Ghost Powers

Tired of getting items stolen from you or are you tired of being killed and looted all the time, then you just might want to be a Ghost. OOooOoOoo

I've seen the ghost life brought up a couple of times here.
I thought I'd look into what they can do.

Here are two pages that have some ides, one a game and one a show and I don't know anything about either of them.
http://dannyphantom.wikia.com/wiki/Ghost_Powers
http://scifi.about.com/od/ghostwhisperer/a/GHOS_100-rules.htm

Flight:
Sounds good for the top map
But then again if you don't lose your stuff after death why not just kill yourself, travel, and then resurrect.

The power to phase through all forms of matter:
I might of got my body back a couple more times in UO if I could of walked through things.

Invisibility:
I'm good with the way UO did this.

The power to take over another living body:
Ghosts using NPC's to fight with - that might be interesting.

Temperature:
It's getting cold in here.
Maybe a way to tell there is a ghost nearby.

Most children when they are very young can see ghosts:
Don't scare the kids

Most spirits appear wearing the clothes they were wearing when they died:
Well I guess you could recognize someone that way.

Ghosts can see other ghosts:
Can they do more then say hi?

Ghosts can feel the thoughts of the living:
Maybe a reason to have traits.

Ghosts can visit and communicate with you in your dreams:
I doubt we will be asleep long enough for them to say much.

Spirits can group together to interact more powerfully with the world of the living:
Sounds like a start for multiplayer online modes.

Ghosts exhaust their powers when they act aggressively:
Even the dead have limits.

Spirits get a lot of energy from crowds of people:
Time to recharge.

Dark spirits feed on negative emotions (anger, hate, jealousy):
Sounds like we need traits again.

Spirits can be visible in photographs:
I doubt we get a camera

Animal spirits can be earthbound:
I vote to keep them out of this. For the sake of the tamer:

Animals (particularly dogs) can sense the presence of a ghost:
Now if I can only reveal him.

Ghosts play practical jokes on the living:
And the real reason to be a ghost. Of course this might cause a problem.

 

One thing the devs might want to consider is perverse side effects of death/ghosts. In uo, it was fairly common to kill a member of your party, and have them scout out a dungeon to see if enemies were present, or to have them act as a Ghost-Cam surveillance system. Post a ghost in a dungeon, and when a player comes in, the ghost reports back, and a gank squad descends.

One way to avoid this is to make the living invisible to the dead, except maybe to party members to aid in resurection. I can manifest as a ghost (become visible), but other than maybe wandering npc healers, I can't see the living.

 

Not sure I like the idea of a Ghost not being able to see other players.
Skills to spot a ghost might help in that situation.
Maybe something like being away from your body too long would cause some side effects.

 

Ghosting is boring and can be abused, like it was abused in UO.

Now, a spell that lets your astral body leave your physical one and travel at high speeds, pass trough walls and generally scout for your party - thats cool.

The cultists in SS13 have a spell like this. You draw a rune, lie on it and invoke the spell, then while you travel in ghost form your physical body slowly loses health. Pretty neat.

 

Why not come up with some ways to make ghosting fun.
Mages can do enough already.

 

I like th astrial projection idea above. I think it would be challenging if you had to be careful where you left your body in the process, lest you get yourself killed while AFK from the body.

 

That would be fine with me, as long as my ghost can possess your body until you got back to it.

 

I've said this before but it's been a while. If we have ghosts I think it would be cool if not all ghosts looked the same. That there is one standard ghost image, but for really virtuous people and PKs their ghosts should look good or evil.

So a PK could have the appearance of a spectre because they appear evil. Then the virtuous character can have light angelic appearances.

 

Oh well.
PKs ghosts looking evil? I object. The looks of a ghost should be based off their karma, not just the fact that this man has killed many others. Oh well, a veteran of some war has probably scored more "frags" than some of the most vicious serial killers. Is he evil? Good? Neither?

I suspect we will have a karma system in SotA. So, for example: killing should not lead to a significant drop in one's karma. Now, killing and making a trophy from the head of your victim, perhaps should. Or killing someone, dismembering them and eating their legs.

Summoning demons. Making blood sacrifices to dark gods. Casting evil spells, affecting people with evil spells. Desecrating holy places. All those things should lead to karma loss and eventually make one's ghost look evil in a way, ranging from a simple cruel expression on the ghost's face to looking like a horrible monstrosity (for adepts of chaos magic, necromancy and stuff like often polymorphing themselves into liches and demons).

 

LoL I only mentioned a PK because I can't imagine anything that would lower your karma/virtue levels than killing innocents. LoL

 

UO had its faults but they could add skills similar to spirit speak that would allow you to see ghosts even when they do not want you to. Spirit Detection or something.

I like the idea of a ghost being able to take control of an NPC near by, possibly to avenge your death. They could add a skill that would do a constitution or intelligence check for this. Some creature may be harder to control and the control time could be brief.

 

What about the reverse situation : means to protect yourself from ghosts. Amulets, talismans, seals, magic barriers through which ghosts can't pass.

 

No. Just no. Thats awful game design and very distasteful.

 

Add ghosts like in UO and then a Priest skill that can cast them away! XD

 

I think there are some intriguing concepts with ghost play. I would like to see perhaps an event around Halloween where the planes where the living and dead reside in cross over a bit.

 

jondavis you are a genius, I fully plan on taking advantage of all of your proposed ideas, and am going to kill myself (in game of course) as soon as I log on in order to take advantage of this awesome skill-set and class.

 

How is that distasteful, exactly?.. Or poor game design?

 

There's a line between "good game design" and "wierd features probably implemented into the game at random after a night of pot smoking" that should not be crossed if you mean to create a game that is aesthetically pleasing. Richard Garriot had very little of the latter, and tons of the former.

You can have tons of wierd and funny stuff in games that don't aim to look like real world - games with anime guys with big heads and swords ten times bigger than them, for example.

I am not saying that this particular ghost power is awful. It's only awful if any ghost can do it every time they die.

 

Really, that's what I'd like to know.

Is Casper the Friendly Ghost distasteful, or Ghost with Patric Swayze and Whoopie Goldberg?