Baffled by old age

[SciencePro]

Any ideas or guesses on how old age works?

I know there is a chance that a unit will get a disease every winter. But what is this chance? Is it affected by the age of the unit? For example if old age starts at 35, then is my unit more likely to get diseased at age 70 than at age 40?

[thejeff]

It doesn't seem to me that it's affected by the age. That's pure gut feeling, no statistics behind it.

I believe they can also get other afflictions, without getting disease, but disease seems pretty common.

It's always bothered me a bit that you can recruit units well past the old age limit, but it doesn't seem like you would ever get one to survive 20-30 years into old age without some kind of youth magic.

[Fantomen]

I think it is affected by how old the unit is, but I´m not sure.

[Trumanator]

The gap between actual age and when old age starts does appear to play a role. Ex: Aby's warlocks start incredibly old, and suffer a lot of disease. Pythium's thaumaturgs on the other hand don't have such a discrepancy, and don't have so many problems.

[Quitti]

Death magic skill lessens the chance of getting old age afflictions (Good for eg. Shinuyama & LA Agartha). F1N1 item Elixir of Life and B2 Boots of Youth also prevent the unit from gaining any old age afflictions. I have no idea about the chance to get those afflictions based on how much old age they have though, but as the old age malus get worse with age, I suppose so does the chance to gain afflictions rise. And like stated, it's not just disease that can happen, I suppose everything the unit is capable of getting can afflict the commander in the late winter. I've seen at least mages going blind, feebleminded, losing arm and so on, but disease itself seems the most common.

[Trumanator]

N magic also raises the old age threshold i think.

[Quitti]

True, 25 years more to old age limit per level of N. I think D adds 10 years.

[Stavis_L]

True, 25 years more to old age limit per level of N. I think D adds 10 years.

This is incorrect. See the aging mechanics section of the FAQ (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showpost.php?p=588095&postcount=5).

[Quitti]

Interesting. I just ran a small test with a crone in CBM, 1 pt of nature (the base), old age is 750 points, 2 pt of nature: 1000, 3pt: 1250 and 4pt:1500, so with base old age of 500 the 50% per point of nature is in line. I suppose I've only observed old age 50 units before then with nature, no idea about the death though. Increasing death magic for the crone didn't affect the old age.

[Jack_Trowell]

Death magic does not increase the old age, but is supposed to (greatly ?) reduce the chance to get afflictions from it.

Death/growth scales are also supposed to increase or decrease the chance, but much less I think.

Note also that fire mage slightly lessen your old age :

Normal human mage : old age at 50 years old
Same with N1 : old age at 75
Same with F1 : old age at 4X something

Note also that earth is used instead of nature for lifeless beings, and maybe Death for non lifeless undeads or demons.

[Thilock_Dominus]

Death magic does not increase the old age, but is supposed to (greatly ?) reduce the chance to get afflictions from it.

Well, if you're an undead, death magic will increase old age.
I have an undead Shadow Dragon Pretender (mod), with default old age at 2500 years. By taking 9 death in magic path the old age is set to 13750 years.

[Juffos]

As far as I know, death magic reduces the chance to get disease by 30% per level. D4-magi thus should be immune to disease, but they will still eventually become useless because of feeblemind.

[Anaconda]

So, practical example: to decrease the chances of Klaus the Mason to get afflictions, one needs to take growth scale, improve his dead magic skill and upgrade him, if possible, to master nature magic too?

Does luck item help? How about luck scales and/or shamrock icon(s) in particular province?

Does the increase in magic skill need to be permanent or does booster items do the trick?

Is there other ways to get hero younger than the blood spell where a hero bathes in virgin blood?

Does healing help units with age afflictions, or does it work only for combat and incident wounds?

[Quitti]

If Klaus the Mason is living creature, yes. And boosters will work. Luck scales don't affect it afaik, not sure about having luck from item/twist fate from bless.
T'ien Ch'i has several spells that reduce age over the eras, such as Thousand Year Ginseng and Internal Alchemy. Easiest way is still to give the leader an Elixir of Life or Boots of Youth. They stop getting the age afflictions completely, with the exception of magical aging such as Burden of Time.

[Thilock_Dominus]

Luck from spells or items do prevent a unit from afflictions, but I'm not sure how much % it is. Read it somewhere on the forum a while back.

[Anaconda]

Klaus is one of the MA Agathan heroes, very old and fragile.

[Quitti]

Ah, Mason of the Underworld (http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Mason_of_the_Underworld). Right.