Death Mechanics/Visuals

WASD2Move

Hi, not sure if this is a supposed to be a place for design ideas, and I’m no game designer, but I have and idea I think would be cool regarding the death mechanic. I’ve been following the game since about July and every time I see a death and respawn it seems to be at a set destination, could be wrong. I think WoW has a could good ideas here. The ghost walk, whilst sometimes too long and almost always frustrating, was also a part of the journey and time to think on how to better face the threat that had defeated you.

I think Ashes could use this. I think players should have the choice upon death to decide whether they want to respawn at that set respawn point (close-ish to your body) or ghost walk from a slightly farther point to their corpse. If you walk to your corpse you incur no penalty. If you respawn at the point it’s maybe a minor penalty, (i.e. 5 points of durability from each piece of equipped gear).

I also think the respawn animations for each could be different, like defending from a bright light if you don’t ghost walk, or your body turning to ash and then your body being rebirthed like a Phoenix if you get back to your corpse. (Thought it was a super cool use of the theme)

Not sure if this is the place for a suggestion like this...just thought of it and was excited. Might already be a thread for this... if so, sorry!

WASD2Move

Oh, and obviously those respawn points and their differing distances would have to be well thought out. I liked WoW’s almost always being a graveyard, just for the story there, but it often made some walks unbearably long. I was thinking various broken shrines, runed pillars, graves/graveyards, or “nests of Mother Nature”. Various small pieces of the world building that aren’t super prominent but memorable. Then the faster respawn puts you at the closest one, and the ghost walk, the second or third closest one. You could even try to play mediation or reflection into the choice to walk.

Again, just some ideas I was excited about.