I'm thinking of adding this to the MMO I'm working on... Players will absorb a portion of the enemies power they slay. The bonus power decays over time and is completely lost when they die. It also has diminishing returns. Players become battle hardened and gain less than previous kills.

If a player is killed by another player they will gain a percentage of the slain players power.

The bonus power is pretty much just a stat boost.

what do you think? Sound like an interesting mechanic?

This would be interesting, it would allow a player to "go on a frenzy" as long as he makes sure he keeps killing he keeps strong and thus capable of killing.
(Groups of ) other players would have to hide/be carefull before until some of that power has dwindled and they can take him down.

it would give some interesting player-interaction(/coöperation)

I think it would be interesting. What is your current idea on how to make it work? I mean in terms of decay time, power curves and such.

I havn't really thought of the details yet, I'd have to thinkg it trough. I think it would be cool to allow temporary alpha status though.

Such bonuses are going to suffer of severe positive feedback loops (between more power and more kills) and be wasted for lack of enemies after the accelerated slaughter ends.

I don't consider the sort of stalking and waiting powerneg suggests particularly fun or practical: running and hiding cannot be the only valid strategy, and boosted characters are going to hunt prudent enemies very effectively (game balance should favor standing and fighting over fleeing and chasing anyway, and any boost is going to make fighting more likely).

Players aren't going to become gods and be able to mow down tons of players... power also comes from NPC kills. So chances are all players will have some varying degree of bonus power when they fight other players. There has to be a cap or increasing rate of decay the more you have.

Players die all the time in PvP. Having some buffs isn't going to change that. Bonus power will help players, but it doesn't make them immune to a handful of others. As players die off, the power levels in the area will decrease also, since only portions of power are gained for kills, and it goes to zero on death.

Chronicles of Spellborn pulled this off in the MMO setting essentially put your character 3 levels ahead stat wise. Worked well with their other mechanics, mostly the sense that it was possible to fight NPCs and players way above your level with correct positioning(IE could choose to play in areas you could get killed in a couple hits).

This is kinda similar to a specialization in planetside 2 where you can spec I think it's adrenaline shield, and once activated, each kill increases player speed for a short period and replenishes 5% health.

By choosing it you can't "spec" either of the 2 other types of shield, each has it's own trade off.

The other popular one is a temporary shield (absorbs % damage) that's strong but slows your movement, the 3rd doesn't slow movement, doesn't make a shield, but simply mitigates a % of damage and lasts longer with a shorter cooldown.

You could almost do stat loss on death and give the killer 10% that the dead player lost, but it might be a balance issue if someone kills multiple people and just becomes way overpowered. There could be a cap on it or something.

You could almost do stat loss on death and give the killer 10% that the dead player lost, but it might be a balance issue if someone kills multiple people and just becomes way overpowered. There could be a cap on it or something.

One way to fix this is the killer gets a 10% bonus to damage/hp/whatever for a minute or two, and the killed player gets a -10% bonus. The killed player then has to stay back a bit, and work with other players to either cancel it out, or just has to wait off the same minute or two timer. I think as long as it isn't a 1v1 game, this mechanic could work to great potential. Really puts into question "killstealing", ie: stealing bonus/levels from your best character.

(Dota 2 has a good example of this -- you always want to give kills to the "carry", or best player on the team -- this way, he's a lot higher level than your team, but is also higher than the other team and can lay waste to them in team-fights)

Well so long as the reward of fighting off weaker critters fades progressively as you gain power, I think it makes a lot of sense. It could really shift the player's focus from inspecting everything in detail, to rushing in the fray, looking out for the next 'alpha'.

I'd like to hear more about the type of game in which this would take place though. You've been vague on that...