I like Chadyos idea of introducing the rule to prevent corpses from being taken across the core via the vistani carts. Not taking out corpsehiding entirely, but restricting it a little. From what I have found recently is that the corpse hiding can make sense ICly (and sometimes should be hidden as best as possible), but looking for the corpse feels very OOC (even with attempts to make it entirely IC), especially when it makes sense that your character would ICly be looking for the corpse as much as possible.
It's something we've considered before but it comes with a whole slew of problems. First of all, short of a mechanical system, it'll be a nightmare to police. Secondly, why should you be able to bring your friend's corpse, but not a stranger's? The Vistani don't care whether the dead is your friend or foe.
And then you end up with issues regarding official bounties, where people could essentially avoid them forever by hiding in certain domains. In the past, people would do that in the Mist Camp where there was a misconception it was a safe zone from PvP, and it was rather lame.
In the end we've opted against that. Overall though the most recent iteration of the death system seems to work rather well.
Allow me to play devil's advocate for a moment. What would be wrong with people sticking to different domains? Is that not what they should do, to avoid the place they have been bountied in if they have any care for their lives at all?
As an aside, I am also among those that believe the Mist Camp is a mistake. That it should be deleted and you just choose where to go from the caravan in the domains themselves rather than automatically to the Mist Camp, and from there to other places.
It's a beautiful looking area but I see it more as a detriment to integrity than a valuable asset.
In response to the original poster:
You are not wrong in those perspectives. It inherently rewards those who have been a part of the community for a long time and have made friends ICly and OOCly in it. Anyone that tells you otherwise either benefits from it and is actively a hypocrite, or just doesn't know any better. Corpsehiding is a lot less effective when you have five to ten friends looking for you, or willing to. I say this as someone that has been corpse-hidden, and has searched for bodies too when my character was involved. I did not get the 'short end of the stick', but I am not blind to the privilege.
The level of consequences is not equal, nor impartial. And it can easily be shrugged off by anyone with staying presence and in the right places. Save for the most determined person stealthing away to change the body's location being very attentive to where a given group has checked already, assuming they're not found and killed for association during the conflict. And that never lasts
six months.
Once you become aware of this, you are also aware that there are certain characters (or certain players, regardless of their current character) whom yours will never be able to impose such consequences on. They are free of such, but others of the playerbase at large are not. It such a cliché to see it in a 'justice only serves the rich' kind of way, but it's easy to see as well why would someone feel like it.
And since there are no rules regarding when corpse hiding is fine or not aside from whether you are opted in or not, all bets are off. There are few instances, save when you're reaching or playing a really good aligned character, where you could have your own character think sparing your enemy with no guarantees they'll come back for you as soon as they can is a good idea. So it is always justifiable In-Character. We can cross that one off. The only reason when it's not is when you, yourself, go out of your way to make it not so.
Of all my instances in PvP so far, I have never corpse hidden anyone nor partook in conflict that would have led to the forced closure of another character. (I recall one time my character was in possession of the body of an enemy, and was at odds with his own group because he preferred to resurrect the person and interrogate them rather than immediately corpsehide.) The nuclear option has never been appealing when trying to write a story in a shared space.
Over the years, I've become less invested.
But from a new player perspective? To know, save for the proverbial ten commandments, that it is the wild west and you have no guarantee antagonism of any sort won't lead into your character being perma'd (If you get forcibly shelved for six months by that point you're playing another game entirely, rather than log in to do your daily Pablo Escobar ghost roleplay). Is a lot of weight to have on your mind,
specially on a slow progression server. That's six months of your life you're not getting back. Either in levels or in self-resurrection.
I can definitely see that point. I was recently talking to a fellow player and they commented to me that, the thought they could get corpsehidden and essentially removed from the game entirely turned them off until they stopped playing. And I can understand why, too. As a new player to the server, with no friends, no OOC presence, and no guarantees- You're naked in the woods. There's no safety net.
How do
I feel about corpsehiding? I think it's neat. I also know it all comes down to players willing to reach a compromise,
with or without this mechanic. The fact that it's entirely possible to not have a corpse-hiding mechanic, and for player-characters to die and then make concessions so the conflict ends means this is not impossible, or hard to do in fact. It just has to be encouraged. And repeated instances of failing to do so, punished severely. Was your character defeated? The onus is also on you to reason they were, they lost the conflict and will stay out of it or will concede to the demands of their enemy or captor.
Corpse-hiding in that way takes away from the player responsibility and leaves it to a mechanic. It means your character can be 'Victory or death! I shall never admit defeat, I will make no concessions, die evildoer!' and that is alright because I get to corpse hide you 'justifiably', big boy. It also means I can do it without even trying, which I think is what we could change.
Corpse hiding should be perhaps, per rules, a last restort. Your character after defeat is given a
reasonable surrender condition. 'You will not interfere with the business of X and Y again' 'You will not attack me again'. I understand the current design is so you never have to worry about whether either of those two players will follow through because it doesn't matter. It's easy to avoid catastrophizing about the thought of having to deal with problem players and reports about this or that. But I don't think it would be. I think that is just common sense, you already know that they could.
'But what if my character is a bad ass and I want him to keep fighting and never surrender? Accepting defeat is humilliating' If it is in-character, then have them spit on their captors face and get their throat slit for it. Get corpse hidden as it was going to be, and carry on from there. But if you do accept defeat, stick to those terms.
When I was corpse-hidden, I also communicated with the killer to let them know the outcome was acceptable to me, as it was what made the most sense in-character and there was no bad blood between us OOC. They otherwise had no way to know I would not go nuclear on them as well. Which is something important to keep in mind in a community. You
will share a space with them, you will keep seeing them, you will keep playing with them. There is no reason to foster a bad attitude. Or the anxiety that there might be one. (Likewise, when killing someone I communicate OOCly to let them know where the body will be delivered to, what is happening, what to look forward to- But none of that is required. It is appreciated by the other party, it felt right for me to do those things but I was not required to do them.)
It would be nice if it were.