Penalties for Death?

When it comes to a sandbox randomly generated worlds game like this, the stakes have to be high or it's no fun. You can build your space empire, but you gotta play it safe or you risk losing it all. Simply losing a bit of money or some items wouldn't cut it. Take Dwarf Fortress for example, in that game the whole world is randomly generated with randomly generated lore and randomly generated monsters. The fun in that is getting deep into the world, seeing what is there while building up a fortress to last a life time. I've seen people who basically power game it but when it comes to me, I take it slow, and usually die because of it. But the fun in that is losing, and starting again. So I at least hope to see an option for that in Starbound, though I know that play style isn't for everyone.

 

Hardcore mode?

 

Yes, more salt in the wound, you don't even get eaten by whatever killed you.

That's why I hope there's some sort of option for it when you create your character. It can be fun playing like that though, as long as your careful and don't take stupid risks. Stupid risks are fun sometimes though.

 

In general, I can understand the interest in 'You Die; you Lose' mentality. Certain games do seem to work best like that. Dwarf Fortress is all about trying to build up and manage a colony of Dwarfs, and the rise and decline of everything can be pretty fun to watch happen.

Of course, with Dwarf Fortress, you're only really doing a minimal amount, guiding them to do the tasks and then letting them do the rest, so while there's an investment, part of the enjoyment is seeing just how screwed things can go.

Dungeons of Dredmor is also rather enjoyable. The 'You Die; you Lose' bit of it is integral. Sure, you can turn permadeath off, but there is some fun in trying to play the game without dying, giving you a sense of 'oh crap, gotta be careful' as if you yourself are playing. In general, Roguelike games can tend to be enjoyable in various ways with it.

Thing is, I don't really see Starbound needing something higher than monetary loss. It's been mentioned that money plays an important role in the game, so it would likely be annoying enough to keep losing it. Losing all of your items when you have what is supposed to be a very expansive game could be even more annoying, especially considering that each item isn't the same as the other in design and stats. That could get really frustrating.

Then again, it's probably just me, because even with a 'low death penalty', I still find the idea of dying to be annoying, and would prefer to continue living than bite the big one. Just because there's a low death penalty does not mean you can just go 'oh la dee da, I only lose this, it's not a big deal! I'll just play like a buffoon and die.'

It's alright if there's an option for death penalty, because I understand that one kind isn't for everybody; I just don't agree with the whole 'It's a low penalty, so I don't care if I die' mentality.

 

They should do it like in Terraria: You loose all of your Money if you die and optional you can loose all of your items and when I say you loose them, I really mean that you loose them and can't just simply go back and pick them up again (same goes for the money ofc.)

 

I think that would be good, as long as there is a bank type NPC where you can store money and items and such, and when you die you'd lose all of the money and items you have on you at the time.

 

if money is going to be a large part fo the game, then it'll probably be something with that.
i just hope they prevent people from cheating and getting infinite cash, like on Terraria.

money inflation on Terraria servers was terrible, completely destroyed their value.

 

basically what i was about to say...

 

I only say that after I die to make myself feel better.

 

I say it should depend on how many clones you've created in your Spaceship.

 

I prefer Terraria style of penalty. Something for everyone - from occasional gamer to hardcore masochist.

 

I'm for the monetary loss for now, but I'm sure it wouldn't be a bad idea to fiddle with different options and see which combinations work best during playtesting.
I'm definitely on board for there being the option of a hardcore mode, though.

 

I Like choosing what kind of character to play. Dropping all your items is BRUTAL, BUT it allows for a much more of a "survival" experience.

And it will make certain PVP elements even better.

 

It will probably be a monetary loss when you die like in Terraria. But I guess the Starbound team will have to decide what the death penalty will be for themselves.

 

What if when you die, any missions your doing you have to start over from? And lose money of course, but there should be more then just "lose money"

 

I think it should depend on the game mode you choose at the beginning of the game, it that will even be a feature. If not, I think losing your money could be enough.

 

Just to add to that... you have a small amount of time to shoot/chase the hobo down to get your money/stuff back.

 

That would be pretty darn interesting, imo.

 

I support every idea including the Space-Hobo. That guy is the coolest thing in the entirety of Space. I mean, how the fug do you get into space while you're a hobo!?

In other news: I think that on servers, it should be server-controlled. Unlike in Terraria, where anyone could choose. That just makes for a very unfair system, where people who don't want to play like the rest go for softcore while the rest is hardcore. In single-player, it would of course be entirely under your own control.

 

in my opinion, there are 3 possibly good death penalty systems:
-you cant drop your money in your base, and you loose a percentage of your current money every time you die.
-you can drop your money in your base, but you loose all the money you have with you everytime you die.
-you can choose the death penalty by yourself, like in terraria.

either way, i hope they dont choose to "force" us to drop our items on death, because that would ruin the exploration aspect of the game ("wait, that cave looks dangerous. i cant affort to loose my stuff here, better ignore the cave and go along...") and the weapon generation system ("wow, this gun looks awesome! its way too good to actually use it and perhaps drop it on death. better put it into my storage chest and gaze at it wishfully everytime i visit my base...").