Hello,

I'd like to solicit ideas for an issue I'm having. The game is a cooperative multiplayer game with extended play-time, i.e., a game is longer than an hour. The problem is dying. We'd like the game to be somewhat realistic, and respawning seems to strain suspension of disbelief. On the other hand it's not possible to have the player permanently out of the game upon dying. So how to handle death of a player in such a way that allows them to continue participating and yet is still realistic? The game has a futuristic setting but we don't want to appeal to technological gimmicks like 'teleportation' or 'regeneration'.

We already considered that upon death the player be revived by other players. We rejected this because it is possible for players to be alone and not immediately reachable and we don't want dead players to have to wait and non-dead players to have to abandon their own goals to travel and revive others.

Any suggestions would be great.

Interesting, it really would depend more on your games play style.

But you could basically have the player start as a entirely new player in the eyes of the game and everyone playing.

If its space combat you could have the person eject into a escape pod type thing and can just go get a new ship.

If its a space rpg type game (non ship) its going to be difficult to find a good mechanic to bring players back without violating your "suspension of disbelief"
Just my 2cp, neat idea though.

How about have players lose a fraction of their points/money/skills and, at the next checkpoint they will return to the group. Maybe they could eject and the escape pod is towed behind by a tractor beam until another ship can be found. If it's on foot then one of the remaining players could carry the "wounded" player- this gives them less speed/ agility but higher health (handwave it as his determination to save his friend making him more resilient). At the next safe place they can administer first aid.

I think more info on the genre/ setting would help.

Great ideas, thanks! More possibilities is good.

Here are a few more details in case that helps stimulate any ideas.

It's not a space ship game. It's a 2d platformer. It's set in the future, but not the distant future and we're trying to avoid too much technology. The game is 'locally' nonlinear in gameplay although generally linear in game objectives. There is a map that is segmented into various 'rooms'. Players can travel together through the map or separate into different rooms and pursue their own interests. There are game objectives, as well as boss battles, some of which require the players to join together to complete. The game is playable by 1+ players.

We don't want players to have to wait after dying and we've decided that will probably unavoidably involve respawning, although we'd ideally like to avoid it. Some solutions we've come up with are

1) 1 player dies => all players die and respawn (rejected for being annoying.)
2) 1 player dies => player respawns (too unrealistic)
3) 1 player dies => incapacitated and can only be revived by other players (fine for multiplayer but annoying when player is on own)
4) 1 player dies => incapacitated if there are capacitated players within a certain distance (N rooms), and respawn otherwise

How important are the characters? I remember playing Left 4 Dead, and if someone dies, you have to carry on without them for a couple checkpoints, until eventually you'll "find" another survivor just like the one who died. They're in a small, locked room, banging on the door and crying out, with a handy HUD outline highlighting them. If a player goes over and interacts with the door--which is usually just a non-interactive piece of scenery--it'll swing open and your new comrade will emerge and join the team, controlled by the guy who got killed three fights back. It's a little silly, from an immersion standpoint, that you loose your grizzled old man and then meet a carbon-copy with the same name later in the level, but it provides a genuine penalty for his death--both for the others who must fight without him and for his own player, who must sit in the corner until someone gives him a hug--without actually removing that player and his skills from the game.

How about a "forced rest period", while, for example, a personally-worn adrenaline pump and resuscitation unit (P.A.P.R.U. or just A.P.R.U. - standard issue on all players) revives the fallen player and regenerates their health. During that period, the party would be susceptible to ambushes and/or various types of resource attrition.

This would provide an undesirable downside to dying (I'm a firm proponent of making player death something the player feels compelled to put forth effort to prevent), while not crippling the gameplay experience. During this revival process, the rate of ambush and depletion of resources could be adjusted for the number of players in the party, so that a solo player wouldn't find themselves in an endless death loop.

Left for Dead 2 has a system where if you die, you respawn as a different character slightly further away and in need of rescue before you can start playing again. I think all accumulated points / equipment are lost but it's been a while since I played it last.

You could do like Left 4 Dead coop. When a player dies there are rooms that the other players have to find that the player has been locked in with audio cues that the other players need to open the door to get the player back.

There are multiple rooms, so if the player misses one they can just get them at the next spot. It doesn't ruin the suspension of disbelief too much, but maintains the benefits of respawning.

Left for Dead 2 has a system where if you die, you respawn as a different character slightly further away and in need of rescue before you can start playing again. I think all accumulated points / equipment are lost but it's been a while since I played it last.

bah. you suck.