There are forms of death that cause perma death. Such as being tossed into a volcano or drowning in the middle of the ocean. Still these will be time consuming methods and as such would require much to do.

I wonder if you could put armor on someone, hogtie them, and toss them in a lake? Hopefully high crime will be a rare problem.

I feel like the execution would just be part of the legal system in order to enact the spirit loss for every crime committed but the problem with public executions is that it assumes that you'd be able to force a character to go to the execution spot which as far as I know there's no way to bind/tow a target anymore because of the high chance of abuse for griefing,

-lets not even mention how some tribes would have difficulties towing other tribes like a Kypiq towing a Yoru-

Maybe if only once you're convicted in court can your character be bound and tow'd places within the settlement but again that means you'd have to somehow get that character to a court house without towing or binding...

Really I would like public executions to be a thing outside of a settlement forcing permadeath onto another character via pushing them into a volcano or sending them off on a sinking ship or something.

It seems like an easily abused system. If one could be punished so heavily with permadeath, then I doubt anyone would even dare commit a crime. Which, in my opinion, would be immensely boring. Besides that, if executions are decided by PC officials, then it could also lead to some particularly disliked characters being executed even if their own crimes were fairly minor.

It doesn't really seem like execution is needed, and here is why: All criminals incur a spirit penalty upon being caught. If the criminal has a lot of victims, that's a penalty for each one. Smaller for theft, bigger for killing. A lot of victims is going to increase their fame or infamy as well. Multiplier on spirit loss accrued on death. Maybe these stack. Maybe they don't. But if someone hunts them down for a crime and catches them, they're going to lose a huge chunk of lifespan. And if they were infamous and either unlucky or unskilled so as to get caught, I can imagine plenty of players willing to dispense their own justice. More lifespan chunks.

The system is already very high risk for malicious players to play that way. They had better be good at it, or they will die much much more quickly than a normal player.

Posted By Iota at 8:09 PM - Tue Aug 08 2017

Why go out of my way to bring them to town alive? I will end their spree asap, but I am not tar and feathering anyone for you to get your sick kicks. Bring the body in the best condition possible so they can be buried respectfully. They had a sick mind, one that couldn't be allowed to live. Doesn't mean the family should be suffered further than they have been already.

I wish this could be the case, but sadly you can't move the body unless the character is perma dead. As far as that being the way justice is met out though is highly possible and will probably be the case since you can't mechanically force a player to go somewhere they don't want to go.

As far as why take them back, I would do it so other characters can see their face and know their name so they can be recognized as a criminal. Ensuring that if anything the people would be aware of who the criminal is and be more careful in dealing with them.

Since you can't hold someone against their will for very long (we don't know about jail yet) how will a public execution actually work? Unless there is an additional mechanic the guilty could just run off. I really hope there is a timer in place (though I have heard the devs are against it) to hold someone against their will for at least 15-20mins, time for a crowd to gather and the word in town to spread. Even with traps such as pits a 15-20min hold for an error in judgement does not sound too harsh to me, but that is just me. There needs to be some type of punishment for falling in a pit so I think a little game time loss is plenty. We have a long way to go so I would hope the devs take another look at holding someone for a longer time period.

Typically, public executions were held for 3 reasons:

• Capital punishment for "severe" (open to interpretation) crimes.

• Deterrent for future crime.

• Entertainment/appeasement for the masses.

I will let you decide which one was the most effective...

In CoE, all 3 are pretty much irrelevant.

Unless it actually brought about perma-death (which, let's admit, is a bit silly), the punishment is minimal. It would do nothing to deter crime, again, because the fear of punishment would be minimal. And the typical "entertain the mob" wouldn't be relevant in CoE, since, well, the PC's are going to do what they want anyway, and we will have other ways to manipulate the NPC's without blood circuses.

I could see open executions add to the feel of the world.

However, one feasible way to go about it would be to link the punishment for caught criminals to that event being performed (so no additional punishment); and only for those criminals whose amassed crimes are severe enough for them to die permanentley from the punishment.

That way it would give a last chance for the criminal's accomplices to save him from the certain end of his character's life, as well as provide an interesting challenge for the city guards to prevent the saving from happening out in the open:
A showdown between justice and injustice.

It would not occur too often and therefore remain a special event to visit as a citizen.

How it could influence the game:

• Create an atmosphere and feel in the world.
• Present a distinct event that breaks the everyday life for players who stay in settlements most of the time (the majority).
• Provide a good way for SbS to emphasize to worried people not playing CoE that while the game world is dangerous, crimes have got consequences.
• Provide a noticable way to honour everyone who was involved in catching the criminal, adding a sense of acomplishment and incentive to be good at hunting criminals.
• Offer a grace period for the criminal to be potentially saved or to arrange last preparations for his passing.
• Become a method to further tarnish a family name.

To prevent it from being an easy way to be rescued by acomplices, one could think of designing the scene for executions accordingly, making it as difficult as necessary by design.

That said, we'll have to see if a system like that is within scope and not too much of a feature creep. If the developers are in favour of executions in some shape or form, it could be part of the revamped justice system; be it at launch or some time after.

Creating a judicial system ran by players that isn't abused to holy hell is hard enough. Added a mechanic that also allows corrupt players to steal soul lives on command is near impossible.

Posted By Varhukan at 6:45 PM - Tue Sep 19 2017

Where the hell are people finding references to jail time. All I can find is, pay penalty for value, or time loss(instant loss of in game life time amount). I have not saw a single reference to being able to imprison someone.

rp fans are really hoping for real-time jail for "gameplay" while all the trolls are supporting it because they know it will be abused. One of those mechanics that is cool if it is used right but wont be used right so isn't cool and shouldn't be a thing. Nothing official is saying so and the original pitch for the game suggests you pay spirit, not jail time for convicted crimes. So as far as most recent info on it, no real jail time.