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[WereDragon]

Dragons are a classic staple of medieval fantasy. Their inclusion in dwarf fortress and the difficulty in trying to capture a breeding pair is fantastic. I would hate for it to be easy, that way its an accomplishment to actually have a pair of even cave dragons. But once you do manage to obtain a breeding pair, you get a rather… lackluster reward. Because dragons grow extremely slowly. Taking two hundred years to reach the size of an elephant. Im of course not saying they should reach full size in 5 years. But a roc reaches full size in only 20 years while being a similar size AND capable of domestication. But dragons have a fire breath attack and are slightly larger. As such i propose that (both breeds of) dragons mature in 40 to 50 years (reaching elephant size in 8 to 10 respectively). I know the game is fully moddable, and i have changed it myself before. I just think that in the yet-to-be-released premium version, players might end up being disappointed discovering that a breeding pair of dragons is not nearly as valuable as it sounds. The only use that i currently know of is to let them breathe fire through fortifications, but you could always do that with a singular dragon. On the bright side, having your dwarves wearing dragonleather quivers DOES sound bad***.

[FantasticDorf]

Perhaps megabeasts could have a growth modifier to how much they destroy, plunder and loot? A simple descriptor like "They are larger by at least 5 years their age" by calculating the distance between where they should be in growth versus where they eventually become, with a 1/4 extra wiggle room for enormously oversized & successful specimens.

It was mentioned that Smaug in 'The Hobbit' was much smaller when the initial attack on the mountain started, albiet it was a long time ago, but did grow fat eating the Dwarves of the mountain and Men of Dale to sit upon its hoard.

[IndigoFenix]

I think that powerful "ancient" dragons are such a major staple of fantasy that it would be kind of disappointing from a lore standpoint if a 1000 year old dragon wasn't substantially stronger than a 100 year old one.  Maybe if they had a bit of an early growth spurt to make them usable for breeders in a reasonable period, but still taking centuries to reach their actual full size.

[FantasticDorf]

I think that powerful "ancient" dragons are such a major staple of fantasy that it would be kind of disappointing from a lore standpoint if a 1000 year old dragon wasn't substantially stronger than a 100 year old one.  Maybe if they had a bit of an early growth spurt to make them usable for breeders in a reasonable period, but still taking centuries to reach their actual full size.

Doesn't this all kind of link back to babystage/whelp arguements for things like bug larvae? It could be more applicable that the transition between stages of sizing up (and sizing down for elders if applied to people) has more fluidity with where to stop and start.

Dragon spends say, 10-15/20 years a fireless snaggletoothed whelp, then turns into a rhino/elephant/larger sized monster is still fair to the progress of a roc.