Karma device (a balancing item)

[Astyanax]

I haven't played in a while, but reading some recent posts, it looks like some of the same issues still exist. I was thinking about ways to tweak game balance and thought this one up.

 

Karma device: Upon death, has a 5-25% chance (higher % with lower experience) to destroy your killer and gaining appropriate experience and money. However, it passively reduces your bounty to 0 and halves all earned experience and money.

 

It sounds silly at first and could use some refining, but it has some merits (aside from the being recognizable by the 0 bounty):

 

Centering

Pros: Newbies will still die, but they can't be "farmed" quite as easily if they've bought this item. Buying this item reduces their earnings, so it's not a choice to be made lightly.

Cons: More experienced players have to choose their targets more carefully (or accept the small risk of death), making bountying more difficult. Also, strays will cause a great deal more aggravation. Perhaps the item should be inactive in center?

 

Basing

Pros: Helps to prevent stagnation in games by causing some attrition, and somewhat reduces "stay in one spot and shoot/bomb until the enemy ragequits" since there's a small chance of death. Partly helps with unbalanced teams; the team that's dying more has the potential to make better use of karma devices. Of course, they're still dying more often.

Cons: Could really wreck the usefulness attack fields (dunno if they're currently usable or not) if kills are credited to the fielder.

 

Any other thoughts?

 

Before people get too caught up in the unfairness of this item, I'd like to point out that although this item is designed to be a "the meek shall inherit the earth" type item, the person using it does take on some pretty hefty disadvantages, as well as using up a slot (addon, emitter?) that could be better filled otherwise.

Edited August 3, 2011 by Astyanax

[Cheese]

bad item is bad

[spidernl]

1. Items don't do this in Hyperspace, same way they don't increase balling time or allow you to bounty in base if you can't do so without the item.
   
2. Random deaths all over the place doesn't sound like a fun way to center. What if I want to bounty and people get their ships with this item out, just to taunt me to kill them and eventually die without them even having to hunt me down?
   

I'm sure I could come up with more but these two are clear enough.