Alright, let’s talk about a karma system for Haven & Hearth that also cracks down on alt abuse by linking penalties to things like IP, hardware ID & account linking. Could combine layers to make it harder to bypass. Here’s how it could work:
Karma System Basics
Instead of just punishing a character for crimes, this system tracks your karma across all your characters on an account. If you do shady stuff—like theft, trespassing, or murder—your karma drops. But here’s the twist: this karma isn’t tied to just that character; it’s tied to you as a player.
How It Stops Alt Abuse
To make sure you can’t just switch to another character or make a new account to dodge the bad karma:
1. IP Tracking: If multiple accounts are coming from the same IP address, their karma is linked. Commit crimes on one account, and all your accounts take a hit.
2. Hardware ID Lock: The game can detect your device’s unique ID. If you’re using the same computer, all characters created on it share the same karma pool.
3. Alt Limits: To discourage people from mass-creating accounts, there could be a cap on how many new accounts you can create from one device or IP.
What Happens When Your Karma Tanks?
Low karma should suck enough to make people think twice
• Bounties giving players incentive to track you down for rewards
• Skill Penalties: Bad karma slows down your learning, slower crafting and quality or caps certain skills, longer healing.
• Visible Bad Rep: Other players see your bad karma, making it harder to find allies or join groups.
• More persitent tracks and scents, stronger nidbanes.
How to Earn Good Karma
Of course, not everything is about punishment! You should be able to fix your karma:
• Helping Others: Trading and helping players could give you karma boosts.
• Time: Staying out of trouble for a while lets your karma recover slowly.
• Tracking down bad karma players and retrieving stolen items.
• Stat and skill boosts, better crafting times and quality, buffs.
• Setting up public utilities (e.g., wells, ovens) for new players could earn karma rewards.
1. Intent-Based Karma System
The game could track the intent of your actions:
• Offensive Actions: Attacking unprovoked or raiding someone’s village costs karma.
• Defensive Actions: If you’re attacked first or fighting someone who already has low karma, your actions don’t cost karma.
This could be tied to mechanics like tracking scents—if the other player left scents of their crime, your counterattack doesn’t hurt your karma.
2. Self-Defense Mechanic
Introduce a self-defense timer:
• If someone attacks you first, you get a temporary immunity from karma penalties for attacking them back.
• This timer could last a few minutes after the first hit, giving you time to chase them down if needed.
3. Karma Recovery for Justified Kills
If you kill someone with low karma (a known criminal), you could get a karma boost instead of a penalty.
• This encourages players to go after griefers and criminals, making the game self-policing.
4. Battle Zones and Free-For-All Areas
Designate certain areas, like contested zones or event locations, as free-for-all PvP zones:
• Fighting in these zones wouldn’t affect karma, so players can freely battle for resources or dominance.
• Outside these zones, attacking someone who isn’t flagged as a criminal (based on their karma or scents) would still cost karma.
5. Battles Don’t Affect Karma Directly
For large-scale wars or raids, karma penalties could be adjusted based on context:
• Village vs. Village: If two groups are at war, actions within the war don’t count against karma.
• Griefing vs. Legitimate Conflict: The game could distinguish between long-term feuds (where both sides willingly participate) and random griefing.
6. Group-Based Karma
For larger battles, make sure that karma penalties only apply to the initiating side:
• If your village is attacked, your group’s actions don’t cost karma during the battle.
• To prevent abuse, there could be rules to detect whether someone is really defending (e.g., their claims or allies were attacked first).
Why It’s Good for the Game
With this system, crimes would have real consequences that are hard to dodge. People wouldn’t risk throwing away their main account’s progress for some quick loot. Plus, it rewards good behavior, making the game less toxic overall.