Feature Specification: Death

[ç i p h é r]

Death
Death as defined by the APM is detailed below. I'd like to see details that are missing filled in by our resident ACR experts.

For a short explanation of the feature specification format, visit:
http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpbbforum/ ... hp?t=27229

Functional Requirements
On death, a player character will be sent to the Morgue or Baator. Both are considered IC, so the player must not stop roleplaying just because they die. Dead PCs will be removed from parties so XP cannot be gained and party chat cannot be heard. The dead PC will also be stripped of all items on death and given a Death Symbol—a small black rock to keep the PC from departing the afterlife illegally. It will track a PC's death over a server reset. Attempts to get rid of it will be monitored.

Dead PCs will leave behind a corpse. If a PC suffers massive damage such that they die without ‘bleeding’ first, the PC leaves behind a ‘mutilated corpse.’ PCs also have the option to destroy a corpse, which will then be replaced with a ‘mutilated corpse’. A ‘mutilated corpse’ can only be raised via Resurrection and cannot be destroyed, except with the assistance of a DM. In such cases, there are no remains and the only chance for resurrecting becomes True Resurrection.

Corpses are timed to last for one week of game time, after which they will be destroyed. Once permanently dead, PCs may not be recreated at a later date, nor may any PC be resurrected or unretired after a player has started a new PC in game. To delete a dead PC—or to retire a PC irrevocably—a web interface will be available to grant player's access to their characters in the vault and accessible using the player's forum login. Characters marked for deletion or retirement shall be archived on the server for restoration if the need arises.

Corpses will also be lootable and will posses a corpse item that can be used for resurrection purposes and serve as a container for storing all the character's gear. The corpse item's weight should equal the creature's base weight plus the total weight of the gear the corpse item contains. Base weight can either be deduced based on race, phenotype, and attributes or specifically recorded upon character creation.

All penalties incurred as a result of dying will be applied at the time of ressurection so that accidental deaths are easier to resolve. DM ressurections will incur no penalty.

Respawning shall never be possible.

NWN Object Dependencies
Black Rock Item, Corpse Item, Morgue Area

Local Variables and External Configs
fWeight

Logging and Debugging (global LOG & DEBUG (on/off) constants)
Killed By, Mutilated By, Location, Datestamp

Persistence Requirements
Character Hit Points, Character Name, Character Status (Alive, Dead, Retired), Player GSID, Player Public CD Key, Death Datestamp

Event Dependencies
OnPlayerDeath, OnPhysicalAttacked, OnClientEnter, OnDisturbed

[Fionn]

I think we should pursue KO for CvC deaths. If the winner wishes to kill the looser, that can be done via convo scripts (with alignment penalty if desired).

[ç i p h é r]

I think so too. I've listed that separately as the requirements for KO are essentially PRE-death, but these features are interlinked in some way. I also clarified a few things that the APM had left out.

Some of the rules above are not necessarily relevant to how the system works, but they may translate into additional requirements if we can build in the enforcement of those rules.

One thing that's notably absent are the mutilation and massive damage rules (sticky fingers). I'll add that as soon as I can dig up that link or someone posts it on here.

[hypervx]

On death, your character will be sent to the Morgue or Baator. Both are considered IC, so you must not stop roleplaying just because you die. Game mechanics mean that the PC will continue to receive party XP and will 'hear' party chat. Disable this by leaving the party.

I prefer it OOC. If we go for IC we should at least force the PC to unparty and provide an IC rapresentation of the death plane (or whatever).

Corpses are timed to last for one week of game time, after which they will be destroyed. To delete a dead PC—or to retire a PC irrevocably—wait until there are more than 10 dead PCs in your vault account and contact an HDM to wipe your vault but for the single active PC you choose. Once permanently dead, PCs may not be recreated at a later date, nor may any PC be resurrected or unretired after a player has started a new PC in game.

Would be nice a web interface to delete/retire PCs.

Corpses will also be lootable and contain a corpse item weighing 50lbs that can be used for ressurection purposes. (ressurectable body or corpse?) All penalties incurred as a result of dying will only be applied at the time of ressurection so that accidental deaths are easier to resolve. DM ressurections will incur no penalty. Respawning shall not be possible.

As noted coup de grace, and destruction/mutilation of corpses (and so raise/resurrection/true resurrection) are missing.

[Fionn]

player web interface would need to tie the vault to the web account. this would be very nice in that it would prevent duplicate GS accounts (without duplicate web accounts).

[ç i p h é r]

A web interface would be nice indeed. Are we all comfortable that there is sufficient security to prevent anyone from hacking another players account to delete char files?

Perhaps as a safeguard, we can simply MOVE the bic files from the server vault into an archive rather than deleting them. That yields the same result but allows a character to be restored if need be. Sound ok?

[ç i p h é r]

On death, your character will be sent to the Morgue or Baator. Both are considered IC, so you must not stop roleplaying just because you die. Game mechanics mean that the PC will continue to receive party XP and will 'hear' party chat. Disable this by leaving the party.

I prefer it OOC. If we go for IC we should at least force the PC to unparty and provide an IC rapresentation of the death plane (or whatever).

