Age. Sucks.

[Lorgan]

Age sucks. No offense to our older players.

So, what is it good for?
Turnover? No. Oldies remain in power for as long as they want/ are allowed to. They just don't fight battles anymore. Hooray for encouraging idleness and stagnation!

What is it bad for?
Constant game-interruptions if you dare to fight battles with a char you've grown attached to over the years.
Idleness and stagnation. Encourage characters to sit on their butts and do nothing at all. It fills your realm with old-timers who can barely still contribute in any meaningful game-mechanic way. Create a character, build relationships, achieve something, then kill the character out of frustration. That's the BM cycle.

There should be more emphasis on fun, and less on "realistic" features that are detrimental to fun. Because seriously, who here enjoys NOT being able to play the game for days on end, enjoy a few days of playing then be stupid enough to fight another battle and be out again for less than a week, if you're lucky.

Whatever the intention of age was, the result is that players get a choice: play the game fully for half the time and be blocked of it for the rest or just play half the game, avoid battles and try to suck it up and be content. Together with all the other oldies incapable of fully playing the game. We can only have one character per continent now, there's less players but a majority of characters that remain get less hours, are wounded more often and longer and simply cannot play the game that should be encouraging to play it, and play it hard. Like, actually wage war.

For those of you who say "kill the old bastard already", this is an RP game. People get attached to their characters and the way they RP them. People also play for years on end and get tired of having to come up with new characters all the time to keep playing and then forcibly play him as a new inexperienced noble. There's the GoT mentality that dictates that all characters need to die and die easy. And it makes for great stories, but it sure does not for the game experience in a game that's built on long-term enjoyment.

So, get rid of physical age. Or remove it's effects and replace it with actual age for the rp element.

There, I vented. Now I'll go back to the game and try to write a couple of letters before I get wounded again.

[Wimpie]

I think you RP Dunbor as a pussy and that's why you get wounded all the time.

No, I'm kidding. You just suck in swordfighting.

No, I'm kidding again. I really dislike getting less and less hours, too. Being wounded all the time.. hmm it's do-able, my chars aren't that old.

But I understand your frustration.

[Gabanus family]

I understand the frustration. Still at the same time I am a fan of a far higher mortality rate, introduced even for non hero's, but increased for hero's. There should at least be some risk involved I think.

Removing age, or at least its detriments would free up more of the game also at least I think, so I might agree...

[Wimpie]

I disagree with the statement that this 'age' encourages people to have their old characters just sit in cities and do nothing.

I think that part of that frustration of old chars, is that you should get rid of them earlier to make room for new adventures.

But yeah, I dislike playing a new and young/inexperienced noble as well. Making a story for him again. But that's simply how it works.

[Coquard]

My bf has a character he's been trying to kill off since Atamara sank.  He's a hero... So battle is the way to go.  All he gets is wounded.... Wounded...  And more wounded.  Seriously sometimes,  but the plucky basted just won't die.  Now some might say... RP it yourself.  First... He hasn't achieved the achievement of the hero's death.  Second,  this character wouldn't just die. 

So it's funny to see a character killed in a duel,  but my boyfriend sends his into a region with 50-1 odds,  and survives....

[Noone you know]

my only issue with "age" is that it starts to effect at age 35.

obviously the game is full of youngsters to whom that sounds old. professional athletes still play at that age; you shouldn't be penalizing how many hours you get so quickly.

45+ sounds better to me.

[Anaris]

I completely agree with this sentiment.

The dev team has been talking for a few years now about doing away with physical age as a detrimental factor to your character's ability to do stuff. I honestly can't see a good enough reason to keep it around, so while it may take me a few days to clean up my code repository enough to safely send it live, I will be disabling all negative effects of age Soonâ,,¢. (I will make an announcement when it happens.)

However, the fact remains that age was introduced to combat a very real problem: namely, that of people keeping around old, tired characters long past when they stopped actually doing anything useful.

Thus, I propose the following (still somewhat sketchy) system to replace it.

All characters will have a Health value, which will, broadly, improve by doing things, and decline from inactivity. It will operate on a threshold system, so that there will be a clear cutoff point below which you will start losing hours, and a plateau above that where the system will be smart enough (and generous enough) to warn you when you're likely to slip into Ill Health or whatever we end up calling it.

It will be a constantly shifting value, so that if you have a period of, say, six months when you can't log in as often (or just don't feel motivated to do so), you may end up getting 5 hours/turn for a while when you start being more active again, but once you are reasonably active again, it shouldn't take very long for you to return to full health.

It will act as something of a buffer, so if you're the type of person who has bursts of activity every few days, that should be plenty to ensure that you remain healthy.

It will, however, also be affected by torture and woundingâ€"but since activity counteracts those effects, people who are already active should not find them to be too onerous, while people who are not will find them to significantly impact their play.

We will make every effort to ensure that people who log on and act regularly, even if it is less than once or twice a day, do not find themselves falling into Ill Health. It is intended specifically to penalize those who log on infrequently so as to maintain positions they do nothing useful with.

The components of "activity", for the purposes of Health, will include travel, a variety of actions, combat, and length and frequency of messages.

All of this is subject to change, and open to suggestions and criticism!

[Noone you know]

Here's a "critique":

- You already have about 5 years of necessary development ahead of you on other tickets, and this sound like it will take a long time & just be a distraction.

- It could probably be challenged because of inalienable rights (it punishes people who are less active as a normal way they play the game)

- It doesn't actually make any sense, RP-wise. Logging in more often means your character can travel to the next region faster?

- It is a convoluted, many part system that begs to be full of bugs & unintended consequences that will need constant patching.


No one likes getting old, but it is probably better for you & the game to refresh your characters from time to time.

[Anaris]

Your critique is duly noted.

[Noone you know]

It is intended specifically to penalize those who log on infrequently so as to maintain positions they do nothing useful with.

If that's the point of it, then address it directly by making titles something the King can strip (and the Duke can strip Lords).

The whole "the Lord IS the Region " has always been a farce, especially in democracies.

Aging should be because you want an effect of aging, not to try to force some side effect. Old players who just squat don't care how many hours they have, since they only log in a couple times a week so they still accrue in time to do what they want, and their recovery time from injuries  seems pretty random anyway from what I've seen.

[jaune]

KK is cheering if all this will come to effect :)

Been thinking to retire him and bring his son active... but i just cant give up all the gold i have :)

-Jaune

[Constantine]

I honestly can't see a good enough reason to keep it around

What about (not so) new players being practically shut away from all higher kingdom positions because hundred year old kings and dukes just sit on their asses in their capitals forever?
Aging penalties at least could make gameplay unsatisfying enough for such players to shelf their ancient characters. Otherwise there will be just characters who win the game because they were created ten years ago and accumulated stupid amounts of gold, honour, influence, stats, etc. without any drawbacks.

[jaune]

Then they can rebel, stab or go to another Kingdom.
There isnt that much Old idle kings i think? Many Kings are Kings because realm members want them to be king, because they are good leaders, creating fun times...

Old idle Kings realms start to fade away... and dynamic Kingdoms will get more and more nobles.

-Jaune

[Noone you know]

Kings were less the problem than Dukes.

[Wimpie]

I recall my earlier statement. I am wounded, age sucks!