5.24 Hardcore Mode
What is Hardcore Mode?
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Following the damage sustained by the Soul Mirror during the fight between Dhar, the Underking, and Ivoln, the Earthen Lord, and its subsequent partial repair by Varo, an ancient manifestation of Death, certain "blind spots" in the Mirror have remained behind. These blind spots -- where the Mirror cannot see -- form the basis of "Hardcore Mode" in Aetolia.
Hardcore Mode is an opt-in game mode which prevents characters under its effects from resurrecting via the Soul Mirror following their death. This makes it, ultimately, a "permadeath" system, with some caveats and limitations befitting the lore and setting of the Aetolian universe.
Syntax: HARDCORE ENABLE [CONFIRM]
Activating hardcore mode is only possible for characters that are under level 30 and is irreversible once confirmed.
Your character must already be registered to enable Hardcore mode, and it is not possible to play more than one Hardcore character per account at any one time.
- Undead, vampires, and duamvi cannot become Hardcore characters.
- Hardcore characters cannot become undead, vampires, or duamvi.
When a Hardcore character dies on Sapience* above level 30, they will die permanently unless their body is recovered and resurrected using methods that rely upon a corpse to enact.
- Only resurrection methods that require the use of a body may be used on Hardcore characters.
- If the body is destroyed, death is permanent.
- If the body is not resurrected after a period of one hour, death is permanent.
- Antiquated ring resurrection and the "prayer_book" artifact power will not revive Hardcore characters under any circumstances.
* Deaths in locations such as Albedos that do not rely on the Soul Mirror, are not permanent.
- This is subject to change in the future as lore and stories unfold.
Syntax: ACCEPT JUDGEMENT
When a Hardcore character dies, they will linger as a soul indefinitely until they are resurrected under the above conditions, or accept the Underking's judgement and pass on forever. Accepting judgement will notify everyone with deathsight active of that character's permanent death, and will allow you to create another Hardcore character.
Once accepted, your character will be logged to the hardcore rankings with a score based upon your overall ranking. You can view RANKINGS HARDCORE to see the current leaderboard.
Syntax: HARDCORE HISTORY
This command will allow you to review your account's history of Hardcore characters, including their birthday and death, their age, level, and OOC date of creation and death.
NOTE: This command only shows dead characters and not your current one.
Syntax: GRAVECALL
This command is available to all players. While dead, you may put out a call to the living world from beyond the grave once per minute.
Those that possess the "Medium" ability in Psionics or Necromancy will be able to hear the call, regardless of whether they are currently in the Zealot or Indorani class. However, you will need to be in one of these respective classes to make active use of the ability and communicate with the dead.
Hardcore characters that die permanently will have their honours updated to include a date of death.
There are no mechanical restrictions on attacking Hardcore characters or being attacked by them outside of existing PK systems and rules.
- This allows Hardcore characters to take the risk of participating in PvP.
- NOTE: This is at your own risk. We will not retrieve Hardcore characters that have been permanently killed under any circumstances.
- However, we will look very poorly on anyone who is flagrantly going out of their way to break the rules and kill Hardcore characters and be more likely to take direct action against them.
Hardcore Credits
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When your Hardcore character dies, the character's credit worth remains accessible in your Hardcore Credit Pool. This applies to all unspent bound and unbound credits and the full value of artifacts, lessons obtained through converted credits, tradeskill licenses, and multiclass fees.
Half of all credits obtained "for free" from promos, daily credits, etc, are also added to your Hardcore Credit Pool. Half of credits gained from levelling are also included, but only if the character is above Level 60 (this requirement is necessary to avoid exploitation).
To view the credits available in your Hardcore Credit Pool, check HARDCORE CREDITS. To claim credits from the pool to your character, use HARDCORE CLAIM <amount> CREDITS. Credits obtained this way are always claimed as bound credits, even if credits on your dead character were unbound.
You may also use HARDCORE VALUE to determine how much credit worth you would receive on your next Hardcore character if your current one was to die.
Hardcore Iron Coins
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Iron coins are also carried forward in a separate Hardcore pool, and can be claimed with: HARDCORE CLAIM <amount> IRONCOINS.
Hardcore No-Brainer Packages
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Lessons and credits from the No-Brainer packages are not factored in to your Hardcore Credit Pool. It is possible however to claim lessons and credits from your last Hardcore character that died, via HARDCORE CLAIM NOBRAINER <CREDITS/LESSONS>.
This means that if you purchase 2 lesson packs and 1 credit pack on a character that dies, you'll still be able to access those lessons and credits on your next Hardcore character.
NOTE: This applies only to one past character, you cannot claim more than one "full set" of no-brainer benefits from prior characters on your current character. You can, however, purchase additional no-brainer packages for your current character that will stack with the "full set" claimed from a past character.
In short, this essentially means that any one Hardcore character can benefit from up to 4000 lessons and 600 bound credits from No-Brainer packages (one from a past character, one from the current), but only half that amount (one full set) will persist to the next character.
Retirement
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Hardcore characters are not eligible for retirement, nor can they receive retirement credits from other characters on their account. See the above information on credits and no-brainer packages for details on what can be transferred.
Final Notes
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All rules pertaining to alternate characters and seconds (see HELP SECONDS) still apply to Hardcore mode characters - knowledge of past lives, or details of other characters are not permitted to be shared.
Other useful files: HELP HARDCORE FAQ, HELP HARDCORE RP
