how to get decent family members?

[s0meguy]

so far the only 3 family members that spawned all suck, as in they have bad traits, as opposed to all my other family members that i started out with which mostly have superb traits and potential (the traits that make a character learn stuff fast through experience). so any ideas how i can get some good ones?

should i kill off the bad family members so that they don't breed and make more stupid family members?

[High Chunker Greens]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

I believe this article has all you need to know.

But joking aside, I don't think the sharp charismatic vigorous thing is hereditary, so just keep them breeding it really doesn't matter

[Knonfoda]

I've noticed its pretty random. Having a good father and vice versa doesn't have much effect, as you can get traits such as ''not like his father'' or ''like his father'' which make everything pretty random.

[Daiyoukai Ramza]

If you have a decently sized empire--5 or more territories will do--and are willing to use a rather... game-y method, then there's a way to manipulate the traits of your family members.

First, keep track of the ages of your children, and just before one of them comes of age, save, then end the turn. If he's sub-par, reload and then build a unit in one of your towns, which will usually make the family member come of age with different traits. If he's still sub-par, then reload again, and build a single unit in two of your cities. Rinse and repeat, adding another unit in another town with each pass, until you either get a good FM or run out of cities.

This method becomes progressively more effective the more towns you have, though it also become progressively more time-consuming. And there's the powergame-y aspect of this that many people may not be comfortable with.

[s0meguy]

i'll try that method. only getting retarded family members when their fathers are geniuses also seems very game-y. so it fits better with roleplaying too to have better family members

[Knonfoda]

Also, is there any reason for there being an almost inevitable disposition for having the traits ''epic poet'' ''womaniser'' and ''worships gladiators'' thrown around? Almost all my family members have it.

More amusingly, I had one with ''kills cats'' which was quite funny.

[Brapbrapbap]

I wonder what an "epic poet" who "worships gladiators" and "kills cats" would do in his spare time.