Family trees compendium of knowledge

[Kiliç Alì]

In this tutorial I'm about to write all my knowledge regarding the matter of family trees, trying to explain how family trees work, how to add new members\characters and other amenities.
Most of what I write is taken from other tutorials I found here on TWC (linked "on the loose") or personal experience. Also some bugs\glitches\weird things are reported.

Index:
Part I - general introduction
Part II - characters and trees
Part III - Leaders and heirs
Part IV - princesses and marriage

Files considered:

descr_sm_factions.txt
descr_campaign_db.xml
descr_names.txt
text\names.txt
descr_strat.txt

Part I

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

So, the first thing you need to know is that each faction behaves differently regarding family trees.
The rules a faction will follow are set via descr_sm_factions.txt and are not save-compatible.

If you open the file, you'll find several sections in this form:

faction                        scotland
culture                        northern_european
religion                    pagan
symbol                        models_strat/symbol_scotland.CAS
rebel_symbol                models_strat/symbol_rebels.CAS
primary_colour                red 255, green 255, blue 255
secondary_colour            red 130, green 130, blue 130
loading_logo                loading_screen/symbols/symbol128_scotland.tga
standard_index                6
logo_index                    FACTION_LOGO_SCOTLAND
small_logo_index            SMALL_FACTION_LOGO_SCOTLAND
triumph_value                5
intro_movie                    faction/minor_intro.bik
victory_movie                faction/minor_win.bik
defeat_movie                faction/minor_lose.bik
death_movie                    faction/minor_lose.bik
custom_battle_availability    yes
can_sap                        yes
prefers_naval_invasions        no
can_have_princess            yes
has_family_tree                    yes

Some of them are quite self-explanatory: faction name, culture, religion, symbols and colours. standard_index is the reference to which position on the banners/symbolsX.tga.dds files the faction uses for its strategic map standard logo, can_sap is a RTW leftover, triumph_value is unknown.
prefers_naval_invasion seems actually working as "can make naval invasions". Since in vanilla it is usually set to "no", there is no wonder why you never see AI naval invading.

For the purpose of this tutorial, howewer, the only relevant lines are the last two: can_have_princess and has_family_tree.
The first one will be considered in the Part IV of this tutorial, now we will focus on the "has_family_tree" line.

In Medieval2, the only avaiable values were "yes" or "no". "yes" meant the classical family tree, where each general belonging to the tree is considered a "X faction family member" while others (like, some starting generals, or bribed\recruited ones) are just "X faction general". Most important, if the last family member dies, the faction is wiped out. The death_movie line then is fired, and game is over.

The "no" option is used only for slaves and papal_states, but can apply to other factions aswell. In this case, the player will not be able to open the "family tree" panel (missing UI element).
All the generals are, and this is strange indeed, "X faction family member" and there still are the Faction Leader and the Faction Heir.
There will not be new births or adoptions, so generals will have to come in some other way, but the key point is that the faction will survive even if all the generals are wiped out.

Kingdoms expansion, howewer, added a particular feature, explicitely made for the teutonic faction in the teutonic campaign. The line for the teutonic faction is the following:

has_family_tree                    teutonic

This indicates a particular type of tree, which is very similar to the "no" option, but in this case there are 2 ties of named characters: generals and family members.
Adoptions are allowed, but the faction can still survive if no generals are left.
Also IIRC there is a little bug, the faction survives even if owning no regions. This afflicted Mordor faction in TATW 1.0 (damn', I feel old now ) and can be solved only via script monitoring the number of settlement the faction owns and eventually using the kill_faction command.

Part II

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This part covers the editing of characters in family tree.

If you played M2 for enough time, you may noted no character can have more of 4 sons\daughters. This number is set in descr_campaign_db.xml, in this line:

      <max_number_of_children uint="4"/>

You can lower this number but you cannot raise it. If you set a higher number, the game will not be able to read more than 4 children in descr_strat (the satring family tree).
New children may born (but will not shown in the tree) but the game will crash when they'll come of age.

There is a way to force male offspring and having more than four children (but remember that hard-coded upper limit is 4 males even with this system); Furin wrote a tutorial about this some time ago:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=158912

This said, let's move on the starting family tree of a faction. You set it in descr_strat.txt.

Basically there are 2 classes of chracters, dead and alive ones, and the latters are divided in adult and under-age ones.

Alive family members need to be defined in descr_strat in this form:

character    Mors Umber, named character, male, age 58, x 98, y 276, portrait umber_mors, battle_model umber_mors
traits ...
ancillaries ...
army
unit...

for generals while agents (spies, assassins, princesses, diplomats) in this way:

character    Catelyn, princess, female, age 39, x 47, y 216, label catelyn1
traits ...
ancillaries ...

in the relative faction's section after the settlements' list. You can notice that the only difference is, the generals must have an army attached. Now, let's examine the entries.

The first entry "character" specifies for a character entry; it is followed by a TAB and the name (and eventual surname) of the character in question.

