The harsh/cruel/heartless ruler trait

[NightEye]

I don't understand the requirements to earning this trait. In my Seleucid Campaign practically everyone of my city governors (the ones I don't use for battle) get it. What really perplexes me is I usually give reasonably low taxes and always try to get public happiness buildings up first and practically all my govs have an "unstinting" trait for it.

[General Brittanicus]

I have a feeling that if your faction leader isnt very good your family members/general/governors will inherit some bad traits from him to depict his crappy rule. Myabe you should try getting rid of your faction leader.

[Del Valle]

Same thing here. Think it has to do with tax levels aka your heartless if they are at anything but low.

[NightEye]

My faction leader doesn't have the trait, it could be because he doesn't do city management. The heir is doesn't have it either.
I usually just tax cities up to normal, I'd under I won't to be popular if I tax some cities high so some of my govs ought earn it but almost all my governors?

[General Brittanicus]

My faction leader doesn't have the trait, it could be because he doesn't do city management. The heir is doesn't have it either.
I usually just tax cities up to normal, I'd under I won't to be popular if I tax some cities high so some of my govs ought earn it but almost all my governors?

No, if you have a bad faction leader, i think your governors will just get bad traits, not inherit that specific trait, but i could be wrong.

[Tsim]

this trigger (seleucid campaign) is strange basically any thing above blue face combined with low or normal tax does it
Trigger governing19
WhenToTest GovernorBuildingCompleted

Condition GovernorLoyaltyLevel > loyalty_disillusioned
and GovernorTaxLevel < tax_high

Affects HarshRuler 1 Chance 15

[mattgoby]

Rather knowledgeable ther Tsim +rep put any actuall text from the game like that in a quote mark which should make it easier to read

[Silius Saurus]

I've had to go into the text files and modify the entry for this trait because all my best generals get it for attacking enemy cities.

[Rex Basiliscus]

I've had taxes set to high in every of my Seleucid campaigns and only rarely did my governors get it... I guess you need to build a lot of law bonus buildings which reduce corruption.

[chris10]

I've had taxes set to high in every of my Seleucid campaigns and only rarely did my governors get it... I guess you need to build a lot of law bonus buildings which reduce corruption.

You 100% sure ?...Iam convinced its the law temples and law bonuses which reduce corruption

[Silius Saurus]

I get it seemingly every time a general takes an enemy city; whether I enslave or not. I have had several generals with "heartless ruler" and "benign ruler" at the same time.

It's ridiculous.

[Rex Basiliscus]

You 100% sure ?...Iam convinced its the law temples and law bonuses which reduce corruption

Well yes... I meant buildings that give law bonuses like Temples to Athena and Zeus, Academy etc

[Caesar Julianus Morelli]

I could be wrong, but I have noticed that if you set the taxes on low the governor more times than not, gets that trait.

@Silius Saurus:
It seems rather strange that this happens to you. My current heir has the trait bloody; I have decimated a few cities with him. Still he has benign ruler trait. The same with my faction ruler. Of course I am playing with Rome, so there may be some differences in the traits and how each faction named character receives them.

-CJM

[Silius Saurus]

I am playing as Rome- the faction leader is popular, though not a war hero. The vast majority of recruited generals start with the harsh trait, which sets them up to become harsh rulers, which leads to heartless, yadda yadda.

If any of my generals take more than a couple of cities, they are practically guaranteed the heartless ruler trait. I am at a loss. I try monkeying with the taxes but they all seem to get the trait eventually. I thought that there were antitraits, but that should mean that a benign gov. shouldn't get the heartless ruler trait, but it still happens.

EDIT -OK- so I checked the export_dsr_charactertraits.txt file and sure enough, it shows a significant chance when a gen'l takes a city and enslaves, there is a significant chance that he gets the harsh ruler trait, which, is flawed. In the context of the period, enslaving a defeated pop. was common, and not nec. considered extreme by the standards of the day.

[Dekker]

this trigger (seleucid campaign) is strange basically any thing above blue face combined with low or normal tax does it
Trigger governing19
WhenToTest GovernorBuildingCompleted

Condition GovernorLoyaltyLevel > loyalty_disillusioned
and GovernorTaxLevel < tax_high

Affects HarshRuler 1 Chance 15

^This.

I feel like this is the wrong way round, and just a typo? A governor who kept taxes high until the last possible moment before a riot ( ie. <= loyalty_disillusioned) should be considered harsh, not one who cuts taxes when he doesn't need to (> loyalty_disillusioned). The latter should perhaps make him a bad administrator, but not a heartless ruler.

Taxes for me are only low in regions that are newly conquered, where I haven't had a chance to build: then on top of the cultural unrest, I get a whole new wave of unrest when my frontline generals and governors get this trait.

So I edited it. It just doesn't make sense to me.

I left the chances for depopulating and enslaving, though - that seemed fair enough.

[Silius Saurus]

I see in my current campaign that at least two gov's with the harsh trait that stayed in two different settlements where I deliberately kept taxes set at "medium" also became harsh rulers. One even became an appalling builder, even though he was building useful stuff constantly...