Nothing but girls, no sons! Can this be resolved?

[Roma_Victrix]

I'm currently playing Caudillo87's sub mod as the Byzantine Empire.

At turn 27, Basileus Theodoros is still alive and so is Symbasileus Ioannis. The latter's son Arintheos (age 19) will one day inherit the throne, but he is now a major cause for concern.

I married him off to his slightly older aunt, a daughter of Theodoros and of course sister to Ioannis. Sounds creepy, I know, but I wanted him to produce sons and prolong the family name (along with the "of Greek Blood" royal bloodline trait). However, he has managed to do nothing but make 3 girls so far!

His brother Loukas is thankfully also married but he has already chalked up two girls and no boys!

I've seen the game behave like this before (an HRE campaign I played a while ago). When your faction is super successful the game sees no other recourse but to mess around with you and piss you off in any little way it can. In this case, nothing but girls for your royal family, so that you are forced to marry them off and have heirs which forever lose the "of Greek Blood" trait. As some of you might know, each family member is allowed to make only four children. With the future faction heir making three girls, he only has one more chance to make a son!

Aside from just giving them that trait in a cheat like "give_trait", is there a means to alter this in the main data folder? Or some other cheat to make family members produce boys instead of girls? I like princesses and everything, but I don't need FOUR OF THEM FOR PETE SAKE.

Somehow I get the feeling there's no way to fix this. I can't help but feel like the game is giving me a giant middle finger in a musical taunt such as "nanner, nanner, boo-boo, you can't control me! I can screw you over, and there's nothing you can about it!" Lol.

For once I'd like to beat the game at its own game, if you will.

Cheers,
Roma_Victrix

[tudor93]

Aside from just giving them that trait in a cheat like "give_trait", is there a means to alter this in the main data folder? Or some other cheat to make family members produce boys instead of girls?

There is no cheat that can make your FM produce only boys.

I like princesses and everything, but I don't need FOUR OF THEM FOR PETE SAKE.

Well, many months ago I also had some problems understanding the mechanism of the game regarding FM, inheritting traits etc. and I learned that having some royal princesses (the 3 girls, being the heir's daughters, will become agents on the map) is not so bad because they also have, like the male FM, the 'Of Greek blood' trait; so if you marry a royal princess (with royal blood, of course) with a general that doesn't have 'Of Greek blood' trait their kids will still have the 'Of Greek blood' trait.

And marrying your little prince with his aunts/cousins isn't creepy . I do this in all of my campaigns (marrying cousins) because I like to preserve the royal blood line (I NEVER adopt). It was also quite common in the middle ages for cousins to marry, wasn't it?

[Roma_Victrix]

There is no cheat that can make your FM produce only boys.

Wishful thinking on my part.

Well, many months ago I also had some problems understanding the mechanism of the game regarding FM, inheritting traits etc. and I learned that having some royal princesses (the 3 girls, being the heir's daughters, will become agents on the map) is not so bad because they also have, like the male FM, the 'Of Greek blood' trait; so if you marry a royal princess (with royal blood, of course) with a general that doesn't have 'Of Greek blood' trait their kids will still have the 'Of Greek blood' trait.

I would do that again, except I already have and this tactic does not work. I married Theodoros' first daughter off to a general, Alexios Komnenos, but he was not taken into the family tree! Whenever I recruit a general from a fortress or citadel it does the same thing (i.e. they don't get invited into the royal family tree). Oddly enough they are only invited if they are victorious in a battle, and then I can adopt them into the family. But that's not what I'm trying to do, because said generals don't have the "of Greek Blood" trait. And I think the game knows this.

I just think the game is dead-set on screwing me over in this regard.

And marrying your little prince with his aunts/cousins isn't creepy . I do this in all of my campaigns (marrying cousins) because I like to preserve the royal blood line (I NEVER adopt). It was also quite common in the middle ages for cousins to marry, wasn't it?

But of course, and it was somewhat common in antiquity as well.

[tudor93]

Wishful thinking on my part.



