That's nonsense. I spent 5 minutes clicking around and found 20 of them in just 2 realms
Also, I believe you wanted to mention that your Main Character would be affected by this change in a short time, didn't you?
Machiavel 73 years
Yea, Machiavel's old. That's part of my point, he's been there since forever. He's older than almost every realm on Dwilight, and outlived quite a few. And yet, he is only 9 years over the life expectancy. Jean-Olivier died in battle at 27. Lyse retired at 32. Louis-Joseph retired at 53. Nicolas died in battle at 51. Miroslav was executed at 32. Stanislav retired at 43. Jeanne and Guillaume commited suicide at 53. Pyotr retired at 27.
Machiavel is the sole character of the Chénier family, founded in 2006, that lived past the medieval life expectancy. And since life expectancy is an average, it seems rather reasonable that at least one family member would surpass it.
If your realms suck, stop blaming the whole game for it. Feels like I have to shift through two realms just to find 20 characters, regardless of age.
And while yes, it's easy to say "hey, he has an old character, therefore everything he says is worthless!", my stance has remained unchanged in a good number of years, since way before Machiavel got this old. I
like old characters. Others' just as much as mine. I
prefer them. They have a history, a background. They make roleplay richer. They can tell stories from way back, they hold grudges over things nobody remembers, and carry a culture that benefits everyone. They are also remarkable, noteworthy. Their name is called and many from far away recognize it.
When you fragilize the character, you force players to give greater importance to family. Keeping a few characters separate is a relatively easy task, if characters must continuously be replaced, then avoiding making them carbon copies becomes both difficult and tedious. It also does not favor turnover. All it does is increase the importance of family, and thus nepotism. "We'll make this new noble margrave because his uncle served us well". The more risk you impose upon older characters, the more players will naturally tend to form cliques in order to restore titles upon each other when a character dies.
I don't even like the current mechanics, I see them as more harmful than beneficial. Players grow attached to their characters, and they will keep playing them long past when it is strategically sound to keep doing so. What does this mean? It means that by the time active characters get the top ranks, their characters start getting fewer hours and thus become liabilities in military activities. Since getting less hours tends to make them lag behind in army movements, they'll often just decide to sit back on military duties and do administrative work instead, or just sit and distribute gold. And since healing takes longer, they'll often be much less inclined to go out and take risks, as wounds in battle or by infiltrators can keep them out for a while. They don't all do that (I don't), but back in the days when I was younger and kept much greater OOC contact with other BM players, it became obvious that many did. And even if I don't sit passively in a safe spot, even Machiavel has a lot less opportunities than before. I used to hop regions a lot back in the days to participate in RPs, trade, and preaching. Now... god, it feels like I get half the hours I used to. If I know I can only stay away from my realm/region for X amount of time, then my travel potential is half of what it was for the same amount of time earlier on.
Penalizing old characters does not increase turnover. It doesn't increase opportunity. All it does is hold down these characters, making them less fun for their players, and making them create less fun for their peers.
