I believe the dampeners actually are unrealiscically overpowered. I say this because part of my enjoyment of using the dampeners comes from the thrill or rush of using the dampeners at the very last second. However having actually Parachuted/Skydived before I know that there is certain point in a fall due to the speed of the fall that if friction is applied to late a person will receive injury or death regardless if the friction is applied. Instatntly stopping at the last second from a ridiculous speed (without any gradual decent in speed) should result in a players death even if its due to the dampeners. Its not the fall the kills a person but the sudden stop of a person's body against other objects or even one's internal organs against their body. As proven with NASA's recent land rover landing on Mars, a safe landing from fast speeds in a limited amount of distance & time requires specific applications of opposite power/force/thrust at desginated times.
A solution to the current overpowered dampeners would be requiring the dampeners to be deployed by a set distance. This would also give a greaters sense of urgency & importance in quickly & properly applying the dampeners. A helpful indication for deploying dampeners could also implementing by a color code in which the dampener deployment words would change from GREEN to YELLOW to ORANGE to RED. Green & Yellow would mean that if deployed at that time you would result with 0 damage. Orange would mean that you'd result with significant shield or health damage. Red would mean that you unavoidably are going to die, have failed at life again & should start thinking about the next dropsuit loadout to select. Actually there should be no Red indicator. The activate dampener words should be replaced by the spawn location selection sreen, lol.
As for the actual fallen characters I would find it completely hilarious to witness a character die from "getting hit hard... by the ground", lol. I would actually take the time to stop and laugh at that even though that would more-than-likely actually get me killed by someone else. I wouldn't mind at all having someone else's improper or failed dampener deployment causing me to die laughing. It would totally be worth it & I'd actually pay good ISK to see that, lol. Never got old in Battlefield 1943, oh how I loved seeing that. I <3 N00BS.
In conclusion this change would make free-fall dampener application more realistic, more challenging, & most importantly more entertaining