[DIS] Respawn and fast-travel mechanincs
Posted: 20 Sep 2016, 15:11
We have been discussing ways of improving the mechanics for respawning after death and for fast-travelling long distances. This is my idea:
Respawn
After dying, the player enteres the "spirit world" from a Soul Menhir that anchors their life and prevents it from passing permanently. The player is now in spirit form, they can walk faster, are immune to damage and cannot cast or attack anything. Their entire purpse is to walk back to the location in which they died and recover their body, so that they may respawn and continue their lives. Should they choose not to do this, because the walk back would be too tedious or unnecessary, they can also choose to respawn directly at the Soul Menhir, taking heavy damage to their equipment (which will eventually need reparations) and an attack/defense malus which makes it inconvenient to get straight back into a fight.
This mechanic prevents the player from using death as a means of fast travel, unless they wish to incour in an undesirable penalty. However, it is necessary, in order to make death something the player wishes to avoid, to make sure that a certain walking distance is there after they die; otherwise dying would be meaningless. Therefore the player still has to walk a certain distance, depending on where they died and how far the nearest Soul Menhir is. The fact that they walk in the spirit world opens up endless possibilities; not just increasing walking speed, but also possible side-quests and new content to be had in the spirit world which in truth would be nothing but a version of the current maps in greyscale with a fog effect.
Fast-travel
Note: for lore purposes, I would love to replace Towels with a shard of stone (akin to a Hearthstone) that is related to the Soul Menhir and can be explained within the story.
The stone can be bound to a bed, which the player can then fast travel to when they wish. Using the stone triggers a cooldown, and changing which bed it is bound to costs a price which depends on the location of the bed. The stone is a commodity and it is not imperative to have it from the beginning, therefore there could also be a low-level questline to obtain this stone in the early stages of the game.
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Do your worst!
Respawn
After dying, the player enteres the "spirit world" from a Soul Menhir that anchors their life and prevents it from passing permanently. The player is now in spirit form, they can walk faster, are immune to damage and cannot cast or attack anything. Their entire purpse is to walk back to the location in which they died and recover their body, so that they may respawn and continue their lives. Should they choose not to do this, because the walk back would be too tedious or unnecessary, they can also choose to respawn directly at the Soul Menhir, taking heavy damage to their equipment (which will eventually need reparations) and an attack/defense malus which makes it inconvenient to get straight back into a fight.
This mechanic prevents the player from using death as a means of fast travel, unless they wish to incour in an undesirable penalty. However, it is necessary, in order to make death something the player wishes to avoid, to make sure that a certain walking distance is there after they die; otherwise dying would be meaningless. Therefore the player still has to walk a certain distance, depending on where they died and how far the nearest Soul Menhir is. The fact that they walk in the spirit world opens up endless possibilities; not just increasing walking speed, but also possible side-quests and new content to be had in the spirit world which in truth would be nothing but a version of the current maps in greyscale with a fog effect.
Fast-travel
Note: for lore purposes, I would love to replace Towels with a shard of stone (akin to a Hearthstone) that is related to the Soul Menhir and can be explained within the story.
The stone can be bound to a bed, which the player can then fast travel to when they wish. Using the stone triggers a cooldown, and changing which bed it is bound to costs a price which depends on the location of the bed. The stone is a commodity and it is not imperative to have it from the beginning, therefore there could also be a low-level questline to obtain this stone in the early stages of the game.
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Do your worst!