Character age appearances

[Burns]

I think that this 'age' might be somewhat problematic to add to roleplay as it is right now, because i can't find a reasonable way to connect things that happen in normal gameplay and 'getting older' very well.

Normally, age brings wisdom, but old age (talking 70+) also brings a sort of fragility. In MD, your character always gets stronger and stronger, never weaker. The longer we play, the more AP we get, which would translate to jumping higher. Our creatures get bigger and stronger, so we punch harder. Our VE pools and stats keep growing, too. Generally, the older player will have an advantage over the younger player.

You could very well argue that we're all just 'souls' floating around, so higher age makes higher wisdom, and that makes us better at pretty much everything. If that's your argument, though, i can't see how 90 or 100 should be the 'life expectancy', why would a floaty soul constantly get better at everything and then, one day, lie down and die?

[Muratus del Mur]

Its very interesting to read your reaction to this and understand your arguments. Getting older brings that fragility burns talks about, but it is regarding the only things that you "have" ..and you don't have a body. Getting older brings memory and adaptation issues. When ancient characters show the fossilization effects...they live in the past and have a bad memory or understanding of the present. Fossilization effects are when you are a long time player but not so active anymore, just from time to time, yet your attitude is not that of a new one, willing and ressourceful but rather lazy and with the impression you know everything just because you are older or because you once knew. Becomming a "fossil" both in rl and in md are very similar. 

The life expectancy makes sense because your "soul" does not die at 100y it just "departs". In md the body is less real so to say,..its a delicate statement i know. So, as a visitor of the md world, your age represents you comming and going away, not necessarily getting born or dieing. Makes more sense now?

Not judging minors same with adults might have interesting side effect, in this way the new players would get much more understanding when doing bad things. ..BUT lets not forget that this is mainly a cultural thing and that you can't assume that in a world with different cultural roots minors would be treated differently or the age yo be considered a minor could be significantly different. Its like yhis ecen between cultures, so between realities it could be a lot different and still in the same spirit.

The example of Assira is what i worry most. When this age would affect your role or you would have other role related influences that would make sense to be applied , not just because you selected them from a dropdown or because you are in the mood for it to be different, but because you actually played a role or did things that where powerful enough to turn it into reality.

I would not feel good to know someone has to fake it to survive..but it would also make sense that things around you are not as you believe them to be. For example you could velieve you are 10y old when in fact you could be a 70y old delusional lady.

I have two option, actually more..

Add a modifier per player and allow customized influences tailored per player, and earned through wishes ... Or keep the age hidden and let you pretend as you wish.

What do you think about a customizable age formula vased on a powerful wish. This should be rare because fighting old age is not easy

Idk yet if to add this to md or not. ..conceptually speaking...because technically its already there, but i can remove it if i decide not to use it, or change it or whatecer, nothing is fixed..it will adapt till it fits or go away.

 I will continue reading what you think and make a decision soon

 

Thabk you all

 

 

 

[Syrian]

i dont like it, i think it goes against many peoples opinions and character designs, and i dont think implementing it forcibly and telling people to wish for it to get rid of it is a positive way to go about it

[phantasm]

As seems to be the common reply against, the main factor is age of the character before MD.  When Phantasm came to MD he was already "an old soul".  Then after his death in the storm he became almost like dust in the wind.  His stats are hugely in the negative, and can hardly build heat.  So in theory Phantasm is really alot older then his age would state.  I like your idea of being "a delusional old lady who thinks she is 10", but it does bring added issues to some role players.  I think if age were added into the game as a "fact" then there should be some sort of equivalence to its actions.  If DST is really 80 then she should only be able to move like an 80 year old.  So many scenes per minute or something like that.  Then where do we draw the line of conditions that age brings.  As you said with "age death" what happens when someone reaches that point.  Do they die and be "reborn" as a new char having to start all over? 

[Change]

I think it could work better than some people think. After all, appearance does not necessarily equal age (take the example of immortals, spirits, vampires, etc.). Change is 8 years old appearance wise, but she might be 'preserved' like that no matter how long she sticks around, given that she's a spirit.

However, I still think it needlessly makes roleplay less flexible. While apparent age and true age are interesting ideas, using a formula to calculate true age only reduces roleplay possibilities.

