Death Penalties

No, for instance if level 5 requires 1000xp.

LV1= 100xp (Normal) to next
you die 3 times. 115xp (total adjusted) total to next.

LV2= 300xp (Normal) to next
you die 1 time. 315 (total adjusted) to next.

if you die 3 times @ LV1 and 1 time @ LV2=
430xp to LV3 as TOTAL, your penalties add on to all subsequent levels accordingly, it still costs the same if you don't die from Level 98 to 99 (5 million) as an example but 30 xp will be added to the end of all levels as this only affects the total accumulation of XP and not affecting level gain unless you die while earning your current level.

I hope this makes sense...
LV1 +15 (total 3 deaths) required xp to all levels gained after this point with this character.
LV2 +30 (total 4 deaths, 3 on LV1) required xp to all levels gained after this point with this character.

So is death penalty a % of current leveling xp requirements, to arrive at fixed amount of xp, which is then added to levelling requirements for the entire table?
If my understanding is correct, that means the net effect of the death penalty is significant to playing current level, but progressively less so to subsequent levels as you progress, unless you die multiple times at every level (so noob factor is weeded out).
From a big picture perspective, it still adds to the grinding factor, but because it's not in your face, as with level drop penalty, it doesn't p!ss off the players?

Yeah essentially.

The idea of Death = perm leveling modifier, that affects the rest of your entire game, isn't hugely appealing. Though I think the principle of xp mod is sound. Death has to be perceived as having consequences, but not perceived as so severe as to turn away players. And affecting xp in some fashion is probably the fairest/least unfair factor to use.

How about a tweak on your idea - death affects xp leveling requirements for a limited number of subsequent levels, where death adds a reducing % to each level up.
Say over next 5 levels, add %s of 5,4,3,2,1.
Or over next 3 levels, add %s of 10,5,3.
If you die too many times, continuing becomes pointless (noob factor), but you can eventually overcame the consequences.

No you misunderstood, 300 will the total amount of exp needed for level 3 however if you die once at level 1 the total accumulation of experience will be 305 to reach level 3

so 5% of whatever the BASE experience is added on to your next acquired level, your total experience gained will be different from a character that died 30 times at level 5 then a character that died 5 times at level 5, it is the same as taking experience by adding the necessity to gain MORE in order to acquire a level this way players play smarter but WILL NOT LOSE A LEVEL.

Look you die you need to earn 5% more experience towards the level you were working on, once you gain that level you need say 1000xp to reach the one after that, that does NOT change, the player's total amount of experience to reach that milestone will vary depending on how many times and at what levels that character died, but the levels after the one you are working towards don't require any more xp than before you died, having died you will have to work harder to get to that point than a character that hasn't (should be obvious).

1 2 3 4 5
0 100 400 800 1300
+ + + + +
5 15 40 65 5%/1900

See 5% of each level required experience/death you suffer, this is cumulative in the amounts of death you suffer. thus turning that 1300 into 1310 with 2 level 1 deaths because everything is increased but the starting point of level 4 would be 810 with 2 level 1 deaths so either way you'd need 500xp to gain that level...

it doesn't line up... because it formats it differently... F*CK so hard to explain... the edit is for horizontal work... I am leaving in the vertical for observation.

1=0,(required 100) +5 per death
2=100, (required 300) +15 per death
3=400, (required 400) +20 per death
4=800, (required 500) +25 per death
5=1300, +5% of 1900 per death.... AND SO ON>
6=1900, AND SO ON...

Think I'm with you - each time you die within a level, the threshold to the next level gets pushed out, by a factor of the base of the current level. In effect, the whole xp level table is adjusted (for that char) so that the differences between the subsequent levels don't change, just the underlying numbers. Thus it doesn't affect levelling beyond the one in which you died, as the amount of xp needed to be earned to level up doesn't change, unless you die again.

Elegant....

I was going to suggest simply losing xp upon death, and put a floor under it so that you can't lose sufficient xp to drop a level. Problem with that suggestion is someone who just leveled up to say L10 & dies gets a much smaller punishment than someone who is just below xp needed for L11.

There isn't a problem if you keep in mind that you won't "lose" anything but rather you will learn your character and eventually master his/her play style... hopefully. It won't be a major effect on your leveling because keep in mind you haven't lost anything, say you need 10,000 and you die once so it becomes 10,500 you probably need to kill 15 more creatures of about your level to gain one... considering bosses in most ARPGs give over 1,000 usually it really isn't that much.

Keep in mind this is a GRIM and DARK game... brutal experiences are a necessity for survival in such a world and getting stupid just because you lose doesn't make sense as in sports your losses are key sources of knowledge to gaining victory the next time around, so the player themselves need to realize they have to figure a way out of a situation or they'll die again, and if they keep doing the same dumb thing over and over they don't need to be rewarded for it.

I read through some pages of suggestions and read some great ideas, seems most of us are willing to accept some sort of xp penalty which I think strikes a fair balance. I agree that item drops would turn me away from this game in a hurry and corpse runs are annoying.

Im not sure if anyone has already suggested this but instead of character lvl xp why not penalize the precious gems or gem xp. most incentive to lvl in other games is to aquire new or more powerful skills, so I think gem lvl xp penalty would be best punishment for death. Or maybe implement a sort of dual approach, gem xp loss or lvling penalty for dying and maybe a bonus for defeating a boss without dying, like xp bonus or timed buff or even an increased item drop as was mentioned before...or maybe a random one of the three... and better yet maybe do the same for death penalty, could be random or set % chance of xp loss or penalty to character or gem lvl or some timed debuff... could make things interesting and could range from "OMG I hate when I get that one!" to "whew, that wasnt so bad. However that would probably be a nightmare to implement into game though =)

Id really like to see the monster/monsters get an exp boost from your death so it requires you to enter the situation carefully for a second time.