I would do that again, except I already have and this tactic does not work. I married Theodoros' first daughter off to a general, Alexios Komnenos, but he was not taken into the family tree! Whenever I recruit a general from a fortress or citadel it does the same thing (i.e. they don't get invited into the royal family tree). Oddly enough they are only invited if they are victorious in a battle, and then I can adopt them into the family. But that's not what I'm trying to do, because said generals don't have the "of Greek Blood" trait. And I think the game knows this.

I just think the game is dead-set on screwing me over in this regard.



But of course, and it was somewhat common in antiquity as well.

Hmm, things get more complicated. I suppose you don't know about the hidden family tree 'feature' .
And of course generals recruited from fortresses/citadels don't appear in the family tree, they are just some random generals from your empire, not royal family members. You can either marry them to a royal princess of yours or send them in battle and let them show if they are, or not, worthy to join your royal family .

[Kaidonni]

Like in another thread on family members, I'll ask here - how many regions do you own? There is a hardcoded family member/general to settlement ratio. This doesn't necessarily mean you won't get any new births, but if you have too few regions to family members/generals (both family members and non-family generals count) new babies will more than likely be limited to girls.

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

BW to the rescue I am thinking i might have to write a tutorial about family trees and how to operate them to the max, as i know a lot about their mechanics.

Here is a short asnwer to the main question - if you get a daughter born reload to your newest save that isnt the autosave(it saves the game on the beginning of the new turn) which is hopefully the previous turn, move some agents around to "shuffle" the game and you might just get a son, i ussualy dont use this method as it takes ages for you to get what you want(daughter or son), but in your case i strongly reccomend it.

I married him off to his slightly older aunt, a daughter of Theodoros and of course sister to Ioannis. Sounds creepy, I know, but I wanted him to produce sons and prolong the family name (along with the "of Greek Blood" royal bloodline trait).

This in fact, is nessecarry for you to continue the "Of Greek Blood" trait line if you choose to play with the Laskaris family tree, because the starting co-emperor isnt Theodoros's son, he is a guy who married his 1st daughter, but for some reason he dosent get the "Wife is Greek" trait, so the son has no "Of Greek Blood" trait, and you can only continue it by marrying the second Theodoros's daughter to the son of the Co-emperor(or to be simple what you did there).

In this case, nothing but girls for your royal family, so that you are forced to marry them off and have heirs which forever lose the "of Greek Blood" trait.

Not really, the sons and daughters too(should the married general become FH or FL) from these marriges still produce "Of X blood" traits, and if you married a, for exapmle Genoeese male FM to your Byzantine daughter and "stole" him sucsessfully their sons and daughters will get two "Of X blood" traits because the game automatically "prefers" your factions blood trait, but for some reason it dosent ignore the other factions blood trait and so the children get both. I have never got a triple "Of X blood" trait because i havent tried or the game hasnt allowed for it to happen(the married couples male didnt become a FH or FL).

As some of you might know, each family member is allowed to make only four children. With the future faction heir making three girls, he only has one more chance to make a son!

Then you better make it count using the method i game at the start of the post with reloading and "shuffling" the game. It might not be considered "legit", but if you need to get it done, it gets it done.

I would do that again, except I already have and this tactic does not work. I married Theodoros' first daughter off to a general, Alexios Komnenos, but he was not taken into the family tree!

Hmm, things get more complicated. I suppose you don't know about the hidden family tree 'feature' .
And of course generals recruited from fortresses/citadels don't appear in the family tree, they are just some random generals from your empire, not royal family members. You can either marry them to a royal princess of yours or send them in battle and let them show if they are, or not, worthy to join your royal family

Actually if you look in carefully Alexios Komnenos isnt a general, he is a family member. The Byzantine late campaign has whole 3 family trees, 2 of them are hidden

The starting family tree is the Laskaris tree. The Laskaris were the rulers of the Empire of Nicaea, i wont go in much detail, you can read more in wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_I_Laskaris and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laskaris

The only Komnenos on the map was the ruler of Trebizond which declared independace a few weeks before Constantinople fell - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexios_I_of_Trebizond and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komneno...oi_as_Emperors (read both as Emperors and The later family section).

