Dangerously Mad Trait

[Velico]

What causes this? I get it a lot with my administrators. I counted eight out of twenty-four of my generals have this trait. I school all of my generals when they come of age. Any insight? I don't remember this happening last time I played (maybe six months ago).

[Enomine]

I have had it occur only twice. Once on my Emperor (Emperor Heinrich the Mad) and once on a general. Both of them were really old when they got it however, Heinrich was 78 and the general was way up there too. Are many of your afflicted generals really old?

[Velico]

I can't recall what their ages were when they received it. I'd say late middle-aged (40s-50s). Most of them have died off now leaving me without many good young lads.

[Malin]

I got it often too, 30-40% of my family members usually got it. Type 'mad' in the search here, or in the sub-mods forum, 'cause someone posted a solution for this. (You have to edit/delete something in the descr_traits file)

[Chappy4756]

I get it quite a bit (relatively) and it's been in old and young....had a 20 something general parked in Cork get it. no idea why. i don't build brothels or inns, so it isn't syphilis(adultress) related...

[Callawyn]

Yet another silly myth regarding bad traits from brothels. Brothels have NOTHING to do with this trait line (and if you don't build them how do you get spies and assassins? and the brothel line increases happiness, which helps with both order and population growth).

The trait in question is called 'insane', you get it on generals that fight alot. Once they get the 'Hardened' trait line to level 2, there's a 5% chance per turn of becoming insane, or getting a higher level of the trait if they already have it. That's it, that's all there is to it.

[Bosje]

there has to more to it than that, i get it all the time with admins who never ever saw battle as well as faction leaders who fought a lot at young age, it pisses me off so much that i tend to check all important guys after each turn and if they suddenly go mad, i reload the 'end turn'

i'll do a search and take away the trait because it kills my fun

[merlinuscdxx]

the proper command is ~remove_trait "character name" Deranged 1 or 2 (1 for "Skewed View, 2 for Deranged, you should remove it before you see"dangerously mad") I 've gotten it from having characters just sit in settlements, that have never even been in a fight or have insane ancestors or anything. It's possible that one or more triggers for the trait aren't working as intended.

[Velico]

the proper command is ~remove_trait "character name" Deranged 1 or 2

Nice. Thanks for that. I've been commanding battles with captains so that I have a chance of getting a general to combat the trait lol. It's actually worked quite well. Hopefully those raised through the ranks have some good kids!

[Callawyn]

Triggers for 'Deranged' trait:
5% chance per turn of acquiring/increasing the trait line for any general with 'Hardened' trait to at least lvl 2.

17% chance if survive an assassination attempt, but only if already 'Paranoid' (a trait which is also generally caused by assassination attempts)

3% chance if survive an assassination attempt

3% chance if 'characterdamagedbydisaster'

2% chance when 'charactercomesofage' (ie. born with the trait)

Worst of all, the trait is selfperpetuating. Any character that acquires the trait has a 4% chance per turn of a +1 to threshold, so eventually you'll max out the trait line.

Note that the 'Deranged' and 'Insane' trait lines are the antitraits of the 'Sane' trait line, so if you can manage to get a +1 to Sane it'll reduce or possibly eliminate 'deranged' and 'insane'.

'Sane' triggers:
10% chance for a +1 with birth of each child (this seems counterintuitive, clearly whoever wrote this trigger has had no children)

10% chance for a +1 when character marries (again, counterintuitive, marriage obviously should lead to insanity traits)

Characters can also be born 'Sane'


These are all the triggers for 'Deranged', 'Insane' and 'Sane', the selfperpetuating triggers explain why your getting the trait line maxed out. I can't explain why you're seeing the trait often, I've never experienced this, unless your very very unlucky or allow AI assassins to take multiple pokes at your generals (best way to deal with AI assassins is to assassinate them).

[Velico]

'Sane' triggers:
10% chance for a +1 with birth of each child (this seems counterintuitive, clearly whoever wrote this trigger has had no children)

10% chance for a +1 when character marries (again, counterintuitive, marriage obviously should lead to insanity traits)

I laughed heartily at this, kudos. It's nice to know the probabilities of what causes these traits, thanks for the info.

[Groenepuntmuts]

You can view the triggers and effects of all traits here (where you, by the way, can also check all units, factions, retinue etc for several mods and vanilla) and it says that if the father has at least "uninhibited" in the "arse" trait line, the sons will have a 5% chance of insanity at coming of age as well. so maybe most of your generals are arses? :-)
you can check the "arse" trait line here

With both links, either do a ctrl+f search for "insane" or with the second link "arse", or scroll down a bit to find that trait.
also note that this is about England, but I assume these traits are the same for all the factions.

My advice is to train a few spies, and see whether the AI is spamming your generals with assassins, as failed assassination attemps seem be the number one cause for insanity.

EDIT: it seems my links link to vanilla traits, but I doubt there is a difference with SS. could be though.

[spur390]

I too had generals who were taking crazy pills, so I edited the export_descr_character_traits to reduce the chance of self perpetuation and the effects of assassination. I increased the chance of getting it from wars though. Gotta love that ptsd.

@Velico I would have a high chance of derangement if the general has "wife is frigid" trait or something like that, but I would say children make the general more sane. These generals are members of nobility and are not saddled with the painful responsibilities of childrearing. They probably have caretakers and servants for that.

[Callawyn]

EDIT: it seems my links link to vanilla traits, but I doubt there is a difference with SS. could be though.

There's quite a few differences, the traits file I was referencing for the above posts was from SS 6.2, if you're playing a different version there may be some variations.

[JonathanB]

Almost half of my generals in my current campaign have dangerously mad trait. If they have combat experience, it seems to be only a matter of time before I get Skewed View and then a couple of turns later I get dangerously mad. I hope this trait can be toned down in the future.

I am using the submod compilation.

[Velico]

Thanks for the replies everyone! +rep for most of you

[Andronikos the Mad]

Found this from Google and registered just to comment (many years too late).

I was playing as Byzantium as I'm a little obsessed by them at the moment and am reading books, watching documentaries and listening to podcasts on them.

In the game, Andronikus had quite a few positive qualities. However his younger brother (Isaac) died in battle at 19 and his father the emperor Alexius died. After which he became mad. I think it's kind of cool. Incidentally the real Andronikus was ripped apart by a mob in the streets of Constantinople, a really gruesome death and was by all accounts a bit of a mental case.

Which brings me on to my next question, after the initial spawn all the family characters including the women are all historically accurate figures. Afterwards though none of them appear to be, which is a bit of a shame. Or am I wrong?

[Judeman266]

It is not possible to script future born characters. Characters can appear via a script but they usually won't be part of the family tree.

[Jools_Jops]

I know this is old thread but it was interesting to read. I've been playing medieval 2 for years and I play SS for a few years now and I've never noticed this mad trait very often. I seem to remember I once had a mad faction leader called king ____ The mad and I thought it was hilarious and sent him to his doom. I can see how it would be annoying though if it happens alot.