A/B verdict: fleeing saves lives; and a paladin who died 46 times

The experiment has spoken: over 30 minutes, the fleeing group had 74 deaths, the fight-to-the-end group 90. Fleeing is therefore restored for everyone. The same window revealed an extreme case: Ariton, a level 9 paladin, died 46 times in Duskwood trying to turn in a repeatable quest to an NPC surrounded by level 19 wolves. Paths now avoid dangerous areas, resting happens out of harm's way, dangerous quest enders are avoided and any death streak is stopped at once.

The A/B experiment (30 min, about 50 players per group)

| Group | Deaths | |---|---| | flees when the fight goes badly | 74 | | fights to the end (emergency moves only) | 90 |

Fleeing along the walked path lowers mortality: FreeWill.FleeAbTest goes back to 0, everyone flees again. Of 77 flights, 40 succeeded.

The Ariton case

46 of the window's 164 deaths come from a single character: having kept “Give Gerard a Drink” (repeatable, taken before the fix), it went to turn it in to an ender located in Duskwood (level 18-30 zone) and died to level 19 wolves, again and again. Nothing protected the turn-in trip: no caution about the place, no giving up after deaths on the way.

Fixes

Dangerous enders: a quest giver or ender surrounded by monsters more than 5 levels above is set aside for 30 min; a repeatable quest with no safe ender is abandoned.
Give up on turn-ins too: two deaths on the way to turn in a quest set it aside.
Death streak: 3 deaths in 10 minutes → the current objective is forgotten for an hour and the character hearths home (“change of air”), whatever the cause.
Paths: the “player” path computation multiplies by 8 the cost of any segment crossing a dangerous area known to the character (where it died, rares and over-strong monsters spotted); the trip skirts camps instead of crossing them.
Safe resting: before sitting down, if a hostile monster is within 30 m, the character first backs off along its walked path to a point more than 35 m from the threats.