The Doukas were the ruling family in Desporate of Epirus(western Greece) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doukas

You can "change" the family trees, but this is one of those things that i do not know that much of, the main goal of this is to kill all male FM's from one family and it will change to another family tree, i do not know if this is can be done multiple times by having some male FM's that have not come of age yet. Also, ive read about one family taking power suddenly when playing Byzantine late campaign, so you might want to kill off the other 2 unwanted families off, so you dont get family trees jumping(altroguh it is a quite realistic depiction of what the Byzantines political situation was like )

In this specific situation (Byzantine late campaign) you can choose between the 3 families, the hardest one to do the "takeover" with is the Komnenos tree, but it is quite a historic family, so i would choose them.

Since he is 39 at the start of the game and unmarried, he only has 6 years to make some kids quickly(i think, im not 100% sure that you cant have kids after 45 trough). To pull this off you must cheat a little - use "character_reset "Name_Surname"" (without the second quotes around the whole command) to get him to Nicaea in one turn and marry the Laskaris daughter to him(it is important to marry him BEFORE he becomes the faction leader, after he becomes the FL he cant be married by her for some reason), this will ensure that their sons and daughters get the "Of Greek blood" trait, which again is missing from Alexios for some reason.
After that is done merge Theodoros with the Co-emperor(forgot name), it is important to do so becsuse the Co-emperor has some random surname which you cant check so it means you cant use character_reset on him. After that is done, you might transfer some ancillaries from them to Alexios(i dont think there are any unless you are playing submods like next heir ancillary, but it respawns, so you can even not bother with it).
Then just suecide charge them into a large Turkish or crusader army and realize just how awesome the Byzantine bodyguard is , i killed 70% of the army thats next to Nicaea at the start of the game with only 1 bodyguard! You must kill the Doukas too to ensure a safe rule for the Komnenos, i suggest meeting up all 4 of them and attack the crusader rebel stack thats near Athens.

You can also do a take over with Doukas which is a bit easier because the older one is married already and the younger one was 29 - plenty of time to make children, just follow the same steps as with Komnenos(marry the younger one with the daughter as he also dosent have the "Of Greek blood" trait, i also suggest moving them to Nicaea and giving up on western greece.

If you just want a safe rule for Laskaris family with no family tree jumping, just dont marry the other families family members(you get offers for marrige for them strangely enough) You might also consider killing the oldest Doukas, as he is married and can have children IIRC because he is not 45 at the start of the game, if he is over 45 he is safe to keep

Whenever I recruit a general from a fortress or citadel it does the same thing (i.e. they don't get invited into the royal family tree). Oddly enough they are only invited if they are victorious in a battle, and then I can adopt them into the family. But that's not what I'm trying to do, because said generals don't have the "of Greek Blood" trait. And I think the game knows this.

A general recruited from a citadel or fortress is just that: a general, he dosent belong to your family tree, but you can adopt him because "he has sown his skills on the field of battle", so it is the same as adopting, except you already have the guy on your strat map. I generally dont train generals at castles because i believe(not 100% confirmed) that they add to the number of family members your faction has, thus reducing the chances of your real and married FM's to have kids(might explain the reducing amount of marrige offers you get in late game, you just have too many generals).

PHEW! I hope someone actually takes his time to read this. By the way while writing this an idea sparked in my mind on how to simulate royal family takeovers, if any modder is willing to hear me out, PM me I am not sure if this will work, but im hoping that the person who i tell this to can ell me if that is possible.

[Baxon7]

if i remember right so...with descr_campaign_db.xml ,that can "disable" all girls born.
under <family_tree> and just put 1 on <daughters_retirement_age uint="1"/> so all daughters will be die 1 years old and remove. :-)

[vin2579]

if i remember right so...with descr_campaign_db.xml ,that can "disable" all girls born.
under <family_tree> and just put 1 on <daughters_retirement_age uint="1"/> so all daughters will be die 1 years old and remove. :-)

Just tried this out and it works fine, not sure if its save game compatible or not though.

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

But wont they still be on the family tree even after dead? It serves so purpose to kill off your own daughters if they are still on your family tree, also all other females in the family tree will die im guessing.

