The World of Layonara
NWN Discussions and Suggestions => NWN Ideas, Suggestions, Requests => Topic started by: Pen N Popper on June 23, 2006, 05:02:13 AM
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Instead of gravestones, a corpse objectmight be more in-character. Perhaps it could be labeled with the term that we should ICly be calling it like "soul corpse," or "stone corpse."
This is not a suggestion to change anything except the usable object that is placed.
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I like this idea.
It gets the thumbs-up by me.
Let's hear the others!
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I like this idea. gats my vote
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I agree with the idea save for the name. "Soul Corpse" or "Stone Corpse" sound rather silly. Now, if the corpse object could be made to be semi-translucent, that would be ideal; it would be as if you left a portion of your power at the site of your death (resulting in your corresponding loss of abilities).
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Just like Everquest 2? :)
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Whatever the floaty text says is what people will end up calling it so a clever name is important! :-)
Empty Body
Body's Reflection
Soul Reflection
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Veto "Empty Body" because of the monk feat of the same name...
How about Spirit Echo?
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Ooh. Spirit echo. I like it.
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Spirit echo is really good.
Well that was an easy one to sort out. Please have it in place by breakfast tomorrow Dorg :P
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In place of the gravestone conversation, it could be "Here, you see a glimmering, translucent figure, prone, with its face twisted in mortal agony. A being was killed here, and a part of its spirit remains, bound in death, until it is called back to the body in recovery." And then OOC text that specifies who it is whose spirit is here (as you'd be able, normally, to recognize the face of the spirit in the face of the afflicted individual).
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Great idea, definately more cool then the bodies suddenly disappearing and an eager gravestone popping out of the ground. Nice description as well darkstorme.
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I have always had the impression that dead characters are not ghosts or bodiless souls walking around, but that the white translucent glow is only an indicator for the player that the character is not well. The character either gets a new body, or the original body is patched up through the magic of the bindstones as it is teleported back and the soul is reattached.
Waiting X minutes reflecting isn't about growing a new body, it's about considering what has happened and coming to terms with it. Thus "reflecting." If the character decides to go back to the place of death, it isn't to get back in a beat up body, but to face the fear and the problems that caused the death. It's a more active reflecting, taking the initiative rather than moping about in town. It seems fairly obvious that body doesn't work anymore anyway.
If the marker left at the spot of death is the character's body, how do you explain waiting out the time? I just can't see being bound to the stones giving people the ability to sit around and grow a new body. All the magic is in the bindstones, and they use that magic on the characters to revive and transport them. How do you explain a ghost or a soul walking around able to interact normally? It has a physical form, aka a body. The character can still do anything he could before, just not as well, since he has been through a traumatic experience that has left him drained.
I really don't care what the marker is as long as it makes sense somehow. I like the gravestones, since they are simple and obvious. But it could be a glowy light, or a body, or whatever. If it is a body, though, I'd rather the body be the memory of where the character died, rather than the body itself. Still, seeing a body makes people think, "Oh, there's my body," not, "Oh, I remember this is the place I died," so I would be inclined to vote against having bodies lying around as the markers.
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Or even something like the "will-o-wisp" floating at the site of the death to mark the return to the soul, kind of like the ones in the forest of reflection (?) on roldem instead of a gravestone.
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A spirity-thing would be the best idea in my eyes - a "ghost" of the character that fell. Have the character themselves look normal - I've never understood why they would be translucent and glowy if thier bodies regenerated (as is described in the Bindstone text).
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I agree with Gulnyr here. A gravestone as a marker is simple. And a corpse of something of that sort, would lead to people thinking that they were somekind of undead "ghost" or "spirit" when they were recovering.
I think staying with gravestones would be the best option.
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Gravestones. Mostly for the reasons Gulnyr stated.
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I think the idea of a 'will-o-wisp' sort of thing is a good idea. The gravestone implies that there is a body buried there, but the floating light or whatever just shows that this is the point where some soul was detached from the plane and journeyed through the death void to the bind stone. It's basically the psychic link for the deceased to face what happened and recover.
DHF
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I really think since you respawned to the bind stone you wouldnt leave a body.Maybe a locked bag that only opens for a DM and that player.
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Well If you are not dead and only waiting to recover, can any one tell me why you get in your inventory an empty body skin??
A small twist to the idea, yes change the stone to something else, but change the person to a will-o-whisp until he reach where he has to to pray and fully recover. Since the empty skin is in his inventory that means he doenst have a physical body and what you see is his soul, who said a soul resembled the body?
could be funny to see will-o-whisp fly around trying to get back to their deaht site. And it should not be that difucult to make that change since the bard can change their appearance to any kind of animal or even beast.
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It's more complicated than you might think.
A simple appearance (model) change does come with its own set of potential problems, such as the un-equipping of items that cannot be handled by the new form...and potential inventory problems as a result. To do it like a polymorph or a wildshape would actually give some benefits of the other shape, unless a very custom shape were created for this purpose alone, and even then, the weapons and armor worn get merged with the new form...again, unless we cook up a parallel wild shape/polymorph system to not do that....and then still, potential inventory issues.
