I'm surprised there aren't threads about this.
Brad is writing/defending on the forums
some significant changes to the death penalty.
In short: no more CR "by default". The monsters now have a "threat level" separated from the base level.
This will follow a risk Vs reward mechanic.
High threat: the moster is stronger (higher HPS, more skills, better AI, etc..), but it drops better loot. While if you die you'll have to suffer harsher death penalties.
Low threat: the monster is weaker, soloable, poor loot, mild death penalty.
So basically the game won't have just one standard death penalty applied to all the cases, but different "cases" that will be determined by the threat level of the monster.
About these cases:
Quote:
|
But in general, the death penalty can range from a money sink, to some exp lost but able to be regained, to exp lost period, to dropping a corpse with all of your gear but having that gear respawn after X number of hours real time at an Outpost, to a corpse that drops with all of your items that has to be recovered or dragged out by a friend, to even more severe penalties (for example, perhaps a corpse cannot be dragged, or even you have to defeat the mob that killed you in order to have access to your corpse (for example, a giant worm that eats your corpses, and until it dies, there is no corpse to loot)).
|
About the hardcore starting to yell:
Quote:
|
Now, before anyone panics, does this mean we are dumbing down the game? No, I really don't think so. We *are* making deaths from mobs with a lower threat level easier, but then we are also making deaths from mobs with a high threat level as hard or even harder than before. And then we have options in-between. What we are doing is making the game more inclusive and less exclusive – players with different playstyles, tolerances, varying contiguous play times, etc. will all have plenty to do, again regardless of their level. No, we’re still not trying to make a game that is all things to all people, and yes, our primary audience is still the core gamer and we won’t make decisions that hurt what makes it attractive to our core audience. But there is a middle-ground – we can and are making a game where solo/casual, core, and hard core/raid gamers can co-exist.
|
My opinion in short:
1- You don't make significant changes so late in beta. This belongs to the very beginning of the design phase.
2- My opinion is that "Risk Vs Reward" has never been a really fun mechanic to use because it encourage players to aim lower instead of higher (the game punishes experimentation).
3- Linked to the previous point. The players will tend to "game" the system. Instead of supporting different playstyles most of the "harder" content will be simply ignored and people will just grind their way up (to boredom). Challenge not imposed isn't a challenge.
