Baffled by old age
 

Any ideas or guesses on how old age works?

I know there is a chance that a unit will get a disease every winter. But what is this chance? Is it affected by the age of the unit? For example if old age starts at 35, then is my unit more likely to get diseased at age 70 than at age 40?

Re: Baffled by old age
 

It doesn't seem to me that it's affected by the age. That's pure gut feeling, no statistics behind it.

I believe they can also get other afflictions, without getting disease, but disease seems pretty common.

It's always bothered me a bit that you can recruit units well past the old age limit, but it doesn't seem like you would ever get one to survive 20-30 years into old age without some kind of youth magic.

Re: Baffled by old age
 

I think it is affected by how old the unit is, but I´m not sure.

Re: Baffled by old age
 

The gap between actual age and when old age starts does appear to play a role. Ex: Aby's warlocks start incredibly old, and suffer a lot of disease. Pythium's thaumaturgs on the other hand don't have such a discrepancy, and don't have so many problems.

Re: Baffled by old age
 

Death magic skill lessens the chance of getting old age afflictions (Good for eg. Shinuyama & LA Agartha). F1N1 item Elixir of Life and B2 Boots of Youth also prevent the unit from gaining any old age afflictions. I have no idea about the chance to get those afflictions based on how much old age they have though, but as the old age malus get worse with age, I suppose so does the chance to gain afflictions rise. And like stated, it's not just disease that can happen, I suppose everything the unit is capable of getting can afflict the commander in the late winter. I've seen at least mages going blind, feebleminded, losing arm and so on, but disease itself seems the most common.

Re: Baffled by old age
 

N magic also raises the old age threshold i think.

Re: Baffled by old age
 

True, 25 years more to old age limit per level of N. I think D adds 10 years.

Re: Baffled by old age
 

This is incorrect. See the aging mechanics section of the FAQ.

Re: Baffled by old age
 

Interesting. I just ran a small test with a crone in CBM, 1 pt of nature (the base), old age is 750 points, 2 pt of nature: 1000, 3pt: 1250 and 4pt:1500, so with base old age of 500 the 50% per point of nature is in line. I suppose I've only observed old age 50 units before then with nature, no idea about the death though. Increasing death magic for the crone didn't affect the old age.

Re: Baffled by old age
 

Death magic does not increase the old age, but is supposed to (greatly ?) reduce the chance to get afflictions from it.

Death/growth scales are also supposed to increase or decrease the chance, but much less I think.

Note also that fire mage slightly lessen your old age :

Normal human mage : old age at 50 years old
Same with N1 : old age at 75
Same with F1 : old age at 4X something

Note also that earth is used instead of nature for lifeless beings, and maybe Death for non lifeless undeads or demons.