a single room with a hatch).
To flesh it out a bit, I propose the requirements be 1) a room that is not flooded, 2) one or more modules (bed / star wars bacta tank obviously, maybe even require one or two other things be placed in the room to count it), 3) the base must be powered, 4) there must be enough stored power to run the medical equipment.
This would have the added bonus of providing a new point to bases and rooms. As it stands, even in experimental, the only point to bases is storage (lockers and aquariums) and a moonpool. This would give us a new type of room. Could even use it for medical attention without needing to use consumables. Possible power cost, maybe 1 power per hit point for healing while you're alive, 200 power for a respawn (and if the base doesn't have that 200 available at time of death, you respawn at the escape pod).
Yeah, probably not the best forum for all this brainstorming, but it seemed relevant, and might provide a nice option that doesn't make the game too harsh, while also adding even more depth (no pun intended) to the game