Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Kybernetes Moros]

N.B.: this is not a urdoinitrong; I'm not trying to say "capsuleers must be above age x" or anything like that. Just curious as to others' thoughts on the matter.

I've noticed recently that the lower bound for capsuleer ages seems to be decreasing, or, at least, I'm becoming increasingly aware of younger capsuleers, down into their teens in a few cases. I was always under the impression that, with the combination of training (which is already a thread unto itself), the nature of being a capsuleer (killing thousands in a space of seconds, say) and the fact that cybernetic implantation wouldn't likely agree very much with a body that's growing, candidates would at least have to be fully grown before starting capsuleer training.

What do others think on this? Where would you place the lower bound on 'typically' being able to start becoming a capsuleer, discounting, of course, whatever shiny mitigating factors that might cause it to happen earlier?

[Ghost Hunter]

Worth noting in the new canon to be coming™, all Capsuleers are cloned before leaving school. Ergo, no more first pod = original body shenanigans.

It's entirely possible that the cloned body does not age or grow, and has very finite limitations in order to match the template it's based on. Net result is, teen capsuleers who do not outgrow their implants - at least as far as their body is concerned.

[Seriphyn]

Yeah, I'm noticing the teen capsuleers too...I try not to pay much attention and just let them get on with it, even if I disagree with it. There's all sorts of silly things, far worse silly things, that go on in the Summit anyway.

[Katrina Oniseki]

In Warhammer 40k lore, it's mentioned that implantation of Space Marines begins when the marine enters puberty and continues all the way until their twenties. I don't know how medically accurate this is, but the reasoning is that during this stage of life, the body is more apt to accept and grow into the new organs and implants than if the marine were fully grown already.

In my opinion, a younger capsuleer may not be able to meet the physical or mental demands of training, but would possibly be more successful regarding the medical changes?

Either way, I have serious doubts that anything short of a child prodigy could survive (let alone graduate) the training regimen the way PF refers to it. A young teenager would have a difficult time finishing a four year degree in college or modern military training, and I believe Capsuleer training is much worse, as I've mentioned in my other threads.

Not saying it can't be done. Just saying it's highly unlikely.

Just a thought.

[Half Cocked Jack]

Worth noting in the new canon to be coming™, all Capsuleers are cloned before leaving school. Ergo, no more first pod = original body shenanigans.

Well damn if that doesn't turn Jack's story inside out. Oh well.

Astronauts are generally in their thirties, if I recall correctly, with the youngest being around a quarter of a century old. I imagine that this would be the youngest a person could reasonably expect to become a pod pilot. Even disregarding peak physical fitness, it would be unwise to put tweenagers in a pod for myriad psychiatric reasons. No offense to tweenagers (I just turned 26), but brains (and more importantly, minds) are just not fully developed yet at that point.

As far as the teenage pod pilots I've seen, I give them about as much creedence as I do Jovian pod pilots. The concept itself is conceivable in some sort of Ender Wiggin-ish context, but every such character I have seen has been played such naivety, silliness, and/or dependence as to be laughable.

[Katrina Oniseki]

Worth noting in the new canon to be coming™, all Capsuleers are cloned before leaving school. Ergo, no more first pod = original body shenanigans.

Well damn if that doesn't turn Jack's story inside out. Oh well.

Astronauts are generally in their thirties, if I recall correctly, with the youngest being around a quarter of a century old. I imagine that this would be the youngest a person could reasonably expect to become a pod pilot. Even disregarding peak physical fitness, it would be unwise to put tweenagers in a pod for myriad psychiatric reasons. No offense to tweenagers (I just turned 26), but brains (and more importantly, minds) are just not fully developed yet at that point.

As far as the teenage pod pilots I've seen, I give them about as much creedence as I do Jovian pod pilots. The concept itself is conceivable in some sort of Ender Wiggin-ish context, but every such character I have seen has been played such naivety, silliness, and/or dependence as to be laughable.

Well, Katrina is in her mid twenties. I think that's a good average range for a Caldari citizen, considering the extreme emphasis they place on everything including proper education. Slacking off in school or 'lightening the load' for a student would be unacceptable I think. Maximum efficiency.

