World We Need A New Death System.

Why I Hate the Current Death System.

A lot of you may have seen a thread ranting about soul points as of late.
Many criticisms are thrown at it, the most notable of which is the fact that its punishment for death is to have the player stop playing the game. Yes, that is correct, if you are having a notably hard time, the game's suggestion is to literally AFK.

The game does this by giving each player soul points. When you die, you lose 2 soul points.
Soul points determine how many items as well as what items you lose on death. You gain back soul points either by waiting each in-game morning, or you can gain one back after each hour offline. Now, this is kinda shit, as this means if you die often, you are forced to either stop playing the game entirely to gain back soul points, or AFK in a town.

New Death System.

Wynncraft has as of late been attempting to make the game more about light-hearted exploration. Also notable is it’s gameplay loop, which is mainly going out to adventure, explore, and or quest then returning to town to identify, sell, and bank items. Due to this, when thinking of the new death system, I often questioned how to make it fit better both within the current theme of the game and the main gameplay loop.

So, I set up some goals. The new death system needs to encourage exploration, while still fitting within the gameplay loop. I also, notably, didn’t want it to be too much of a hassle for players attempting something challenging, by that I mean I don't want someone who dies doing Qira’s Hive to need to go do something else to continue doing Qira’s Hive.

With that, I introduce to you, shrines. The basic idea is that around regions, like the plains of Ragni, or The Light Forest, you have Shrines. The Shrines themselves will be in areas, or overlooking areas of interest so that players can see areas they may want to explore. When dying your soul points should head to one of these Shrines either within the region you are located or if you’re in a region above your level, within the region closest to your level. For those worried players will not be able to find these Shrines, your compass will point to them, the exploration isn’t meant to come out of finding the Shrines themselves, but instead, the Shrines pushing you to areas of interest, or areas you simply may have never bothered going to. In order to get your soul points back, you simply head to the Shrine your compass is pointing to.

Punishments.

For those worried that this will cause you to go out of your way to get back your soul points whenever you die, don’t be. In order to make this less of an “I absolutely must get my soul points back right now” I’ve made it so you will no longer lose identified items on death. A lot of you may be questioning why you would even bother to go get your soul points if this is the case, well, whenever you are above 5, you now get a slight XP bonus and loot bonus. This bonus is larger or bigger depending on your current number of soul points. Oh, and side note, everyone is capped at 10 instead of 15 soul points.

Spoiler: Xp Chart.

10 Soul Points: 10%
9 Soul Points: 5%
8 Soul Points: 4%
7 Soul Points: 3%
6 Soul Points: 2%
5 Soul Points: 1%

Misc. Changes.

Some of the witty among you may have realized there is an issue: Teleportation scrolls, and resetting skill points. The bigger issue to these is teleportation scrolls, as your soul points will be stuck in the area you just teleported from. The answer to these is simple really, they no longer cost soul points. Teleportation scrolls already cost money, so I’m entirely unsure as to why they even cost soul points honestly, if you think this is unbalanced, just make them cost more money. The other is a bit more complex, in resetting your skill points you have two options, using a scroll (which cost money) or using soul points. I think the issue with this is 2 soul points is a frankly, ignorable cost, due to that scrolls are simply ignored. My personal solution to this would be to just remove the ability to reset your skill points anywhere, but if you really like this function, simply have it cost nothing, that's basically already the case anyways.

Warning:
Please! Read the whole thread before commenting. One of your issues may be addressed by the thread. I swear if you comment something the thread already fixes... Well, I'm not allowed to make threats, but I sure won't enjoy it.

 

I like it, but it makes the punishment for death kind of weak. This also doesn't address things like emeralds and ingredients unless I missed a major section. Do you still lose them? If so how much. If not then isnt all you are really losing a buff to xp? Thats not really a loss so much as just neutral.

 

I only changed the fact that you lost Ided Items. Every other punishment for death is the same.

