Remember the "Discord" server? EQ's PvP Permadeath server?

[pasi]

Did not realize this was an old thread.

[Nirgon]

Discord was great to read about, I never got around to it. I was too busy on RZ and always regret not playing at least a few levels.

Seeing a character die knowing "that was it" would be special (oh shit moments are fun).

Back to your scheduled "EQ was never a PvP game and the devs never did anything for PvP".

[Tulkas]

i was part of the gnome mafia [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

We took over steamfont. Didn't take long for everyone to start making alliances with us so they wouldn't get whacked

[Sturgeon]

Yeah I played there it was fun but really annoying, it wasn't racial but rather open PvP so I had a barbie so at lvl 6 it was a giant slaugtherfest around Bandl and Blackburrow.

The only thing that sucked about it was there were no real GM intervention so people were hacking on the server, remember dying to these two shamans that kept teleporting to whoever would ding lvl 6 in Everfrost and kill them.

[stormlord]

I'm fairly hardcore in my choices of games, but I'll admit that permadeath is something I don't jibe well with. i did try it in Diablo 2 a few times with some hardcore characters. Lost a pally in the 50's and a couple other barbarians in the 20's and 30's and a few low levels. The experience kind of has instilled in my the notion that permadeath doesn't work. However, I'm willing to believe that permadeath might work somehow, I just haven't seen how. Maybe someday I will. Maybe we should use reality as a guide since it has it?

In the end, I think this life works because it's not THAT dangerous. If this life were too dangerous, none of us would live past the first few days. The fact that people have an average lifespan about 77 years of ago in the US means that death is avoidable somewhat. I think the same would have to be true in a game. Otherwise, there's no chance to appreciate the work you put into it. Why work if you lose it the next moment?

In games players die a lot. Much more than we die in RL! This is why games of this nature that do have permadeath should not cause you to lose anything substantial. This is a key point. If we lose anything substantial in a game and there's permadeath then the rate that we die has to be low enough to not chase us away. The reason we play isn't so much to die, it's to survive! But if all we're doing is dying then... no reason to play. But how do you make a game where players die a lot less and convince the players that it'll be fun?

Another thing I think is important is remembering players that have died. In RL we have graveyards and biographies and history books and family heirlooms and all sorts of things to remember the people in our history so they're not forgotten. If a game does not give the players a means to remember players that have died then it's going to make accepting their death harder, I think. Having a way to remember the deceased gives us a connection to them and dulls the pain and not having this as an option would make it harder.

Lastly, bigger goals! Things like society and family (children) and knowledge are built not in one generation or by one person but in countless generations and by many. When we live our life we invest in these things with others. We will lose our youth and our life, but the investments we put into society and other things will survive past the death of our body and thus they're a connection to the future. This is about not being too vain. Don't waste time putting effort into things that're just going to be lost when you die or get old.

RL has a lot to teach us if we want to put permadeath in games.

[Zuranthium]

It occurred to me that the RED server here at P1999 would benefit if it went "Discord" style.

Set it up so the server resets every month. What you'd be getting is a constant PvP competition - every month the top 10 players are announced and the competition begins again. The server population would be much higher, at least for the first half of each month, because everyone would be able to join in and compete every month. There would definitely be WAY more actual PvP happening; that should be what the RED server offers to players and this format could be perfect.

To make it even more playable, we could also code the server so that everyone automatically starts as level 5 and respawns as level 5 (with all of your skill caps auto-maxed up to that level) if they are killed. Each class could start with some equipment and/or spells too - not fully geared, but more than you would start with normally at level 1. This would shave off several hours of tedious setup time for new people coming to the sever, we all know how boring it is to kill newbie yard MOBs at the beginning, and also give killed players some extra incentive to keep going. It could be possible to die and still make the top 10 for the month, if proper alliances form and everyone "at the top" is getting killed.

That would be far, far more exciting than what the current RED server offers.

[Toehammer]

Originally Posted by stormlord [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm fairly hardcore in my choices of games, but I'll admit that permadeath is something I don't jibe well with. i did try it in Diablo 2 a few times with some hardcore characters. Lost a pally in the 50's and a couple other barbarians in the 20's and 30's and a few low levels.

Your whole mindset stems from the fact you lost a few low level diablo 2 characters. Good Diablo 2 players last well into their 80s. I have a couple 85-92 characters in hardcore mode. The good players have ALL lost high level characters... that is what makes you get better. I lost a level 88 barb to a lag spike... I learned neve to play with lag again... good lesson!

[SamwiseRed]

I've lost countless lvl 90+ to lag, tppk, stupidity. Almost every time I died I was like, "fuck hardcore shits dum." Several hours later I would be back on the hardcore ladder, softcore was just meaningless.

[Toehammer]

Originally Posted by SamwiseRed [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I've lost countless lvl 90+ to lag, tppk, stupidity. Almost every time I died I was like, "fuck hardcore shits dum." Several hours later I would be back on the hardcore ladder, softcore was just meaningless.

My thoughts exactly. When I lost my 92 sorc, I freaked for 5 min... 10 min later the Den of Evil was cleared!

[Bigcountry23]

had a 6 DE Mage, died to a sharp tooth swimming across the river (true story). quit after that.