game option/old age

[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.