Then there also could be an "Extreme Hardcore" mode, which is permanent death. But that option would only be opened if you get to 40 with a hardcore character first. Extreme hardcore is permanent death via mob OR a pkill. :P

It'd be a fun race to watch to see who'd be highest there. But that brings up the whole unanswerable problem of "class balance". Opinions are like assholes - everybody has one.

I like the idea of unlocking a hardcore mode after you hit 40. I really enjoyed the Oceancrest thing, so it'd be nice to see that put in somehow. I know Bane was working on it at some point.

I do remember we were at 15%, I assumed it was even higher before I started playing since I only started after the first purge. Auto-releveling was already in place and I thought it was godsend. I guess my terrible memories of 25% are from my times as an Isengardian. Dying at 0 tnl and still deleveling was not cool ...

At this point, there are a lot of safeguards in place to keep people from dying and with the combat system updates, there aren't that many things that can one-shot you anymore in Derlith. Exploring shouldn't be scary, even with a higher death penalty.

An increase in experience loss would also restore the value of Ceris clerics and bring back the ress market. Melfina was so popular back in the day.

As with Diablo - I always prefer hardcore mode in games. Unsurprisingly, I also greatly enjoyed the Oceancrest contest.

One of the best things about perm-death is it has the wonderful side-effect of keeping the game economy in check: that is assuming that the player's storage, bank, and shop is deleted in a perm-death scenario (which it should be).

Anywho, I'm all for it in any case. And though I'd prefer it always to be perm-death, I think (sadly) that too many namby-pamby people would cry to their mommies if they lost their super-leet video game character...I'm still waiting for a legitimate perm death mmo. *sigh*

luminaire wrote:

I'm still waiting for a legitimate perm death mmo. *sigh*

Ever try playing DayZ? I believe there's perma-death in that game. Items don't get destroyed since they are left on your body when you die, and people who kill you will most likely take your items anyway. And you respawn at random locations so the chances of you retrieving your items isn't very good either (when you respawn, you don't have a map or anything ... so GL with that).

luminaire wrote:

As with Diablo - I always prefer hardcore mode in games. Unsurprisingly, I also greatly enjoyed the Oceancrest contest. One of the best things about perm-death is it has the wonderful side-effect of keeping the game economy in check: that is assuming that the player's storage, bank, and shop is deleted in a perm-death scenario (which it should be). Anywho, I'm all for it in any case. And though I'd prefer it always to be perm-death, I think (sadly) that too many namby-pamby people would cry to their mommies if they lost their super-leet video game character...I'm still waiting for a legitimate perm death mmo. *sigh*

There's a few, as Usagi mentioned there's DayZ(A mod for the game Arma 2)and yes it is permadeath and yes players who kill you steal your items.

Another game with permadeath is Salem, a upcoming mmo in beta.

Another one is Wizardry(Also in beta) which offers permadeath in a way(If you don't get revived in a certain amount of time you're dead for good) and you can try bargaining with the devil for a resurrect but if you fail, character is gone for good.

That's all I know of so far. I'm like you Luminiaire, I went about....4 months ago looking for permadeath mmo's, Which I did manage to find a few.

Purge? That's like one of those things where all the characters except mine are wiped right? I don't mind that at all!

P.S. As to a few posts ago, permadeath wise, I've been playing Wizardry online a bit recently. Permadeath in that game, while one of their advertised features, is quite easily avoidable if you're not stupid. I've died a lot, because the game is challenging in some aspects, but i usually have 98% chance to revive (without using items/gold to up my revive rate) and IF i were to fail, I think u get a second chance...which then u can use whatever u want to donate to increase it to 100% if u really want. Not sure what will change in the future though as the game is still open beta, and being wiped for release on the 15th of jan.

I might check those games out if I get a chance. I've got a lot of stuff going on right now.

To be honest, one of my favorite methods of death (and ressurection) was the original Ultima Online (before it split servers to make it PvE friendly). In case you don't know it worked like this:

- if you died you turned into a ghost that couldn't be seen by any player or monster, your corpse would remain on the ground with all your items still on it
- over time the corpse on the ground would decay
- initially your corpse could not be looted by other players (or they would be flagged a criminal) but after a certain period of time it would be available to be looted
- after the decay timer elapses the corpse, and all remaining items on it, is removed from the game
- as a ghost you could talk which would make you visible; however, your words would only appear as "oooOOooOO" to players in your area
- players with a high enough skill in "spirit speak" could have a chance to understand ghost's words
- players carrying a special crystal could also use it to decipher ghost's words
- players with a high enough healing skill could revive ghosts
- players with the resurrection spell could also revive ghosts
- wandering NPCs will also revive ghosts (but they're somewhat difficult to find)
- town clerics will also revive ghosts

So basically, you die, turn into a ghost, and then have to run and find someone to revive you in time to get back to your corpse and loot it...it gets even trickier if the thing(s) that killed you is still looming over your corpse. In that case, you need to either a) re-equip and kill it (or die again as is often the case) or b) bring help.

This dynamic often forced the community to work together and created a further demand for healers and not just tanks and mages. It also somewhat kept the economy in check because people did quite frequently lose all the armor/weapons they were carrying.

As an aside, as a ghost, you could walk through doors/locked doors and scout all over the place (even in side player's homes). And as you could do this all undetected (even if players could see invisible) it allowed some strategic eavesdropping for PvP purposes -- which there was plenty.

Anyway, those were the good old days.