Enforcing the NO PARTY rule should be possible. I wonder why it wasn't done in the first place as the scripting API supports party management. I'll reword accordingly.

Also, a question for the old timers. Do we want to keep the black rock as the dead status indicator? With hit point persistence, it won't be necessary to have an item flag death. We can determine just as easily when restoring HP on login that a character has died and should be in the morgue.

Thoughts?

[hypervx]

Also, a question for the old timers. Do we want to keep the black rock as the dead status indicator? With hit point persistence, it won't be necessary to have an item flag death. We can determine just as easily when restoring HP on login that a character has died and should be in the morgue.

Thoughts?

If possible, remove the black stone. We could also attack a variable to the PC saying he is dead.

[Overfilled Cup]

Wasnt there talk of not losing exp until the rez takes place (if). That way tech rezzes do not become so frustrating ?

[ç i p h é r]

Yes there was and that's on my list. I've been on the fence about whether ressurection needs to be separated from death on the feature list and therefore have it's own sticky. They essentially go hand in hand and one is meaningless without the other. SO, for the sake of organizational clarity, we could list the ressurection requirements here as well but I'll do that if and only if we're certain ressurection ONLY applies to PCs, not henchmen, NPCs, animals or any non-player character.

[Fionn]

I'd say tag a variable onto either the PC or the black rock (I like it actually, but it should be a creature skin) showing their death state. This would allow the Rez spells to work correctly, and we can allow True Rez to be scripted on the body after decay (or dismemberment).

Question - is there a reason to keep the body as no-carry? Currenty it hits the floor if you log. This prevents PCs from carrying them to nearby servers (that may have an easier/cheaper scripted rez). I certainly don't wish to do this if we don't have a global policy on rez (e.g. no NPC has infinite rezzes).

It may be easiest to tag the black rock with the server the PC died on, and ensure the Priest scripts will only automate a rez if they are local. Everything else would be DM run (and the DM wand would show the death info)

[indio]

http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpbbforum/ ... hp?t=11472

For reference, here is the Permadeath Team's proposal.

[Ronan]

Death
Death as defined by the APM is detailed below. I'd like to see details that are missing filled in by our resident ACR experts.

For a short explanation of the feature specification format, visit:
http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpbbforum/ ... hp?t=27229

Functional Requirements
On death, a player character will be sent to the Morgue or Baator. Both are considered IC, so the player must not stop roleplaying just because they die. Dead PCs will be removed from parties so XP cannot be gained and party chat cannot be heard. The dead PC will also be stripped of all items on death and given a Death Symbol—a small black rock to keep the PC from departing the afterlife illegally. It will track a PC's death over a server reset. Attempts to get rid of it will be monitored.

Corpses are timed to last for one week of game time, after which they will be destroyed. To delete a dead PC—or to retire a PC irrevocably—wait until there are more than 10 dead PCs in your vault account and contact an HDM to wipe your vault but for the single active PC you choose. Once permanently dead, PCs may not be recreated at a later date, nor may any PC be resurrected or unretired after a player has started a new PC in game.

Corpses will also be lootable and contain a corpse item weighing 50lbs that can be used for ressurection purposes. (ressurectable body or corpse?) All penalties incurred as a result of dying will only be applied at the time of ressurection so that accidental deaths are easier to resolve. DM ressurections will incur no penalty.

Respawning shall not be possible.

NWN Object Dependencies
Black Rock Item, Corpse Item, Morgue Area

Local Variables and External Configs
TBD

Logging and Debugging (global LOG & DEBUG (on/off) constants)
TBD

Persistence Requirements
Character Hit Points

Event Dependencies
OnPlayerDeath, OnClientEnter

There are a few things I don't understand about this...

1) Morgue or Baator? Why would either of these be considered IC? Newly deadly in Faerun go to the fugue plane, and precious few from there would end up in Baator.
2) Until we know more about the game, why including an inventory token in the specs? It might be easier to get rid of than some sort of stored server variable.
3) Why have all corpses weigh 50lbs? I had started coding a system whereby corpse weight was dependant on the the PC's race, gender, phenotype and gear carried. IMO this should be what we shoot for, and its not really a lot of code.

[indio]

Remember, cipher is merely scribing what's in the rulebook.

I agree with Ronan, certainly on the Morgue. The Morgue must die a permanent death.

We need a fugue plane, and preferably a system where The Nine Hells and teh Abyss are possible (if unlikely) destinations.

False and Faithless are meaningful states to deities, and with luck, we can have a Faith Rank that states where a PC is at in their worship, helping determine their suitability for the City of Judgement.

Finally, we should hold a crash course in how few Faerunians choose to return to the Prime Material plane once they have left it.

[Ronan]

Well... Considering all that needs to be done, I'd rather just see the death scripts read the PC's deity field and leave it at that. I don't see many people wanting to RP their PCs in one-area of afterlife (abyss, olympus, whatever). The PC's faith can be changed by the DM changing his or her deity field (or erasing it).

Aside from a few faiths, I would think a lot of adventurers would choose to come back from the dead, especially before they have been judged. Again, there is a lot that must be done...