Adfax

Not to you. You're naïve if you think cosmetics don't matter to people, when many games make their entire income from cosmetics exclusively. You can't deny the importance of cosmetics; and I stress that the devs don't make the mistake of underestimating this. You might think that doesn't matter, but there are hard figures proving cosmetics are important to a lot of people. Example : if every character model in the game was just a big pile of mud, do you think as many people would play the game? No.

What I call "halfway hardcore". Save hardcore for it's own server and be done with it; don't try and get the best of both worlds and please no one.

Right, this choice might be an easy or difficult task to accomplish. Which is why i'm saying it completely depends on how easy it is to access the fountain of youth. If you have to sail the entire map each time to maintain youth, and use it multiple times to maintain youth, it is pretty much forced. Either that or you have to choose to waste significant amounts of time maintaining something that is just utterly boring. Like, i'd rather be playing the game, not sailing around for a fountain endlessly. "Sailing for the fountain IS playing". Right, but how long until it gets old? You think endlessly sailing around for a fountain is fun gameplay? When you could be progressing, or PVPing, or PVEing. Instead you're trying to maintain youth so you can keep your character, or for cosmetic purposes. Image being forced to do that trash JUST to maintain cosmetics.. Who is going to want to subject themselves to that endlessly? It is just trash that serves to convolute a potentially great game. If the fountain was easy to access, and I didn't have to make repeat visits, i'd be pleased. If it isn't, both of those things, then it'll just be a hassle that detracts from the rest of the game, and so it isn't worth having an age mechanic to begin with. I would sacrifice some non-core mechanic that hardly impacts gameplay if it let me keep my character, and be able to choose how they look.

It isn't worth giving up cosmetic options, or losing a character permanently though. There are other ways to make death more meaningful that don't involve ruining this aspect of the game.

"these kiddies" Using logic, we've already explained why the mechanic is a poor fit. It isn't about permadeath so much as it just being bad for the game. I'm fine with permadeath if it is done well. Like lets say.. The old Mario games, where you lose all your lives, and you have to start over. I think it works fine there. Here? No way. This game is far too janky, and the devs aren't going to forsee every circumstance; leading to permadeath due to bugs, or due to some other unfair reason. No you can't, it doesn't let you load presets at the moment due to a bug.

There is no argument here. There is literally no point in you posting if all you're going to post is this. It is just proof you have no counter argument. You have no real reason to want this feature in the game. We've established all of the stuff you think having age will fix, isn't changed by age in any significant way.

That part wasn't directed at you. Notice I quoted mndfreeze.

I actually misinterpreted what you meant there.. It doesn't matter that people can do that? These games have always been built around the loss of the stuff you worked for, not your actual characters. If losing stuff isn't enough of a punishment, then make it more difficult to make stuff. Simple, problem solved. No need to implement something that will make people want to outright quit the game : aka delete their character, or force them to make a new one; or completely ruin the cosmetic aspect of the game through forced aging. Why are you crying about fighting zergs? If you lose to a zerg, you were going to lose anyway had they been geared. Had you thought that through, you wouldn't even be making that complaint. Also, it doesn't stop zerging at all, people will still zerg, and then just pass their exp to their next character. So basically ,it is pointless.

That is a problem with the balancing of the game, not punishment of death.

Depends if the counter is worth it. If it involves searching the entire map with no indication to find a fountain? Count me out. That isn't a counter, that is a waste of time. I'd rather just enjoy the game without having to worry about something that doesn't matter to the core of the game. There are punishments for dying : 1. Respawn timer 2.Losing all your stuff 3.Respawn location They are all satisfactory punishments. Those are enough punishment. But i'd take an exp loss before the actual loss of my character. Save that for a hardcore server. You start killing people's characters off permanently, and you will alienate a significant portion of the community. I guarantee you, when people start getting old and fugly in droves, and start losing characters, you won't see any serious backlash against this crowbar mechanic. I'm simply trying to save time and pre-empt what I already know will happen.

