If I'm going to take on a 74 year old colonist, he should have some good skills.
If I'm going to take on a 19 year old colonist, I would expect he would have less problems.
What I've seen is that regardless of age, a new colonist (young, old) has a basic set of skills. But, there are worrying problems with old age -- offset that with good (not great) skills learned over time,
...perhaps appropriate to their focus.
Just an idea
Congratulations on a great game!!!
Anything that adds an incentive to take in old colonists(without nerfing young ones) is a good thing in my opinion. I think I share the reaction of many people when a potential colonist is plopped into view(raid, drop pod, chase event) and you look at their age and are like "never mind, don't need a soon to be blind, senile and cripple colonist." And honestly I would like that to be changed in some way that I'd actually welcome those people for reasons other than "I don't really have a choice, I need more people for the colony to survive".
Agreed, having an older colonist whos say....a geologist he gets a bonus to mining or a 80 year old taster gets a bonus to cooking for example.
A more fun idea would be say you have an older paramedic, he could have a 5 or 10% bonus that reduces likelyhood of infection, or a astroid miner can make stones with a slightly higer HP say 50 to 100 more.
Makes more sense to be honest, older people will typically have better skills or more experince, as it stands right now if i see an 80 year old raider or drop pod guy with even okish skills unless i really need one of said skills id rather let him bleed out until late game where i can afford drugs and bionic parts to fix whatever goes wrong.
What about real-world, low-tech compensations for age? For example, senile or blind people can have a companion animal. Poor eyesight can be compensated for with glasses. Difficulty walking can be compensated for with a cane or a wheelchair. Grip and lifting problems can be compensated for with a grabber stick. It shouldn't take super-tech bionics or risky limb amputation to provide amelioration for age-related disabilities.
I've had an 80 year old researcher/crafter who was also a great shooter. I expected her to develop health issues, but she never had any. But I've also people who got bad backs at 60.
I got a 25 YO colonist develop asthma.
The chance of it happening was abysmal.
Luckily it was treatable, with a couple of "friendly" lung donors.