Aging

[Falzaek]

in that case, its their problem, isn\'t it? this game doesn\'t need quantity of players, it need squality.

Besides, sutch \"saving\" wouldn\'t work. They\'d still eventualy meet the inevitable, unless they stopped playing altoghether. their total playing hours wouldn\'t change, only the way they spread out their plauying time.

EDIT: and there\'s no sutch thing as an RP event. The whole game is an RP event. If they only RP on special occasios, they\'re not wanted.

[zanzibar]

Originally posted by Falzaek
in that case, its their problem, isn\'t it? this game doesn\'t need quantity of players, it need squality.

Besides, sutch \"saving\" wouldn\'t work. They\'d still eventualy meet the inevitable, unless they stopped playing altoghether. their total playing hours wouldn\'t change, only the way they spread out their plauying time.

By RPers, I\'m refering to the quality players.

Originally posted by Falzaek
and there\'s no sutch thing as an RP event.

If you say so.

[Falzaek]

a \"quality\" player wouldn\'t be fazed by inevidable death. a quality player would use this as a roleplay device, instead of a penalty. and what the hell do you mean by an RP event? it\'s bugging me, because I could be wrong about the \"no sutch thing\" comment (and I\'m not saying that as in \'i\'m always right\" more a \"i may have made a mistake there... let me fix it\"). but the wole game is (or is ment to be) a roleplaying experience.

[Karyuu]

The whole game is a roleplaying experience, but there are actual RP events (quests and the like) run by the GM and RM team, which tend to be more immersive than your usual day in Yliakum.

I still loathe this idea.

[Nikodemus]

Some people here say we should have agening to improve realism. But you know what? You lie to yourselves or try to trick others.
The whole purpose of this agening is your need to eliminate too powerfull characters. Nothing more.
You write about realism, but you wan\'t the life time to be incredibly low. You don\'t even want to base it on in-game clock. This is not the realism what you are talking about.
From one extreme you lead to another, and there will be consequences which you ignore or don\'t want to see.

Originally posted by zanzibar
More likely, the RPers will spend less time online to \"save\" their character for RP events.

[Falzaek]

No, It would HAVE to be based on an in-game clock. And it\'ll take time and effort to find a workable scale. I DEFINATLY would want it to be based on an in-game clock.

Directly @ Nikodemus: chill out, get a beer, relax. No need to get paranoid here.

[Karyuu]

*nods in agreement to Nikodemus*

What this idea brings to mind is the turning of PlaneShift into one giant race - who can achieve the most before death, who can be the most powerful, who can \"reincarnate\" back enough times to be a successful master at almost any skill, and etc. This is not the fun that I envision. I don\'t want to play a game where my every second is a countdown to a permanent death of something I have poured my imagination into. I want to relax and have fun at my own pace. And if I do, playing a few hours every week, while my friends play daily, how much sense will it make to see them age faster, while our characters are living in the same world, with the same laws? What sort of realism is this? And if we choose an in-game clock and something happens to the player (illness, computer issues, etc.) and he or she is not able to access the game world for an extended period of time against their will, how much fun will it be to return and see their character age years without any influence whatsoever?

There is a point of realism overkill. We play games to escape reality, our own mortality included. The only permanent death that I want to see is that which is chosen by the players behind the characters. Otherwise, life is too much of a race against time as is.

Please let it slow down sometimes.

[Falzaek]

I don\'t think we\'re sujesting permenant death anymore. more like a significant time spent in the lower DR working out how to get out before you expire (RP terms, not real game). as well as a significant loss in combat skills, stats but not so significant loss in job and magical skills (magic because it \"clings\" to you and job because you\'re body \"remembers\" even if your mind doesn\'t)

[Karyuu]

Significant loss of combat skills, but not jobs because your body remembers them? Talk to any trained fighter sometime :P They\'ll tell you what their bodies remember.

[Falzaek]

overlooked that... maybe just a significant loss of stats (race normal + 10%) and a less significant loss to jobs, magical ad combat skills (say 30% loss). but we agree that the actual AGEING side is good? we seem to be concentrating on death alot here...