As for negative and positive effects from age in MD... I'm not sure about this. Considering we're all spirits, age could either strengthen us and our presence or weaken us--it depends on our actions. Thus a 100 year old spirit could either be insanely strong, or very weak and just holding on.

[Aethon]

I would make it almost like Benjamin Button (good book, have a read if you haven't) and state that anyone <1 year agewise is automatically classed as 90 years old.(Sounds weird, but there's method to my madness...though I may lack the maths capabilities to describe.)

If a player dies at or <61 AD, then their MD age should be considered 90 just for mechanic's sake.

With that in mind if you AVG the active Vet (Dst @ 2980/90) and then a noob of 1 day ([Insert Name]*90) you receive quite a nice, equal building block for how age should be tracked.

Quote

 

Dst: 2980/90= 33.31

Noob: 1*90= 90

(33.31+90)/2 = 61.55 

 

This would mean that every 62 days a player gains 1 year on their age, meaning people like Dst would be 48 and players like me (just under 1 year AD) would be around 5 years old.

To put it simply, 1 year out of game would equate to around 6 years in game.

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I'm not really sure how to word any of this so I hope someone sees the track I'm on and may be able to me word it clearer?

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You could also factor in days inactive by a relatively similar method and then averaging (as people still age when they sleep...) but that would be more complicated.

 

Hopefully someone understands this!

[Muratus del Mur]

First, i am not at all interested in any new opinion about an other formula to calculate this, thank you.

About all this... i think i will narrow this down to a vote afterall. I see you give opinions both pro and contra, so ..decide, vote wil be just for yes or no

As i said i have no issue with deleting iti rushed to do it first before talking about it because i was not sure i can come up with a way of calculating age while still not getting absurd values in 10 years of now, or predictable values based on active days and such, because age is not proportional to activity afterall. On my side i am happy i discovered a way to do such a thing, its first time i face such a problem and it was a pleasure to do it even if just experimental.

 

Ok, so vote. Voting won't last long.

 

 

 

 

[Muratus del Mur]

note about the medal, the challenge is valid just until the voting ends. Anyone sending something about this after will not receive the reward.

[Muratus del Mur]

 

[Muratus del Mur]

update, if it gets implemented the values might be different, not sure if the formula remains as it is, its quite good actually, but i am thinking even to extreme things such as making the life expectancy 1000years and then have other kind of ages, more in the realm of fantasy than these. If i put the life expectancy at 65-70 years as it would be for humans in medium to low developed areas (md is more like a countryside ) then the outcome is shocking. Idk why shocking, but i just felt when seeing the values as if they where ultra accurate, i felt strange ...

chew you can see these values in admin now, dont make public

i really felt that if would be a human in md that would be my age, and that of some around me, strange, glad i am not human.

well here is the problem! same like me, that i dont feel this age is relevant to my role as a DEMON, others could find themselves in stupid situations due to this. Again i am the best examples for this, imagine for example an ancient account like the shade sentinel (long gone but still a good example), to say its 55y old , lol

 

so, as i said i am 50/50 for this, i have things to say for both sides. I try to understand your side, you try to understand mine, but what i want to know now before continuing, is the overall question, should i bother with this debate any longer or not. Vote so i know if it will be implemented or removed.

Thanks

[Assira the Black]

The fossilization effect that Mur described above (tried quoting using my phone but it would not quote the selection just the first word -.-), points out the idea of aging the already exists in MD but I do not think it can be represented by numbers. The age impliementation may affect how new players view the system, but the players that are here I think would not grow or change from it. It would just be a number that has no hold. We have already eatablished characters and they already have a certain feel or age to them. Some do not rp and play as themselves. Others play a specific aspect of themselves. 

 

For example, Legna (Child of Time) represents apart of myself that never got to be a child. So playing Legna allows me to be silly, child-like, and a bit selfish. Legna is locked not only in age but is also unable to grow mentally/emotionally. I try to keep Legna as much the same as when she first became child of time. Which is why it is hard to play her at times... That and it takes more energy. As Legna even in alliances Legna would avoid responsibilities. She wants to help but will often fall through (sometimes due to me taking on too much due to playing as Assira).

