Amris said:In EQ, the exp loss and corpse run actually made the penalty the same for everyone.
A person who died in Karnor's Castle (level 50), for example... had a very difficult corpse run for their level.
But comparatively speaking, a person who died in Blackburrow also had a very difficult corpse run for their level.
There was equal difficulty in each of these scenarios, even though BB is only a lvl 10ish dungeon. Now, granted, if you got high level help, CR in BB was easier... but if you got your guild to come help you in karnor's, so was that.
CR created an "epic" feeling from level 10 on. It made venturing into dungeons even at that low level feel terrifying. Getting your corpse back at level 10 felt like the same degree of accomplishment as it felt at level 50 when it was in a dungeon. Many, many, many a low level person despaired the loss of their rusty weapon and their ONE WHOLE platinum... There was weaping and gnashing of teeth from such an early level and it made the WHOLE game feel epic. It was SO hard to get a magic weapon that killing your first will-o-wisp was a memory you carried forever. That was level 10 in a level 50 game where the last levels were exponentially harder to get!
This is yet another reason why I cannot advocate enough for CR and making it VERY long to get your corpse back through any way besides player cooperation. I don't advocate perma loss of gear, but please make it take weeks or longer to get your corpse back if you don't get help right away. Make it REALLY hurt to live without it in the meantime... make it terrifying to go into dungeons--at every level. It WORKED in EQ because every dungeon run felt epic from the very begining.
This, this and more this.
No de-leveling is fine from an exp loss perspective, but leaving loot on the corpse and forcing the player to loot that corpse to get their stuff back is absolutely key to the death penalty. There's a reason that back in EQ1 early days, there were dungeons and bosses almost nobody ever killed just because corpse runs would suck so hard in those spots. Kedge, The Hole, Mistmoore, Fear, Hate, Dragon Necropolis, etc. Remember the warning that came with Veeshan's Peak? Lots of folks did the spiders in Velks, but intrepid groups could find all sorts of camps in that place nobody ever went to because of the total suck of corpse runs.
And recall folks, this was before minimap in the corner or any in-game map of any kind. There was no in-game map in Velious era EQ1 and we all got by with printed out EQ Atlas maps and actual knowledge of the landscape. Death was a big freaking deal. Sure, you might get rezzed and get back that lost exp, but it was never a short, easy, minor inconvenience. No no, you lost crazy amounts of time depending on where that death took place.
I've been hammering at this since the Pantheon forums first opened, but in the name of all that is good and pure in the universe of gaming, please make it so a player has to fetch and loot their corpse to get their stuff back. I could care less what the exp penalty is, because all that lost time corpse running is a pretty harsh exp nerf from time lost killing things. But corpse runs are why EQ1 players took death very very seriously. When you had to cough up crazy stupid money on jade coffins for a necro to summon a corpse, or find a rogue willing to forego their own night of gaming and lost exp to sneak fetch your corpse, or find friends/guildies willing to undertake the mission...death mattered a whole lot more than in any game since. It wasn't lost exp. It was lost stuff.