When wolves get old, they likely just die and that's the only effect. My suggestion is that things can happen that affect your wolf. The way this would work, is the life bar. If its not up all the way, the pup can get hurt. This would also mean old wolves would get the bar. Young wolves/wolves with full bars will not experience these.These include:
Cataracts: If this affects an old wolf, it would make them go blind, and prevent them from doing some jobs. If it's a pup, it would be different. The wolf would instead retire early, rather than just go blind, as cataracts develops over time.
Torn eyes: This is a wound your wolf could get. It would be most likely during pup and old age, as during both these times wolves are more vulnerable. This can be caused by anything from an owl attacking them, or thorns.
Missing limbs: A wolf could run into trouble- such as getting caught in a trap. This would make their stance special, as they have to stand a certain way if they are missing a limb. I'm not sure how this would affect gameplay.
Fallen teeth: This would mainly/only affect old wolves. After a wolf has lived a long life, if they weren't taken care of properly their teeth may fall out. This may make them die earlier, or make it so they can only eat some food.
Arthritis: This could affect pups or older wolves, but younger wolves would have less of an effect. If it's a pup that gets it, then it won't have any effect (I'll explain). Arthritis can be caused by either old age OR an accident. For instance, let's say you don't have the safety of your pup up. Well, little Johnny just had both of his back legs run over by a car. It'll take a considerable amount of health, but if Johnny is taken care of he'll just end up with arthritis, or a chance of having it, but as he got it when he was young and still growing he'll be mostly fine. Maybe it'll just have some flavor text saying "[Blank] ran around today, and it was easy to forget about the incident" or "[Blank] always walks funny. When they were told, they simply replied it made them look tough". If it's an older wolf, it would be more severe.
I did my best to explain them. I may add more later. If you have something to add, make sure to suggest it! Also, I apologize for any grammar mistakes.
I would prefer that any age related penalties are not implemented. (so no support) I am not interested in hyper-realism. I have to face aging with my real animals, and would prefer my pixel wolves to not face that same unfortunate reality in similar ways. I also would not want them to lose their usefulness to the pack earlier (or be portrayed as suffering in any way. Personal pack lore is one thing, it being forced upon them by RNG is another). Their lives are already somewhat short (which is okay), so to miss out on them being able to do stuff once they suddenly get RNG crippled... I already can't have my pupsitters doing anything once they hit death roll age (the pups might die with them), and I am not the sort to manually retire my wolves. I like them to live their natural lives in full. So, I already have wolves in my pack that can't do anything once they hit a certain age and I just don't like it. They feel like they are not functioning members of the pack at that point--they are just there waiting to die.
Also, my hunters are my babies. They are my project, and I breed them for stats. I love them being able to hunt up until they die. I like them getting to keep up with (or surpass) the young wolves (and teach them a thing or two!). So, the potential for them to be forced out of their role early would really make me sad.
Also, for my pack, humans have no place in the lore. So if the injuries were human related it would really break that for me.
Hm- I see what you're saying I didn't really look at it that way before, I just kinda thought "ooo cool new interesting mechanic". I think that for these they should only happen after the wolf is already retired, maybe? Or maybe it could also happen with pups who don't have their survival bar high enough? Maybe even a way to just turn it off entirely. I think some of these (such as the missing limbs and fallen teeth) could be added as mutations instead, with the fallen teeth simply being just born with no teeth, and you have the ability to take off the mutations.
There are a lot of things I didn't think of, it's just when I joined the game I thought about it, so the second it let me post my idea I did it with little thought. If this were to be added I would 100% want it tweeked a lot. I do see how it would be really frustrating to breed your dream wolf but then its legs get chopped off or somethin.
I know there are others that would love age/injury mechanics. They just aren't what I would like. If it was optional, that would be nice, and hopefully provide for both sides of the matter. ^.^
Maybe it's preferable not to make any drastic descriptions but I like the mechanic behind this. I like old wolves to be weakened, to give us signs that they're close to death somewhat differently than just looking at this age factor and knowing that completely fine wolf may bite the dust after hitting rollover button. It's not about "natural to hiper-realistic" change as Sepulchre describes but more like appeal to the current artificial state of aging. Dynasties are filled with 8 year old leads and pack wolves of age from 7y6m to 8y. I would like them to be more varied than this without the consensual "pay to kill" option, letting us prolong their lifespan through items or activities.
And as I think, an alternative could be using their unused HP bar option for pack wolves (other than making it higher than 0 HP which happen only when Open Wound is inflicted) into low health means death for old wolves. It'd let us consume largely hoarded healing salves just to prolong some lives a little bit longer. This is just a concept of mine.
No support, we already battle against RNG for decent level ups, decent litter outcomes. I don't want to battle against RNG for injuries and or possible early retirement for wolves I have stat grinded their whole lives.
I would support it if it only effects wolves that are to the point of death roll overs. At that point I feel safe enough to go "yeah, this wolf could die at any moment, why wouldn't it have health issues." Anything before death roll overs I don't think many people would agree to.
