Shattered Kingdoms

I was looking over 'help age' today, just to kind of figure out at what age races get their +int/wis bonuses, and I realized, it's kind of a short lived perk. Especially for having to play a character that long to get them.

Take humans for example, the most widely played race.

By 3/4ths age they are 68 years old, and they've got basically 5.5 months till they die, only the last 9 weeks do they enjoy the benefit of +2 int/wis. Two months may seem like a decent amount of time, but to just get to that first age mark, you have to have played the character for a year exactly, that's quite a chunk of time.

As for the long lived races...well you can forget about those bonuses anytime soon. Elves/Delves hit 3/4ths at a whopping 206 years of age. Meaning a character would have had to be played for 105 weeks, or OVER two years to see those benefits.

Even races like gnomes/dwarves/helves/sprites have to put in WELL over a year of playtime to see any sort of perk.

So what I propose is this. Implement a 2/3rds mark, just for aging purposes, at the 2/3rds mark characters recieve their first +1 int +1 wis bonus, and lose nothing stats wise in the physical attributes, those can still diminish at 1/2, 3/4ths, and 9/10ths. Then, at the 3/4ths mark, the characters recieve their second +1 int +1 wis bonus, and recieve nothing at the 9/10ths bonuses, because let's face it, at 9/10ths of your age, characters are starting to go senile, not gaining mental prowess. They're slipping if anything.

Even at 2/3rds age a player of a -short-lived- character will still had to have invested at a minimum 41 weeks of playtime(for griffons), which is 10 solid months of playing one character. On the long lived races, it's still well over a year. In a day and age were people are rerolling new characters before even hitting the first age tick, I think playing a character to 2/3rds of their maximum age should be a rewardable endeavor. Then they would get their final age bonus at 3/4ths of their total age, giving them the full +2 +2 bonus.

I don't think this is asking a lot really, if anything it might encourage players to stick around since they won't have to wait such a horrendously long time for that first perk for keeping a character so long. They'll just have to wait a relatively long time. The bonus stat points can't even be trained with mentor points, they have to be modded, which is another bummer. This will also allow characters to enjoy a bit more time with their intellectually improved character, instead of hitting that 9/10ths mark, getting to enjoy it for all of two months, then falling over dead.

OR you could get it at 1/2 which would make sense. Each time you get a negative you get a bonus.[/list]

Yeah, it's a world of give and take though. I figured I'd be flamed out of the park for recommending it at 1/2. :p

*super-flame!!!* /end joke

Seriously, aging needs to be looked at. Currently, if you are a melee class, you delete pretty soon after you hit your second tick since you become so weak in PvP that you don't want to do it. I don't think people would mind taking the hit to phys stats if there was something . . .anything for melee classes.

I've already started to lose interest in playing Oukilis after he aged just once. It's a noticeable difference in melee stats after you age, and you don't gain anything to the mental stats that help a bard.

Hrm, I disagree with you Sypher. Although I think that characters that live that long should have their maximums innately increase along with the bonus of receiving their aging bonuses rather than needing to modify them with equipment.

It's also [REDACTED] that stat points can't be invested into the new, higher int/wis/cha scores that your older character receives from being old.

I have been muling over an idea on enhancing aging. The name of this idea doesn't matter, it can be prestige, honor, fame, or deeds. For the purpose of explaining this idea, let's call it deeds.


Deeds

Background: Certain races in SK have shorter life spans in the game. Currently, once those characters have 'age ticked', they are not as attractive to play as those would be new characters, especially in the case of characters requiring physical stats. Generally there is very small incentive to promote for longevity, and characters tend to come and go in SK.

Proposal: A system that supports longevity, even after aging, providing more benefits than mental stats for these characters. Every set period of time, SK staff would hold events, events that spawn monsters driven by stories, and quests given to PCs to vanquish these monsters. (This is one way for players to earn deeds, certainly not the only way.)

*****

Idea in example: Let's take human for simplicity. They live for about 1 year and then some. About 6 months after they reach their first age-tick. What then? Every month or so, either as Bonanza or not, imms spawn a monster like a rampaging dragon in the wilds. Ice queen, greater rock golem, wretched wizard, whatever. Everyone can goto their local town crier, or concerned citizen, or judge to take a quest. Quest can only be completed once. Upon completion of quest they receive a record in deeds.

Deeds are accumulative and required to deem for rewards when characters reach their age-ticks. Rewards and benefits suggestions will come later. A person has to have enough deeds at the time of their age-ticks to purchase rewards. In a way they have transformed into an esteemed citizen or hero of the lands, and these deeds are recognized by the local authority. Now what kind of rewards would make this worthwhile?

*****

Rewards: Gradually, as characters have completed more deeds, and upon reaching their age ticks, they would receive better and more rewards and benefits. If a human character has participated quests of deeds during Bonanza 4 out of 6 times in 6 months, arbitrary numbers here, they have gained enough deeds to receive rewards and benefits:

1. Cheaper rates from all shopkeepers of the character's recall kingdom. Cheaper horses, repairs, merchandise, and healing services. From 80% at 1/2 age-tick to 60% at 3/4 age-tick then 30% when someone is about to die if they have kept the character for that long. Numbers are arbitrary.

2. Equipment in the slots of rings/bracelets/necklaces. One piece per person, and these increase in enchantments too with more deeds. Similar to Helms of Gods' Blessing from Pilgrimage. They zap those without adequate level of deeds.

2a. An example of a slot would be: a shining amulet of magic warding (brand new) with +3 to all schools at 1/2, then +4 at 3/4 and +5 on one piece when someone has lived most of their lives, and their physical stats is absolutely horrible. At which point if they have lived their lives fully, they have become the most prestigious citizen.

2b. Further example of equipment reward would be weapons. Popular weapon subtypes that go from mithril battle-spear +3 at 1/2 to adamantite battle-spear +5 at 3/4, finally energy battle-spear (lol?) when they have lived their lives.

*****

FAQ&A: Anticipated questions with answers.

1. How exactly do you earn deeds or whatever?
Whenever imms hold events, they spawn monsters, then quests are provided to go slay them! Monster(s) respawn when killed and everyone can make their own groups to have a go for the whole weekend. Need at least expert to take the quest. This is one way to gain deeds. More ideas are obviously needed.

2. Why not just give every character who ages the same benefits?
This is because people could create characters then shelf them and start playing their human sorcs with 25 int + all kinds of rewards. Characters are encouraged to participate Bonanzas and global events, and longevity is promoted in the process.

3. Standard Dark-Avenger and Ardith/Cyra Captain Negatives responses such as: WTF OMFG THIS IS TOO POWERFUL NURF IT!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Dark-Avenger and Ardith/Cyra in advance.

4. Standard Sypher responses such as: WTF OMG AGING IS FINE DON"T FIX WHAT AIN"T BROKE!!!!!!
Thanks Sypher etc in advance too.

*****

All numbers and rewards suggested are arbitrary. Please take the idea for its essence not the actual rewards/benefits suggested.

Lets add Prestigious instead. When you hit your limit you're allowed to start over again from the beginning with access to a new Race, Class and even a new name. But this time around you're allowed to change your RP of your character to something completely different, even allow you to pick a new alignment. And then given a nice Gold * at the end of your title.

Minus the free like adamantite and energy weapons, this is a good idea.

I couldn't agree with this more.

I also wouldn't mind seeing the first wis/int benefit being given at 1/2. It's not a insane, imbalancing buff.