I originally tried to post this in the reincarnation section, as it seems to deal with death. While I did get 24 views, no one really responded to let me know if I was crazy or what... Please, please, advise.
Since October of 2009 when I started playing, when I "die," my screen goes "white." White as in, it's pretty similar to the page I'm typing on right now--just white. I see my tool bars, my mini-map, chat log, target/examine lens, but the rest of the world is "white." I see no features: no PCs, no NPCs, no critters, no furniture, no stairs, ladders, pits, etc...
This became my definition of "DDO Death," and a somewhat poetic, existential, quasi-Poltergeist experience. I expected the short lady with glasses from Poltergeist to show up and tell me, "Don't go in the Light...." Yet, I'm beginning to wonder if something is wrong with my hardware, or settings, or something...
Last night I was running one of the Necro quests: Tomb of the UnHallowed (I think). It's the quest, where in some rooms, you're affected by the "Delruuth's (?) Environmental Effect." This I figured out all on my own, however initially I thought I went blind. The first time this occurred, I figured the wight caster "got me" and I asked for a remove blindness from our sorely taxed cleric. Nothing. I swallowed a potion of remove blindness and learned the cleric DID cast his spell as well.
Effectively I spent 65% of the quest "blind." My "blindness" when I'm affected by it, is just like my character death: white screen. I can see: PC names, at times critter names, but that's about it. I started a "keyed rant" about how idiotic the quest was: "Who puts together a quest where you fight blind chasing names?" Finally, the cleric "spoke up," "No one is blind--it's foggy, maybe blurry, but we can see."
I then started to get a not so good feeling. Why? Why could they see and I'm blind? Tons of other questions came too:
Should I be able to "see" when I'm dead? Should I be able to see furniture, ladders, pits, critters, and doors? I've seen other dead toons "scout" ahead and I figured they counted "names" in the room. I've seen them navigate platforms and ladders and I figured they REALLY knew the quest well.
Me, I'm a **** mess when I'm dead--walking into walls, falling off ledges--pathetic.
Even the mechanics of running to a RES shrine is a feat for me. I've died in front of shrines and it's an effort to RES myself. I don't "see" the shrine. I see "white." I see the name of the shrine, it appears in my examine lens if I "click around" for it, but I don't see it.
So now I've begun to suspect something is terribly wrong in my settings. WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT WHEN DEAD?!? If I find I have some setting wrong, I have a very loooooong list of apologies to make to epically failed quests, in which I couldn't find my way to the shrine, away from my stone, fast enough.
So much is talked about on the forums, but it occurred to me last night, that I really don't know what PC Death is supposed to be like. Please advise.