What makes you age faster?

[Longasc]

I started in 1660 with Fencing and now it is 1686 - and I am in failing health.

I never lost a swordfight
I never got marooned or imprisoned
I had for sure over 100 land battles
I have all medicines/herbs for better health

So what gives?

Civrules said he is in 1704, 44 years on sea and still in good health. He had - interestingly - only 3 land battles (really few... IMO).


So what is your health really tied to?

I also defeated all 9 Pirates, found their 9 treasures and found 1 of the 4 lost cities so far, I am married and I rescued 2 family members and soon the third so far.

Is my health so bad because I married a beast of a woman???

 

[bigchief]

Some people believe that each time you get hit in a sword fight it decreases your lifespan. Somebody did some testing on that, and it didn't seem to matter. I have also heard that being imprisoned or marooned hurts you some. It seems that time is not on your side in this game, and the only way to make it any better is to choose Medicine as your starting skill.

Nefarious posted an excellent post on a couple of the other forums about why to choose Medicine as your start skill. Here is a link:

http://www.cutlassisle.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=11142&highlight=#11142

I have been choosing Medicine everytime since my 4th or 5th game, and though I haven't tried all the skills, I really believe it's the best. It seems to give me about 5 more years until each new health level starts.

I wish, first of all, that there was a construction set for this game. I have hammered on that topic on a couple of other forums, so I won't get started on that now. If we had one, it might be possible to see how the effects work, and to tweak them if you desired to do so, but since that's not happening, it would be really nice if the folks from Firaxis would come around once in a while, and answer some of these questions on the forums. They spent a good bit of time checking out the forums and posting when Civ3 came out, and they posted some after each expansion, but for the most part, they have been nowhere to be found, in regards to this game. There have been a few posts on some of the forums, but not what you would expect from most game companies, and certainly not what you would expect out of Firaxis.