I''m more leaning towards griefers being that someone kills aonother player for their enjoyment. Then usually taunting them. Basically they TRY to annoy others or ruin their day/game.k

Here''s another thing to think about.... I''m going to use a family tree type look at the whole Death situation. When someone dies, they make a new character.

As an aside, their death can still exist in the world. Like a memorial or tombstone. They don''t just disappear....

Back to the family thing. When someone dies their new character will have the same last name as before. This way it''s easy to identify someone who has a new character.

Here''s the issue. If Joe Brown gets assassinated and Beoni Meir is next in line to take over the guild/business... what''s to stop Jim Brown to join the guild and regain the guild? This would then get rid of the point of assassinations. They''d just create a new character and join again.
There would have to be restrictions on that.

A few could be:

• the character cannot rejoin the guild for at least 2 weeks.
  
• The character can rejion the guild but the head of the guild cannot give up his position for say 20 days.
  
• The character can rejoin but has to rise in ranks the way everyone else does (on the system... not human controled)
  
• Maybe a system of power and influence and you can only rise as fast as you gain it.

I don''t think the person should be able to resume from where they left off. They have to regain that position normally like everyone else would.

But what about the option of wills? This would probably defeat the purpose of them.

----

There are different types of permadeaths:

• there''s assassinations... Either by a gun in the FPS mode where you are running around. Or a bomb on a ship. Where the ship is destroyed (possibly for good... depending on damage)
  
• fight deaths... carelessness when running around in FPS mode.
  
• space battles... the rare case where your ship is destroyed with you in it. This case the ship might be salvageable, but sometimes not. As with all of them. they are very very rare.

Assassinations would require that 1, you got a weapon inside the city and past the guards. 2 are either not wanted or a criminall.... or you have purchased fake ID and passed with it. 3. are able to place the bomb or use the gun before getting caught. Like i said, it''s not easy.

Fight deaths i haven''t even thought out yet. maybe like a land battle or something. It''s possible that this is the most common way of dying. Sometimes you''ll just be incapacitated but there''s a good chance you''re gone for good.

Space battles will be rare. I think i''ll have medical conditions too. That way if you defeat a very skilled pilot, he won''t be able to fight for a couple days as a fighter again... although he could do other things. Space battle deaths would also mean that if wills are used, there''s a chance your ship won''t make it into the will... main reason would be it''s damaged beyond repair. Any cargo might or might not make it regardless of the condition of the ship.

-----

anyway. my main question is what would I do to keep people from getting their positions back so easily?

i don''t see how they would get their positions back quickly (if at all). even if it is obvious that it is the same player behgine the new character, in-game they are sompletely different. unless it is something like a royal family, where the heir takes the crown, it shouldn''t matter who the first character was; the new one would have to independently earn the respect of the guilds.

"hey, you''re Joe Brown''s son, eh? welcome to the Guild, and maybe someday you will follow in your father''s footsteps..."

In other games you have founders. Usually they have some sort of hierarchy. For those guilds... what would stop the leader from taking back their position after creating a new character? Some guilds are run by certain people.