A few people have posted questions regarding PVP and death in Xsyon. I will explain the system a little more.
PVP is open, but it has severe consequences.
Players can choose to fight in different combat modes: to the death or to unconsciousness. (I'd love to say 'to the pain' but that's not quite right).
In the Prelude, technically neither results in actual death.
As religion enters the game during the prelude there will be forms of permanent death as well as resurrection but the details about this will be given later.
In the Prelude:
Unconsciousness results in very minor skill loss and in general the victor will be allowed to loot an item of choice as a reward for a fight well fought.
Death results in some stat and skill loss and allows the victor to fully loot the player. This is not without complications and consequences for the victor.
- Carrying capacity is limited, so fully looting another player will not be practical.
- A dead or unconscious player can be looted by friends as well as enemies. Friends have the loot advantage by having a quick button to rescue select loot from a fellow player. The advantage is to players that fight in groups and players that know when to pack up and flee from a losing battle.
- Killing or looting a person that is not in an enemy tribe will cause severe reputation loss with the other tribe and within your own tribe.
And there’s more…
When tribes are formed an overall tribe alignment is chosen. Players in a good or neutral tribe will automatically become outcasts if they ‘gank’ a good or neutral player of a non enemy tribe.
Players from an evil tribe are free to loot and pillage and will gain reputation within their own tribe for doing so, but they will also be vulnerable to attacks from all players who will be able to attack evil players without negative consequences. Players in good or neutral tribes will be allowed to put bounty quests on known evil players. In essence, if a tribe chooses to be evil they become the ‘monsters’ of the world.
Tribes can choose different levels of diplomacy with each other.
Players from friendly or allied tribes can fight each other, but only to unconsciousness and without looting capability.
Players from rival tribes can fight each other to unconsciousness with partial loot to the victor. Potentially the amount of looting can be agreed upon by rival tribes. (Setting the amount of looting is not currently implemented, but it’s something I am considering).
Players from enemy tribes at war can fight to the death with full looting (Potentially tribe leaders can come to a looting agreement for this as well).
Tribal leaders can set what actions are acceptable by their tribe members, in effect determining the laws within each tribe. Even an evil tribe may have a set of lows for its members to follow in order to maintain civil trade and exchange with other tribes.
Two good tribes can not become enemies, they can become rivals at worst.
Breaking the rules agreed upon by your tribes is possible but will result in a warning. If you proceed to act after the warning, your character is set to full evil mode and your reputation, alignment and karma consequences will be severe.
But that’s not all….
A primary worry for players is that they will loose their gear or loot. Keep in mind that in Xsyon all armor and weapons can be crafted and are thus replaceable.
Regarding death by age, this will not occur in the Prelude. By the time any characters will age enough to reach a natural death there will be several (and I think very interesting) methods to deal with permanent death without character loss.
I hope that answers all the questions so far.