From the discussion threads in GD (general discussion), I think it would be a great idea to have players leave behind a one-pixel-wide wooden cross when they die, and this cross would be a furniture item that contains all of the items they dropped. This could exclude pixels (which would simply be lost on death, whatever amount that is), if it is difficult for the item programming to allow both pixels and ores to co-exist in the same storage item. The goal is to allow players to have a predictable and understandable way to understand what happens when they die. 1) The wooden cross drops straight down from where the player died, landing on the closest (straight underneath) block. One-Pixel width allows it to always find a place to land, even on slopes, so there should be no issue with "no suitable terrain found, despawn" behavior like there is with Terraria tombstones. 2) The wooden cross is a furniture item, which means it persists after other deaths and disconnections or logoffs and does not despawn after X time. If you die at the end of your nightly play session, you don't want to NEED to stay up later to recover from that death, potentially risking the sizable anger of a significant other or maternal figure. 3) A wooden cross is a good sign of graveyards, and should fairly clearly communicate to the player that this happened because they died. Potential problems: i) If a player dies right over a 1-block gap leading to a giant chasm, their tombstone would not appear where they thought it would, and they would have to safely reach the bottom of the chasm to recover their items. ii) The wooden cross would need to be able to hold many ores, and since it is a persistent item, this could encourage players to die a lot right away and get cheap storage items. Sure, your ship would look like something from Left4Dead2, but think of the storage space! iii) Other players could loot the tombstones of deceased players, leading to potential griefing or pvp issues on multiplayer servers. Is there a way to make these items only "lootable" by the player that died to make them?
This seems a lot like Terraria to me. Of course it being able to hold items is different. Maybe to cut down the abuse of its storage, make it so you have to break it to get your items back, and when it is broken it will be gone forever.
It does seem a lot like Terraria, since that had the closest / most fitting death-recovery mechanic that I can think of, which would be hopefully applicable for Starbound. EQ1 allowed corpses to exist as storage containers that only existed until they were fully looted, but that doesn't seem like something Starbound would want to do. That would be even creepier than having a ship full of wooden crosses, having a ship full of your dead bodies. Breaking the container makes sense (like the 6-pixel capsules) but then you might run into the issue where your current inventory somehow filled up and you can't loot all of the items you dropped on death. Then, since they're "loose" items, they would be subject to a time-based despawn mechanic. If it exists as a lootable container, then you wouldn't be able to pull the items out unless you had inventory space. I'm thinking back to the "Bonehammer + accidental attack in my ship" where all of my chests on wooden platforms just got crushed and my ship is full of items that will despawn within 15 seconds. That sucks.
Actually, this is very much like a mod (can't remember the name) for Minecraft- where you go to a headstone, bash it, and all your goodies pop out. I really like this idea. I'll take the loss of pixels, whatever percentage the devs deem is sufficient, but would like to option of travelling all the way back to recover dropped items, or choosing that it's just too much of a pain in the buttinski if it's really REALLY far on a huge planet. Thumbs up for me on this one!
I like your idea but I think your stuff should be locked in it and you must craft holy water and defeat a "your soul" basically a ghost of you that haunts the grave with the holy water. After you win though the cross is "unlocked" from your ghost's possession.
I wholeheartedly support the idea. It adds incentive to the player to return to where they died, providing challenge with a potential reward of regaining lost progression. I dunno...sounds a little too magic-heavy for the setting. Surely the bother of getting there again (probably past other mobs) is enough. What does forcing the player into a miniboss fight accomplish?
Yeah, after re-reading I realize that my idea is kind of silly. That's a little problem I have, I make an idea and it just keeps flowing and it sounds great........until 1 hour later when i'm like "What? That's stupid, me"
I think that if the life/death system became a kind of reincarnation thing (ie: respawning as a different character) rather than the current "last-second-teleport-away-to-safety", it'd work pretty well and the dead-body-containing-previous-inventory would be a good addition and make sense. So it would probably work well with permadeath etc too. With the current system, I don't think it makes sense for the dropped items to be in a container. It doesn't really make sense to drop items at all...
Just revamp it so it fits! Instead of a ghost that haunts your gravestone, imagine your gravestone is a high-tech defensive device, that wards off all who get close. (this could mean that other players have acces to your items within, and if strong enough, are able to loot it) Then the holy water could be replaced with a key/item that makes it friendly towards you, or a lot easier to defeat. I do like the OP, +1
Not enough punishment for your own death. It should be equally hard for everyone to loot your gravestone if you die. Can't just make it hard out of thin air (that's what she said) so I'd suggest that you should have some kind of boobytrap device in your inventory that activates when you die. Preferably, this boobytrap device should take up larger amounts of space in your inventory, Protecting your belongings after death should come with a cost.
Man, this is a great idea. After all, then, those who are in Hardcore (items drop) mode, won't have to redo everything, in every tier (since you use up the lesser-tier items to make higher-tier items) if they die underground (despawn-timer).
