the mauled body of the tall, muscular man

[Brytta Léofa]

Death comes to all, sooo...

Herbivore kill: the mauled body of the tall, muscular man

Carnivore kill: the remains of a tall, muscular man (mdesc lightly distorted by the same code used for scribble decay)

Humanoid-fists-or-bludgeoning-weapons kill: the battered body of the tall, muscular man

Falling death: the crumpled body of the tall, muscular man

Bloodburn death: the discolored body of the tall, muscular man

Terradin death: the vomitus-smeared body of the tall, muscular man

When a scavenger passes through the room: prepend "gnawed"

After one IC day: prepend "rigid"

After three IC days: remove "rigid", prepend "bloated"

[betweenford]

the dessicated: the rare circumstance where someone dehydrates

[lostinspace]

Trying to think over other lethal things.

the melted/melting: death to acid
the charred/crisped: death to fire

maybe
the shocked: death to electricity

[LindseyBalboa]

i like the idea of being able to tell at a glance what probably killed someone, before having to examine them. a carru goring will look different than someone beating someone with a club and sword but might not look so different using "look wounds."

only caveat is that it'd have to be spoofable to disguise means of death, as well.

[Brytta Léofa]

only caveat is that it'd have to be spoofable to disguise means of death, as well.

Not sure I agree there..in my book, cause of death should usually be pretty clear, and successful fakes would be pretty rare (and just not that common a need). Or fakes might involve a combination of methods (poison to low hp, then stab a bunch), which is somewhat realistic-feeling.

[LindseyBalboa]

Moreso to avoid accidental OOC poisoning.

IE, I club someone's head in. It's a clubbed body now. I throw it off a ledge to make it look like a fall and use arrange, and it'd still be a clubbed body. I want to make sure I could reasonably cover up a murder without OOC knowledge for a fact it didn't happen that way.

Even now using arrange, it /might/ be staff who arranged the corpse to reflect a death they say, so there isn't certainty.

[Obeliskocism]

On the old Law & Order (season 21 is kinda unwatchable), victims were often found lying face down, or with their clothing covering their injuries, and had to be turned over or stripped (examined) to see the injuries.

And as for the desire for spoofability, I somewhat agree.  A murderer should be able to drape a cloak over a corpse to disguise the body's condition.  The current system supports that option as a default, but having 'a tattered cotton robe is draped over the mauled corpse of a tall, muscular man' requires people to initially RP around the information they see on the screen.

Edit: Maybe this could be a new workflow for staff, as I believe there is a notification whenever a PC dies.  This would allow a case-by-case decision and staff could change the corpse's ldesc to match one of the preapproved manner-of-death keywords.  If it's going to be handled automatically, I prefer the current setup erring on the side of subtle.

[Tuannon]

You might get a bonus to determining what killed a relatively fresh corpse based on first aid.

[Veselka]

If anything, I like the time based modifiers, because that isn't affected by 'cause of death' or spoofability.

I'd love it if corpse items could stick around longer, but alas, I don't think that's possible with DIKU.

After a day, the 'rigid' soandso body
After a few days, the 'rigid, bloated' soandso body
After a week, a 'putrescent, rotting corpse'. So it loses the 'who it is' at this point, except for identifers like clothing, jewelry, and so on.
After a month, a 'rotted, desiccated corpse'.
After a couple months, a 'yellowed skeleton'.

It'd just be neat if corpses weren't so easily gotten rid of. Skeletons in the closet, anyone?

I'd also like it to be easier to bury a body, at least in dirt-based regions rather than sand-based regions, or to cremate it without needing a half-giant around, or to physically pick up the body to put it into something.

[CalmThyPalm]

If anything, I like the time based modifiers, because that isn't affected by 'cause of death' or spoofability.

I'd love it if corpse items could stick around longer, but alas, I don't think that's possible with DIKU.

After a day, the 'rigid' soandso body
After a few days, the 'rigid, bloated' soandso body
After a week, a 'putrescent, rotting corpse'. So it loses the 'who it is' at this point, except for identifers like clothing, jewelry, and so on.
After a month, a 'rotted, desiccated corpse'.
After a couple months, a 'yellowed skeleton'.

It'd just be neat if corpses weren't so easily gotten rid of. Skeletons in the closet, anyone?

I'd also like it to be easier to bury a body, at least in dirt-based regions rather than sand-based regions, or to cremate it without needing a half-giant around, or to physically pick up the body to put it into something.

Wait, is this NOT how it goes with PC bodies? I was under the impression server wipes and crashes were the only things that could get rid of them since I saw a skeleton in-game. Granted it was just one time, but still.

[Patuk]

No, PC bodies (any bodies really) decay really quickly and then are just gone.

[Lotion]

Bodies are already given dynamic ldescs based on where they die. It's really noticeable if you kill a few raptors in the red desert and then bring them all to one spot for cuttin'