The Afterlife

DISCLAIMER: I know that the staff here isn't really too fond of ideas related to items in the Afterlife (*cough*) but before any of you shoot me down in a 17-paragraph long rebuttal as to why i'm objectively wrong, please just hear me out.

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So uh, the Afterlife. It's a thing. 

I really don't like it.

Now, one could write this off as me being salty, as during the time of writing this post my character's death is basically inevitable at this point. This isn't helped by the fact that my previous character on Souls spent a really long time in the Afterlife, and I'm personally upset that BOTH of them have died. However, this is not an attempt to make the Afterlife as luxurious as possible for Garon. This is me looking at Souls's AL system, Turbo's AL system, and explaining why I generally liked Souls's system more. 

 One huge difference between Souls' AL system and Turbo's AL system is that Souls's did NOT start you off with a body. Instead, it had the currency of Shoki, which you could use to buy various Afterlife related items. This includes: Revival, Day Pass, the Afterlife Gi, but most importantly: A Phyiscal Body. This immediately gives the player something to do, as until the player obtains a body, they can not start making use of the +50% bonus to PL that the Afterlife gave. It gives the player something to strive for - something to earn. And with Revival being a purchasable item, it pushes the player to keep playing their character and it says, "Hey! Your story doesn't have to be over yet!"

This is the problem I have with Turbo's current Afterlife system. There's nothing to DO. Sure, you could RP with a Shinjin who hasn't Kai Kai'd to Earth yet, or maybe have a sparring thread with another dead person. But the only REAL incentive you have to exist in the AL is to have that 1.25 XP -> PL modifier. There are no goals to work towards - no sense of achievement. Yes, your character messed up and died, and that's their fault, but that doesn't mean that they should be forced to grind for infinity until someone FINALLY revives them with the Dragon Balls.

 I understand that Revival was removed because death needed to have a bigger impact than it did on Souls. I get that entirely, and I'm totally fine with the staff's decision to make death a much bigger punishment. Hell, on Souls you could revive yourself for less than what a technique slot would cost. But there comes a point where it becomes so impactful that people will want to give up playing that character because, unless they're willing to change themselves into a Ghost, there is no way that they can EARN their way back to the realm of the living.

I also understand that there ARE ways to be revived that doesn't involve purchasing a Revival item. There are two ways, the first (and most commonly used method within the DB universe) is of course, to use the Dragon Balls. You can see the problem here. It has been roughly 4 months since the site has launched, and yet Earth still has no Kami. No Kami means no Dragon Balls. From what I understand, staff has not chosen a Kami because most of the Kami apps were inadequate, and those that were went MIA. This is obviously a temporary problem, but the issue is that we don't know when we're getting a suitable Kami. It could be a week from now. Or it could be a month from now. Or maybe it could be 3 months from now. We don't know. 

So since Dragon Balls clearly aren't an option at the time writing this, then there's only one way to be revived: becoming a Ghost. This doesn't sound bad at first, and admittedly it's NOT too bad, but this shouldn't be the only self-made option when it comes to Revival. Personally, I don't find Ghosts fun to play, but that's just me and I won't speak for others.

In my opinion, as it is right now,the Afterlife is just...boring. I feel like it shouldn't be that way. I understand that, as Maple put it, "Death has consequences.", and I feel like it should have consequences. But I also feel like it should still be fun to RP in the AL. 

So, how could it be fixed?

I have a couple ideas, but they're not really fully-fleshed and it's up to staff to decide what they want to do. The first would involve (unsurprisingly) bringing back the option to purchase your Revival with XP. Now, clearly it shouldn't be NEARLY as easy as it was to obtain on Souls - even after the 3rd death. We're talking 30-50k XP, along with possibly some other things as well (Small-Medium PL loss, item loss, etc...?). In addition, there should be a mandatory time that people have to stay in the AL so that XP mains can't just buy their way out of Other World.

If not Revival, then I suggest having some form of like, AL events to keep things interesting. The Other World Tournament is a perfect example of one. Or perhaps King Kai/Beelzebub hosts a public training session every once in awhile (that obviously wouldn't involve learning Kaioken and stuff.)

But TL;DR - I feel like the Afterlife should offer some kind of incentive for staying other than just endless PL grinding, and that in it's current state it seems boring to RP in.