Allow Chased Wolves to Keep Their Age (Again)

Option 2 would be my choice. Leaving as is is the worst option.

Otherwise, it takes away a lot of incentive to try for chased wolves. A wolf that is already 3-5 years old and has NBW stats (less than 300) has limited use. That is half its usable breeding age or less. Females and bonded males only have about a litter a year as it is, which is realistic fine, but REALLY hurts when you're starting with half the reproductive life left (or less).

That also means less time to level the wolf, when we already have extremely limited ways to level wolves quickly. Scouting and lead are really the only reasonably quick ways to level, even with spending for guarana. That is only 3 wolves who can get decent experience at any given time. Hunters are limited to 10 hunts a day, and even with a full lifespan starting at 1 year and sending out all 10 hunts, people often can't get a hunter to level 20. Pupsitting is completely "chump change" experience. This ties back into the usable breeding age. Why spend on guaranas when a wolf only has half its usable breeding life left? 

That brings up spending GC. I know I, and likely others, are far less likely to want to spend the 5 GC auto-friend if there's a chance (and frankly, given that all the chased wolves I have encountered since the change have been in the 3-5 range thus far, seems to be a high chance) the wolf is already middle-aged even when it was chased at 1 year. Before, because of the R&C people, there was always a pretty decent chance the wolf would be still young. I will also not spend GC on customizing a wolf with relatively little reproductive potential. I am certainly not going to pay for guarana to quick level a wolf I will only get a few litters from. There is incentive to spend for any or all of those things on a young wolf. Guarana to fast level means quick stats, and then there are plenty of heats left to get nice stat, low-gen puppies. Customizing is much less worthwhile if you have limited numbers of litters left in a wolf. 10-20 GC spent on RMAs or other customizations will be a little less of a blow if you have a full span of litters to try to pass on that marking combo you wanted to the next generation. 5 GC spent on auto-friending is more worth it if you have the full reproductive lifespan to get nice pups from the wolf.

Full support for option 2 from me as well! I've gotten into R&C fairly recently and would really like for those chased wolves to stay at or close to the 1 year age mark that I chase them at. I'm chasing tier 2 wolves with breed-only markings mostly, and it makes me sad that those could be rerolled to (relatively) old age. I'm also adding some chased wolves to my pack and their young age makes them more desirable to me personally. 

I'm most strongly in support for Option 2 (only reroll those over 5 years).

This could of course be abused by people chasing their old wolves in hopes of them being found/purchasing them again at a younger age, but I think this is already balanced by the fact that the wolf will almost certainly lose stats (unless they were a low stat breeder), all proficiency, there's no guarantee that they'll get into the chase pool, and even if they do there's the chance the person that finds them won't be willing to give them up.

I prefer Option 2 to Option 1 (all ages rerolled) because, like others, I raise and chase. A lot more now that I have a T3 stud that I'm trying to get some T3s out of to add to the chase pool. I loved being able to chase a 1 year old and knowing that the person who found them (if they made it into the chased pool) would have all the time they needed to raise stats and train them however they like, even if the wolf does get the low end of the stats roll.

Option 3 (treat wolves of age 5+ the same way as wolves below 1 year) would be acceptable as well. I'm more keen on them being able to be found with their ages rerolled (Option 2) because I have a bit of a soft spot for these pixel creatures and would hate to see a lovely wolf have no chance when chased just because they're older.

Support for Option 2

Even if a wolf gets "immortalized" that way I think the chances for this to happen are very slim to begin with and since the stats are lowered each time there wouldn't be too much damage done anyways imho. Basically just the looks would stay and I highly doubt that anybody would be able to retrieve "their" wolf more than once this way since there are several chances that said wolf gets deleted permanently (he needs to enter the chase pool, he needs to be befriended...) and even if it doesn't you have to find it again and the finder has to give it back to you...very unrealistic on a larger scale or for several "incarnations".

support big time! I think it was fine as is before the change tbh, as it was rare to find old chased wolves, but option 2 is the best in my opinion and make raising pups to chase less of a waste

option 2 sounds great, i was specifically trying to find chased wolves to level from age 1 and its so very rare to actually encounter chased wolves as is so i was a bit bummed to find their ages get rerolled now

Big support, I love finding those higher stat chased yearlings :)

As an adjacent topic, maybe we could consider filtering out the re-chased NBWs? Or introducing some minimum standard for chased? It is disappointing when you catch a chased that is clearly just a garden variety non-special no-mark nbw that was befriended and re-chased asap :'(((

Edit: Thanks orderup, apparently I have a short attention span, as I replied in that thread a few days ago XD

There's another chatter for that, actually! Also by websteak, wolvden.com right here!

agree - do not leave it as is. i’m intentionally inbreeding tier 3’s to chase, and putting some real life money and a lot of hard work and resources into raising them. chasing them is a gamble as is but the chance someone could find them older makes me sad

I support Option Two, I raise and chase year old merles but will be stopping until they rectify this because I'm not wasting resources.