I redirect you to the Bovine Initiative plan I proposed above.
So you propose all-powerful beings swoop in to punish players for attempting to get extra XP?
I suppose that would stop all killing in town, but there's plenty of developer intended fights that break out in town. Would the gods just turn a blind eye to these? How would players know which fights were ok, and which they would get punished for?
Seems like a band-aid attempt that falls short and removes player freedom to make choices.
...Cause then you strip the rewards from being evil in a meaningful way?
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here.
Not all powerful, just powerful enough that you actually have to work for your reward. Wouldn't stop killing but make a player think if it was worth the effort or if they could handle the follow through.
Flags for how and when the BDI would be activated is a simple enough solution.
Many people were receptive to this in Witcher 3 exactly cause it allows for player freedom and rewards you for overcoming challenge if you actually beat back the BDI.
....If you take away xp for killing innocents or make it near non existent....you take away the reward for killing them and doing the fight and the time spent.
A fight and a death should always be meaningfully rewarded. Hell make all NPCs higher level :P so the fights have some difficulty. Whatever. But telling me I cant kill that one woman after completing her quest and expect a reward for that killing is the same as telling me my actions are meaningless unless it agrees with a certain playstyle
EDIT:
As for when the BDI would be activated? That's simple. Just place a symbol or name color to those under GODs watch. When an encounter is meant to take place in town for some reason the symbol can go away.....
...Or better yet, don't let the player know at all ;P Make him second guess his actions before he follows through. Being evil shouldnt be straight forward
Or or better better yet....make it so really high loremaster lets you know who's currently under GODs protection or not at a current moment with examine
