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Reactivate Retired Detective
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Hawkeye Harris
Hawkeye Harris
Battered Shoe

Jan-25-2007 13:32

Wow, Ben! You don't waste any time! I logged off for a bit and when I came back on there was a new line with "transfer your retired subscription" (at least, I haven't seen it before now)


Replies

Serges
Serges
Vigilante

Jan-25-2007 21:21

I have relaxed a little from my knee-jerk reactions and thought more about the concept of "resurrection" since its initial implementation. I realize that it is ultimately a positive change to the game, IF it is managed correctly. With all due respect to Ben and his well-intentioned idea, I strongly believe the current penalties for bringing back a character from retirement are still far too mild for players, young and old alike, to still have the same reverence and necessary fear as before for Shady and the 3 FAs rule, which I believe are vital to players' respect and intelligent caution within this absolutely wonderful game and its community.

Since the subject of limiting number of possible resurrections was essentially closed by Ben, I'll offer an alternative method of increasing the penalty for coming out of retirement.

Basically, it would be Sleuth's version of "resurrection sickness".

When a player brings their character out of retirement, the one-time penalties for cash, experience, etc. would still be in effect. However, that character would also be penalized for a time frame (my suggest would be 1-2 weeks) within the game itself.

Cases would only give 50% experience and 50% cash reward (not affecting item rewards for game mechanic reasons).
Favors would take more solves to activate (currently it's 4, I suggest 6)
Your character would suffer a -5 stats bonus to Tough, Smarts, and Charm.
Your character would not be allowed to travel outside their current city if subscribed.

These are just a few examples of sickness penalties that could be implemented. If anyone has additional ideas, feel free to share.

Sleuth Sindy
Sleuth Sindy
Pinball Wizard

Jan-25-2007 21:47

I think another penalty that could be added to reactivating your detective is the loss of one or both Townie Contacts. I also think the penalties should be more severe. The risk involved with 3 FA's, for me anyway, is one of the things that gives this game its "edge." Additionally, If you "retire" and "reactivate" in other games, you come back significantly weaker and have to rebuild . . . this means it takes longer to build your character to a high level and keeps the game challenging longer.

Possibly a much easier solution to all of this would be to simply make Shady's prices lower so that it's more possible for a detective with millions of XP to pay him off rather than having to keep playing with 2 FA's to come up with the money and risk retirement in the first place.

It's unfortunate that detectives feel as though when they have 2 FA's and can't afford to pay them off, that they feel they can't reach out to the Sleuth community to help them . . .

Ranier Peperhaut
Ranier Peperhaut
Washed Up Punter

Jan-25-2007 22:36

I am all for the idea. If people want to retire their detective over and over again, by all means go right ahead. Doesn't affect my gameplay.

If you do have to resurrect your detective I think it should be marked on your detective page though. A black mark of shame on your permanent record. It's bad enough seeing my failed villain hunts on there, I would be so woeful to see the ulitmate black mark!

As far as tougher penalties... on top of the other stuff, maybe the resurrected could permanantly gain experience/skill points at a slower rate each time they resurrect. 5% or 10% slower is a lot of motivation for me to be careful. (It would have to be capped at some point, obviously, lol.) It already takes me long enough to get skill points!

This might not be motivational for those who have every skill and all, but at that point, I assume the game isnt about gaining skill points anymore, its more of a community that you enjoy being a part of.

Congrats to all those who have been able to get their retired detectives back!! Good for you! Ben, thanks for this wonderful new option that alleviates the grief of losing our detective!

Ranier Peperhaut
Ranier Peperhaut
Washed Up Punter

Jan-25-2007 22:41

or maybe the fortune tellers would be less cooperative or youd have to pay more for their help because they can sense you were brought back to life by some mystical voodoo. lol.

