I prefer the current EXP reduction death penalty versus the previous penalty of my gear wearing down into nothingness.
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It is only that for those that put a time limit on things. You play - you progress. So it will happen. Just add some Zen to the mix and let it come when it comes…
I don’t like the penalty either but I have rationalized that my enjoyment is more important and XP and how long it takes has been removed. I’m in my late 40’s so I have a different outlook on life… You’ll get there just keep putting the effort in is more important than “when.”
I’m not saying things can’t be changed. Just offering views to cut down on the frustration and bring more enjoyment to the current game dynamic.
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And here is the cause of my pain with the death penalty. The developers continue to reduce xp earned, eliminate exploits and make it even more of a grind to advance. But they have not adjusted the death penalty.
Getting tired of digging rock and crafting stone in order to get the skills to be able to craft brick, or build atmospheric resistance.
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Heh, I’ll politely ask the baby to stop requiring my attention. 
I get what you mean. I try to live like that. I found it easier to absorb gear wear partly because the evidence of the punishment was hidden under a tooltip on the gear and wasn’t sat next to the health bar (that I now keep checking due to bloody hunger) reminding me of that four block fall or rubberbanding into lava.
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I can genuinely say I like it.
Many times already I was really doing everything to survive when on low health. Including dropping whatever I was doing. It’s such a difference comparing to old times when with maxed death penalty reduction there was no penalty at all. And I didn’t care trying to survive.
That xp debt makes me think and try to survive. It makes things challenging and thrilling.
And even when I can’t survive and end up with the xp debt, it’s not severely punishing and I don’t go mad because of it.
It seems to me, it’s in a good balance now.
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But if the death penalty was removed, nobody would be like, “Ahh this game sucks now!”
I like to take huge risks, goof off, try to solo bosses, jump off 20 story buildings and go splat. Destiny we would always jump off The Tower and die after a raid just because we could. Or try challenges like beat a level using only melee attacks.
Death penalty = less glimmer, ultimately less plots over time. And the post 50 exp grind per level sounds like a lowkey punishment in and of itself with this week’s nerfs to, well, all things that give exp…
I’ve only died a couple times at low levels so far learning this game’s wonky flavor of combat. Overall do enjoy the game but not digging the exp nerfs since I’m only lvl 25 and don’t own a spark generator or iron anything.
I like the idea of a penalty. Gives me a reason to try and avoid the penalty. I think having no penalty is kind of lame. I think having a debt with a cap is better than making me lose something. It slows me down but I keep progressing regardless what happens.
I don’t think anyone really LIKES penalties in and of themselves… Nobody is going around dying on purpose… The whole point is to have something unwanted to give the player a reason to try to stay alive…
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Actually yes they would. There is a strong group that feels death penalty in some form or fashion needs to exist. Many pushed even worse options like losing everything. Also they feel that it would make things too easy.
So while it sucks I do support those that say the penalty needs to be here because it makes it challenging. If people want no death then push the developers to create a “creative mode.”
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I like this penalty as well.
It’s just annoying enough to make me try to avoid death—but when I do die, it’s not annoying enough to cause me to log out in frustration. Plus, the fact it doesn’t compound means that if I get stuck in a really bad situation, repeated deaths aren’t any worse.
Working the xp off really doesn’t take all that long
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I love it. I can remove it in a few minutes while my tools breaking always really made me upset. Glad is changed now.
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After reading a bit of this thread I saw multiple posts that are about like this. “I dont like the death penalty so I avoid dying”
Are you serious? That’s exactly the point of the death penalty…its fine how it is. There needs to be a reason to avoid death.
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I feel like the scaling is way off.
For example breaking blocks at level 1 and lvl 50 awards no exp difference.
Killing mobs, afaik also doesn’t change, though you’d need help at lower levels.
Perhaps these things speed up at higher levels, but I don’t think this compensates for the amount of deficit earnt from the death penalty.
I died at lvl 30, and that penalty drove me back to lower tier worlds to spam break blocks and kill mobs. And since I’m mostly gatherer spec’d, breaking plants on higher tier planets did jack to remove the penalty in reality.
I dislike it. I disliked the -25% durability loss more (though I used the skill points to clear that).
Something does need to exist as a death penalty. I think the exp deficit just needs some work.
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I like the death penalty, there has to be something, I hate the part of minecraft for example where you lose your items and you might not be able to get back, but then again i am just playing this game to play it rather than to level up. I haven’t looked at my level since i started as I just run around and dig stuff and build stuff and sometimes get skill points to do better, so for me it doesn’t really bother me
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Ah but why death at all?
For the RPG elements of the game to be enjoyable, they have to be challenging
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I was being a little jokey/facetious but this does interest me! I was mulling over other mechanics available - coin reduction, base degradation and so on that give risk and make the progression risky.
Do you think people who play solo RPGs with trainers/edits/mods/whatever aren’t enjoying themselves?
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I don’t think that’s the common case, no.
Playing without penalty tends to be fun for short periods of time, but then you quickly exhaust the game’s content. Or they’re playing for the story
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Really and here I thought it was a Sandbox MMO.
I rarely have to die in sandbox games. .
Edit: My issue is the severity not the fact that there is a penalty.
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Yes that’s true, I’ve definitely used a trainer where the game control mechanics have irritated me beyond play but I still want to see how things pan out. But you’re right it exhausts content quickly and much as I like Boundless it lacks that kind of content.
I did think the other night that it feels like we have a penalty/reward balance in line with games that have other avenues of earning it (e.g. quests) but that, that content isn’t present here.
I absolutely don’t want to see a Collect x widgets quest line approach but it’d be great if there were a dev with a primary responsibility for lore who could build a new branch of objectives around discovery and lore. Like a storyline based over planets over time where discovery of rare resources in hidden depths unlocks lore and a reward. Or the contracts others have asked for, but NPC-led for XP as well as PC-led for coin.
I suppose I feel it’d be much more tolerable with the XP balance as is if you could have a more pleasant, focused and interesting time earning your XP & clearing your debt. Right now each of the profession options apart from crafting are feeling pretty grind heavy and there’s no other area of the game to go take a break from that.
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This game is a lot of different things. Doesn’t fit that cleanly into a single category.
Some of us are playing it for the creative sandbox aspects—impressive builds, relaxing experiences, etc
Some of us are playing it for the RPG style challenges—feeling rewarded for playing well, leveling up, etc
Some of us are here for the community, which crosses over into both the above categories—communal builds, hunts, exploring worlds with friends, etc
Most of us are here for a combination of the above, & the game needs to balance those different play styles, or reject some of them.
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