Conceptual Balance (Discussion)

[JaydedOne]

Yeah, I agree that their old age might be a bit overboard, especially with the Death Resistance that I saw discussed earlier and the way it minimizes the use of the Growth scale to protect against. I know that some part of me was wondering why I was investing so heavily in mages when a full half of them were going to die sooner than later.

The other downside there is that Abysia really is an inflexible nation in terms of unit choices. Really, what else are you supposed to buy if NOT their mages?

[Nerfix]

Demonbreds (who are good) and, uh, Newts and Sanguine Acos who can cast, errrr, Combustion and Bleed...

[B0rsuk]

If I'm not mistaken, Fire path substracts exactly 5 years per level from max age. Demo doesn't let me examine Abysia unless I play against it...

[Nerfix]

Perhaps Fire magic is one reason for Abysia's age craziness, I'm not sure.

[Endoperez]

Nerfix said:
MA Abysia's A. Salamanders start Old with the age of 34(33). Their Warlock Apperentices also start Old with age of 35(35)...Their only reliable young mage is the Demonbred.

Late Era Abysia, I think that the Newst and Sanguine Apperentices are only ones who don't start as Old.

EA Warlocks also start with 35/35 years and Anathemant Dragons 35/32 years old, so using this logic EA Abysia could also be said to have no "reliably old" mages. They could always start young!

B0rsuk said:
If I'm not mistaken, Fire path substracts exactly 5 years per level from max age. Demo doesn't let me examine Abysia unless I play against it...

I think it's only 2, at least for human-types with 50 years of maxage. I think it is 5 years for e.g. Agarthans, though.

This doesn't affect Abysians, though. Maxage of Anathemant mages seems to be 32, despite the amount of Fire magic they have.

[curtadams]

Boots of Youth is not a fix for aging. Research is twice as difficult, sages are almost impossible to find (in 4 SP games I've seen one library), and most independent researchers require a lab and temple. With your good researchers old (and therefore not acceptable as researchers) you have to research with low-end researchers. It takes *forever* to get to Con 6 - 1040 research points with 4 point researchers is like bailing a bathtub with a teaspoon. It takes even longer if you want to have your mages *do* anything in the first 25 turns or so, because some have to come off the research line to, well, do something, and because you need to research whatever they're going to cast. My SP games are basically won by the time I get Con 6, and in MP, players will often be dead before that kind of stuff starts showing up.