"dumb down"...What are you talking about? It basically has no impact on the game at all, other than cosmetic, and forcing people to change their characters every month, or waste time seeking a fountain which will get tedious if it requires repeat visits to maintain youth. Dumbed down is putting in a gimmicky mechanic for faux innovation to the detriment of the game itself. They've just crowbarred it in for the sake of crowbarring it in so that they can appear innovative. It doesn't belong in the game, and takes away more enjoyable features : keeping your character, keeping your appearance. Also, this game isn't the same as ark.. This is essentially Ark 2, with better features, and a better world. I don't want it squandered with stupidly misplaced mechanics. I hope grapeshot don't listen to you, and crowbar in mechanics that take more away than they put in.

1. Age mechanic : Takes away cosmetic options, kills your character. Doesn't need to be in the game, and only takes away. 2. Claim mechanic : Honestly.. I just think every island should follow the lawless structure; where you can build anywhere you want; save claiming for ships only. 3. Ships of the damned : They aesthetically don't fit the game; they look like giant modern day speedboats with an edgelord Halloween makeover. They're too static looking. There are still TOO MANY. They should be rare and scary, not abundant.

I agree changing the sailing was stupid. It does take away from what the game SHOULD be about. Aging however? No. Aging takes away from what the game should be about : creating a pirate legend. You can't create a pirate legend in a month. And nobody cares about the children of famous pirates. And please, before someone says "this isn't a game about pirates, and pirating".. Just please. You can say "the game is about a lot of things!", but don't tell me the core of this game isn't built around pirates (in regards to the theme). Let me give you a game that is a great example of where crowbarring in unnecessary stuff can ruin a game: Star fox Zero. In SFZ you have what is a seemingly good game, in a well renowned franchise, until you realize you're forced to play it with an annoying control scheme that detracts from the whole experience, because Nintendo can't release a game without trying to do something new and innovative, even to the detriment of the game. It is fine to innovate, but don't innovate for innovations sake. Nintendo are probably the worst for doing stuff like this.. The Wii itself is a good example of where some games were spoiled through being forcibly built with motion controls, where they'd have otherwise been better without. Putting an age mechanic in a game like this is the same thing. It is innovation for innovation's sake, and it ignores what is good for the game just to crowbar something fresh into the game. The game is innovative enough, it doesn't need aging; aging hurts the game more than it helps it. If you MUST put age in the game, make it optional. I can think of a couple of easy ways to do this, that thematically fit with the game : -Pirate's curse : You live forever, you don't age, but cannot have children, but have a debuff that equates to the disadvantage of having your character die; you can cure this debuff by finding the fountain of youth. (this method only needs to have a debuff if aging and dying has some impact on gameplay ). Maybe even give people the option of having a cool zombie aesthetic, think curse of the black pearl. -Remove aging : Don't bother implementing it in the first place and keep it as an option in the character creator.

Why though? I don't want to have to deal with that, I just want to raid people and PVP. I don't care about an age mechanic that just gets in the way of the fun part of the game. You don't just crowbar mechanics in for the sake of it. They have to work with the game they're in. Age mechanics get in the way of the real game, and should be scrapped. Also, I don't want to look old when I might want to look young, and I don't want to look young when I might want to look old. Just put it as an option in the character creator and be done with it. If people want to have children, let them, but don't force us to age and kill off our own characters if we don't want to. It'll just make people quit the game.

