Something was lost...the identity of the deceased

[Kent]

In my belief, the game lost some of it's coolness when the identity of a person who died was no longer shown to the community, via a tolling bell.

Besides that, it seems more than plausible in the current ESP -based death notification system that at least the color of the fallen who is looking at the bell be revealed.

Therefore I am requesting that when the death bell is looked at, this message be added with the location description:

You hear a deep bell toll in your mind, followed by the color "Blue-Green."


for example.

[Kiyaani]

The problem with this is there are several characters who would intentionally not be rescued for IC and RP reasons. While it's cool to allow that decision once a body is found (that could lead to some fun RP once the deceased is living), I don't think people should be excluded from the possibility of rescue through pre-identification.

[Elystole]

What, exactly, is the difference between seeing the color/name with the bell and thinking, "That guy? Screw that guy" and hiking through the woods to find the body then saying, "That guy? Screw that guy" and leaving it?

On second thought, I wouldn't link it to the bell. Just like how we sometimes get messages over the network when someone is terrified by a shade, we get a message whenever someone wearing a pendant dies.

"Gray's death cry echoes in your mind for a moment then fades away..."

[Kiyaani]

The difference is that in one scenario there is anonymity and no repercussion for not helping your fellow lost-lander and, honestly, not much room for IC growth. In the other scenario the character publicly took the effort to 'be a hero' (via the rescue pulse) and then later, after what can sometimes be quite an effort to find the fallen, made a conscious decision not to. At that point the responsibility of what actions may follow (good or bad) once the deceased comes back is on the person who sent out that pulse and then failed to deliver.

[Kiyaani]

There used to be a death knell that everyone heard before the death and espcolor changes started happening. It would say the person's name, not their color. The removal of this awareness seems to be intentional.

[Elystole]

The difference is that in one scenario there is anonymity and no repercussion for not helping your fellow lost-lander and, honestly, not much room for IC growth. In the other scenario the character publicly took the effort to 'be a hero' (via the rescue pulse) and then later, after what can sometimes be quite an effort to find the fallen, made a conscious decision not to. At that point the responsibility of what actions may follow (good or bad) once the deceased comes back is on the person who sent out that pulse and then failed to deliver.

That seems like a real stretch. If you want to be anonymous now, just don't send a rescue pulse. If you do and someone asks why you didn't find them, say you couldn't find them. Especially since a lot of people die in the boonies and that's actually the case.

I think I should also point out that if you're someone whom the likes of Gad or Jilliana won't rescue then you must have really done something to deserve it. There should be repercussions for that sort of behavior. Unfortunately, the current system allows people to die and depart with minimal consequences so that there are people who automatically depart without anyone even knowing that they ever died. But I'm holding out hope that the new death system, once it is finished, will address this and other issues.

[Rias]

The lack of identity is intentional. When you're dead, you're no longer using ESP. You've been separated from your body that's wearing that ESP artifact. Even if you were somehow still connected to the ESP network when you rang the Deathknell (which you're not), understand that the murky black crystal that lets living people hear it works VIA ESP to detect the Deathknell, but the Deathknell is not specifically ESP-related. So, those are the reasons why you don't even see an ESP color.

And really, I like seeing what people do when they show up to find the dead person is someone they don't particularly care for. I've never seen someone forsake a body upon learning its identity before, but who knows; it may have happened. I have a few ideas of people who would ignore certain other peoples' corpses.

And one other thought: Not showing the identity does help some people with shadier reputations. If everyone knew upon the toll that it was Mitch the Mean who just died, then it'd be likely the people who Mitch was mean to would start doing dastarly stuff like urging people not to help, or claiming they got the corpse when in reality they didn't, just to prolong his separation from his body, and so forth. This isn't a specific reason for the exclusion of the identity (I have no problem with people that have earned bad reputations suffering appropriately for it), but I do like the aspect of it.

[Kent]

What, exactly, is the difference between seeing the color/name with the bell and thinking, "That guy? Screw that guy" and hiking through the woods to find the body then saying, "That guy? Screw that guy" and leaving it?

On second thought, I wouldn't link it to the bell. Just like how we sometimes get messages over the network when someone is terrified by a shade, we get a message whenever someone wearing a pendant dies.

"Gray's death cry echoes in your mind for a moment then fades away..."

I think that Elystole's idea here is superior than my original one, and very plausible given the current terrified and confused messages that exist on ESP.