Recovering from Death

''Material retrieved from original Zone caches available at http://web.archive.org.

''Original Link (now dead) - http://www.zone.com/asheronscall/tips/ashetipsdying.asp



 Recovering from Death 

Asheron's Call wouldn't stay exciting very long if death had no consequences. Ideally, the death penalty keeps you on the edge of frustration without actually pushing you over the line, occasionally recharging your caution and capacity for suspense, but if you don't adequately understand how death affects your character, you may find yourself punished even worse than the developers intended. Understanding how the death penalty system works and taking steps to minimize your losses can save you a lot of time and wasted effort and keep your character's development on a steady upward curve despite an occasional mishap.

The Penalty

When you are slain, you'll resurrect at the last lifestone to which you attuned your character, having lost one or more valuable items, half your pyreals, if any, and a percentage of your "vitae," or life force. All your skills are decreased by the percentage of your vitae loss and so are the maximum values of your so-called "secondary attributes" -- Health, Stamina, and Mana.

Recovering

Fortunately, you won't be in immediate danger of being killed again, because you're invulnerable to attack for a full minute if you don't attack another creature or cast any spells. Also, your secondary attributes, even if all had been reduced to 0 when you died, will be at 75 percent of their new maximum score, and any poisons or harmful enchantments afflicting you just before you died will be gone, which may give you a fighting chance of making it back to town or meeting up with your allies.

Your first order of business after gaining safety usually will be to seek your corpse, which is left at the location of your demise. Since your vitae and equipment loss will make it harder to deal with whatever hazard sent you to the lifestone, seek some extra help before returning, but don't take too long. Unless you're a Player Killer, other players cannot loot your corpse, but in any case, your corpse only persists for five minutes for each level you've attained, and then fades, leaving your items on the ground for anyone to pick up. If you think you'll have trouble returning to your corpse, consider cutting your losses and concentrating on reducing your vitae penalty instead. Keep in mind that neither Online Staff nor Microsoft Product Support are able to produce items that have been lost nor help you locate your corpse.

You work off your vitae loss by gaining experience points. At any given level, you will probably identify an ideal set of monsters to hunt as "vitae fodder." From fifth to 12th level, for instance, black rats often return the best experience-point gain for your risk and effort; at slightly higher level, hunting Lugians with the help of a large fellowship may be your best bet.

'''Death, Where Is Thy Sting? Taking Precautions'''

There are several steps you can take to ensure that you'll bounce back quickly from a fatal mishap.

You will save yourself a great deal of distress if you remember to stop yourself before taking a risk to make sure you can find your way back to your present location from the lifestone. If you're in the wilderness, always open your map and write down your coordinates before rushing into battle. When you're low level, you may want to adventure close to the lifestone, so that you can get to your corpse during the few minutes before it vanishes.

Besides getting to your corpse, your other great challenge often will be overcoming whatever killed you in the first place. Whether in a dungeon or not, try to lure powerful monsters well away from their home base before engaging them in combat so that they'll leave the area -- and therefore your corpse -- if you die. And remember that it's never a good idea to leap into a mountain crevasse or a pit of acid.

More important than being able to return to your corpse, however, is taking measures to ensure that none of your most vital equipment gets left on it in the first place. When you die, you leave behind a number of items equal to your level divided by ten, rounded up (but always at least one); PLUS, if you're level 10 or over, you have an equal chance of losing an additional 0, 1, or 2 items. At 20th level, therefore, you will have an equal chance of leaving behind 2, 3, or 4 items.

You have no control over the number of items you lose, but you have a good deal of control over which items you lose. Items are lost in order of value and according to major categories. Here's the system, taken straight from the developer spec, that Asheron's Call uses to determine the way items are lost:

First, we sort the inventory by order of value. Second, we go back through the inventory starting at the most expensive item down and look at each item's category. If we've seen the item before, we divide the value of the item in half. At this point, we add a random 0 to 10% variance to each item's value.

At this point, we have a list of items sorted more-or-less by value. The most expensive item in every category will be closer to top of the list than any other item the category. Then, we prune the top n items off as determined by the above quantity-determining formula.

Example: Let's say we have a level-50 player who is slated to lose five items. He has a sword worth 5000p, five gems worth 1000p, a potion worth 1200, and two pieces of armor worth 1500p. Our list of the five items he loses would look like:


 * 1) sword (5000p)
 * 2) armor (1500p)
 * 3) potion (1200p)
 * 4) gem (1000p)
 * 5) armor (750p -- it got halved by the above system)

We keep the other four gems (500p each -- these got halved by the above system).

On the other hand, if the player instead has a 5000p sword, 2500p sword, 1000p, sword and a lot of miscellaneous other stuff for 10p each, he'll lose all three swords, and two of the 10p items. This way, the player will still be losing his more valuable items and not just a bunch of 10p low-value items.

As many players soon discover, your most valuable items are seldom your most useful items. To protect yourself from losing the weapons, armor, and magic you rely upon, make sure your most valuable items are expendable ones spread over several categories. Also, keep in mind the number of items you stand to lose at your present level of experience. When you're ninth level, having your most valuable items be a gem, wand, and axe will protect your favorite sword, but you'll need another item in another category to protect that sword when you've reached level 11.

Exempt Possessions

The death penalty does not apply to trade notes at all, regardless of their value, so convert your extra pyreals into trade notes as often as possible. Also, it does not affect certain pieces of starting equipment (such as your starting wand and starting clothing, but not including food or components). So if you never want to be caught without your wand or your shirt, don't get rid of your most precious newbie equipment.

Conclusion

Getting killed is never desirable, but without some penalty, you'd never experience that thrill of danger at pushing your character to the limit of his or her abilities. The penalty isn't intended to be devastating, though. Protect the items you use frequently, and don't extend yourself too much if you won't be able to return to your present location. Taking the proper precautions requires a bit of discipline, but you'll be rewarded with a consistently satisfying game experience and steady progress toward your goals for power and prestige.