Dismantling would involved not make a mistake I the first paragraph, that being "the mechanic isn't in the game yet". WRONG! It is in the game, we're aging. The mechanic, in it's current iteration, is IN the game. Is it fully implemented? Probably not. What is currently in the game, I disagree with. From what is in the game, and the obvious trajectory they're heading with this mechanic, I will say It is bad. So when you say i'm basing it off assumption, i'm not. I'm saying what is currently in the game, I don't like. I'm saying what I've heard they have planned, I don't like. "Descendants of the fallen magical kingdown" = "age mechanic ties into the lore significantly" No. Once again, I could bring up any game that has characters who age that do not have an age mechanic. So how does being "descendants" equate to "tied into the lore". It doesn't. You just need it to have any hope of proving me wrong, which you won't, because you already know there are games that mention descendants, and do not have age mechanics. Until you can prove that isn't true, you can't prove me wrong on that point. The information you posted is on the steam page. Everyone already knows that. I know that. All of my arguments were made with this information already in mind. And no, nothing in there suggests an age mechanic is core to the game in any shape or form. Right, the game isn't about pirating.. Except, it is. That doesn't mean you have to be a pirate, it merely means that is the core concept of the game. The core concept of the game, like ark, is survival and progression. The theme of the game, is pirating.. The game even has the leather armor give you a pirate's hat for goodness sake. Now when I say the them is "pirating", I mean the era of pirating. It is HEAVILY inspired by that, and to say otherwise is ridiculous. Did I ever say I wasn't trying to get the devs to change the game? No. I'm saying people don't want to lose their characters, and people don't want their characters not to look the way they want them to look. I'm saying that will harm the game more than just doing away with the mechanic altogether, and if people want to change their character for whatever reason, let them breed away. You call that dismantling? You can't dismantle me with that level of argument. If aging was core to the game, and not some fluff, it would already be in the game, even in early access. A core mechanic is something you basically can't have a game without. You can have this game without aging. It is already good without it. We don't need it, and I think most probably don't want it either.

I can reply to whatever I want. The problem is, you just don't like losing. You've knocked someone out with fists in 2 hits? Please.. Just please. Maybe after they'd been bitten by seven snakes, sure. Oh, and they were standing still and letting you punch them. "It has a purpose". Lots of things have a purpose, but that doesn't mean they're good for the game. I could rail off a bunch of game mechanics from various games that make games worse by design. Does that mean they should stay just because they had a purpose? They had a purpose for ships of the damned, look how that turned out. Oh, and the claim mechanic.. All things that had a purpose, but made the game less fun as a whole in their execution. Oh, and someone naked zerged with lots of people. If someone lost to naked people, they'd have just lost even harder if they'd been using equipment. Imagine if all of those naked people were in plate armor, they'd have probably never died in the first place. I obviously DO play on a PVP server, so please don't make assumptions. I am probably one of the most aggressive player types on the game when it comes to PVP. I also play in a small tribe because the game is more fun when you have to actually do stuff, and you feel like you've lost more when you make it off your own back. You're probably one of those fake players who just amasses a bunch of people who all do little bits of hard work, and thus avoid having to do any real grind. Also, you do realize the SPAWN TIMER goes up every time someone spawns; quite significantly. You want to fix the zerging? Perhaps START THERE.. Hello? Obvious much? Not that you'd need to fix it, since it is so long anyway. This is a game of numbers. It will always be a game of numbers until they figure out a way to nerf huge tribes/alliances. That is just how the game works. If you get zerged by more players, chances are you're going to lose. Basically : if you lost to a zerg of naked players, you were going to lose anyway. If they come equipped in plate, they'd have just stomped whoever it was 10x as hard. Meaning ? Meaning naked zergs are not a problem. They might be in ark where you can actually upgrade your melee damage, but here? No. Oh, and don't even mention the hand to hand tree... Dear god, it makes no difference at all. Walk backwards to avoid everything.

Stop saying "It will serve a purpose in PVP", you don't know that. And even if it did; taking away the cosmetic options of the player, and taking away the player's character will make people quit the game. It won't make it more "meaningful", it'll just sour what is good about the game. The mechanics we're going to be given to get around it are probably going to involve sailing the sea looking for a random spawn. And it will probably make us repeat that journey every time we want to save our characters from death. Nobody has time for that nonsense. We just want to do what the game was real made for : PIRATING. Ask yourself this : WHY DO YOU WANT IT? You don't seem to realize throwing any mechanic in a game for the sake of it ISN'T the best way to make games. It has to FIT the rest of the game, and not ruin it. "Naked zerging"; you can't even hurt anyone with fists, not really. It is no problem. And if you think the solution is killing off people's characters that they've grown to care about? Then you've taken the wrong approach. Honestly, people would take an exp loss over this garbage any day.. That is, if "naked zerging" was actually a real problem; which it isn't. A naked person can't : kill someone in armor (who isn't afk), and they can't destroy a base. All they can do is pick stuff up. That is it. And if you leave something out in the open to be picked up, it is your own fault.. OH and lets not forget how easy it is to send someone back to the starter island. Yes, naked zerging is such a problem when all you have to do is destroy a bed to send someone away. Naked zerging might be a problem in ark, where you can boost your melee damage stat, but on here, you can walk backwards and counter fists.

