I just watched the recording of the dev stream and saw how peg-legs etc are to be implemented. I think an opportunity is being missed here.
With the aging system as I understand it to be planned, your character will permanently die and be replaced by an heir. This means that the game could apply permanent affects to a character without it permanently 'gimping' them but with more consideration required than if we could simply respawn to remove the affect.
What I mean is: Instead of a peg-leg or hook etc being a visual thing that can be equipped/unequipped at will it could be an actual, meaningful part of the game. A player taking a direct hit from a cannonball in a naval battle could actually have their leg destroyed. They would hop around with terrible movement speed, occasionally falling over until they craft/buy a peg leg and fit it. The destroyed flesh and bone leg would never grow back and the peg leg would not restore full movement speed (but be better than hopping). A player with a peg leg would then have a choice, do they continue to play on with their character or do they hand over control to their heir (incurring any setback/penalty that incurs with the aging system)
This ofc depends on how the aging system is done. Personally I would like you to be able to obtain an offspring (either by 'breeding' with another human or adopting an orphan), which would be a kind of pet npc which levels up as it is used but is kinda squishy. The player would then have a choice:
- leaving the heir at home in a nice safe base. This would increase the likelihood of it surviving but not allow it to gain many levels. When the player dies a 'pampered' heir would mean taking a drop in levels from their current character
- taking the heir on adventures. This would allow it to level up to (or possibly exceeding) the level of the player so that when they die they don't loose any (or possibly even gain) levels but runs the risk that the heir will be killed.
As an npc the heir would require food (possibly you could influence their stats with other items as well, give your heir books and they might get a bonus to int for e.g.) so a player could 'hedge their bets' by having multiple offspring, providing a backup if the heir dies at the cost of additional upkeep