Ultima X: Odyssey Death System

An adventure just isn't an adventure without some element of risk, and that's where the concept of death comes in. Death in UXO won't be a permanent thing, nor will it be a devastating, play-stopping experience, but it'll still provide a good incentive to be victorious in battle, as well as a good reason to get friendly with characters who can resurrect.

MORE DETAILS:
The Unconscious State
Stabilizing
Ghost
Auto-resurrection
Bind Points
Penalties for Death
Dying in a Private Area
Penalty Without Punishment

The Unconscious State
It's rarely fun to find yourself dead in one hit, struck by an opponent you never even knew was there. That's why in UXO, we've added the unconscious state as a means of possible recovery, depending on how fast you act. Any time your character is hit by an attack that would reduce your hit points to zero or lower, you won't die immediately, but will fall unconscious instead. This will effectively put you out of the fight, although you'll still be able to chat and access your inventory and interface while unconscious. You won't be able to actively interact with other players or creatures, or be affected by hostile creatures, however, and your hit points and power will not regenerate during this time. You'll keep any buffs (i.e. positive stat or skill-enhancing spells) currently in effect, but any negative spell effects will be removed, such as slow spells or poison.

Stabilizing
You'll remain unconscious for a short time (currently about 20 seconds, but subject to change based on play balance), and there will be a countdown timer visible both to you and your party members. During this time, other players can use the Virtue Ability Bond of Spirituality to stabilize you, reviving you where you fell, or you can use the Virtue Ability Awakening of Spirituality to stabilize yourself (provided you've learned that ability through questing and earning Virtue points, of course). There are no penalties for being stabilized, since you didn't actually die. (Note that Bond of Spirituality and Awakening of Spirituality are the only abilities that can stabilize an unconscious character, but there are also some Special Abilities and Virtue properties that may increase the amount of time a character may remain unconscious before actually dying.)

A word of caution: stabilizing an unconscious character takes time, meaning it's advisable for the would-be savior to be sure that someone's watching their back before trying it in the heat of battle!

Ghost
Upon death, you'll have three choices: auto-resurrection, resurrecting yourself, or waiting for someone else to resurrect you. If you choose not to use the auto-resurrection, you will become a ghost until you either resurrect yourself through Awakening of Spirituality or are resurrected by another player through Bond of Spirituality (or until you decide to go ahead and auto-resurrect). As a ghost, your character will become ethereal, and you'll have the freedom to move away from your corpse and continue to observe things happening around you with no risk of being attacked or affected by monsters or NPCs. Being a ghost isn't a complete party, though; there are some limitations! You won't be able to zone as a ghost, or go places you wouldn't normally be able to go, such as through walls or locked doors. You'll also be unable to trade with other players, or use Special Abilities or objects, such as levers or triggers. There is no time limit to how long you can stay in ghost form, and you'll always have the option to stop waiting to be resurrected and use the auto-resurrection option instead.

Auto-resurrection
Auto-resurrection can be done right after falling unconscious, which means you don't have to actually wait for the death timer. To auto-resurrect, just click the "resurrect" button that appears over your character portrait, and you'll be presented with a list of all possible bind points you can teleport to (more on bind points in the next section).

Bind Points
In UXO, one of the main methods of travel is through objects called "moongates," which are portals that lead to new areas of the map. Moongates are restricted by character level, which means each moongate has a specific minimum level a character must reach before he or she can use that gate.

These moongates also serve as bind points in the game, which means that when you choose to auto-resurrect, you can select any moongate currently available to a character of your level. This means there's no need to worry about binding yourself at any specific place, or keeping track of where your last bind point was. Pick a moongate, and you're immediately teleported there, with all belongings intact! Resurrection will have a price, however, in the form of a temporary character stat and ability level penalty.

Penalties for Death
Any time you are resurrected (provided your character is level 5 or greater), you will experience a temporary reduction in your stats and ability levels. Keep in mind that characters who use the auto-resurrection will incur a slightly greater penalty than those who are resurrected through Virtue Abilities! The duration of the penalty is currently ten minutes, after which your character's stats and abilities will be fully back to normal. But if your primary goal involves getting back into the fray quickly, you can choose to spend gold to eliminate the penalty and restore your full stats immediately (the gold cost will increase with your level).

Dying in a Private Area
If you die while questing in a private area, you can be stabilized or resurrected in the normal manner, but if you choose to auto-resurrect, you will not be able to return to the private area. If your death occurs while you're soloing, or if all members of your party die in the private area, you will have two minutes to choose a bind point. If you don't choose a moongate within those two minutes, you will be automatically teleported to the last public map you visited before entering the private area.

Penalty Without Punishment
Death in Ultima X: Odyssey should serve as an incentive to win, which means there has to be some sort of sting. But at the same time, we don't feel that sting should result in a player losing hours of progress, or items they've already earned. When you're playing UXO, we want you to always feel like your time spent questing or fighting is valuable, and that doesn't include losing everything you've worked for due to a lost connection or an unlucky choice of hunting grounds. Fun, not stress - that's what UXO is about!