[Baxon7]

No,when daughters die after 1 years,and it will be remove from tree..and all sons married with females and born 4 sons.
only alle daughters that born and be 1 year old so die and remove,its all.

just try that and check :-)

[Roma_Victrix]

Wow! Great input everyone! I'm so excited by the possibilities. Let me respond in kind:

Like in another thread on family members, I'll ask here - how many regions do you own?

I've been whooping some serious butt! Retook all of mainland Greece and virtually all of Asia Minor. Those Latin Empire settlements were tough as nails to siege, though. I even managed to take Bari and Syracuse from the Kingdom of Sicily, although it looks like I'll have to pull off some major "heroic" victories just to keep them. My success is thanks large in part to the Greek bodyguard unit Baltic Warrior has mentioned (which looks fantastic in Caudillo's sub mod btw, although I felt compelled to change a few units back to the way they were in plain old Stainless Steel, like Menaulatoi for example). Perhaps the game is screwing with me for the opposite reason of what you suspect (i.e. it doesn't like the fact I'm giving the Sicilians and Seljuks a run for their money so early in the campaign).

Here is a short asnwer to the main question - if you get a daughter born reload to your newest save that isnt the autosave(it saves the game on the beginning of the new turn) which is hopefully the previous turn, move some agents around to "shuffle" the game and you might just get a son, i ussualy dont use this method as it takes ages for you to get what you want(daughter or son), but in your case i strongly reccomend it.

Ah, the old shuffle technique! Funny that you should mention it, I've used it for completely different reasons in the past, like delaying the death of faction leaders who were too valuable to lose at age 61. A rather good suggestion, I think! But not exactly foolproof.

This in fact, is nessecarry for you to continue the "Of Greek Blood" trait line if you choose to play with the Laskaris family tree, because the starting co-emperor isnt Theodoros's son, he is a guy who married his 1st daughter

His hidden surname is "Vatatzis", full name Ioannis Vatatzis. How do I know this? Check the "descr_strat" file in the campaign folder. I took the liberty of renaming him "Ioannis Laskaris" in that file and giving him the royal blood trait right from the very beginning. Of course it's not historically accurate to rename said character, but I thought it was worth a shot. Perhaps this is why the game hates me.

if i remember right so...with descr_campaign_db.xml ,that can "disable" all girls born.
under <family_tree> and just put 1 on <daughters_retirement_age uint="1"/> so all daughters will be die 1 years old and remove. :-)

You have my full and undivided attention sir! Love your avatar, too, Baxon! For some reason I can't get the image and sound of the real Einstein repeating the words of your posts when I read them.

I'll have to try this. It sounds too good to be true, but worth a shot.

EDIT and UPDATE: Surprise! It worked! Baxon, you magnificent son of a *****, it worked! I'll change the retirement age for girls back to 45 once the game gives me the son I rightfully deserve. I pretty much need to change it back, right? Doesn't this rule apply to every faction on the strat map, not just mine? If so, keeping this rule in place for a long time could produce serious problems for the game. Like, oh, I don't know, no princesses anywhere!

Cheers,
Roma_Victrix

[Roma_Victrix]

Just thought I'd mention that I have given both Baxon7 and Baltic Warrior 1+ rep for their help. Thanks fellas!

[Baxon7]

Unfortunately yes,its for all faction. the best way is make 1 king with 4 son and so 16 son sons from start.with descr_strat.txt. :-)
its what i did Pm me if you wanna that too and tell too which faction and which period (early or late) so i make that to you. :-)

[Roma_Victrix]

Unfortunately yes,its for all faction. the best way is make 1 king with 4 son and so 16 son sons from start.with descr_strat.txt. :-)
its what i did Pm me if you wanna that too and tell too which faction and which period (early or late) so i make that to you. :-)

After my faction heir made a couple boys, I was satisfied and changed back the girls' age retirement to 45 so I could hopefully get a princess as well.

Changing the descr_strat.txt to add more sons from the start is brilliant! Great idea. Too bad I'm already way into my current Byzantine campaign now. I will do that for the next campaign that I play.

Cheers,
Roma_Victrix

[DeliCiousTZM]

Does anyone else experience sick first generation babyboom? only to be left with a few for the next two generations.

[Rick]

I think it's a matter of the "X and Y" chromosome. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[Grabbin_Megroin]

babykiller!