Starting Age

[Anonymous]

I have questions about starting age.  

It says in the documentation something such as to suggest an age close to the middle of the lifespan.  I question this simply to apply it to real life:  When I was 17 or 18 years old I was stronger, more agile, could run faster, yet my mind was not as keen as it is now though (I am 32).  It seems that every year after 18 I kept getting less agile and less strong but wiser, also my health and endurance is as good as it used to be when I was 18.

Has this been addressed before from a character creation standpoint?  

It seems like a character that was young like that should be more survivable because a vast majority of the reason people die in the game are mob/combat related.

So my question is, being new to Armageddon, would creating a character in the middle age be stronger and more agile than a teen-aged character?  I don't figure my character will live long anyhow, I've not had very much luck surviving more than a couple of days connect time sofar.

[Hymwen]

I'm not sure how stat changes work, and if they apply similarly to a character created at middle-age as opposed to a character created young and living long enough to reach that age. But here's what the helpfile says:

Code Select Expand

As citizens of Zalanthas gain years of existence, their bodies begin to change to conform to their age. Generally, a person will grow stronger and tougher from adolescence until they hit their prime, gradually increasing their stamina and endurance. After this peak, they will begin to lose that strength and health slowly. Wisdom nearly peaks early in life and increases slowly until death, and agility peaks in adolescence and slowly decreases into old age.
  Following is a list of the average lifespan of members of each race on
Zalanthas, in Zalanthan years:

     Mantises        24                 Half-giants     82
     Muls            60                 Elves           92
     Humans          68                 Dwarves        100
     Half-elves      76                 Halflings      120

Note that all races develop proportionally to their average lifespans, so a
30 year old halfling would be in roughly the same stage of development as a 17 year old human.


Don't know how much help that was. As a side note, if you're having trouble surviving with your characters, it may or may not be because they are untrained. If that's the case, I can recommend joining one of the clans that provide training as part of the job - House Salarr trains scouts and hunters, the T'zai Byn trains mercenaries and guards, and the Tor Academy trains... uh.. not sure, but I think it's all sorts of warrior-type people.

[Anael]

In response to Hymwen:
If I understand correctly, it works like this:
When you create a character, their statistics are adjusted to reflect the starting age.
When your PC ages, statistics -don't- change, unless you happen to be in the game when the age changes.
I guess the staff might be willing to adjust your PC's statistics if you play for real long. Emailing the mud is always an option.

To the original poster:
Wisdom can be really useful for new characters as well. Higher wisdom means you raise your skills faster, giving you a much higher chance to survive.

I personally believe the best starting age might be 25-35 years for a human (which is about the middle of the lifespan - it's easy to mistake middle of Zalanthan lifespan with what we call 'middle age', but they definitely aren't the same )

[spawnloser]

Okay, just to make sure everyone is clear on this...

Yes, your starting age DOES affect your stat roll.  Yes, your stats can change as your character ages.  If you have been playing a character for a while and have seen no change, you can ask for an 'age reroll.'  I've done it.  Staff has said it's okay.

[Anonymous]

with humans, i start around 20
with dwarves, i start around 30
with elves, i start around 40
with half-elves i start around 35 or so
with half-giants, i start around 50 so that im ubber

[Morgenes]

Just to clarify, your attributes will change as you age.  And no, you don't have to be in game for that to happen.  That was fixed when Tiernan fixed our time handling late last year.

[spawnloser]

So, Morgenes (or any other staffer that can give us the staff consensus on this matter)...since stats change as characters age whether you are logged in or out, should we NOT ask for age rerolls any longer?

[Raesanos]

So, Morgenes (or any other staffer that can give us the staff consensus on this matter)...since stats change as charactersage whether you are logged in or out, should we NOT ask for age rerolls any longer?

Correct.

[spawnloser]

Right on.  Danke.