I would absolutely love to see the \"deathness\" from Ultima Online in Planeshift.... if you die, the world goes grey and you cant be seen or heard... but when you talk people can see a \"oooOOOoooo\" type message depending on how long your words were lol.... if you had a skill that let you hear the dead then you could ofcourse, hear the dead talk instead of ooOOOooo.
Anyway I\'m getting off subject, if you die the world goes grey and you have to find a shrine or a healer NPC to get yourself resurected... losing some XP on resurection... players could also have ressurection spells to res their friends and whatnot.
You would then have to run all the way (or teleport if you have the means) back to your corpse to collect your things before they are lost forever in the highly biodegradable soil.... BUT, nobody is able to loot your corpse... so all you have to worry about is finding your way back in time and having to possibly kill whatever monster killed you in the first place. (which I can\'t point out strongly enough how difficult it is to get your stuff back in Ultima Online after you\'ve just wandered into a nest of dragons by accident) :O
Yeah this is all from UO but UO had very good structure in alot of areas... and I believe the death in UO was very well done.
As for my opinion on PVP.... the way it is now is fine I think.... if you want to PVP challenge then go right ahead... \"not everybody\" likes getting into PVP fights and \"not everybody\" thinks is funny when people smash you down and loot all your nice shiny armor and unique artifacts.
I will make this clear though... I really like PVP from time to time... it is good to be able to test my skills against other players... and if they feel the same way, then its on...
Being able to reserve our rights to get into or stay out of a conflict is what I believe to be alot more balanced than getting mowed down on your way back to the city after a hard day of smashing monsters & collecting trinkets.
One commenly suggested idea is to have a place of PVP... an area of the game that has nothing but PVP... probably not all that large... but big enough to contain a few fights.... like an arena of sorts.... yes.... an arena of PVP... with a sign on the gateway in nice large letters for all to see (so people dont go there by accident not knowing of what they do) \"PVP ARENA\" or somesuch.
It could be as simple as the arena we have now... people could fight in certain areas... and many many onlookers could watch down from their seats. Kinda like a Coliseum... well... pretty much exactly like a Coliseum... and I can see plenty of role playing in that.
Back in the day there was many such events and i guess you could also place bets mabey... i dunno.
As for stealing though (and I\'m sorry if I\'m so direct about it but).... I ask this... Why do you need to steal from other people who have worked very hard to obtain the stuff they have.... Players shouldn\'t need to feel like they could get killed and looted at any minute... that would only make the game about fear... and thats not a nice thing (and I dont care what you have to say about that... in the end.. thats what it comes down to....) even if your character is HUGE, you could still get wiped out by somebody if your not careful and lose everything... and ofcourse... the better the stuff you have the more pissed you\'ll be when you lose it.
In a thought that just occurred to me however... an option like we have now for PVP, where you can select whether or not, you want other people to be able to loot your corpse.. but then that probably wouldn\'t work anyway as everybody would just turn it off.. therefor you\'d be back to square one \"no stealing\"
However... On a side note of stealing, there could yet be a cunstructive use for such a thing... Coupled with the deathness from UO, you could \"allow\" (or disallow) buddies or guild memebers, or mabey even a selected person to be able to loot your corpse for you, should you not be able to get back intime before your body disappears.
Well thats just my quick *looks up the message* \"long\" ramblings of what I concieve to be a pretty cool idea.
The coliseum idea may be a bit overboard though... it would have a very strong presence in the game and in my opinion should only be implemented if Planeshift has a much greater presence than that of a death theatre.
Anyway... enough ramblings from me.
Methos
P.S. Disclaimer: You COULD flame me for my comments herein, but in the end its just another opinion in the world of ideas.