 

I think a lot of things are cool, but in my opinion some things lack detail.
Starting from things that I think just need changing, are the bonuses. It's REALLY strong, in my opinion that needs a huge nerf.

The thread is also kind of vague. First time reading, I thought you meant that you respawn at shrines, but I'm guessing that you go back to claim your soul points at shrines? (or at least if I'm understanding this correctly)

Also, this is just my personal opinion, but before reworking soul points and deaths, hunted itself needs a rework and I kind of already see a possibility of shrine camping already developing to be a thing. Although, I guess it depends on how hunted drops would work. (but tbh that's like a whole other thread aaaaa) (also do id drops drop on hunted)

Anyway, I think that the respawn system needs a rework, but to be honest now is just a pretty sticky spot to suggest for it, since there's so many issues relating to it that first need to fixed.


btw congrats on 2k post!

 

I frankly didn't want to touch on hunted, as Nova already has a thread fixing it, which I mainly agree with.
Something to note about camping, if this is something that honestly worries you, just make shrines no PvP zones.
Finally, you read it currently the second time. I'm not sure whats vague with it, but very well.
(Also I will change the XP values, people seem to agree they are a bit too much")

 

I would enjoy it, Jaydon.

 

So:
If I die, I have to go back to some shrine to reclaim my soul point.
When I have above 5sp, I get xp bonus, which is really small and not worth it that much.
When I rush e.g. Qira and die 20 time nothing will change after 5 times.

I think it would be just annoying to go to some shrine every time I die.

I agree with the tp scrolls though.

 

Punishing players for dying through making them waste even more time is just plain rude to the player, those xp bonuses should not exist at all. I don't really care if they get lowered, the concept of them itself is just wrong and I hope it'll never happen despite multiple people having suggested so.

I don't particularly see how this really fixes any of the actual issues with soul points- it just adds something arbitrary to do to regain soul points, and while it may be more engaging than waiting it out, it really depends on if you want the player to explore a little more through forcing them to go somewhere or letting them go wherever. Both the current system and yours have the same result, and one of these is going to end up being more in the way, annoying and confusing.

I think your shrines could actually be proper good addition to the soul point system, but as an optional extra source for regaining soul points. Not as the entire alternative for them, but as a place you can go to every x hours (depending on how many shrines there'd be and how many soul points they'd give each). It makes a whole lot more sense than something like rarely finding them in loot chests, which I've considered as suggestion a while ago.

Also, on the rest of the suggestion next to the shrine concept:
- Teleport scrolls are mainly costing emeralds to have them feel like a bit of luxury at a first playthrough. The main penalty has always been the -1 soul point, and it should probably stay that, as increasing emerald costs for scrolls would plain be screwing new players over while barely affecting older players. Remember, the penalty is there so people can't just zip zoom around the world freely, if you spam them too much you'll need to be wary of your soul points and I fully support this part of the system.
- Mostly the same reason applies to resetting skill points- it's very useful to have on hand anywhere, but it shouldn't allow you to switch up an entire build continuously. I can definitely go for making this specific thing go to costing only 1 soul point, though.

tl;dr soul points pretty stinky but you'd be surprised how hard it is to make anything better

 

tbh i don't think this is a good system to improve sp. imo id much rather prefer you just not lose your gear on death, and keep the rest the same. Maybe also make sp regen armour more useful by having values over 100% just make you have more soul points. (400% would give you 4 sp a night). Right now it's just a mobile mechanic with no legit way to improve your chances without needing to server hop, or buy sp bombs

 

To be honest, the only thing they should do is buff soul point regen gears lol.
Also they should think of some mechanic like: if no player input is detected (moving, using spells, main attack, chatting, etc etc) for like 10 minutes, the player should take no damage so that even when people are AFKing they wont lose soul points and items because of PMI. Yeah and also make the player deals no damage or poison or thorns or whatever when they are doing so.

But yeah I agree that IDed items should not be dropped due to low soul points. Other than what I just said, I think the current system for soul points is fine lol