COMMUNITY - FORUMS - AGING & DYING
Ocean Permadeath too harsh

Dev's have stated that drowning in the deep ocean will result in Perma-death. I personally find that a bit harsh, and I am someone who has played Haven & Hearth which was a perma-death game FAR harsher then CoE plans too be. Mainly the problem is that it's so much more dangerous then staying on land and this could stunt the navel aspects of the game. It also wastes good story possibilities.

The Dev's logic looks to center around the following logic, first that just making you appear back on the continental shore would be lame (I can agree with that) and thus the body needs to stay in the ocean and is thus beyond recovery, while I can buy that a body is unrecoverable after falling into Mt Doom like Golum it's not even all that accurate when it comes to an ocean. Their are a lot of reasonable things that can happen to a body other then sinking to the bottom.

First dead bodies can float, dolphins or other sea life could carry you on their backs, you can cling to driftwood or flotsam if the ship sank, and then tides and currents could move you around in the ocean until you wash up upon...

A deserted island, one of if not the most classic survival and fantasy tropes. In a game which goes out of its way to incorporate survival elements and limited map capabilities that make it possible to be lost (so you friends can't just pick you up easily) it would be a wasted opportunity to not maroon folks on islands. A person so marooned will likely be spending several day on the island building a raft and preparing some supplies for a risky voyage home while also dealing with countless possible adventures such as pirates, giant bee's, meeting other castaways named after days of the week, making friends with sporting equipment, building a radio out of coconuts etc etc.

Death at sea is thus a very inconvenient death that sends one on a set of misadventures that become part of your characters story rather then a simple perma-death.


Seneschal for the Hrothi County of Iskar, Recruiter for the Duchy of Aritaur

https://discord.gg/qRQ3Zj6

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5/10/2017 6:53:21 AM #1

i dunno. the risk is equal to the reward. either you die trying to explore and discover new lands, or you find the new lands and become a very very wealthy man. arguable one of the most famous people on your server.

also i believe its intentional for them to be stunting naval research and exploration because i don't believe at launch they will have the cultures of the different continents fully worked out. this will give them time to work and improve the second continent. this also allows them to focus their development efforts on the launch content, instead of spreading themselves too thin.

5/10/2017 7:02:46 AM #2

so if you fall off a high cliff, mount doom effect: perma death??


5/10/2017 7:04:51 AM #3

Posted By saberstormer at 01:02 AM - Wed May 10 2017

so if you fall off a high cliff, mount doom effect: perma death??

i believe sea exploration is the only environmental way to perma-die

5/10/2017 7:15:18 AM #4

Guess I won't be getting on any boats anytime soon.. poor internet connection, glitch, fall off.. GG.. no thanks!

5/10/2017 7:20:47 AM #5

Also take in consideration the chance a ship sinks. i doubt it will be a 90% failure chance. Maybe 50-50, as other stated if you discover a different continent you are the most famous, and probally richest person in the server, you will have a monopoly on al the resources in that area(till you're driven away).


5/10/2017 7:28:01 AM #6

This has been talked about alot. You probably can't even get into deep sea for months after game starts so not really something to worry about yet.


5/10/2017 7:29:17 AM #7

Posted By Leiywen at 01:20 AM - Wed May 10 2017

Also take in consideration the chance a ship sinks. i doubt it will be a 90% failure chance. Maybe 50-50, as other stated if you discover a different continent you are the most famous, and probally richest person in the server, you will have a monopoly on al the resources in that area(till you're driven away).

i imagine there will be a lot of warning that you are entering water that is too rough for you ship to handle. you will probably get leaks, waves crashing on deck. or some unsettling noises or creaking from the ship. i highly doubt it would be an instantaneous thing unless you were to titanic it.

5/10/2017 7:39:02 AM #8

Posted By annfrank at 06:53 AM - Wed May 10 2017

i dunno. the risk is equal to the reward. either you die trying to explore and discover new lands, or you find the new lands and become a very very wealthy man. arguable one of the most famous people on your server.

also i believe its intentional for them to be stunting naval research and exploration because i don't believe at launch they will have the cultures of the different continents fully worked out. this will give them time to work and improve the second continent. this also allows them to focus their development efforts on the launch content, instead of spreading themselves too thin.

