Um...fertility problems among family members?

**SuleymanGroznii** · August 29, 2007, 04:14 PM

Is there a game mechanic that encourages your faction/family members to have kids? I'm on winter 244 with Parthia and totally kicking ass (despite fighting on two fronts against Bactria and Seleucid), I've captured Epiph., Alexandria, and Hecatompylos from the Seleucids, and Alexandria Herat, Sogdiana, and Merv from Bactria. BUT...I literally just had the first child, among all 7 family members, in about 20 years (maybe 30). My faction head is pushing 80, my heir is about 45, my #3 is about 65, and I think the youngest guy is 35.

They've been moving around quite a bit, and I gotta wonder--does that keep them from "settling down?" No matter how much I conquer, it won't do much good if I have 2-3 guys to take over.

**andipandy123** · August 29, 2007, 04:51 PM

Let them settle. I have a feeling it improves the chances of sucess. Unless something hereditery is making your family fire blanks.

The alternative is just bribe generals from other factions that are similar civs to you like pontus and armenia. It's strange. The AI parthia are at it like rabbits on my campaign. kill one general his 4 sons attack.

**Dengero** · August 30, 2007, 01:12 AM

bribe them, thats the way ^^" also, try get them when they're alone, its easier and cheaper.

**andipandy123** · August 30, 2007, 07:05 AM

expect to pay the majority of your money though to bribe them. Costs me about 20k for a 1 star general and some stubborn ones can cost up to 100k.

The other option is play metro naval mod for RTR platinum and you can hire generals. need BI for that though.

**SuleymanGroznii** · August 31, 2007, 01:17 AM

must tell y'all, that not two hours after I wrote this post, I had two births within my faction WITHIN TWO TURNS!!!!

Now, I also had two deaths shortly thereafter. And you know what? Because of the purely chaotic nature in which the A.I. chose to behave, I had no choice but to *BE A TOTALLY CHEAP ASS BASTARD.*

(I will leave how I managed that to everybody's imagination, but I can repent only saying that the *GODFORSAKEN A.I. CHEATED!!!! IT CHEATED!!! ARRGHHH!! MEGLGHGHGHGLEEEGHHXXX!!!)

anyhow, that manner of "WTF-up'dedness" is about the only reason with which I can justify manipulating the nearly omnipotent A.I.'s judgment.

I just thought that I would share that with everybody. Not that I feel guilty -- and need some sort of support -- or anything...

DON'T JUDGE ME!!!! DON'T JUDGE ME!!! HOW *DARE YOU* ANIMALS JUDGE ME!!!????

**andipandy123** · August 31, 2007, 08:04 AM

i didnt understand a word of that post.

**Archer of Sparta** · August 31, 2007, 12:28 PM

Originally Posted by SuleymanGroznii

must tell y'all, that not two hours after I wrote this post, I had two births within my faction WITHIN TWO TURNS!!!!

Now, I also had two deaths shortly thereafter. And you know what? Because of the purely chaotic nature in which the A.I. chose to behave, I had no choice but to *BE A TOTALLY CHEAP ASS BASTARD.*

(I will leave how I managed that to everybody's imagination, but I can repent only saying that the *GODFORSAKEN A.I. CHEATED!!!! IT CHEATED!!! ARRGHHH!! MEGLGHGHGHGLEEEGHHXXX!!!)

anyhow, that manner of "WTF-up'dedness" is about the only reason with which I can justify manipulating the nearly omnipotent A.I.'s judgment.

I just thought that I would share that with everybody. Not that I feel guilty -- and need some sort of support -- or anything...

DON'T JUDGE ME!!!! DON'T JUDGE ME!!! HOW *DARE YOU* ANIMALS JUDGE ME!!!????

You're obviusly on some substance.

Anyways i have the same problems with my greeks. I have a bunch of high management, influence, and heavy star generals... why am I upset? I have more provinces than male family members 16 years old or above. And I need some more governers now or something bad is gunna happen.

**SuleymanGroznii** · September 01, 2007, 05:10 PM

yeah, reading that again, I can't understand a word of it either. I meant to confess to everybody that I went back to my last save and ended the turn about 4-5 times until I had a semi-desirable result. You know--like beginning the turn without 2-3 of my best generals buying the farm?

I hate to cheat, but really, the AI cheated first!!! at least that's what the 9-year-old in me says; you know the one in all of us that used to throw our NES controllers out of frustration when Super Macho Man or Dracula from the original Castlevania used to keep kicking our butts? ;P

How am I even supposed to continue the game while I have 9 settlements, I'm stuck fighting a war on two fronts (and thereby losing a ton of money in trade...), and THEN I go from 7 to 5 or less family members? Arghghghgh!

I still feel...feel...feel...dirty...about it. hahaha.

anybody else just snap and have to do something over like that? I'm not just talking about redoing battles either.

