game option/old age

[llamabeast]

Yeah, I think we all pretty much agree to be honest. I just wouldn't want the devs to feel that we're always demanding fixes, and not appreciating all the good stuff they do. New nations do add to the richness of the game, and Kristoffer's quality is generally exceptional.

[MaxWilson]

I do find it a little curious that anyone would demand balance fixes to Ulm while saying that new content doesn't matter. If the stamp of "official Illwinter Nation" doesn't matter, there are plenty of modded Ulms to use. If it does matter (and my perception is that it does), then new nations by Kristoffer will be more widely used than a mod nation, especially by the 90% of players who play casually and never visit the forums.

So to me, new content seems quite valuable. I'd love to see #4 (hooks for writing AIs) but it doesn't conflict in any way with new content because of the division of labor between K and J.

Other than that, I agree with Sombre's prioritization.

-Max

[Foodstamp]

This is a question to the guys who hate the old age mechanic. Are you guys playing with death scales? When I take growth scales, I can go years without getting an afflicted old age mage, and when I finally do get afflictions on my mages, it is usually just one or two mages out of the bunch.

This reminds me of the thread where people were upset about populations not increasing when a growth scale was not taken. People complain about the growth/death scales and fortune/misfortune scales being trivial and taking a backseat to Order/sloth. Then I see a lot of people complain about mechanics in the game that are directly affected by those scales that were listed as trivial before.

Maybe players should take a second look at what scales they consider to be trivial scales instead of wanting the benefits of those scales modded out of the game?

Most people hate the old age mechanic, and most people think that taking a death scale on your pretender is a no brainer. Is there a correlation?

[Sombre]

I don't think it's that the death scale weakens you that's annoying people - that's fair enough. It's that it weakens you in a way that increases micromanagement.

[Xietor]

No I always play man with 3 growth, but the crones still get afflictions too early and often to suit me.

I think the No Old Age Mod strikes a perfect balance to me with Man anyway. I still get a good number of Crones that are old, some even 4 years too old, but not every damn one is old and not only old but like 40 years past their max age.

I do not mind managing some old age, but i do not want it to be my main focus. It was a good concept to add to the game, since you had burden of time and decay already, but needed toned down.

[Graeme Dice]

Foodstamp said:
This is a question to the guys who hate the old age mechanic. Are you guys playing with death scales?

Other than Abysia, which becomes truly crippled when they use the death 3 scale that they are supposed to have, old age really only affects the human nations. These nations pay almost exactly the same gold cost for mages as the superhuman nations, yet don't get any benefit from their poor stats and susceptibility to randomly dying. Is an Arch-Theurg of Pythium or a Druid of Marverni really so powerful that he deserves to have the same cost as a Vanadrott and to also be old?

Most people hate the old age mechanic, and most people think that taking a death scale on your pretender is a no brainer. Is there a correlation?

The tiny amount of benefit you get for not having your mages get diseased with a growth scale in no way offsets the massive 120 point cost of the scale. A lack of disease won't even start to have effects till ~14 turns into the game, long after the critical initial expansion is over. The scale needs a lot more early game benefit before it would be worthwhile.

[Tuidjy]

I like the old age mechanics, but I think that it needs to be balanced cost wise.
Humans have poor stats, and age quickly. Ok, fine, but that's offset by their
quick reproduction, thus human mages should be at least a bit cheaper than similar
Vanir / Abysians / Nagas.

Furthermore, I think that just as some mages are recruited a bit older than most,
some mages should be recruited a bit healthier than most, and have their old age
trigger point delayed.

And finally, I would love to see an item that _reverses_ the aging process. I.e.
each year will make the mage one year younger.

I am talking about balance, because Pythium, which was my stronger nation in
Dominions II seems to have fallen down quite a few rings down the ladder due
to old age. There are plenty of other good nations, and I just realized that
all of my favorite nations (EA Arco, LA Man and C'tis) are old age nations.
So old age can't be that much of a game breaker, can it?

[llamabeast]

Okay, thanks to Edi's pointing out the aging mechanics, and a bit more thought on my part, we now have a new, tweaked "Reduced old age" mod.

The changes are:
- Before I misunderstood how fire magic affected old age, resulting in, e.g. funny ages for the Abysians
- All previously old units are now roughly 8% below their maxage on average. I've found this gives a moderate rate of old age randomly occurring - so like Xietor says, there will occasionally be an old unit, but they won't all be old. Previously all units were just 4-5 years below their maxages, which... well, it's not very interesting, but lets just say it was a bit wrong.

So basically it's just a bit more consistent.

[llamabeast]

And here, for the real hardcore old-age haters, is a "no old age" mod, where all units are at least 25% below their maxage. You should never see old age any more with this mod, I think (magic aside).