I’ve been trying to think of a way to replace/change the entire jail mechanic without making outright gone that isn’t just a time reduction (because there ain’t no vetex is scrapping it outright no matter how much we ask) and i think i finally came up with an alright compromise:
Instead of removing jail sentences… Why not make them optional?
- Dying under the execution threshold puts a prompt on your death screen stating “The navy captured you. Your sentence is [x minutes], but you could escape unnoticed…” and allowing you to chose to serve your time or make a run for it offscreen
- Dying over the treshold does the same, but instead you get to pick between “accept your fate” and “stall for time”, the first choice sending you right to palo town to get shanked, and the second one giving you the prison time
- Choosing to skip would have a specific cost (Galleons? Bounty? Locked access to criminal shops/cargo theft for a period of time? Not getting a notoriety reset?)
- Skipping is completely free if the navy influence is low enough for Silverhold to be abandonned, giving villains a reason to go for it besides just the title and bragging rights.
Ofc the entire renown thing needs to be reworked enough that people have more of an incentive to go villain besides RP, and the skip could probably also cost you access to whatever that incentive is if dying becomes just a slap on the wrist for criminals
This retains jail as a mechanic for the people willing to engage with it, turns a “Oops, you lost, pain upon ye” punishement into a “Do i accept wasting time to make my death less costly, or do i accept a heftier price to get right back to it” choice, retains the execution mechanic and ability to prevent it, and gives both the navy and villain characters an actual reason to fight over influence besides just silverhold, while also giving people who’d really just rather face anything but jail an out.
This is very much a bandaid fix on the broken discrepency between heroes and villains, as even with this put in place, villains would be at a disadvantage, and probably has to be implemented alongside other fixes to the renown/wanted system.