Age System Consideration

[GhostRiderGrey]

Staff is seriously considering adding and Age System to the Pines. I am posting details here to head off the spreading of misinformation and to allow for comments on the system. We are considering the system to add flavor to the shard, and to add another facet to those that want to role play.

When the system initially goes in, each player will receive a deed with which they will set their initial age between 18 and 40. You will instantly receive a bonus to STR, DEX and INT. These bonuses will vary depending on the age you have chosen (staff suggests choosing a low age). As you age, your bonuses will change, Some going up, others going down. Different stat bonus peak at different ages. DEX peaks early, followed by STR and lastly INT.

You will age in the following manner. Every 15 earth days is one year in the age system. So in a month, you will age 2 years. In a full earth year, you will age 24 years in-game. If you chose age 18 in the beginning, at the end of one full earth year you would be age 42 (18 + 24).

Between ages 18 and 42, you will have enjoyed a plus to your STR, DEX and INT stats. If you started at age 18, you would have enjoyed this benefit for a full earth year without having to even worry about the Age System. Eventually, our bodies age and we grow weak and feeble. At age 43, we start to see our first bonus (DEX) dip below zero. The other 2 bonuses will follow as you grow older. There IS however, something you can to do retain your Gifts of Age (stat bonuses)!!

Drinking a Rejuvenation Potion will take a few (1 to 5, random) years off your life, restoring the stat bonuses you had when you were at that younger age. In our Age example above, you would have a year's time to find at least one of these potions. You could, of course, use a potion at any time to roll your age backwards. You don't have to wait till your 40's to use it. You cannot use a Potion if you are younger than 23 years.

We have not yet settled on the distribution method for the Potions, but the choices include monster loot drop, quest item, buy for tokens, buy for gold, holiday gift, and donation item. We will probably pick at least 2 of these methods. In a year's time on the shard, staff would expect that a player would have run across a Potion or 2....or 3, lol. They would be available in a relatively easy manner to acquire.

Please post your questions and comments below.

GhostRiderGrey

[Angelique]

i think it sounds very interesting and would be fun and challenging to try

[Exodus]

I support this and believe it benefits new and old players. I would like to see a breakdown or chart of ages and their respective bonuses. Excel style. Mostly so I don't have to make another uo spreadsheet

[Forgepriest]

Well ....

First of all ... thanks a lot to let me play on the shard ... is really nice to play here and i am enjoing each new day .... thanks for the suport, for the friendly chat, for the help ....

I saw this discution in public chat .... i heard the arguments and I am against, and i will tell you why ...

First - I see in the middle of the "talking" someone says "it will be a good thing, older players wil now have something to do ...." well, the owner, don't say what we need to do to get a potion, and this can be trick, you see, imagine, for an example, that you will need 10,000 Organics to pick up, the drop is around 20 per monster, you will need to kill 500 monsters to pick up one potion .... in 24 potions you use for an year on earth you will need to kill 12000 monsters .... and i am doing o guess here..... Other thing is ... you will need to do it .... because if you don't, you get age, get negative status ...

Second - we are already very strong ..... don't need to more ... i see some days ago, a player, i don't recall his name, that do Doom by himself ... alone .... so ... unlles you want to do some Champion Spawn alone .... i don't see any need to get stronger ..... Shatter, a player as you all Kwon, told me when i start that make the quest to get the star armor set was dificult .... i do that today ... alone .... whit just a dragon, without equip ..... so ... why more power? to do things alone, to let people without the need to ask help, or invite to do a quest together?

Third - i am 35 years old ..... i work as a lawyer in my city ..... got things to do in real life .... as others in the shard .... now imagine that someone here, needs a break time, let it say by an year..... i would inform staff to not have my acount deleted, but what happens when i am back ... did i die by age? if so what happens them? ....

A positive argument to me is Role Play .... only that ....

After say that i would like to say one last thing .... again ...

"You all will need to get potion every time to live without penalties ... for ever ... as long as you play in this shard ..... think well about it .... can be fun for the first year, but it will be fun as long as you play here?" I will leave you with this thought .... analize this .... and we don't kwon what do we need to do for get a potion ....


My Thanks ....

Forgepriest

[Exodus]

To quote Ghost "the choices include monster loot drop, quest item, buy for tokens, buy for gold, holiday gift, and donation item. We will probably pick at least 2 of these methods. "

So two of these are very easy - gold and tokens.
holiday gift means you just have to open the box you get automatically
donation item i think should be included regardless as anything that drives donations drives shard progress.
quest item - repeatable quest you can do when you need to. 2x a month to never age? or 10x a month and sell the extras.
monster loot drop - easy if it drops into your pack automatically, a little more tedious if you have to loot it but still, none of this is hard.

