Death penalty in PS2

[Immigrant]

Should there be a death penalty in PS2? By this I don't mean penalty after every single time you die in combat just in cases where you greatly exceed certain number of deaths per time unit limit - in example if you die more then 20 times in 5 minutes. I think there should be - either in form of getting your capabilities reduced for a period of time or by preventing you from spawning for a period of time. What do you think? Was there any death penalty in PS1?

[Bags]

Why?

[Stardouser]

Nope, there should simply be a balanced spawn system that works in all situations. PS1 did have a thing where your spawn time increased for dying rapidly and that is terrible.

[Vancha]

Does someone who's dying often enough for this to kick in really need their life made harder?

[Immigrant]

Originally Posted by Bags

Why?

To enable defenders taking a rest for awhile if attacked by larger but less skilled force. Also there would be no reason to avoid dying or waiting to be healed either if there was no penalty in any form. Why wait for the medic when you can die and get re-spawned nearby?

[Shlomoshun]

Gotta say no on this one, IMO.

First, with the reduced TTK, death is going to be pretty common, methinks. With a FPS type game, I'd hate to have to play 'slower' to avoid some sort of possible penalty because playing faster might result in some sort of penalty. That doesn't add 'fun' to the gameplay. Second, the inherent penalty is that while you are dead and returning to battle you aren't killing the other side (nor gathering up XP), and it takes some amount of playtime to get back into the battle. Those things alone are enough penalty IMO.

[Immigrant]

Originally Posted by Stardouser

PS1 did have a thing where your spawn time increased for dying rapidly and that is terrible.

That system actually appeals to me. Was it exponential time increase?

[TacosWLove]

I redact my vote. Where is the whiteman giver button? I thought you mean when you respawn, not when you die. I think you should be able to be revived immediately..

[Sirisian]

Increasing the spawn timer per spawn location is fine really. If you spawn at one galaxy and die within a minute increase your spawn timer for that location by 5 seconds up to a maximum of 20 seconds. Very sane system.

[JimmyOmaha]

Kind of agreeing with the above. Someone dieing this often doesn't need additional punishment. :]

Perhaps in the case of friendly fire or team-killing added re-spawn time would be more fitting.

[Immigrant]

Originally Posted by Shlomoshun

Gotta say no on this one, IMO.

First, with the reduced TTK, death is going to be pretty common, methinks. With a FPS type game, I'd hate to have to play 'slower' to avoid some sort of possible penalty because playing faster might result in some sort of penalty. That doesn't add 'fun' to the gameplay. Second, the inherent penalty is that while you are dead and returning to battle you aren't killing the other side (nor gathering up XP), and it takes some amount of playtime to get back into the battle. Those things alone are enough penalty IMO.

Well it should be balanced with average TTK. But it should be there to prevent abuse imo. Well it won't be fun for engineers/defenders either if someone who I just killed 10 times i.e. simply respawns and charges at you again so I don't have time to repair base turret/or plant mines or something like that.

Why would that prevent you from playing faster? You'd just have to have more skill no to get killed in the process. The second thing isn't a penalty at all, also exactly proves my point - why wait for medic to heal you when you can go get killed and have a full health respawn nearby? This could make medic class utterly useless.

[Stardouser]

Originally Posted by Sirisian

Increasing the spawn timer per spawn location is fine really. If you spawn at one galaxy and die within a minute increase your spawn timer for that location by 5 seconds up to a maximum of 20 seconds. Very sane system.

Disclaimer: I do not want a penalty, and the respawn timer should be a standard 15 seconds regardless if squad spawn, galaxy spawn or base spawn, the following comments are only applicable in the event that SOE for some reason insists on having one:

20 second max is OK, but I think it should not happen until your 3rd death within 60 seconds. Basically it will add a few seconds to spawns on assaults that have reached the door camping stage and that's OK.

By the way, this issue brings us back to something I hope we learn at E3: We know there's going to be squad spawn and galaxy spawn, but will you be able to spawn on these places(and owned bases) without physically traveling to them first? ie, log in and choose your spawn point immediately?

[headcrab13]

I definitely liked Planetside's increasing spawn timer, but it could get frustrating when you were getting spawn camped.

The concept is good, but they just need to fine-tune situations where you're forced to die repeatedly or maybe make the max spawn time shorter than it was before.

[Immigrant]

Originally Posted by headcrab13

I definitely liked Planetside's increasing spawn timer, but it could get frustrating when you were getting spawn camped.

The concept is good, but they just need to fine-tune situations where you're forced to die repeatedly or maybe make the max spawn time shorter than it was before.

That timer sound nice, this really shouldn't be an arena few instants respawn style game. I remember they (devs) said spawn camping should be less problematic then it was in PS1 with more spawn places and methods as options.

[CuddlyChud]

I think that death in Planetside often isn't a consequence of your actions. With so many people fighting, its equal parts luck and skill whether or not you die. I think death penalties are just more frustrating than useful. Plus it was always frustrating when you had 20 people just clustered outside a gen or bd afraid to charge in. The real penalty for death is simply that you respawn away from the action and need to make your way back.

Also, in Planetside 1 I felt like the death penalty system wasn't easily understandable, so it never entered my mind when I was thinking about whether or not to risk my neck.