There's the funky RP issues that come into play if you have to jump servers. A disembodied soul wouldn't likely have boat tickets, gold or be able to communicate really with the ship captains. And for those people who decide to wait out the reflections....well, they're a glowing ball of light.
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true but at the same time if my theory is correct about the empty skin in your inventory, a soul should not be able to equip none of this or talk to anyone that is not coonected with the dead realm. In this case you could have a talking will-o-whisp who is able to carry gold and tikets. I think the will-o whisp in the swamps near hlint already carry some gold. and as to the unequie of armor and weapons, you could do a script that would unequipe everything at the death void then applying the new skin over the char in there. And when you get to your death site it is a matter of re-applying the char true skin, since the weapons would already be unequiped from the go that should eliminate a problem.
Also if im not mistaking, all the inventory and equiped weapons armor etc are stored in a log file on the server. If you die and are sent to the death void you could only have you body change and no inventory at all except for gold. On a later date the player could then buy the tickets he-she needs ( remember the talking will-o) and then go to his grave site. As he would pray, the skin would be reapplied and then his inventory given back to him. The inventory being given back to him is already being used with the filled- empty canteen, it would only be an adaptatin needed to this.
and for those who would have not binded on the other server it would only be their action that would force them to wait. You showed us many time that each action made by his player has a concequence, so if the will-o-whips idea could not carry anything, it would be the player responsibility to bind on that server as it is now to do in case of server crashes.
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Your theory is not correct, though. PCs are not ghosts or bodiless souls after death. They are reformed at the bindstone after their souls are whisked away at the moment of death. Gulnyr summed it up pretty nicely somewhere up there-ish.
I'd think that even if the skin was not just what applies your stat adjustments, it would have been interpreted incorrectly. You based it off of the name, "Empty Creature Skin," which seems like by your logic, would mean an "empty body," or a "body without a soul."
That's not true either, I'm just saying it was a different take on the words than would be usual.
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Hellblazer - 8/24/2006 9:39 AM
I think the will-o whisp in the swamps near hlint already carry some gold.
Will-o'-wisps aren't souls. They aren't even incorporeal. From the Monster Manual:
A will-o'-wisp's body is a globe of spongy material about 1 foot across and weighing about 3 pounds
Since it has substance and mass, it can carry things, like coins.
Also if im not mistaking, all the inventory and equiped weapons armor etc are stored in a log file on the server. If you die and are sent to the death void you could only have you body change and no inventory at all except for gold. On a later date the player could then buy the tickets he-she needs ( remember the talking will-o) and then go to his grave site. As he would pray, the ski would be reapplied and then his inventory given back to him.
How about we have magic monoliths that teleport and mend souls and bodies, and reconnect them in a safe place, like a town or a temple?
Is the system really broken? Is it so bad that you would rather have the project team build a whole new system rather than work on new things and correct real problems? I think what you are proposing is really a lot more trouble than it seems. It's not a terrible idea, it just seems impractical and not worth it in the end.
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*wonders who started this wasteful thread and gasps!*
I only meant to change the object itself to something more IC, leaving the rest of the system as is.
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"Empty creature skin" is the generic name for an object which we use to then apply bonuses, penalties and all sorts of things for subraces, PrC's and death effects. Except in cases of lag, it gets applied to your hidden Creature Hide/skin inventory slot, which then puts its properties into effect. It is not indicative, in any way, that your character's body is "empty". It is an OOC thing that implements a system...nothing more.
Your inventory is NOT stored in a log on the server anywhere. If something leaves your inventory, it's gone. We don't "save" a copy of it anywhere....ever.
While your idea is interesting, it's really a far more complex and problem-prone system than I think you realize.
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Oh I thought it was as since I had reformated and re-installed the game a couple of time with my other computer and saw that everything was in order when I came back on the server, I thought it was saved server side. And your probably right since I have no technical expertise in coding. I mearly specialise in music, writing and recording. But none the less it would be cool to see. :D
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Hellblazer - 8/24/2006 1:04 PM Oh I thought it was as since I had reformated and re-installed the game a couple of time with my other computer and saw that everything was in order when I came back on the server, I thought it was saved server side. And your probably right since I have no technical expertise in coding. I mearly specialise in music, writing and recording. But none the less it would be cool to see. :D
Your character is saved on the server vault, but it is saved as a single character file. There is no separate log or any kind of separate storage for your inventory. It's all part of your character, and it gets saved when you save, rest or disconnect from the server. In the case of a client crash, the server still saves your character info. In the case of a server crash, it does not.
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My opinion on this is rather simplistic:
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
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Dorganath - 8/24/2006 2:18 PM Your character is saved on the server vault, but it is saved as a single character file. There is no separate log or any kind of separate storage for your inventory. It's all part of your character, and it gets saved when you save, rest or disconnect from the server. In the case of a client crash, the server still saves your character info. In the case of a server crash, it does not.
Ah ok, good to know.