• The choice of whether to keep the existing default behavior of teleporting a "killed" avatar to their home location,
• Or to take some other action, such as to play an animation for the avatar.

This animation could be drawn from a list of acceptable animations to prevent offensive misuse, or allow custom selection, if the risk seems minimal, or it may involve the adding of a standard "dead" anim as a default animation state for the avatar that is simply called by the server.

The justification for this suggestion is:

• The Linden Damage system is useful in the areas in which it is currently being used, but is frequently unused because of the inconvenience of being sent home when one is killed. It is more convenient, and in role-playing circumstances, more "realistic", to fall over "dead" when killed, than to simply disappear. This would allow for a "death", or period of incapacitation, then a gradual recovery, as health improved from zero.

• The use of combat systems also provide additional benefits, such as magical abilities, etc. Combined with a more controllable damage system, such devices could be enhanced, since the avatar would not be automatically ejected from the land upon death. Large segments of code could be eliminated, reducing complexity and lag, and freeing up processing for other critical functions. The damage system could be incorporated into these systems, used with it for good effect, providing a hybrid system requiring fewer less-complex scripts. This may prove especially valuable in script-restricted regions in the future.

The issue of healing would still need to be addressed, as Linden Damage is not repaired by scripted action, and many existing RP combat systems rely heavily upon the quick healing of damage. But allowing Linden damage to be healed artificially has been rejected as an open door for cheating before. If this could be mitigated, perhaps it could be used to enhance such a hybrid system in the future, to the benefit of all.