Getting stronger?

[Piscator]

I guess a future skill system could include the degradation of unused skills, so that people would become naturally bad at certain skills with time when they don't work to keep in shape.

I'm against generally decreasing skills for old chars though. Old chars are already quite rare as it is, since the age of the average Cantrian is already limited by ooc factors, and we don't need to further discurage growing old.

[Cogliostro]

Growing old happens, we can't encourage or discourage it.

We were talking about the decline of combat skills and strength only.

[FiziKx]

Say, how old CAN one get in Cantr?

[Cogliostro]

No limits so far.

[FiziKx]

lol interesting. who was the oldest recorded character?

[Dudel]

I guess a future skill system could include the degradation of unused skills, so that people would become naturally bad at certain skills with time when they don't work to keep in shape.

This would work on so many levels because quickly you would get craftsmen and specialists.

I'm against generally decreasing skills for old chars though. Old chars are already quite rare as it is, since the age of the average Cantrian is already limited by ooc factors, and we don't need to further discurage growing old.

Yeah but a "few" people (hint hint at someone in the thread) don't grasp this. Age should have benefits as well as disadvantages if you're gonna do such things. Gotta make it worth for ALL PLAYERS that having a long living character is a good thing cause there is a "small portion" of the community, currently, who are only looking for bloodshed and as one of their spokesmen has said, "War is a young man's game" so I doubt they care how old their characters actually get.

[Piscator]

Growing old happens, we can't encourage or discourage it.

Of course you can. You can always stop growing old the one way or other.

[Mr. Black]

My first thought was 'suicide', but then of course, there is that one theory that proposes that shots of serotonin would seriously increase lifespan and stop aging.

[Chasing Dingoes]

RE: rl v cantr
If real life was that great why would we be wasting it on a game?


RE: older people with skills
There is a character I know that's older and skilled that yes, seem unrealist but the character is played beautifully and the image this character clearly has of themself is clearly less heroic than the present (at least to my character) and it's human at it's purest.


RE: degrading skills
I like the idea of skills you don't use going down over a matter of time but for this to come in to affect i would hope gain skills would increase slightly. Not enough for skilling to become common practice but enough for people taking on specialies. Interested could affect intratown town trade be affected.

RE: all the REs
Either I'm be pretendious or I'm too lazy to quote the right bits... maybe both.

[Cogliostro]

In order to motivate the appearance of specialties in the most basic way (which can be done even without changing anything else) we'd need to look at the difference between the awkward speed-of-work and the expert one. If I'm not mistaken it's only about a 2x difference right now between awkward and expert. That is too little to cause any real specialization. If it was more around 5x - then we would see it. Let's say we kept the current speed-of-work constant, and instead just reduced how "good" awkward workers are by 5x, and on a sliding scale for the rest of them, up to expert, which gets to stay as now.
Now expert workers actually would matter. A lot.

[Ryaga]

I guess a future skill system could include the degradation of unused skills, so that people would become naturally bad at certain skills with time when they don't work to keep in shape.

I'm against generally decreasing skills for old chars though. Old chars are already quite rare as it is, since the age of the average Cantrian is already limited by ooc factors, and we don't need to further discourage growing old.

I don't think that's discouraging at all. I know when my characters start hitting 60 and 70 they'll start getting creaky bones and age spots, not running off to kill people.

I think that just adds more RP opportunities.

[Piscator]

Well, then just do it. Why hardcode it?

[Ryaga]

Well, then just do it. Why hardcode it?

Because there are 100 year olds running around swinging battle axes.

[Cogliostro]

Because the effects of growing old do not exit in Cantr, the majority of players ignore their character's age most of the time. It's not just a number, it's an important motivator for societal role differentiation that has long been recognized as key by sociobiologists.

Studies carried out before the age of political correctness by Konrad Lorenz (great chap, formerly Nazi SS) on baboon societies show very clearly that one of the primary evolutionary questions for the alpha males of the tribe is how to maintain power and control while growing physically feeble with time.

The degree of success accomplished by each alpha male in solving this natural problem easily outweighs all other factors and determines his social "longevity". Those unable to solve it, even if they were glorious and terrible in their day, fall by the wayside as useless, feeble outcasts. Now you may be thinking that in human society it's all completely different because we have morals. That's a mistaken unscientific view, because actually it's all exactly the same. What most don't know is that even the baboons also have "morals", those are the very same social adaptations engendered by the aging alpha males to control the rest of the population and steer it in ways advantageous to themselves. When they manage it, they can prosper well into old age, with much stronger, young individuals kowtowing to them, the best females all at their disposal, etc. etc.

This is done by means of ideology and ritualized psychological domination of the rest of baboon society that these aged alphas carry out through special intermediaries, a caste of dedicated warriors sworn to protect them and kept deliberately powerless to make decisions of their own. It's very interesting stuff! Just a little historical/biological context for the discussion.

I'm not saying that the introduction of negative effects of old age will suddenly cause that level of complexity in Cantr. It won't, because the vast majority of people roleplay "consciously" only. They have no idea about roleplaying or exhibiting the unconscious aspects of a character and the unconscious effect of the world upon the character, both of which would be necessary to have such societies emerge. Enfeeblement in old age will for sure annoy players who want to carry on powergaming like before and see no point in playing anything else. But since it's "hardcoded" in there, the inevitable will make them think about what they intend to do once they can no longer powergame with the same group of buddies. If they can't solve that problem which even baboons solve, then they might indeed quit, but I don't know if that will be such a huge loss for Cantr on the whole, or actually the opposite?

[Joshuamonkey]

The point of training is so that you're permanently better at a skill when you get older. I know at least one character of mine who has increased fighting skill through training. The 20 years is worth it if you live another 60 years after that.

But since it's "hardcoded" in there, the inevitable will make them think about what they intend to do once they can no longer powergame with the same group of buddies. If they can't solve that problem which even baboons solve, then they might indeed quit, but I don't know if that will be such a huge loss for Cantr on the whole, or actually the opposite?

I'd consider that a loss, though I wouldn't mind feeble that much, as long as we can live forever. Since characters need to learn things IC, it's nice to have characters that know everything, and not have to relearn it. Plus, old characters adds a "cool" aspect to Cantr. I think most players would be interested in meeting a 200 year old character.

5x would be a bit crazy, and would almost turn Cantr into a leveling up game. 2x increase is significant, but I like the idea of adding more specialization to the game. I've had characters work on the same type of project for decades. Shouldn't they be extra expert at it? I like that part of the skills system.