New Death System?

[mandos]

Hey!
I know that you are probably well into the development, but i simply must share a mod which i found for New Vegas, and i absolutely adore it and would like to see implemented in every game from now to forever! (well, the idea of it anyway . You can read it here http://arwenevecom.ipage.com/FalloutNV/FNV-mods04.htm

Its called One Life and basically what it does is that it introduces a whole new concept of dying: Not dying at all < yes i know how it sounds, but keep with me ok?:)

Here is how it works: In the moment just before death, you pass out and are left for dead. Then some time passes, and you found yourself in an "safe location" (nearest village, doctors house etc, under the rock) beaten up, with broken bones, robbed of all your money, and most of your items gone.
What i like about it so much is that it introduces an actual penalty for "dying", and dying is no longer just an inconvenience due to load time...but actual threat with dire consequences. I would like to play a game which flow is not interrupted and chunks of gameplay are not lost just because i had forgotten to press a button once every 5 minutes or random CTD...

the Sense of urgency and immersion which comes from playing a single game, with all the learning experience happening in the actual playthrough, without the need to save and load your progress every time something doesnt go exactly as planned, would be greatest addition of them all.

Tell me, if you can just save before entering casino, and load when you loose all your money, of what point is the casino? And how is that NOT considered a cheating? I think that save/load system is one of the mostly embraced, laziest, and most damaging thing that rpg like elder scrolls, fallout, or gothic can have. And if developers would put some real thoughts into gameflow of death and save/load mechanics, than death could be immensely enriching experience, instead it is most of the time just a device for the least skilled/not very investive players to help ensure that they will get to the end credits.

Few games have already implemented some ideas which promote more natural flow of gameplay (i.e., not a time machine jumps . The finishing moves in Gothic were sweet, or crematorium koncept of Planescape: Torment, or Dark souls (doesnt really count because of its online nature, but you know what i am talking about), or even Far Cry 2, with its buddy rescue system. I would really love to see an idea like this to be fully implemented in some games (especially open world rpgs), but judging by the nature of "improvements" in games like Skyrim or Fallout, and the way in which they are moving, i dont see an"integration of gameplay" like this to be prevailing trend in gaming development anytime soon (sadly, quite opposite).

ok, i just had to get this off my chest in some place where i think that i wont be shouted down by skyrim fans, thank you for reading, and if something sticks to the back of the brain it would be a great bonus

[khalkists]

My problem with these mods, is I have to actively remind myself not to just reload for the sake of convenience, especially if I am going to lose everything. I don't get to spend much time playing games as it is, so having to hunt my gear down every time I die... yeah. Especially when its something like a gecko that kills me, I doubt it wants my equipment.

But in the concept of death-avoidance, what if the player is "protected" as long as they have a follower (enter bleedout) and your regeneration rate is set to 0.
If your follower finishes off the enemies, you will get a bit of health on the spot, and your regeneration rate is restored. If they do not kill the enemies, then you face the "in-town respawn"

[Varana]

But the idea is really cool. Fallout New Vegas has two gamemodes right? Normal and Hardcore (this one includes survival stuffs like thirsty, eating, resting, etc).

Well this "one life" mod could be implemented as a gamemode aswell. One "normal gamemode" with save/load and autosaves, and another "one life gamemode" without saves/loads and only auto saves in some special events (like advancing in the mainquest, finishing a sidequest, dying, etc).

And you could add 2 more gamemodes adding a hardcore mode with survival stuff (mods like "Wet & Cold" and Frostfall").
Like that you will have 4 gamemodes, Normal-Normal, Normal-OneLife, Hardcore-Normal, Hardcore-OneLife.

I don't know about you but I just realize that a love the idea XD Hardcore-OneLife mode could be amazing.

[mindw0rk]

Most of my modded Skyrim playtime was in Dead is Dead mode where any death leads to game over and restart from scratch. It raises immersion and experience immensely. But I know Skyrim very well and what to expect.

I wont start Enderal in such mode but if there was optional difficulty with harsh death mechanics I would definetly choose it over any other. Also would be nice if more harsh basic needs would be tied to such death mechanics. So that not only regeneration lowered if you didnt eat for a while, but you could actually die from starvation and thirst.

So basically, dear devs, we want optional difficulty for fans of hardcore playstyle. Where you can also add other challenging features, like less valuable loot, stronger enemies, higher prices, etc. Im sure it will be appreciated by many and even casuals will try it after finishing game on normal difficulty