Sleuth Sindy
Sleuth Sindy
Pinball Wizard

Jan-25-2007 23:10

I can already hear the objection to a person losing their Townie Contact: People will deliberately retire their agent to get a different Townie Contact. Well, that may be the case, but if they're willing to sacrifice hard earned XP and possibly skill points, money and equipment (although it has already been discussed how those items can be gotten around), then I say more power to them. I think it would actually be a plus as it would give that detective a new goal and keep their interest in the game that much longer. As to Ben's concern regarding taking away skill points, I think only young detectives make choices about skills that they might later regret, and at that stage skill points come fairly quickly, so I think that concern may not be that large of an issue.

crunchpatty
crunchpatty
Old Shoe

Jan-25-2007 23:56

For me, a good deal of how I feel about all of this hinges on one thing, which I still am not clear on. When a retired det comes back, is the Shady cost of the 2 "legacy" FAs they inherit calculated on the basis of their pre-retirement experience or on the basis of their post-retirement experience? If it's the latter option, that still leaves the possibility for people to use false accusations as a an alternative to paying steep Shady fees. My concern about this stems from the fact that I think the change was intended to deal with the (unpolice-able) issue of what happens when retirement happen due to acts of (sorry) cat or mouse, if you will, rather than to introduce a new strategic element to the game.

I'm less concerned about the prospect of multiple resurrections (c'mon, how many zombie sequel movies have y'all paid good money to watch :P ) than I am about the severity of the penalty for exercising the option. For me, -because of how significant the shady threat has been in the game as we know it- I feel like the penalty for exercising this option should imply putting in a lot of work. I think that there are essentially two things that make people feel bad when their detective gets retired, both of which have been nicely articulated on this thread:

the loss of your character as a member of the community, and

the loss of the time and labour put into building that character, in terms of experience, skills and so forth.

I think that, irrespective of which of these is more important to an individual player, a retirement is really devastating. It sucks in both respects.

I also think that the cost of the resurrection should be less devastating, but that it should be more so than simply paying your shady fees. And as I say that, I'm really starting to appreciate Sindy's concern about why more people don't ask for help clearing their name.

I think that there have been a lot of interesting ideas put forth here that speak precisely to my concerns. (more, wait)

crunchpatty
crunchpatty
Old Shoe

Jan-26-2007 00:07

It strikes me that Badass' idea about building skill points towards a resurrection skill could speak to both of the motivations I'm worried about, especially if the price of this skill was set high enough.

Newer players would have a hard choice to make between choosing this skill over ones that would make their day-to-day playing of the game much easier. Older players would accrue the points required to buy this skill at a really slow rate, which would mean a lot of work. And, it could be a skill which could be purchased more than once (in response to the fact that the reason we're having this conversation is that Ben and Sunny wanted to do something about the fact that people sometimes get retired for reasons that aren't their fault), but because of the increasing gap in the exp: skill points ratio, it would be harder to do the longer a player sticks around.

I also like the ideas about "sickness" and the loss of contacts, simply because either of these could imply lots and lots of work as a consequence for resurrecting yourself.

OK, I'm done. *Buys a wand and goes off to resurrect all 14 of his other dead detectives*

Sleuth Sindy
Sleuth Sindy
Pinball Wizard

Jan-26-2007 00:24

I say "Amen" to everything Crunch just posted and also wanted to add:

If the skills are taken away randomly, a player would not know which skill he or she was going to lose, and may not lose the skill point he or she regretted purchasing to begin with, and could actually lose a more vital skill.

Having said all that, I want to say "thank you" to Ben for listening to what everyone has to say. I realize it's hard to come up with a compromise that will please everyone and be feasible to implement given the game's structure. I would not want to stand in your shoes. :)

Sleuth Sindy
Sleuth Sindy
Pinball Wizard

Jan-26-2007 00:27

I just realized that in my post timed at 23:10 I used the phrase "skill points" when I actually meant "skills."

And that's all I have to say about that. :)

reda
reda
Well-Connected

Jan-26-2007 02:42

Taking skills away randomly like Cindy suggested will solve the problem of ppl using this to get rid of a skill.

I agree that this option should have more penelty then it has now. The sad thing about loosing you character should be loosing the face/story/community you bulid with it. If you can save that but have to work hard on getting the rest back, then I see a point to it. Otherwise I prefer detectives to just get retired :P Or the game will loose it's edge.

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