:D what if the other continent's natives come find us first ? -a bit off topic sorry but I find this idea interesting-


5/10/2017 7:49:25 AM #9

High risk = High rewards. If they have something in place to make the perma death worth it...then good for them. But if it's something stupid that totally isn't worth the death over, then ya. I can see how it can be seen as too harsh.


Soldier of Dread Legion

5/10/2017 7:49:26 AM #10

Posted By Accelert0r at 01:39 AM - Wed May 10 2017

:D what if the other continent's natives come find us first ? -a bit off topic sorry but I find this idea interesting-

that would be pretty neat to see. though my understanding is that the second continent will be all NPC until discovery, so though they could potentially come find us i don't know if it will be on any major scale. if anything it might be simply to signal the player base that the second continent is now accessible as we all go crazy trying to get there first.

5/10/2017 8:24:20 AM #11

If the intent is to gate content and delay an area from being discovered/colonized for a period of time then that seems like something that should be done with technology not a death penalty.

The first person to cross that ocean would be taking a big risk as their boat would be bleeding edge tech with 'bugs' still in it, the boat might simply sink of it's own un-seaworthyness so a high reward makes sense. But once the boat tech improves and the area is colonized the reward drops a lot as dose the risk. I don't see a permanent danger of perma-death being needed here.


Seneschal for the Hrothi County of Iskar, Recruiter for the Duchy of Aritaur

https://discord.gg/qRQ3Zj6

5/10/2017 8:34:14 AM #12

i suppose you could be right, but most of this game is pretty high risk, even going outside a settlement could lose you some game time. i highly doubt the technology will develop until the devs are ready with the second continent. i think tech will make it a lot lest risky but i think it makes sailing more impactful. if sailing was easy and didn't have any real risk associated then it would be a lot less fun.

another thing to note is that if you don't perma die in the deep ocean than you would simply have to spirit walk back spawn in the ocean again and die. again. because you wouldn't have a ship to spawn on. i think it is more to avoid that issue where life feels meaningless because you just die over and over and over again.

5/10/2017 9:39:31 AM #13

I love, love the idea of washing up on a deserted island and having to survive and try to get home with whatever you can scavenge. Gating content is all well and good, but I really think that one ought to be able to get anywhere with a Herculean effort.

Drowning in deep ocean would still be a massive setback. Your body floats along as flotsam, eventually washing up somewhere remote, or back on the main continent if you're lucky. Because your corpse is moving, it takes longer than usual to Spirit Walk back to your body, putting a bigger strain on your spirit. If and when you do eventually reanimate, you find yourself on an island, without tools or resources, having to spend a lot of time and effort to rescue yourself, or simply to keep yourself alive until help has time to arrive.

I'm absolutely on board with Lodrig - while deep ocean sailing should be prohibitively dangerous, I feel like punishing players for a sense of adventure and daring goes very against the grain of what we've seen so far.


Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

5/10/2017 10:10:12 AM #14

First, deep ocean is different from coastal waters. Coastal sailing will be in the game at launch, and my understanding is that you will not permadie while in coastal waters. If you are shipwrecked in coastal waters, you will either swim to shore, or it's possible some of your suggestions might take effect. If you happen to be sailing close enough to an island, that might count as being shipwrecked in coastal waters.

Elyria will be huge. Elyria's oceans will be massive. There will be a point when you are far enough out to sea that you will not make it back to land without a ship. Lifeboats will probably be an option, but otherwise there is no chance of survival if you are too far from shore without a ship.

The other environmental effect that can cause permadeath is a volcano.


Shieldwall Strong!

5/10/2017 10:20:24 AM #15

Posted By CommonlyQuixotic at 12:10 PM - Wed May 10 2017

The other environmental effect that can cause permadeath is a volcano.

Lets jump in the volcano, hmm now I wonder will volcano's erupt?


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