The Castle Doctrine Forums

Ape

Member

Registered: 2014-01-22

Posts: 5

Is the house removed if the owner dies?

One thing about the death mechanics isn't clear to me. If I die while robbing someone, does my house get deleted from the list?

Let's consider a case where I have an interesting house to solve with 100k in the vault. However, I die while robbing. I understand that the game is permadeath and that my game is over (with that character). But can other players enjoy my old puzzle and try to steal those 100k? I really much would like that they could.

jasonrohrer

Administrator

Registered: 2013-04-01

Posts: 1,235

Re: Is the house removed if the owner dies?

When you die, all your stuff is reclaimed by the state, and your paintings are put back up for auction.  If you die WHILE someone else is in your house, robbing it, they get to finish their robbery before your house is reclaimed (and they keep whatever they steal in that last robbery).

The game currently has a "one house per player" rule at all times.  This is important, because when you're robbing a house, you ALWAYS know that you are potentially hurting another, real person.  You know that someone will be watching you on tape later and seeing what you did.

If the list was filled with "ghost houses" from deceased players, this wouldn't be the case.

I agree that it's tempting---it would certainly keep more "unbeaten" content in the game.  But keeping it real, in terms of the game's real-world meaning, is really important to me.

Zalethon

Member

Registered: 2014-01-22

Posts: 23

Re: Is the house removed if the owner dies?

I'm brand new, but 2 cents: would it be possible/desirable for you to 'archive' houses that had a large value when the owner died? Then the houses could be used, if not in the main game, as separate 'challenge' houses in the future.

Spiderman

Member

Registered: 2014-01-19

Posts: 4

Re: Is the house removed if the owner dies?

I like the archive idea, definitely a side feature but commemorating the genius houses would have a nice metagame/community feel. But I would understand if Mr. Rohrer wants to keep the seriousness and reality of the context grounded in life-and-death and not high scores.

jasonrohrer

Administrator

Registered: 2013-04-01

Posts: 1,235

Re: Is the house removed if the owner dies?

Yeah, it's really important that it's always a real person's house.  That's what this game is about!

There are loads of games where people design levels, and the best (or hardest, or whatever) levels rise to the top.  That's already been done, and that's not what I'm doing here, so I'm avoiding adding anything that feels like that.

I also REALLY like the "once it's gone, it's gone forever" aspect of this game.  Like... one keystroke and POOF, a house that has been at the top of the list all week vanishes.  People come to the forums to talk about their memories of that house.