GamerEscape

A recent post on the official forums from Naoki Yoshida (via Hvinire) details the current thoughts behind the implementation of a death penalty. Final Fantasy XI veterans might rejoice in hearing that a loss of SP or XP is not currently planned. The two current thoughts on death would include a temporary status down effect upon being revived and in the event of returning after death, equipment degradation. Luckily, new Raise spells are being thought of as well, making them available to low and mid level players. There will also be three tiers of Raise introduced, each one reducing the effects a player must cope with after revival.

Check out the full forum post after the jump!

Death Penalty Implementation Ideas

This is Producer/Director Yoshida.

Thanks for the large number of comments! I’m sorry for taking so long to respond!

(I prioritized the preparation of the Producer letter and other scheduled tasks. ^^)

After reading through all of the comments, I would like to tell you about the current plans for the death penalty.

• The death penalty is important (For the purpose of creating a sense of nervousness regarding battles)
• Thinking of 2 kinds of death penalties:
  1. Definite occurrence of a ”Temporary status down” effect upon recovery of death (Wears off after a set time OR by paying gil to an NPC)
  2. Occurrence of an ”equipment degradation” effect only when using return after death (Recovered by repair)

• Not currently planning on having a loss of SP/XP at this point in time
• Equipment repair cost relief countermeasures will also be made alongside this.

In regards to the status down effect, we feel that it is necessary to prevent the classic MMO “zombie attack” (Attack > Die > Revive > Attack > Die). There are some players that have touched upon status recovery through NPCs in various threads and comments.

However, we are also planning the below changes to raise at the same time

• Introduction of raise tier system (Raise I/Raise II/Raise III *Temporary names)
• Raise I (After being raised, status down effect, no equipment damage)
• Raise II (After being raised, weaker status down effect or a shortened status down time, no equipment damage)
• Raise III (Perfect raise, no status down effect *Recast time and/or high MP cost)

In other words, even if you die you can get a raise and just take the hit of a temporary status down effect.

However, we determined that it would be necessary to make multiple raise tiers that can be acquired at different ranks since raise is acquired at rank 38 and it is not possible to raise at low-mid ranks.

In addition, in exchange for the death penalty we are looking into making the return cost 0. (This is for regular return, not for when use return when you die.)

Of course we plan to add a 10-20 minute recast timer, but by making the return cost 0:

• It eliminates the need to death warp in order to conserve anima
• Equipment damage when dying will only be occur in the instance of a full party wipe with no one available to cast raise
• Will be a fair amount of risk by relieving the labor of equipment repair (revamp of repair recipes)
• By spreading raises over the low-mid ranks the frequency of revivals will increase (=reduction in party wipes/reduction in death penalty frequency through camaraderie.)

Personally, I would like to see a lot more people tossing out raises as they pass by.

In this regard, I feel that the death penalty is something that creates balance and gives rise to the feeling of nervousness. We have already begun cost evaluation and are planning to implement this in the near future.

In any event, my goal is to create a proper sense of nervousness and not make it so harsh that people log out because they are fed up with the penalties imposed upon death. (Fatigue will be dealt with in another thread)

Please discuss the above points and any comments such as the below would be really helpful:

• This penalty is weak!
• This is perfect!
• Do something else!