Once again : what is the point of the mechanic if you just transfer over stats? It serves no purpose. You're speculating it will be to create more risk from death; i'd say that will just cause people to quit the game. Anyone who becomes attached to their character, and then is forced to lose them, will simply leave the game. A more extreme example of this would be losing a pet. Often people don't buy another after the pain of loss of the first. I really think people would like the option to never lose their character. And it shouldn't require some "fountain of youth" that is impossible to find, or that they have to repeatedly frequent to stay young. Some people might want their characters to die, and constantly have to replace them, why someone would want to fuss with that when really all they want to be doing is pirating ?..Your guess is as good as mine. I would wager most people do not want that from their pirate MMO. If the fountain was handed to you on a plate, and it made you permanently not have to deal with this stupid age mechanic, i'd be fine with that. So long as it doesn't make me constantly have to visit the fountain. Just once, and then I can be done with it. Then the people who want to age are happy, and the people who don't are happy. Everyone can be happy. Age mechanics have nothing to do with pirates. We don't want them in our pirate MMOs.. Save them for a game where they actually make sense.

If i'm losing my character, or my character is forced to look a way I don't want them to look, it is already lame as far as i'm concerned.

It isn't really about how fast you can level a character, but the loss of the character itself; and the incongruence of having a aging mechanic in a game about pirating.

This in particular is an excellent point too. You grow to know your character, and define them on the seven seas, only to have them stripped away from you forever because of some arbitrary reason. They seriously just need to take a page out of Ark's book for this one. An age mechanic really doesn't work to the game's benefit. Do not crowbar mechanics in unnecessarily just because you saw them garner a little attention elsewhere. They MUST fit the game, otherwise you're doing more harm than good. Age is not the way to handle something like that. Increase the cost it takes to make items, and suddenly, you have even more reason not to die. Killing off your character will just make people want to quit the game. I stress again : Ark doesn't need it, and nor does this game. Ark is a successful game; they shouldn't deviate from the formula, they should only build on it. An age mechanic isn't an expansion, but a retraction, since it takes away more options than it gives.

Exactly. It is a stupid mechanic unfit for a game like this. The developers should know better. Once again, I bring up this : How can you make a pirate legend in a month? AND You don't hear stories about the children of famous pirates. This type of mechanic should be saved for a game that is built around lineage. A game about sailing the seas and pirating isn't well fit for a mechanic like this.

This game has an entire ocean's worth of salt, it doesn't need any more of your bellyaching.

You'll get over losing some day. You stopped arguing and resorted to ad hominem. That means you lost. If you're going to ad hominem, atleast provide a counter point to the argument. Then you don't just look like a furious salt lord.

If you had the information, you'd be using it to win this argument. I'm literally mocking you for not having the information, and you could prove me wrong and show it, but you won't, because it doesn't exist. Or it does exist, and you know it won't hold up to scrutiny. I never asserted anything was true, i'm just putting holes in what you're saying, and everyone else. If anything, i'm pointing out where you're false. I'm pointing out what the mechanic takes away, and i'm giving my reasons and opinion on the matter. What you've summed my posts up as is what I want but you've failed to include the various reasons. The reasons for me wanting that is the important part. I could easily say your position amounts to : "age good" And do exactly the same to you. Make all your reasoning disappear to make what you're saying look like nothing. But that would be disingenuous. Of course, I don't need to do that to win the argument, so why would I? And yes, your meme still sucks.