Why scrapping age is the best solution :

[Adfax 157]

Okay, so you have people trying to salvage this messy FOY quest, saying the age just needs to be "toned down". People asking the for the quest to be made more accessible, or easier. 

Now I'm going to cover the two main suggested reworks of the system I've seen, and explain why they're simply inferior options to outright removing the age mechanic.

 

1. Make the fountain easier to access.

Okay, the problem with this solution is simple. If the fountain is easy to access, and it is easy to reverse your age; what is the point of having it in the game anyway? 

Would it not be logical just to remove age, and have it as a slider in the CC? How is it fun having to travel to an easy to access fountain, when alternatively you could be doing something you actually want to do, like play the game. Not some chore that you'll have to repeat over and OVER.  Where is the challenge? Where is the gameplay. 

It is no secret that easy stuff gets boring fast; as does stuff which is too difficult. This change just shows that removing age is the superior option.

 

2. Slow aging down

The problem with this is obvious. I would chalk anyone touting this solution up to a lack of foresight. Even if you slow aging down, you still have a monotonous task that you have to endlessly repeat; you just don't have to do it as often. Making a poorly implemented task less frequent doesn't stop it being a poorly implemented task.

Making it so you don't have to carry out this chore as often would certainly be a slight improvement. But you still have a chore you don't really want to do, that still gets in the way of what you otherwise might choose to do if your character were not being held hostage with debuffs, or potential death.

This change is no real change at all; it is just spreading something that the game doesn't need thin. It shouldn't be in the game thick or thin; as the task itself is the problem, not how frequently you must do it.

 

The best solution that solves everything :

REMOVE THE AGE MECHANIC.

It solves the FOY problem. Change the FOY into a buff of some kind, but don't make it a necessity to keep our characters.

To those who think the age mechanic is akin to hunger/thirst; you're right, it is akin to that. The difference being the undertaking you must perform to deal with something you don't otherwise really want to deal with.

Imagine you had to climb mount Everest every time you wanted to quench your thirst ingame. That would be a more accurate comparison between the food and age mechanic.

Admittedly; even the vitamin/food/water systems ingame aren't really necessary to make the game good; but they're not so intrusive to the point they make you undertake a huge time devouring buggy unfair task, whilst holding you hostage to complete the task, or lose your character/live with a huge debuff.. Imagine how much you'd all hate the food mechanic If you had to do the same thing you do for the fountain of youth.. You'd all think it would need to be removed, or reworked to the point that it is in current implementation.

The vitamin system also kind of suffers from this issue; where the devs have mistook convolution for innovation.

Keep it simple, and don't put unnecessary things in your game. Scrap age, and make the fountain just give people a perma buff or something. Easy.

 

 

 

[Scorpionshawn 134]

The age thing is not a bad idea and Star citizen has been working on it for a few years now. The problem is this dev team needs to fix the FoY so its for everyone to get and not just big companies.

[Adfax 157]

26 minutes ago, Scorpionshawn said:

The age thing is not a bad idea and Star citizen has been working on it for a few years now. The problem is this dev team needs to fix the FoY so its for everyone to get and not just big companies.

Tell me WHY it is not a bad idea.

If you can't do that, all you're giving me is your word. The few that say it is a "good idea" seldom explain why it is good, no matter how much I try to pressure them into doing so. When they give their reasoning, it is always due to them not looking deep enough at what the mechanic brings to the game, and what it takes away.

Edited January 23, 2019 by Adfax

[Nutcutt3r 173]

29 minutes ago, Scorpionshawn said:

The age thing is not a bad idea and Star citizen has been working on it for a few years now. The problem is this dev team needs to fix the FoY so its for everyone to get and not just big companies.

Not, what the heck sort of reasoning is that?

Um its a survival game so make it easy to get, good idea...

[DeadMeat 22]

1 hour ago, Scorpionshawn said:

The age thing is not a bad idea and Star citizen has been working on it for a few years now. The problem is this dev team needs to fix the FoY so its for everyone to get and not just big companies.

  They've talked about it....

 But 1> You don't have to hunt down a potential 'mate'
         2> They're not stacking the player with a bunch of debuffs  (Str/Stam/Weight & 20% Health/Stam regen debuff).

Edited January 23, 2019 by DeadMeat

[Adfax 157]

1 hour ago, Nutcutt3r said:

Not, what the heck sort of reasoning is that?

Um its a survival game so make it easy to get, good idea...

This isn't a hardcore server.

People aren't in it to lose their characters for good. Many people see that as a waste of time.

They should stick to the ark formula, and scrap age.

Also, you don't just endlessly stack difficulty, and that makes a good game. You don't bombard the players with tedious chores to the point they can't do what they want to do. 

Edited January 23, 2019 by Adfax

[Adfax 157]

You the worst thing? I worry the developers aren't going to let go of this mechanic, and just attempt to keep reworking it over and over... 

Please don't do that.. Use your brains.. Or better yet, just do what I say, and i'll do the thinking for you.