The second entry specifies for the charachter type (as per descr_character.txt). character_type's are hardcoded tought, generals and captains must be listed as "named character", princesses as "princess". Other legit entries are "admiral", "spy", "assassin", "diplomat", "heretic", "witch", "inquisitor". The properties of each of them are mostly hardcoded, some are set in descr_character.txt. Just know you cannot have any agent in your family tree but princesses. Witches are not suitable and kick you back to menu when starting a campaign.

Third entry is the sex, this is IMHO a redundant thing since sex is hard-coded with character_type, and is maybe a leftover code from character_records section (maybe CA wanted to allow agents to be both male and female but then ended otherwise). It may be followed by the "leader\heir" entry (only for male named characters) setting the charachter as faction leader or faction heir (or both. see later).

Also avaiable is the entry "non_family". It removes the status of a character from family tree, and cannot be appointed as Leader or Heir, nor adopted or married. It seems not working in via-script spawns but it works fine in descr_strat.

Then we have "age" and map x-y co-ordinates.

The entries "portrait" and "battle_model" are optional, they specify for custom portrait folder_name (UI\custom_portraits\folder_name) and battle model (as per battle_models.modeldb). No hardcoded limit of custom portraits or battle models is known.

Another optional entry is "off_map", wich brings off_map your character at campaign start. At least one co-ordinate must be expressed in the co-ordinates section, otherwise the general will be locked in low left corner of the map (even if it is sea). Can be unlocked with the move_character command via script tought.

Finally, there is the "label" wich is an alpha-numeic code you can assign to a character to identify him\her univocally in the campaign. Can be referenced in script and has no use out of it.

Next line is optional, is the "trait" lines and lists the character's traits as per export_descr_character_traits (trait name, level, comma)
Same applies to "ancillaries" line.

Male generals must be linked to an army, the fist unit is the general's unit while others are optional and are the generals' army.

A strange bug affects princesses custom_portraits and makes them un-usable: the portrait specified in descr_strat is shown whe clicking on the agent scroll, while when opening family tree it is shown the generic "adult woman" one.
A weird bug affects pricesses with the off_map attribute: in this case the portrait is a little vanilla one (william the conqueror). Strange indeed, this happens even in mods like TATW where UI has been completely replaced. I can't understand why this happens, but I guess that both off_map and custom_portrait attributes were made for generals, not princesses, so engine goes ballastic.

Dead and underage characters are listed in a successive section of the file, in this way:

character_record        Harwood Karstark,     male, age 65, dead 15, never_a_leader

the fist entry (character_record) indicates the start of the records' section, followed by the charachter's name and surname. Then comes the sex and age of the character at start of campaign.
Next entry can have two values, "alive" for alive characters (does not work with adult males, who need to be listed as generals) and "dead" for dead characters. "dead" can be followed by the time they are dead (how many years ago?); in the example, Harwood Karstark died 15 years ago, hence at the age of 50.

Last entry can have several values:
current_leader: underage character is the faction leader
current_heir: underage character is the faction heir
never_a_leader: default one
past_leader: the character was faction leader in his life.

Finally, at the bottom of the faction's section, comes the relatives part, each line introduced by "relative"

relative     Eddard Stark,    Catelyn,    Robb Stark,    Brandon Stark,    Rickon Stark,    end

Here all the components of the family tree are listed, in the following order:
male character - female spouse - 1st son\daughter - 2nd son\daughter - 3rd son\daughter - 4th son\doughter.

A TAB is after "relative" and after each family member, the line is conluded by "end".

Please note that, despite the spouse being usually listed in the "character_record" section, she can also be a princesses (active on the map), but will be considered married by the engine and will not be able to perform seduction missions.

One more thing : all names and surnames used must be owned by the faction the character belongs to. Theese names are listed in descr_names.txt and are a separate entry per faction. The file itself is very intuitive and easy to modify, just remember it can only use ASCII characters and export to the text\names.txt file. In the latter each entry specifies how the name will be shown in-game.

This detail is the reason why, when a princess of yours seduces a foreign general, their children will not have the foreign surname but some random ones picked up by the engine. This is no doubt a CA fail and cannot be fixed, unless you allow all faction to have access to all surnames in descr_names.txt.

Last important thing, please note what defines if a general will belong or not in the family tree is his status as son of some other family member, OR having a wife listed in the relatives section. So if a character has no relatives but was included with his army, he will be a petty general and not a family member.
This allows you to have multiple family trees (giving each general a wife) wich can be separate each other. In this case, when opening the "family tree" panel in-game, you'll be able to see only the Faction Leader's tree. Again an hardcoded limit, no way to switch to secondary family trees is known.
I read somewhere this feature was already present in RomeTW but cannot find the source now.

There is an interesting option, I found in vanilla unpacked descr_battle.txt, wich is maybe a leftover from old RTW (Asterix and Obelix are set as father and son in the CA sample, lol), to make a family tree with a father and no spouse. Instead of putting the spouse name after the character, you write down "none". Example:

relative     Tytos Lannister,    none,    Tywin Lannister,    Kevan Lannister,    Tygett Lannister,    end

This will generate a tree with a father (Tytos) and 3 sons, with no female character in.

