Old Age

[Ryaga]

I think time should be sped up, and a general age limit being added, with each year's passing a chance of the character dying of 'old age' increases. I'd also like to see sickness being more detrimental to the older aged.

I think a large problem with Cantr is stagnance, and stagnance occurs because everyone has everything that they need, and the societies and everything are locked because of the established old people.

Another problem is everyone can do what they need to do. Could be have skills redone or something so most everyone is average or mediocre at everything with one or two skills unusually better than others?

Cantr seems very linear, stagnant, and 'set-up' at this point. Killing off the older generations might upset a few but it'll create a lot of new opportunities for the other players.

[Chasing Dingoes]

Then what's the point of form attachment and taking care of our characters only to have them taken away cruelly by 'the hand of fate.' Isn't that one of the downsides of pets and ...and the interaction with other human beings (though for that i struggle to see an upside)

[Piscator]

Sorry, but I'm very strongly against this. Investing three years into a character only to get the message "you died in your sleep, please try again" is more than cruel. Very few players have enough time to constantly play a char for several years, so most of them die at an earlier age anyway.

I think a large problem with Cantr is stagnance, and stagnance occurs because everyone has everything that they need, and the societies and everything are locked because of the established old people.

This is at least partly true. But old people are not the problem. The problem is that an item (building, vehicle, whatever) stays in the game for an idefinite amount of time (if you do not seriously neclect it). That's why everybody has what he needs and more.
Randomly killing off old people will only make the problem worse, giving you enough equipment for three in an instance. Old chars are also the only thing that gives at least some stability to Cantrian societies.

[SekoETC]

Killing old characters without the player's consent is certainly out of the question. However it would be interesting if skills and strength degenerated when they are not used. They should also develop faster and it should be possible to train strength and fighting without hitting a live target. Some people could be talented in some things and learn them faster but I think everyone should start out approximately equal.

It would also be good if items could break into components and would need to be reassembled. That would make more sense than things simply crumbling into dust. Some things could break into resources but for example if you had a metal hammer, it wouldn't make much sense for the head to vanish even though the wooden shaft could be seen breaking into useless wood chips.

[tiddy ogg]

Kill off my old chars like that, you kill my account... and I'm sure I'm not the only one. We need more players, not fewer.

[Cogliostro]

You guys... never able to separate the good points of a suggestion and the negative in-game effect it may bring to your particular character. You should really work on that, instead of being all "do that and I quit and bang the door!".

On the topic itself, I think everyone agrees that Cantrian elders should be elders, not the same people as they were in their youth. Maybe that will give some of you a clue to play them differently, not the way you did when they were 20 or 30 years old.

What you're calling your "investment" in a character should really have been your enjoyment of them, every step of the way. The goal of Cantr is surely not in maintaining eternally the powerhungry "destination" of now being 90 and holding all the keys of a town since everybody else has simply died.

Example: I've met Nick MacGregor with one of my characters. He's got to be older than 120 now, but he's still running all over the place fueled solely by testosterone and its attendant violent power-fantasy. The game doesn't even hint to him, currently, that such behaviour might be a bit out of place for an elder like him. So it goes on! If combat skill declined after 50, and sharply after 60, maybe the player of that character would have to rethink how he positioned himself, and try to create a loyal, renewable army of young people, instead of a handful of trusted accomplices just as old as he himself.

Characters don't necessarily have to outright die from age, but some measures like that to limit the old guys would be both interesting and useful for the game world to stay vibrant.

[Ryaga]

You guys... never able to separate the good points of a suggestion and the negative in-game effect it may bring to your particular character. You should really work on that, instead of being all "do that and I quit and bang the door!".

On the topic itself, I think everyone agrees that Cantrian elders should be elders, not the same people as they were in their youth. Maybe that will give some of you a clue to play them differently, not the way you did when they were 20 or 30 years old.

What you're calling your "investment" in a character should really have been your enjoyment of them, every step of the way. The goal of Cantr is surely not in maintaining eternally the powerhungry "destination" of now being 90 and holding all the keys of a town since everybody else has simply died.

Example: I've met Nick MacGregor with one of my characters. He's got to be older than 120 now, but he's still running all over the place fueled solely by testosterone and its attendant violent power-fantasy. The game doesn't even hint to him, currently, that such behaviour might be a bit out of place for an elder like him. So it goes on! If combat skill declined after 50, and sharply after 60, maybe the player of that character would have to rethink how he positioned himself, and try to create a loyal, renewable army of young people, instead of a handful of trusted accomplices just as old as he himself.

Characters don't necessarily have to outright die from age, but some measures like that to limit the old guys would be both interesting and useful for the game world to stay vibrant.

Stated amazingly.

[SekoETC]

It would've been okay if people had known from the beginning that life is limited and they need to organize things so that the society won't fall after your death. But suddenly imposing an age limit and killing off old characters who haven't had time to prepare for it would be retarded. You obviously don't have any old characters or you would understand. Too bad we can't make an alternate Cantr and see how things would develop if all the old folks suddenly dropped dead, or became so weak that they couldn't defend themselves. I think it would lead into a friggen anarchy. There have also been suggestions to limit the strength and skills of newspawns, make them children so that they would have to rely on the help of the older folks but newbies are like "no, I want everything NOW! Of course I know everything best, screw their years of life experience, just give me resources and vehicles and I'll build the best society ever!" No wonder there's no culture in Cantr because no one ever wants to maintain what their ancestors built, they just want to build everything themselves and write their own laws.

