A Timer for the DR Exit

[Illysia]

I'd like to see a timer on the Death Realm's exit. Basically one person goes through and then all other people have to wait. It can't be a long timer as the DR isn't fleshed out enough to compensate for being stuck there. Maybe something like 24 real hours or so for now. Just to remind people that the the DR isn't a day trip. Maybe once they exit, Dakkru's curse won't cut down on strength so much so that people can still move but the character will do random emotes for a time after exiting. Like "So and So cries inconsolably" or "So and So stiffens in fear and seems out of touch with reality" or "So and So seems to caught up in dark thoughts." I heard one person suggest that speak would get randomly turned to gibberish. That would be funny.

The death realm, is suppose to be some place that is not easily returned from and is traumatic even if you do return. Sure some adapt to it eventually but most would be quite shaken up after going through that and would likely be avoiding anything that could send them back like the plague. No offense to those that have been in and out of the DR lately but yo-yoing in and out of the DR isn't quite settings compliant. Unless they changed that recently.

[Ceromas]

Do you mean a real day, or a in game day?

[Illysia]

24 hours real time. I doesn't amount to about a week IG like it used to but it should make people at least pause for a second... hopefully...

[Geoni]

I don't mind the whole "timer on the DR exit" since we all have to share the same spawn point, but I don't think there should be an auto-emote. I think people should use the emotes that they want to (coming soon..I hope) or RPing what their character is feeling as they sit or stand or move as he/she/kra feels the curse on his/hers/kra's body.

[Geoni]

24 hours real time. I doesn't amount to about a week IG like it used to but it should make people at least pause for a second... hopefully...

Hold on now, that's a bit too radical. It shouldn't be that long at all. There are certain situations in RP where that could get messy. [like the one I had today, that i don't plan on revealing.]

[Illysia]

the the DR isn't a day trip.

That's the whole point Geoni, going to the DR is an earth shattering event but you wouldn't know it by how it is commonly RPed. Death is not a trival thing to be shruged off that the end of the day. Especially if you think about how creepy the DR actually it. It ruins people's day to go there. The timer will make people be more cautious, kinda like Dakkru's curse was suppose to do(but is apparently still easy to shrug off).

[Sen]

I don't think that's something that should be forced onto others. Two points why I have troubles with (while being still mostly asleep...):
 - People who are new to the game won't appreciate at all and we need them. With new mean I a longer time than the timer that lets you omit the DR.
 - There is no reason to wait if you die from glitches (who doesn't know the picture when the mob is 10m away and in the next picture you're dead? )

I'd rather like to see some effort by the community to make it a commonly used (not forced by mechanic) and respected rule to wait in the DR if you die IC.

Sen

[Illysia]

Lovely idea, but how do you enforce that?

[Illysia]

Lovely idea, but how do you enforce that?

We're back at square one...

[Akkaido Kivikar]

1) 24 hours is too long, oh shit I fell while getting to an RP in Laanx Dungeon.

2) Agree with 'Pepito' on the emote thing, it's annoying when someone spams the 'z' key.

[Bonifarzia]

Basically one person goes through and then all other people have to wait [...] like 24 real hours or so for now.

I agree that it would make sense to keep players busy in DR for a longer time than it is the case for now, but this suggestion looks greatly counterproductive to me. Allow me to make some examples.

Character A dies. The server has not been very populated recently and A can run through the DR as usual, because no one else did so during the past 24 hours. Nothing changed for this lucky one.

Player B has been playing for only a few weeks, always taking care not to do anything dangerous and mainly being busy with quests. On another trip to the eagle, he loses focus from the chat tab and accidentally hits autorun, so his character falls off the cliff. After swearing about the glitch, he finds his character spawn in death realm and explores the location with fascination. He finally makes it to the portal and finds a a small crowd of characters. Most of them vanish after a few seconds while others pop out of nowhere to take their place. He asks what they are doing here and gets the answer "[Sorry, Noob, they changed rules here. Only one player can leave this place per day. People keep loging in to check for a lift out of here. I guess you will have to keep trying for a few weeks.]" If you were player B, what would you do?

Player C participates in some arena games event. Because the game mechanics don't allow for another simple solution to easily check for the "last man standing" rules of these games, most participants are expected to die, even though the IC background of this event does not necessarily imply the death of anyone. About 30 characters are sent to death realm, and the queue down there keeps growing.

About random emotes or chat turned to gibberish, I would say its not a good approach at all. Players who /die in purpose to just take a shortcut won't care much about this either. Anyone else will find this highly annoying especially if your character dies due to a glitch.

I conclude that if you wish to "enforce" something in this context, keep the players busy with actively doing something in death realm, such as solving some quests for earning their exit ticket. I am sure the dev team has more than one idea about future expansions of the death realm and the mechanics associated with this. Until then, I would keep things as incomplete but simple as they are for now.

[RlyDontKnow]

I agree that it would make sense to keep players busy in DR for a longer time than it is the case for now, but this suggestion looks greatly counterproductive to me. Allow me to make some examples.

totally agreed. imagine you're a new player who just started playing. you just end up down there for the first time and suddenly are stuck for a week because you just cannot leave it, again - you'd probably just quite the game
also: check the death rates of the servers... on average each 2 hours one player dies... that'd mean within a month half the server would be stuck in DR with your system - seriously... this cannot be right

[novacadian]

Don't worry about new players. My character was stuck for at least 24 real hours just trying to find the way out and only then it was with the help of a guide that she departed.

 My suggestion would be to leave things as they are... yet go with the maketh rules around it. Even after loosing a serious RP battle my character lay wounded and unconscious in the sanatorium for 24 IG hours. It was not so much a penalty yet what my character should have been doing in my opinion. Of course in rl other things occupied my time; yet the computer was on and my character slept on to recovery.

If the rules could be made around DR then at least an offender is only a petition away from censure should it prove a problem to the RP with a speedy return.

Just a n00b's perspective....

- Nova

P.S. Gibberish? No way.

[Sarva]

Don't make the rule that only one player can leave the DR per 24 hours. Make it that each individual can't leave the DR more than once ever 24 hours.
I have known some people who have gone to the DR several times a day because they are either using a fast way to get back form BD or they are training dark way or what ever. Make it so that if they die they can leave the DR the first time just like they currently do. But if they die a second time during the same day then they can't leave the DR for 24 hours from when they previously left the DR.

[Bonifarzia]

Regarding new players: make it so that the 1st character in every account won't get any penalties until it has played say 50 hours. Or less.
Regarding the piles of stuck players: make the timer relative to the player who died instead of relative to the server's death activity.
...

The first is already the case and the second was suggested by Sarva. The question which arises is how we can penalize undesired player behavior without making glitches that result in frequent character deaths a serious problem (although some of these are fixed). Or rather: Wouldn't it be better to take away technical advantages from character suicides? Now you might raise a finger and say its easy to reject suggestion without coming up with something better, or at least different. So let me try to pick up some of the "problems" that have been or may be discussed with suicide abuses.

1) Long distance travels -- add more spawn points, those we already had and maybe some more. Do not pick a point according to the race, but the one closest to the place a character died.
2) Easy gain of additional PP -- should be gone once magic sleep works as it should, because halved stats seriously cut down mana supplies.
3) Training in death realm -- not a big issue at all since suicide mana recovery got fixed. Does not encourage frequent suicide.
4) Lack of integration for DR experiences in RP -- has there ever been a need to add game mechanics to enforce certain aspects of RP?