Alternative to XP loss from Death

[SpoonDagger]

Just read that recent thread from a new player about how much of a pain it is to lose XP upon death and it jogged a memory of mine.

I've always appreciated penalties for death, makes one respect it a bit more. That being said, it still really sucks. An old game I used to play also had XP loss from death and for years the playerbase just dealt with it. But as time went by and less people played, it became harder and harder to find ways to encourage people to stick around, especially new people.

One of the changes implemented to combat this was to eliminate XP loss from death and replace it with temporary stat loss. When you died, you lost 2 points in every stat for a set period of time(24hrs in game hours which equated to something like 30 minutes irl).
If you died again, you would lose another 2 points. Obviously spells and equipment could counteract this loss to an extent, but it could still be a pain if you weren't careful and the subsequent deaths became more and more difficult to overcome.

On BGTSCC, I would imagine a 3 point loss per death would be more appropriate, maybe for 2-4 IRL hours. You can't avoid the stat loss by just logging off an getting back on in 4 hours, you would have to have actual playing time. Not sure how that would work here though with crashes where spells and stat afflictions are lost.

Anyway, sorry for the long-winded explanation. Just an idea.

[V'rass]

Sounds good... add please.

[Hrafnar]

An NWN server I used to play on did exactly that. It was a full immersion, enforced RP server though. The thought behind it was to discourage players getting back on the grind straight after death. Death penalties (and gold loss) were particularly harsh before that. All I would say is - don't make the penalties kick in until level 8 or it will be really off-putting for new players, imho. And 2 IRL hours sounds way too long.

[Rask]

I love this idea. Losing XP really hurts when you only have super limited time to play this and can't spend your whole day grinding it out. Leveling is already a difficult chore as it is that takes ages but is necessary to be involved in a lot of events and RP.

Though the 4 hours of playtime is a terrible idea, I have to say. I only have a few hours a day maybe once and a while to play. Having massive stat loss for 4 hours IRL time in game would make me never play here again. 30 minutes is appropriate. 3 or 4 points stat loss for 30 minutes I can get behind.

[SpoonDagger]

I love this idea. Losing XP really hurts when you only have super limited time to play this and can't spend your whole day grinding it out. Leveling is already a difficult chore as it is that takes ages but is necessary to be involved in a lot of events and RP.

Though the 4 hours of playtime is a terrible idea, I have to say. I only have a few hours a day maybe once and a while to play. Having massive stat loss for 4 hours IRL time in game would make me never play here again. 30 minutes is appropriate. 3 or 4 points stat loss for 30 minutes I can get behind.

Fair enough. I thought more time might be appropriate here as we don't have open ended rampant pking. All I know is that when the change was implemented on that old game, EVERYONE was much happier playing.

[BlueAce417]

Several years ago, on the Forgotten Realms server, there was an item they used (I think it was called Soul Shards?) to make a deal with the devils/ pit fiends in the Fugue. They used it to either gain a buff or supplement the exp loss after death. Meaning they would return to life with no exp loss or gain a hellish buff of some sort. I never used the buff (cause I played a druid at the time) but I think something like this might be fun.