Venerable Trait Opposite

[Oz the Puny]

I see in the traits (At least those that have been so far shown) that there is quite a few traits for increasing the average age limit, but none for decreasing. Personally, I'd love to have an insect species that lives 10-30 years if they're lucky. I just think it'd be good to have that kind of choice. For the immersion, at minimum.

 

[tilcir]

I thought short life span was in

 

[Oz the Puny]

I might have missed it, to be frank.

 

[tilcir]

I might have missed it, to be frank.

I might have made it up.

Just seems natural to have

 

[Daetrin]

I don't think there is.

And there probably won't be (at least not a severe one) because of the importance of leader levels - it'd be a trap option if not coupled directly with massive XP gain.

 

[tilcir]

I don't think there is.

And there probably won't be (at least not a severe one) because of the importance of leader levels - it'd be a trap option if not coupled directly with massive XP gain.

It would be a good negative to pair with certain traits though.

 

[moglus]

I don't think there is.

And there probably won't be (at least not a severe one) because of the importance of leader levels - it'd be a trap option if not coupled directly with massive XP gain.

and since there are techs in the game that increase leader lifespan in addition to traits, it would be sorta pointless because it'd be a negative trait which effect you could nullify easily

 

[Lysenko]

I think one of the early dev diaries talked about a short lifespan trait. They probably took it out because -30 years would just about halve your leaders lifespans. That seems pretty crippling on their levels & it doubles the amount of influence you have to spend on leaders.

 

[Red_warning]

It's not in afaik, probably for balance reasons since leaders and their traits are quite pivotal. If you were given loads of bonus points as compensation it could still be worth it. Then there is the RP aspect of course.

 

[Oz the Puny]

I think it'd be an effective and entertaining handicap, if not just an immersion tool.

 

[Fonz]

I suspect that the rebalancing required for just one trait is too much, so they decided not to implement it.

 

[Dakka]

Seems like the best way to RP it would be that your leader caste (i.e. Queens, hive tyrants) were bred to have longer (average) lifespans than the rest of the species, and you can imagine your normal pops just replenishing faster than they die out

 

[Mordaith]

I suppose the real question here is "Have we seen all the traits that will be available at launch?"

 

[Oscot]

and since there are techs in the game that increase leader lifespan in addition to traits, it would be sorta pointless because it'd be a negative trait which effect you could nullify easily

You can nullify ALL the negative traits with tech, though, so it's not like this is an unusual situation, e.g. Atmospheric Filtering undoes the effects of Solitary.
But I agree with @Daetrin ; a short lifespan is a lot more bad than a long lifespan is good, and thus much harder to balance correctly. It would be labour-intensive, and potentially impossible, for the devs to fine-tune it correctly - and all the time they spend making the attempt would be better spent at putting more SPACE features in this SPACE game, rather than gentrification features in this game that isn't an old people's home simulator.

 

[Abayonett]

I think one of the early dev diaries talked about a short lifespan trait. They probably took it out because -30 years would just about halve your leaders lifespans. That seems pretty crippling on their levels & it doubles the amount of influence you have to spend on leaders.

You could balance it off with the quick learner skill and increase the life span through tech.

 

[Oscot]

You could balance it off with the quick learner skill and increase the life span through tech.

But that's still not even remotely balanced. Quick Learner is +25%, and if the lifespan is halved you need +100% for parity.
And "You can increase it through tech" is hardly an argument. If you can increase quick-burning people's lives through tech, you can increase slow-burning people's lives more. A 20% lifespan increase gives someone with a 40 year (of which only ~20 are actually employable years) lifespan eight more, but it gives someone with an 80 year lifespan (of which ~60 are employable) sixteen more.
Tech only makes the underpowered problem worse, not better.

 

[VirtualCube]

I see in the traits (At least those that have been so far shown) that there is quite a few traits for increasing the average age limit, but none for decreasing. Personally, I'd love to have an insect species that lives 10-30 years if they're lucky. I just think it'd be good to have that kind of choice. For the immersion, at minimum.

The combination between a ''short-lived'' trait and an autocracy (Military Dictatorship, for exemple) would be quite overpowered : you could build an ''oversized ship'' so many times in a short time that in the end, it would make the game unbalanced.

I think it would be a bad idea to have a ''short-lived'' trait for that reason.

 

[Red_warning]

But that's still not even remotely balanced. Quick Learner is +25%, and if the lifespan is halved you need +100% for parity.
And "You can increase it through tech" is hardly an argument. If you can increase quick-burning people's lives through tech, you can increase slow-burning people's lives more. A 20% lifespan increase gives someone with a 40 year (of which only ~20 are actually employable years) lifespan eight more, but it gives someone with an 80 year lifespan (of which ~60 are employable) sixteen more.
Tech only makes the underpowered problem worse, not better.

I believe the life span bonus is given in absolute numbers, not percentages.

 

[Daetrin]

The fact that lifespan reduction has to be offset with quick learning to not cripple your empire (due to influence costs and leader levels) is what makes it a trap option. It's good game design not to offer trap options.

 

[Oscot]

I believe the life span bonus is given in absolute numbers, not percentages.

Doesn't really make any difference to my argument.
Also, years added on to the end of an Enduring leader's life are gonna be worth much more than years added on to the end of a Die Young leader's life.
Twenty more years of someone who's already been alive long enough to get to Level 5 - and thus twenty more years of ridiculous buffs - is going to confer you substantially more utility than twenty more years of someone who's gotten to Level 3 and maybe those extra decades get him to Level 4.