 

Assira changes over time, adapts, grows, has ambition, and ages as I do. She represents apart of my current self and changes because of that. Sometimes changes in the opposite of current self. Assira is 'dead pan', has standard phrases or actions, and often seems unchanging in these actions. But Assira pushes forward with ideas and actions. I have her age as I do because she is both a shadow and reflection of myself. There was a time in MD that Assira laughed and smiled... Occassionally. But over time she changed as I did. 

 

So while it would be possible to play Legna as a delusional old woman could be possible... It would make Legna no longer exist. Legna would no longer be legna, the happy energy filled child but would be the crazy old bat.

 

Assira's age is not as set as Legnas and I would play Assira the same way. Though that would mainly be because Assira would still change as I do and a number would not change that. I have the age reflect the connection of me and Assira but it is not required. 

 

If you were starting a completely new game with new characters/players, I can see where the potiential and affect on the game that this could be. It would be interesting to see where it would lead. But you are dealing with already established characters that may have a few years invested in. As some have said, their characters have back stories that help mold the clay that will take form in md. These backstories give an age or feel to the character upon starting out.  So while md may say that the character is 8 years old, it could conflict with the age of the character in the backstory... The foundation of the character. 

 

For example Assira's backstory is that she became the shaman for a tribe. It was a time of war and she had to do something to kill the other tribe at the age of 19. These times of chaos and war, is what leads to Assira wanting chaos or more active times. She gets bored/ restless and so is always working towards something. Over her time in md she has realized that to have a strong chaotic episode... Things have to be stable in other ways... To have order of some sort. Otherwise things are destroyed. This is a more natural way of ageing/changing or more natural way of character development.

 

I think that having md age implimented insuch away would limit character development of the current population. For new players in a new game it may act a guide to help bring about the next stage of growth. But in md there are already natural stages that have been devloped that this number system would not fit in, in my opinion. 

[Jubaris]

Well I for one like being 63 year old lol...

I don't think an interpretation of active days is needed, although I like playing such RL parallel/approximation games.

The fact that you needed to speed up time in our late 2000s considerably shows how this is a bit tendentious, no? 

Other than that, a bit offtopic, I agree about Dst's bias boosters. Nationalities (please remove flags faster than soon :P), RL pictures, their age, etc, all influence opinion on MD character aside its MD activities, and I don't want to be tainted with that.

There's a trend for MD features to be 'doubled' by another feature. Medals and achievements, this, battle equipment and items, etc, I think it shouldn't be that way but maybe I am wrong

Edited May 3, 2016 by Jubaris

[Menhir]

For me its perfect ... means 27 is the way I feel in RL and see my character ingame too. 

[MRWander]

i think it'd be better for achievements then character age maybe add an auto fossil medal and just do gold fossil medals for the awards ceremonies

[Muratus del Mur]

How this age will be integrated and what other stuff can be determined based on it its something i will think about only if and after the voting ends. There is no point in discussing how to integrate it if i am not sure if it will be implemented yet.

[Mallos]

Falronn

22/47 (x1.4) Yrs

1001/1974

Falronn being my alt I feel that is a decent age for him to be (Falronn is a "dwarf" and ages slower than humans and dies later, I considered him in his 40s when I started playing), but I started acting near that age earlier than I would have had I created my character that old. I feel like most people would ignore this age/rating system and favor their own devices when considering roleplay. But both Falronn and Mallos got 22 which is how old I am currently. I think the formula is a good one but maybe a bit polarized for the young/old.

I still feel like this idea could be implemented.

[Tom Pouce]

My previous post was "sanitized" thats ok
I just hope that MUR was able to read it before.
I tought that MUR wanted and deserve honest feedback on that subject.

My one liner post was worth many paragraphes.

MD asset "was" an sandbox like journey, more so in play acting, any change that make restriction on that is debilating a fine game.

Any change that would make something like an life time limited character, is agains the previous MD thinking that an MD character is permanent ...

That age concept would be redondent to actual time relate game existing records like
- character creation date
- active days of an character
- character reference number that being sequential in its creation show old characters and young characters

.... and so forth

And MUR if you wonder why i did post ... i care for your game even that i dont play it now except near christmass wondering if confuse Santa will see me and give me an worthwile gift at christmass

Tom Pouce

Edited May 3, 2016 by Tom Pouce

[Prince Marvolo]

Marvolo is 61 - Cool. If I knew that I'd have saved up for them retirement funds...

[Seigheart]

I want to know my age...