Death Penalty, buffs, debuffs

Suggestions
1

I have not seen it yet, but is there a way to view the current buffs/debuffs, time left, status, etc? If not, this should be implemented.

I’m not a fan of the change to death penalty from durability loss to experience loss, but if keeping this, it should be removed on gaining the experience needed or a certain amount of time waited.

For example, if you die, you get the debuff which gets removed on gaining the experience back or waiting 1 hour online or 5 hours offline, etc.

Are there any other methods in the works to have death penalties removed/reduced such as potions, food, or being revived?

2 Likes
2

as far as i can tell, you dont actually “lose” exp.
Its more like a 50% penalty towards the next 10% of your level.
For instance at level 13 it takes 13000 exp to level up, if you die, you owe 1300 exp and only put 50 % of your gains toward that debt. so mining blocks goes from 4exp to 2exp until you pay the debt.
Although i do agree with you about being able to view the current buff/debuff and time left, id like to know what advantages or disadvantages i have going on at any given time…

1 Like
3

Ive died quite often. getting in over my head on the test servers before 1.0 Omegasus was just a little OP for me :sweat_smile:

1 Like
4

So thank you for your humble sacrifice to bring us this valuable piece of knowledge … :bowing_man:

1 Like
6

KEEP IT CIVIL!

Now that we’re all done over using caps…

You don’t actually lose XP. You just don’t gain it as fast after you die.

I notice you used WoW as an example, which I’m guessing has changed since I last played. When you died in WoW you not only had ghost mode, but your gear did get damaged. The difference with WoW is that you could repair your items - there is no such thing in Boundless.

I’m still a firm believer that death needs to mean something, otherwise you’re just spamming lives at a problem with no repercussions. If you don’t have repercussions, it’s barely an inconvenience, let alone a challenge.

8 Likes
7

Right forgot about that, guess they meshed both together. Still falls under those two though. lol

8

Not gaining as fast is still the same as losing exp. It isn’t an immediate loss as you can’t lose a level from it, but it’s a loss nonetheless. While this death penalty debuff is annoying, it should have an expiration on it.

1 Like
9

I personally much prefer the new system over the old, it was infuriating having all your gear destroyed by getting killed. Especially now if your starting on a hospitable world.

3 Likes
10

In the old universe you had skills and could reduce the effect to zero. Big difference.

2 Likes
11

So people would just not play until it expired? Or would you base it on time in game only? I can imagine a lot of people would just go afk in that case.

4 Likes
12

I’m also conta any timebound debuff. GW (GW1, not that trash which came after ^^) also used a debuff (reduced max health and mana) which you could only get rid by making XP or leaving the area (since it was instanced that ment to lose all progress on quests and missions in that area if you havent manage to finish them by then), and it was a GOOD SYSTEM. So for boundless this could mean that you should be able to get rid of it when going to your home beacon, but since you can switch them quite quickly I there then should be a mechanic to avoid exploiting by just setting beacons where you are atm to fight/mine only for this purpose.

But to be honest: It should stay an XP debuff, cuz it’s ment to hurt. And since you still get XP after dying it is a lesson, not a punch in the face :wink:

14

And if it doesn’t expire I think some will just go afk forever.

15

And playing but no longer gaining experience IS losing experience. Try not to mislead people.

16

@SamF I feel there is a problem, when it’s well known that we are going to be on 50% xp when we go on meteor hunts, the entire hunt. In most games when your in a big group and on a quest or dungeon the xp is better. Here it’s a punishment. You will die a lot and there is no way to stop that. Which is fine. But the punishment that is currently in effect, feels painful, especially when there are no healers at low levels that can resurrect.

  1. At these levels there is no such thing as Resurrection.
  2. Hunting in groups should be described as not recommended for anyone without the death penalty skill, or until there are healers in the group that can rez.

It’s not fun for me to know all of this going into a hunt. Then dying, and coming back with so little health and stamina, Next to as spitter, or as in my case a cuttle that chased me 9 miles until I died, again. Which cost me the loss of a meteor reward twice. I.M.O. , resurrection means completely healed. A new body. Not half dead zombie. Otherwise called your infected.

Maybe there is some middle ground somewhere. I know we need the Death Penalty Reduction skill to feel like it does something. So it could complicate what solutions are available if any. Or we just know its a must have skill for hunters, and need to accept it in our tree.

1 Like
17

With the death penalty active got are gaining xp. Only 50% of earned xp goes towards your level progress until the debt is paid.

Example: You have the death penalty and kill a mob that gives you standard 100 xp. 50 xp goes towards your level progress and 50 xp goes towards removing the death penalty.

Saying that you get no xp added to your level progress with the debuff active is incorrect and misleading.

18

If you are dying frequently on meteor hunts i would say that the group is going after meteors that are higher level than they should be doing or there is a flaw in either the tactics used during the event or the build of the hunters.

1 Like
19

You would say that and you would be incorrect.

20

Actually @DonBab is correct ion the example he provided and the statement he made regarding what happens to xp when you have the death penalty.

You get half the xp until you have worked off the death penalty. Died, gained xp with the death penalty (although only half what I would normally get) and worked it off. If you are having a different experience you need to report it as a bug.

1 Like
21

So I started yesterday, and have died many many times. I played back in the winter, but stopped about a month after the first meteors started to fall, right around the Subnautica 1.0 release.

I had an option to start on a new world, or the same world as someone from my Steam friends list, which I did.

So I spawned fresh with nothing but a totem on Biitula. I never saw a warning that this was a dangerous world until after I had died there.

Once you have died on Biitula, not having ever been anyplace that wasn’t covered in cuttletrunks that will chase you forever, there is no option to get to anyplace else from the sanctum. Having no food meant that I was always starving and on the verge of death with no means to get food or tools. I had no means to warp away.

I logged off and waited for my friend to get online so he could give me some location markers and food so I could finally get to another location. Each death I was forced to go through a portal that told me how dangerous it was on Biitula, but with no option to go anywhere else.

Having died so many times, my death penalty is thousands of experience. If you think I don’t ‘lose’ anything, and taking twice as long to progress through the early game isn’t a cost you’re lying to yourself any everyone in here. I think death should have some penalty, but right now it is far too severe with no mercy for new players.

Dev’s: your current system is stupid and broken for new players. If I weren’t already committed enough to Boundless to have a forum account and a few hundred hours played, all you would have heard from me would have been a refund request. Carefully rethink your new player experience related to early deaths.

Consider:

  1. Do not let new players start on worlds with more dangerous creatures.
  2. When new players die (level <10, fewer than 12 hours played, etc), give them the option to respawn on a world with no hostile creatures, regardless of where they died.
  3. Respawn new players with full health and energy, or just give them some food and tell them to eat it (to teach them the mechanic). I got messages telling me I was starving as the first indication that I should eat at all.

This felt like a trap for a brand new character. Again, if I were under 20 hours, I’d have just contacted Steam for a refund. As it is I still feel that I am paying an increased penalty for the mistake of trying to play this game with my friend, as the death penalty scales up with each death, and I have many.

4 Likes
22

japp, that are good points. The system itself is totaly ok (at least for me and many others), but as a starting player who has first contact with the game it can lead to frustration, quiting and bad reviews.

There should be some “baby protection” before the whole mechanic kicks in (lvl 5 or 10?) and it should be communicated well ingame. Also to be able to go to tier 3 (yes, THREE! ^^) worlds as a starting character is nothing but pure masochism and should not be possible. If you have friends or something on that world to get started (which seems to be the only way to survive there at low levels) you also could warp after making minor tasks quickly :wink: