Super Baddies/Death comparison with Star Citizen

So backing Star Citizen too and I absolutely love how Chris thinks about the death of characters (also death of NPC's) as well as "main" bosses in the game. Essentially the death system involves your character losing an arm in one explosion of your ship, an eye in dogfight that went sideways and then eventually you die, however, your ships are left to someone in your will and they get to carry on, etc. I thought it worth mentioning just to show how SC is turning certain set standards in gaming on it's head. I'm fine with SotA death mechanic as it certainly makes sense and fits with the setting.

What I would like to have more of a discussion about is how Star Citizen handles the death of main "bad guys". Here when a monstrous enemy of epic magnitude appears and is defeated it's defeated, dead, gone, bye bye. Of course something in time will fill it's void like the double monstrous enemy of epic magnitude but you get the gist of it.

I like this way of thinking in both examples because it does not break the suspension of disbelief for the player. Or course totally different settings and games but I would love to see more of this in SotA.

 

I think a perma death system in online gaming is long overdue as a mainstream mechanic, particularly for self-proclaimed "sandboxes". I'm really excited about it in SC and everything that game is doing to change the landscape of gaming in the industry.

As far as unique "baddies" that was a common thing in UO. Juo'nar and the assault on Trinsic. Players helped kill some of these guys, mostly those ran by GMs. I got lucky one time and routed Minax in a duel in Felucca. It was post-EM era (just after AoS came out), when they were all volunteers and the EMs just came out as an answer to Seers returning. I think she was controlled by a bank sitter who didn't know how to turn on invincibility or insta kill me lol. Either way, I got to run her off the field. It'd have been nice to get an achievement or something for something like that.

Dunno' if these should be AI or GM/Seer-only, as there are pros and cons to either. They want to be rare enough to make conquering them meaningful, but also not so rare that people never see 'em.

 

I don't like the SC idea of permadeath.

I want my character to have a life first - by which I mean I want to watch her grow and develop and to fail and succeed and make bad choices and good choices, in something approaching a decent lifetime.
In games Death is an inevitable and often repeated event - I do it 3 or 4 times a day at least in r16 - So with permadeath I won't really have a chance to watch my character lead a full and rich life over months or even years unless I Lock her up in a closet, or else give up altogether the idea of putting myself into the game in any meaningful way.

The end result will be that my characters become throwaway. Going to PvP? make a throwaway character. Bad lag? don't get attached.

In real life death rarely hits us or affects us and when it does its a very big deal - a lifetrauma for most people to watch someone else die.
In a game I can get ganked 10 times in a minuite if someone is camping my corpse. Why would I put any effort into making a memorable character?

Just my thoughts.

 

I like/liked the concept of one time bosses.
Perma death? mehhh.....dunno. Actually i like it but not for SotA i guess.

 

Yeah was not suggesting that SotA do the permadeath bit, just showing new ideas. All in all SC is really getting out of the box. I also think SotA is too but tossing ideas is always fun

 

I also invested in SC. I have a station for my Hornet F7C, a larger station for my Constellation, and an asteroid that will be on the outskirts of a galaxy for exploration in my Carrack. If I get seriously damaged in the Carrack, the Medical Bay NPCs will fix me up. If I die, I come back as a back-up character with my ship and stations intact. I don't have to worry about anyone taking them from me. I just lose any money or skills as far as I know, but I am not 100% sure of that. I am willing to take more risks in Star Citizen because I don't have to worry about losing my precious, hard-won lot like in SoTA. I don't mind that aspect of this game, but it is a deterrent to perma death. Maybe we can meet up someday in the game. You can fly my ships as long as you don't wreck them too much.

 

If you're ever in the market for hired help (shameless plug).

 

Geez I did not even know you could own an asteroid!

 

I don't mind permadeath, but I don't think permadeath would necessarily jive with this game. A lot of the social aspect of this game is about building a public persona, it also would have consequences for the story, and most people would just create a new character just like their old character and pretend they never died.

I do think having more permanent injuries, in addition to broken armor, upon death is a good idea. In that case, you would have to use stronger magic than a regular heal spell to deal with injuries after death.

Deloria,

I don't think death necessarily has to be a common event in games. I think it becomes common in MMOs that are designed around grinding. But there are a lot of old DOS games where I tried to avoid death at all costs -- and succeeded at doing so. -- and it was fun It just involves more caution in approaching combat and, sometimes, fleeing. I even played with this approach in the Ultima games, because death could be a PITA, even with the leniency the game had. For instance, if your party members died, suddenly you had their dead body and all their equipment to drag around. Also, you always were teleported out of where you were at the moment when you died, creating the hassle of traveling back to that location. If I was at the bottom of the Stygian Abyss, I didn't want to get teleported back to LB's throne room and have to go down there all over again. That was good.

 

Yes, but you cannot walk around on the small asteroid. It just means your hanger is the only thing on it. I also was given a free mustang that I didn't need. They gave it to us 12 days after I bought the Hornet as my starter ship because it seats only one person. I don't want to start SC with the Constellation because it requires 4 people or NPC's to run. I will not be rich in the beginning of the game. FYI, it cost me $350 for the Carrack, which includes Industrial Hanger on the asteroid and 2 years of insurance.