Safer trips: fewer deaths on the way

Poorly equipped characters died on the way, especially in Northrend: resurrection among the monsters that had just killed them, paths through camps, flights refused in a loop. They now judge danger by their real strength, resurrect out of reach, walk around camps, escape hopeless fights and remember the legs where they died. On the test server, with the same characters: 1 death in 30 minutes instead of 20.

The finding

During the break, characters of level 70 to 80 died 612,142 times:

a third of these deaths followed a resurrection at the corpse: the character set off again at half health among the monsters that had just killed it, and died again 26 seconds later on average;
while travelling, 71% of the killers stood within 10 m of their spawn point: the path went through the camps;
more than half of the flights were refused, for lack of money or because the character stayed mounted in front of the flight master, and some retried in a loop.

The character judged danger by its displayed level. A level 80 with a broken weapon and level 30 gear thought itself stronger than level 72 monsters, which still killed it.

The fixes

Real strength: each character estimates its strength from its weapon, its broken pieces and how far behind its training and gear are. That is what now judges danger. A level 80 rogue with a broken weapon now knows it is as strong as a level 43.
Resurrection: at the corpse only if the spot is out of the monsters' reach, otherwise at the spirit healer. No departure before getting back to 90% health.
Paths: camps are spotted ahead of the character, with their real aggro range, and walked around.
Region too dangerous: a character too weak for its region goes home with its hearthstone, even while travelling.
Hopeless fights: escape from 75% health instead of waiting for 35%. When travelling on a mount, the character stays in the saddle against ordinary monsters.
Flights: dismount in front of the flight master, price checked, refusals remembered, flight points learned on the way. Any learned mount is now used.
Trips: two deaths on the same leg set it aside for two hours, and the character looks for another way. The hearthstone and mage teleports are part of route planning.

Checked on the test server

Eight characters of level 78 to 80, in Northrend and Outland, poorly equipped and almost without gold, copied from production, 30 minutes before and after:

deaths: from 20 to 0;
monsters killed: from 1 to 15;
gear bought with honor: from 0 to 5;
flights retried in a loop: from 10 to 0.

Control with eight other characters from the old continents, level 36 to 80, copied identically onto two test servers, one with the old version and one with the new: as many deaths (2 against 2) and slightly more quests turned in (3 against 2).

This control revealed a flaw in the first version: characters behind on gear avoided the camp of their own quest targets, and one of them went back and forth 21 times before giving up. Camp avoidance based on real strength therefore only applies while travelling; hunting and quest objectives keep the former calculation.

No crash and no error.

Deployment

The new module version is installed on the server. The autonomous players stay stopped: these fixes will be in place for the restart.