[Ryaga]

It would've been okay if people had known from the beginning that life is limited and they need to organize things so that the society won't fall after your death. But suddenly imposing an age limit and killing off old characters who haven't had time to prepare for it would be retarded. You obviously don't have any old characters or you would understand. Too bad we can't make an alternate Cantr and see how things would develop if all the old folks suddenly dropped dead, or became so weak that they couldn't defend themselves. I think it would lead into a friggen anarchy. There have also been suggestions to limit the strength and skills of newspawns, make them children so that they would have to rely on the help of the older folks but newbies are like "no, I want everything NOW! Of course I know everything best, screw their years of life experience, just give me resources and vehicles and I'll build the best society ever!" No wonder there's no culture in Cantr because no one ever wants to maintain what their ancestors built, they just want to build everything themselves and write their own laws.

Or because there's no need to ever maintain it when the older people are still around to shove it down your throat and maintain it for you.

[Cogliostro]

Maybe dishing out random death to the old guys is a bit harsh though. Very few of them make it to that age, Cantr filters them itself, so we can honour that by not having any "natural reaper" in the game to kill them off on autopilot. But their strength and combat skills should decline, and they should get prone to sickness, and on the bright side, get really good at baking cookies and giving blessings onto things.

[SekoETC]

At least my characters often get moments or periods of weakness and pass over responsibilities to other people, but they don't permanently give up power because whole hell breaks loose and it leads into having to change the locks from the whole town. Some places have responsible young people that can be trusted but sometimes I get the feeling like most everybody must be played by some teenagers who are prone to mood swings and might quit Cantr if they fall in love or get too busy in school or if someone insults them OOC. I generally don't trust people who have unsubbed in the past unless it happened years back and they have been playing solidly ever since. So it's basically recycling power between oldbies. If you want your characters to get responsibilities, act like responsible adults. Some of my characters have a lot of weapons in storage but I wouldn't want to give them to characters who act like a child or ones who bicker all day long over little personal matters.

I think it's better to encourage old people to rp an aging process and rely on younger people's help if suitable young people are available, but people shouldn't be forced to it by mechanics. Not all old people in real life are fragile either. There's this old woman on my mother's side of the family who's almost 100 years old and some years back she complained that a doctor had forbidden her from jumping rope. Also I read in a magazine an article about an old woman who does push-ups and sit-ups each morning. I felt like gee, that old lady is more fit than I am!

Also, old people already have a disadvantage in that it takes them about 8 times as long to recover from the eating sickness. As I said in my earlier post, it would make sense if people got weak when they don't work out, but if there were these old ladies who jump rope and do push-ups each morning, they would maintain their health much longer than the ones that just sit in a rocking chair and knit socks. Fighting skill shouldn't necessarily decrease all that much because expertise is a lot about strategy, but a reduction of strength would make sense.

[Ryaga]

Maybe dishing out random death to the old guys is a bit harsh though. Very few of them make it to that age, Cantr filters them itself, so we can honour that by not having any "natural reaper" in the game to kill them off on autopilot. But their strength and combat skills should decline, and they should get prone to sickness, and on the bright side, get really good at baking cookies and giving blessings onto things.

:3 I'm so glad my granny is still around. She makes me cookies.

[Ryaga]

At least my characters often get moments or periods of weakness and pass over responsibilities to other people, but they don't permanently give up power because whole hell breaks loose and it leads into having to change the locks from the whole town. Some places have responsible young people that can be trusted but sometimes I get the feeling like most everybody must be played by some teenagers who are prone to mood swings and might quit Cantr if they fall in love or get too busy in school or if someone insults them OOC. I generally don't trust people who have unsubbed in the past unless it happened years back and they have been playing solidly ever since. So it's basically recycling power between oldbies. If you want your characters to get responsibilities, act like responsible adults. Some of my characters have a lot of weapons in storage but I wouldn't want to give them to characters who act like a child or ones who bicker all day long over little personal matters.

I think it's better to encourage old people to rp an aging process and rely on younger people's help if suitable young people are available, but people shouldn't be forced to it by mechanics. Not all old people in real life are fragile either. There's this old woman on my mother's side of the family who's almost 100 years old and some years back she complained that a doctor had forbidden her from jumping rope. Also I read in a magazine an article about an old woman who does push-ups and sit-ups each morning. I felt like gee, that old lady is more fit than I am!

Also, old people already have a disadvantage in that it takes them about 8 times as long to recover from the eating sickness. As I said in my earlier post, it would make sense if people got weak when they don't work out, but if there were these old ladies who jump rope and do push-ups each morning, they would maintain their health much longer than the ones that just sit in a rocking chair and knit socks. Fighting skill shouldn't necessarily decrease all that much because expertise is a lot about strategy, but a reduction of strength would make sense.

I think the amount of anarchy you estimate is accurate only for the first month or so. When the smart, stronger characters got power the sand would settle a bit more again, though power shifts would probably occur a bit more though.

[SekoETC]

There's already anarchy all over the place after some people have quit. There are lots of empty towns but people are just looting buildings and stashing it on their pirate galleons instead of trying to (re)build towns. Then people who try to rebuild towns and share wealth as a bonus get killed by assholes who would rather have all the junk sit in the storage rooms like in the good old days.

[Arenti]

Why do people keep suggesting things that will make people angry or annoyed when implented?.... I'm sure there are things that can be suggested to actually improve the game and not just because it's more realistic.