[KawKawKaw]

I'm mixed about this. There is absolutely nothing about it that makes me giddy and excited about what a wonderful addition it is to my game play. I have enough real life issues that limit my ability to play the came like a 23 year old counterpart. One of the wonderful things about this sort of activity is that I can occasionally be awesome! Role play age? Baby I live it and many of us do. So it does little more than simply add another aspect to a complex set of processes and interactions that one must manage to play at any given level in the game.

I think the concept is an interesting twist. But a twist I might be able to use if I calculate and focus my age just right. As I write this I'm coming of a disastrous evening where the dungeon boss I cleaned up on last night mopped the floor with me tonight. Am I interested in ANY edge I can get right now? Darn tootin I am.

I guess the difference between me hating this addition and having some level of enjoyment from it is going to come down to the difficulty level in getting my hands on rejuvenation potions on a regular enough basis so as not to cause my game play to suffer.

So in summary:
* Not something that would draw me to the shard if I were a first time player.
* Not something that would make me stay after years of play (game or irl).
* Not something that would make me leave (Unless the rejuvenation proved to be too elusive).
* Role-play? ah okay... whatever, never could get into that, nor dress-up for certain 'activities'.

From my perspective; take it or leave it, I'm here to play and enjoy spending time with you all and if this is part of it I'll gut it out unless it becomes less of a something that is not enjoyable. And I can't imagine it would regardless.

Kaw...

[Brogan Ironfist]

Hello all,

I see a lot of positive and negative aspects to this post. As a 9 year UO Vet, looking retrospect, and objectively at this topic i can validate both positive and negative aspects. OSI went through a lot of changes with their story line and different changes to many things that were not appreciated by players in the game.

My opinion for this topic is that there are some benefits and some hardships that come with this implementation. Reading the replies, i can say that based on past play experience, lots of change in shard dynamics make it harder to to play and adjust. I feel that a clean, simple playable game makes people continue to play. Even now and again i'll fire up my Diablo 1 CD and roam the dungeons below Tristram and pluck my bow a few times just to enjoy a great game, that was made great in the first place.

Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein... all classics that were tried and true. Complicated changes will take a while for people to get used to. To implement this may keep players from joining the shard. Only my opinion. 2 cents.

Best Wishes ~

Brogan Ironfist

[Forgepriest]

I Just back to say that i coudn't agree more to Kaw and Brogan ....


That is it ...

[Illuvata]

I agree with Kaw in many ways.

I, like many other players will figure out the system and use it to our advantage, unless the system is too difficult to manage. Some players will not know how to utilize the system and probably be at a disadvantage, because there are those that have difficulty managing the current stat system. Unfortunately, I see more possibility of it increasing the divide between the abilities of players to do certain content. Real life age and ability already play a significant factor in how we play the game. I am in no way as fast and on top of my game as I once was.

As Kaw pointed out, there are still many challenges I can pursue. Several times I have defeated something, only to have it humble me later. There are several creatures that require good timing, tactics, and a fair amount of luck to defeat. One touch I die, not so sure the bonuses will help with that, unless they are that good

I am concerned about how much time will be devoted to maintaining optimum performance. As an engineer I automatically look at things mathematically .

Each rejuvenation potion is between 1 to 5 years of age reduction, assuming a standard statistical deviation that would be on average 3 years per potion. 3 UO years would be 45 days, which would mean I would need to consume a potion every 45 days on average to maintain my chosen level of uberness . If these assumptions are valid, given the current proposed data, I would need about 8.1 potions every real calendar year.

This may or may not be difficult to manage, but if it is tied to organics....I'll be a very old character indeed.

One reason I was attracted to this shard was the allure of a no-nonsense type of game play. No PVP or greifing, Don't need multiple characters to do stuff, Don't have to spend months at a second job building skills, I get to adventure and enjoy the game quickly..

I personally see the system as having more negatives than positives.

Happy Hunting,

Illuvata

[Serena Shadow]

I'm going to state this right here and now, if this were to be voted in I would probably find a new shard. What if you are a busy college student? Or you have to go away for a few months? You have a child in real life and don't have the time to devote to in game challenges, and meanwhile you are aging away. Not to mention, I don't particularly care for fighting, I only do it when necessary, so if I were forced to have to fight to earn a right to keep my stats up, I'd lose interest and quit.

These are just my personal reasons, others were stated above by others. Like a lack of interest for new players and also I believe it will run off a lot of players that don't have enough time to devote to UO.

There have been a few recent things happening in the shard that I've been able and willing to overlook but I don't know how much more I am willing to tolerate. If this aging thing were something you could CHOOSE to participate rather then being forced because of shard wide change it might be considered for some more invested and active players.

I know this post may come across as aggressive and in a way it is, but it is not meant to be in any offense to anyone.