How I would like a MMO to handle basic interaction with a player
(this is not about what the world has to offer, scenarios/adventures, nor whats out there. Its the basic, inherent world interaction of the life and death of a character)

A new player would create a character
Have the option for a short training session to learn the interface
Pick a place to start (town, vault, outside a vault, middle of the desert, caravan, etc) (Note 1)

Then off to funland.



The following applies to any new character, does not matter if the player (account) is new or not:


Safety Zone/time

The Character would have 30 days (real world time) to play around with out the worry of being killed (Note 2)

After 30 days the player's character can be killed besides having new options (Note 3) open for play.

If a player wishes, they can shorten this by choosing to opt out of the 30 day wait window anytime they wish.


Death

Upon death (dead dead not just wounded to almost dead), just like the real world or most games (Fallout) the body can be looted. (Note 4)


Havens or sleeping spots

In the world there would be a few safe places (Note 5) to park your character for the night (or until you came back online). Places like hotels in the city (or other civilization places), a Vault that would allow you in, a haven/fort that allowed you in and etc.

But such comes at a price.
The first price is what it cost in caps, money, equipment, special items and what evers. This depends on the story line at that location.
The second price is one that can hurt you for sitting still. The first 24 hours (real world) is free, after that you start loosing 1% of your experience total (or what ever is used for advancement) per 24 hrs of staying (hiding).

This will encourage individuals to play more often but if they can't log in with in 2 days, there will be a small loss.

Players can also attempt to make a camp out in the middle of no where. How successful this camp is and how 'hidden' it is from others depends on the character's various appropriate skills. At camp, no cost is involved but the character could be stumbled across.

If a group of characters decide to make camp, the best skill of each appropriate skill is applied.


Retirement of character

A player should be able to retire their character and create a new one.
A retired character can be given the choice of natural causes of death (ie old age) or the fabled (insert name) retirement home.

This is simply a way to allow someone to stop playing a character with out having to be killed or create a new account to do so.

This would not be (or should not be) setup as a way to pass on your gear to the new character. There gear goes way or becomes open to looting. (Note 6)









Note 1.
New account first characters have limited starting areas.
Accounts that have been around for X time have more options.


Note 2.
The character can be beaten, shot, stab, etc but will never 'die'.
They would be reduced to 0 (zero) or 1 hit point, get to keep what ever gear they have on them (ie no looting of the body) and will gain a scar or some type of mark (along with how many times they were beaten with in an inch of their life).

This will allow a player to develop a character with out fear of losing it in the first few hours. Very important to new players.

There could be a very limited area of play that would be 'safe' for a new character but with very, very limited things to do as to help 'push' the character out into the world.


Note 3.
The MMO world would have many adventures and interactions to do, but once you allow your self (or time expires) to face death for real, there are many more 'profitable' adventures that would be available.

This works along with the choice factor. You can stay 'safe' for the full 30 days but being safe does not allow you to go for some of the more rewarding and dangerous missions.


Note 4.
I would like to see death is perament in most cases, but there are a few that death is not perament.
In all cases where the damage or damage dealing device does extreme lethal damage, a dead character is dead. (Nukes, several 100's of bullets in a short time, head cut off, swallowing a live & exploding grenade, etc).

Radiation, posion, small cuts, bleeding to death, etc could allow the character to be saved IF the appropriate first aid/doctor skill/wonder drug is applied with in the first 1 hour (or less) of game play. This would make group play more advantagous.


Note 5.
A safe place is where the only way that your character can be hurt is if the place is:
Nuked
Radiated from a near Nuke
The building is blown up (something extreme and lots of explosives)
Posion gas cloud covers the entire area for hours/days
etc (it has to be extreme, not impossible but very, very hard to pull off)


Note 6.
Looting could be of the actual body when it drops dead, or digging it up if it's buried.
The main point is that the player can not pass on equipment directly to the new character.
If a player works things out with other players to get some gear that belong to someone else, then thats fine as thats part of game play.

Dave Chase

I like these ideas they seem to fit well into a Fallout world.

Even though I'm sure permanent death will be a hot issue with some.

I like the idea of a character age based pvp flag as opposed to noob area safe zones. Also like the idea of a character retirement, maybe leaving a mark on the world somewhere like a headstone with a custom message, or a splatter of graffiti somewhere.

But about making a character stay in the game world while logged out and permanent death:

Both sound neat in theory to compliment the atmosphere, but in practice I think they're both awful ideas.

Say you're 15 minutes away from a safe sleeping area and you have to quit. Logging in dead to an MMO is bad enough, but now we'd be talking about logging in with good chance that the character is deleted, oh well start from scratch? Or say you've played a character for a year, she's one of the world's top gunsmiths and has never really had to risk combat. You're always careful to log out in a haven. Well after a year of heavy play you log in one day and find that that haven was nuked and you get to start over from day one. Fun!

What is gained by making a character stay in the game world 24/7? What is gained by permanent death? You've got to weigh the pros and cons.

Realism and atmosphere need to be balanced with playability and entertainment, it's a game after all. The only way permanent death could work in my opinion is if a)Character development wasn't the meat of the game, and b) you got something for it (as above, gravestone etc)

Also, why try to prevent people from getting items from one of their characters to another? Anything done along these lines will just make for frustration for people who don't have friends to pass items too, and anyone who does won't be stopped. If gear isn't what makes the character than "twinking" won't be a problem.

An utterly awfull idea. Perma death might sound interesting at first glance but it will drive away such a large part of the gaming community that it is a bad buissness decision.

Not being able to log out safly everywhere (after possible the standard logout time that most games have) is also bad buissness decision since that will drive away those that might not have time to get to a safe place because of very limited time to play.

No perma death, maybe just being killed and your body being looted and you return with lower skills??? or scars??? that some how make things harder???

Also NO BANKS, you should be able to hide things, and other players can hunt for them so you have to hide them very well???

Tell me what you think guys??? "I Dont Know What Street Canada Is On"

"Banks" could work if it is leaving stuff in your locker in BoS or similar organization.

Yea thats kinda what i ment ae because having a bank would make it to easy to get stuff if you know what i meen? "I Dont Know What Street Canada Is On"

Different people like different things. And it is really hard to accommodate all. Personally I still like the PvP server and PvE server or zones. Servers are better for resource issues. You can come and go as you please. That way you can take a break from looking over your back 24/7 and if you lost coin you can earn some back (rebuild).

However when entering PVP, you receive the warning - "You are about to enter PvP where you can (will) die and lose your gear - do you really want to enter?" Once you accept, you are placed into a receiving area so you can prepare to deploy with your team, or go into stealth, or whatever. This is to protect you from loading screen death or fragged right after loading in. The PVE server is your typical blah blah PvE server. Another thing that was discussed was PvE and PvP uses the same server to make it more realistic which I agree with too. If you want to be in PvP mode, go into control panel and switch to PvP and receive your typical warning with yes or no. PvE toons will not be able to shoot at you and vice versa. Only NPCs and PvPers will be able to engage you and vice versa.