[Karyuu]

How will it be timed? How many cosmetic \"stages\" will the character go through?

And most importantly, is this really necessary at all? The basic point behind the suggestion, as I\'m interpreting it now, is to make players take the lives of their characters with a greater solemnity - and the main \"fix\" you\'re suggesting is to increase the difficulty of the Death Realm, which is already planned.

[Falzaek]

That seems to be a by-product. What I am proposeing is a system where a character slowly ages, and eventualy dies. when he dies of old age, \"Death\" (or wahtever) would prefer to keep him dead, as his time has come, and  the character is taken to a very specal section of the death realm, that requires either a reserrection, or a compleation of a series of dificult quests/riddles to go back into the overworld to continue life for another lifetime (this doesn\'t mean the character resets to a young boy/girl but continues on as an old man/women with an extended lifespan). The penalty for coming back to this world would be a loss of stats (normal race + 10-20%) and a low loss of skills (10-20 % loss).

The ageing would be divided as follows:

Adolessense (16-19 human, 90-100 elf, 35-40 dwarf, 400-450 rock giant thingy): -3 on inteligence and wisdom, but a +2 on strength, Aglity, and Endurance

Young Adulthood(20-27 human, 100-120 elf, 40-45 dwarf, 450-490 rock giant thingy): -1 on intelligence and wisdom, other modifiers remain

Adult(28-50 human, 120-155 elf, 46-60 dwarf, 491-511 rock giant thingy): everything evens out to normal. longest time

Old age(51-59 human, 156-160 elf, 61-70 dwarf, 512-530 rock giant thingy): +2 on inteligence and wisdom, -2 on Strength, agility and endurance

Eldar(60-65 human, 161-173 elf, 71-80 dwarf, 531-570 rock giant thingy): +4 on intelligence and wisdom, -5 on Strength, agility and Endurance

Venerable(65-death human, 174-death elf, 81-death dwarf, 571-death rock giant thingy : + 8 on inteligence and wisdom, -15 on strength and agility, - 18 on endurance

Death: death occours at a random time after the begining of the venerable stage. minium 10% of inital age (eg, minimum 1.6 years ino vereability for a human, ect.)

when the charcter comes back from the DR, the aperance remains the same, but young adult and adolessense are abolished, instead the character has an extended adulthood.

Good?

[Karyuu]

*rubs her chin* xD A few more questions.

...go back into the overworld to continue life for another lifetime (this doesn\'t mean the character resets to a young boy/girl but continues on as an old man/women with an extended lifespan)

I don\'t like the idea of continuing playing the game (over and over, after the first initial death) with an elderly looking character. Either all of the life stages before the last are really long (you haven\'t addressed the how-will-this-be-timed issue) or the characters will get to choose what stage they want to come back as. Moreover, not all elders (I daresay, not even most) get \"intelligence bonuses\" in old age :P In fact, the majority of them suffer from \"penalties.\"

But again, I am mostly curious about the timing issue of it all.

[Falzaek]

think about the mysterious characters of fantasy. gandalf the grey is a good example; he has magicly cheated death, but he doen\'t look like a sprite young man, now does he?
i\'ve edited my post with the apropriate stages now. the actual translation of playing time to game time will require time and effort from the developers, myself, and karyuu (chose them as the For, agaisnt and the people who know the game) IF it\'s decided to be implemented (pleasepleasepleaseplease)

EDIT: \"with age comes wisdom\" to a certin extent. maybe veneralbe could have certin penalties, but eldar and old should keep their bonuses)

[Karyuu]

Well, we don\'t really know the actual life-spans of any of the races beyond the human, and even that could be different in Yliakum ;) What I meant in terms of timing is how you are going to measure when it\'s time for the next \"stage of age.\" What sort of in-game clock are you proposing, and if not an in-game clock, then what, and with as much detail as you can manage :)

*edit* And again, I would hate playing an elderly looking character for the majority of my stay here. I\'m sure I\'m far from the only one to feel this way.