Adding Risk for Gankers

[Szat]

As always during the early world, I've seen many new players murdered by groups. I like that unlike a lot of other sandbox games, Hafen has incentives that at least attempt to make mass-murder against inferior foes unrewarding. However, for some kinds of player, driving other players out of the game and destroying their ability to play at all is its own reward.

I think in light of the current meta, there could be a better risk-reward system for gankers, who usually play the game at a very different level than hermits do.

Proposal: New Wound: Depravity

When a player commits a murder that meets certain criteria (ex: murdering a character without rage; murdering a character with less than 10% of their own LP total) the player gains an increment of the stacking spiritual wound 'Depravity.' Depravity increases all damage dealt to the afflicted by some percentage per stack. It also decreases inheritable stats and LP by the same percentage, perhaps capping at 95%. It could also confer additional vulnerability to Nidbane attacks, scaling similarly.

Rationale: In short: Death is a big consequence for newbies and a very rare inconvenience for longtime PvPers. The latter group almost always has village and realm infrastructure that allow them to take maximum advantage of inheritance even if they can't recover their body, so that death is no long-term problem.

With this change, death becomes more likely but also more punishing for those players who choose to prey on easy targets. Like a sprucecap on his rowboat, they are once more at risk any time they leave their walls, because if they die, they will be significantly set back. They still have all the advantages of their village and having mastered game systems...but they may fall behind their peers for the rest of the world. I like this idea because it strengthens existing mechanics (Nidbanes) and creates risk for players at the top without discouraging them from fighting with peers and near-peers.

Edit to pre-empt a silly counter-argument about people abusing alts to make meatwalls: characters who are red-handed, outlawed, or currently trespassing don’t incur the debuff. This immensely limits how alt spam can be abused and seems just anyway.

[waga]

They will answer you "and now we'll have to deal with an army of alts griefing at our gates" and they'd be right I guess.
I understand where you're coming from but the alt problem is mentionned every time for a reason, it's a problematic one indeed.

[Szat]

They will answer you "and now we'll have to deal with an army of alts griefing at our gates" and they'd be right I guess.
I understand where you're coming from but the alt problem is mentionned every time for a reason, it's a problematic one indeed.

Literally knock them out or push them out of the way. How're griefing alts without Rage gonna hurt you?

[cellites]

Big ups, if you are a skilled player with realm or even village infrastructure as of now there is basically no downside to going out and murdering indiscriminately. This would make killing random spruces not worth the risk of the potential loses from a death.

[waga]

They will answer you "and now we'll have to deal with an army of alts griefing at our gates" and they'd be right I guess.
I understand where you're coming from but the alt problem is mentionned every time for a reason, it's a problematic one indeed.

Literally knock them out or push them out of the way. How're griefing alts without Rage gonna hurt you?

Im going to dump a massive amount of dirt on your door and we'll see how you react.
or build a lot of crap around your area
etc etc

and no Ko is not an option if I want you to kill my char just by breathing on it I can

[DDDsDD999]

Literally knock them out

Congrats, you left a murder scent.

or push them out of the way.

Alt standing behind alt.

[Szat]

Literally knock them out

Congrats, you left a murder scent.

or push them out of the way.

Alt standing behind alt.

I’ve seen the stuff you guys build. You obviously aren’t lazy people, and yet I see people return to the laziest argument I’ve ever seen thread after thread. “But alts! People will abuse alts!”

Change to the mechanic: Red-handed and currently trespassing characters don’t incur the debuff. Wow, what a difficult thing to fix!

[vatas]

Rather than introducing new minigames, maybe reinforce the existing systems?

1. Can't move Hearth Fire when Outlaw

2. If "Rangers" break the Hearth Fire, the Outlaw's connection to Hearth is severed, causing them to die.

3. To help avoid accidentally Outlawing yourself, upgrade the toggle system to allow an option for non-Outlaw crimes only (trespassing and rummaging scents.)

[Szat]

Rather than introducing new minigames, maybe reinforce the existing systems?

1. Can't move Hearth Fire when Outlaw

2. If "Rangers" break the Hearth Fire, the Outlaw's connection to Hearth is severed, causing them to die.

3. To help avoid accidentally Outlawing yourself, upgrade the toggle system to allow an option for non-Outlaw crimes only (trespassing and rummaging scents.)

Does this address the problem of outlier players killing hermits and casual players in droves, though? This just creates a kind of invisible war between griefers and the mythical rangers who hunt them down that is not part of the game for 99% of players.

[SnuggleSnail]

The people who want to drown you aren't outliers. The overwhelming majority of haven players would siege/murder regularly if they could do so successfully and with impunity. It's how most PVP games are played. The outlier here is just that the PVP systems/mechanics are obtuse and disconnected from regular play enough that the overwhelming majority are ants.