**andipandy123** · September 02, 2007, 05:16 PM

Well believe its a tough draw. i raise merc armies under a general and storm one front while defending the other with your regular forces in forts. Kill enough on he offensive front and they are effectively crippled. disband the mercs so you dont go into debt and then defend your other front until you can get a nice few family members working their magic in the bedroom and let them settle because he can earn nice traits to help the process along. Depends who your fighting.

**Companion Cavalry** · September 02, 2007, 10:14 PM

Just keep a family member all his life in the city.

He's.. err, more... inclined to... have kids

**andipandy123** · September 03, 2007, 04:14 AM

theres a nice trait to do with adultery too and he sure gets sommat out of that.

**SuleymanGroznii** · September 03, 2007, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by andipandy123

theres a nice trait to do with adultery too and he sure gets sommat out of that.

Speakin' of which, wasn't there a guide somewhere on how to get (or encourage) certain traits in your family members? I've been looking all over the place and I can't find it.

**SuleymanGroznii** · October 16, 2007, 01:17 AM

So, I've noticed some funny things in my game and that I thought I'd update this thread. One of my faction's guys, who is in his mid 80s with traits like "adulterer," "avatar of the gods," and the booze-related trait that's the next step up from "occasional drinker," who until now had no children (and his wife died), has mysteriously been adopting a 20 y/o guy w/traits suspiciously like his own every other turn or so. So, yee-haw.

And I also noticed a different way to get some faction members that other people here may or may not be aware of. I fought an army with one that was led by a new kataphract unit and not by a faction member, completely clobbered them, and the next turn the leader of that unit was "man of the hour" and I had a chance to adopt him.

So I guess if you use an elite type command unit (cause I've had plenty of armies led by non-elites who cleaned house WAY MORE than this guy had, but didn't get a "man of the hour" type reaction) to lead an army that totally whoops ass, you may or may not get a chance at adopting a new family member. Food or thought, or something.

**Marcus Camillus** · October 17, 2007, 11:27 PM

Cool, thanks for the info.

**Kylan271** · August 16, 2008, 10:35 AM

It is based on your battle ratios from playing experience,whether winning with peasants or elite units. And also based on Generals(perhaps family members??) to province ratios from what I have seen. Go for Heroic victories...

As for kids...you need to stay in a city for a while,and get good ancilliaries(herbalist,physician..in 'ancillariies.txt file') that encourage birth or temples to gain Fertility trait. I keep reloading...but you must change something in the turn first as the game is set for that turn save,that is saved 204 Winter..reloading produces same results on family tree...then change troops around or move someone and re save then end turn will change family tree outcome. Women can have children up to about 48ish I have on mine...do not know a set male or female children age limit???

**Paterke** · August 16, 2008, 01:17 PM

Try to devide your generals into 2 types:

management family members
generals

Mostly i just distribute the various traits among my family members, like a mercenary captain, bodyguard, ... for my generals and a mining engineer for my managers...

The generals won't get children easy, but the managers should breed quickly(since they normally stay whole their lives in 1 city)

As to the man of the hour, i think it is also determined by the 'size' of the victory ( heroic victory will easier provide a man of the hour then a normal one)

**fourganger** · September 08, 2008, 03:53 AM

Originally Posted by Kylan271

As for kids...you need to stay in a city for a while,and get good ancilliaries(herbalist,physician..in 'ancillariies.txt file') that encourage birth or temples to gain Fertility trait.

Always remember to keep these guys within the family. Once a family member hits 60, I transfer any fertility related retinue members to younger guys within the clan.

**Jamey** · August 16, 2008, 03:50 PM

In summary, there are various fertility enhancing (and reducing) traits and ancillaries. The easiest ancillary to get (and thus move to where you want) is the Doctor, which has a 10% chance of appearing in a town with a Temple of Battle (it must be the primary temple, not a minor one). You can't actually build one, so you'll need to capture one. The local factions who can build them are Seleucia, Armenia, and Pontus. The closest one I can find in descr_strat.txt (i.e. in a starting province) is in Pharnacia.

Beyond that, the maximum number of family members is strongly limited by the number of settlements you control (as I recall, it's essentially capped at 1 to 1, and I believe that boys who haven't reached majority count - if anyone has a good reference on this, I'd be curious to know more). Also, as mentioned, family members who sit in town generate more children. I've never before seen the number or quality of victories cited as a means of generating more FMs, but it wouldn't surprise me.

If you really want to have a lot of generals to work with, various mods (like ExRM and the aforementioned Metro Naval Mod) built from RTRPE allow the recruitment of generals if you have RTW-BI.exe.

**Sardaukar One** · September 08, 2008, 01:22 AM

Build a scriptorium in one of your settlements.
It won't take that long to do. Especially not if you are using MC's 4tpy mod.

Go to the ancillaries file and boost the trigger chances for doctors.
When I do this, I usually set it at 70.
You can also boost the fertility effect from 1 to upto 99.

I usually change the fertility effect from 1 to 5.
I used to set it to 10, but then my family members started breeding like rabbits.
So if I do change it, I boost it to 5.

Now I mainly just boost the trigger chances for getting doctors.