[Half Cocked Jack]

Worth noting in the new canon to be coming™, all Capsuleers are cloned before leaving school. Ergo, no more first pod = original body shenanigans.

Well damn if that doesn't turn Jack's story inside out. Oh well.

Astronauts are generally in their thirties, if I recall correctly, with the youngest being around a quarter of a century old. I imagine that this would be the youngest a person could reasonably expect to become a pod pilot. Even disregarding peak physical fitness, it would be unwise to put tweenagers in a pod for myriad psychiatric reasons. No offense to tweenagers (I just turned 26), but brains (and more importantly, minds) are just not fully developed yet at that point.

As far as the teenage pod pilots I've seen, I give them about as much creedence as I do Jovian pod pilots. The concept itself is conceivable in some sort of Ender Wiggin-ish context, but every such character I have seen has been played such naivety, silliness, and/or dependence as to be laughable.

Well, Katrina is in her mid twenties. I think that's a good average range for a Caldari citizen, considering the extreme emphasis they place on everything including proper education. Slacking off in school or 'lightening the load' for a student would be unacceptable I think. Maximum efficiency.

Mid-twenties is perfectly believable, as far as I am concerned. I think that anything below 22 or so is pushing it, though, in terms of realism. That said, people like to play young characters...and fun always has to trump realism since this is supposed to be enjoyable and all. Hormonal teenagers as pod pilots just goes beyond my willingness to play along.

[Katrina Oniseki]

When you consider the psychological effects being a pod-pilot has on a fully grown and matured adult, I'd say "hormonal" is playing it light. If the teenage pod pilot were downright psychotic, now THAT would be believable. Let's see some 'failed' teen eggers! The ones who lost a good portion of their sanity.

[Ken]

The ones who lost a good portion of their sanity.

* Ken points toward CAOD

[Kybernetes Moros]

Yeah, the main reason I was curious is because, as HCJ said, some of the characters go waaay below what I find believable. Not saying they're wrong, ofc., but for immersion's sake I find it better to quietly look the other way and not play along there -- especially with what HCJ said about said characters often being (IMO) excessively naive, silly, or what have you.

FWIW, the New Canon To Come is something that's changed since the capsule was released -- the original body wasn't destroyed in capsuleer training until very recently.

[Katrina Oniseki]

On another note... what sorts of upper limits can we place on Capsuleer age?

[Esna Pitoojee]

With regards to upper limits... capsuleers can exist as capsuleers for extreme amounts of time; Alexander Noir was about 200 years old when the Malkalen incident happened. If you're asking how far in aging someone can initially become a capsuleer, I would assume much of it has to do with how much of their neural net has degraded, so... would vary.

[Ghost Hunter]

Worth noting in the new canon to be coming™, all Capsuleers are cloned before leaving school. Ergo, no more first pod = original body shenanigans.

Well damn if that doesn't turn Jack's story inside out. Oh well.

I believe the CCP dudes described in such a way that this is how new generation Capsuleer training will be done. As always, options is a thing, but this is the baseline they will most likely use as far as the medical concerns / future content is concerned.

Ghost still has his original body, for instance, so.

[Sinjin Mokk]

With regards to upper limits... capsuleers can exist as capsuleers for extreme amounts of time; Alexander Noir was about 200 years old when the Malkalen incident happened. If you're asking how far in aging someone can initially become a capsuleer, I would assume much of it has to do with how much of their neural net has degraded, so... would vary.

Yes, Noir was pushing 200. Some Amarr Emperors got close to 400, but were in a very extreme state of decrepitute. Both had reached that age due to implants and cybernetics. Capsuleer tech has only been around for about 10 years game time? So you might find the occasional over-200 pilot running around among the rich and famous, but I'd say they'd be rare. Most I'd say would be in the 25-60 range.

Agreed though. I'd say finding an under-20 in a pod should be equally rare.

[Saede Riordan]

I gotta say, I was legitimately surprised by the fact that Nikita, at 28, was on the high end for capsuleers.