For a more detailed explanation on how to extensively modify your family trees, check Advanced family trees by GrnEyedDvl:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=187293

Also this tutorial, made by Hellenikon, may come handy understanding the difference between "general" and "family member":
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=431932

Part III

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

A thing that always annoyed me (and many other people) is the impossibilty to manually choose your Faction Heir. The heir is in fact appointed by the engine and cannot be changed.
The criteria the exe choose the heir when the Faction Leader dies is quite simple: the first family member with highest authority becomes new heir .
Hence you can choose your next heir, via ancillary, removing all references to authority in export_descr_character_traits.txt and export_descr_ancillaries.txt, and then creating a transferable ancillary with Authority boost effect.
The family member owning it will be picked up as Heir when the current Leader will be dead.
Such work could interfere with the whole authority-loyalty system, so some balancing and adjustments are required.

Instead, engine overrides the authority system when the Heir dies and a new one must be appointed. The criteria the exe chooses the Heir in this situation is, at present day, still unknown.

Another exception on this (thanks to Ngugi and Withwnar for reporting it) is the Teutonic tree heir, wich is the one with highest base Command attribute (instead of Authority).

Also note that there is the possibility, for a faction, to have multiple leaders\heirs. This is a buggy situation tought, expecially regarding diplomatic marriages, so it has been seldomly used in mods (actually the only one I heard using this feature was Narnia Total War wich is still WIP)

Finally, you can give the same character both the "leader" and "heir" attribute in descr_strat. This leads to a strage bug, when the character dies the current heir (himself) becomes leader, while a new heir is appointed. Hence the character will be bloody dead, but still considered "leader" in the family tree. No other Leader will be ever appointed then, since he can't die again, of course.



More info on underage leaders\heirs in this tutorial by TNZ:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=296296

While this, by Konny, covers the heir picking matter:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=257175

The problem of multiple heirs\leaders is considered by King William The Conqueror here:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=515396

Part IV

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

In descr_sm_faction there is a line:

can_have_princess

that can be followed by either yes or no. Meaning of the sentence is misleading tought.

"yes" means the doughters of an alive leader\heir will become princesses when coming of age, while "no" means they will be considered like other generic women and will not become agents when of age.
Please note that "no" does NOT mean that the faction is not allowed to have princess, only that the leader\heir doughters will not become princesses. In fact you can always spawn them via script, or place in descr_strat, since agents avaibility is set by descr_character.txt.

The can_have_princess line has also one other, more subtle, effect.
"no" prevents the faction's generals to be seduced and disables the diplomatic marriage option for males. If, for whatever reason, the faction has a princess, she will be able to propose a marriage to another faction with "yes" value - or to seduce its generals.
This is the precise reason why muslim factions, in vanilla M2, cannot get diplomatic marriage alliances and cannot get their generals seduced.

Please note that this is NOT linked with the family tree type, so if you set "yes" to a faction with, let's say, teutonic family tree, they'll be able to accept marriage alliances and get their generals seduced. No children will born in the faction, tought.

One last sweetie:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

How to spawn family members via script by OfficerJohn

[Ngugi]

Great! Extensive, detailed and well considered
Thanks

[Withwnar]

Thanks Kiliç. Nice summary.

It might be worth mentioning that the next-heir Authority-anc trick only works when the faction leader dies, not the faction heir. As mentioned here. If the heir dies then the game chooses the next heir in its usual way, ignoring the Authority boost. I found that out only yesterday after some solid screaming at the game.

[Eronor]

Lately I tried to edit the Dwarven family tree (I have MoS - latest installed) to look more like Tolkien's one. I added Oin and Dwalin to the game so far an changed Fundins location to be Farins son and not his brother. But Ive run into a snag: I cant run a campaign. As soon as I click on start campaign the game goes one step back into the main menu. Ive done some tweeking before with the descr_strat file and this happens when there is a mistake in the lines. Can someone have a look and tell me what Ive forgotten? Or done wrongly.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

character Dain, named character, male, leader, age 34, x 292, y 269, portrait Dain, hero_ability DWARVES ;, label family_dwarves1
traits Dain 1 , hero_ability5 1 , Factionleader 1 , GoodCommander 2 , Energetic 1 , ReligionStarter 1 , GoodAttacker 1 , Brave 1 , ChivalryLegacy 2
ancillaries leader_dwarf, king_mountain, cram
army
unit Noble Bodyguards exp 3 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Dragonslayers exp 2 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Miners exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Dwarven Warriors exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0

character Balin, named character, male, age 36, x 295, y 271, portrait Balin, hero_ability IRON_FIST ;erebor2
traits hero_ability1 1 , LoyaltyStarter 1 , GoodCommander 1 , ReligionStarter 1 , GoodAttacker 2
ancillaries balin_axe
army
unit Noble Bodyguards exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Clan Warriors exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Miners exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0

character Gimli, named character, male, age 20, x 61, y 315, portrait Gimli, battle_model gimli, hero_ability SHIELD ;Naugrim
traits Gimli 1 , hero_ability3 1 , LoyaltyStarter 1 , GoodCommander 1 , ReligionStarter 1 , GoodAttacker 2 , Brave 1 , Loyal 1 , RansomChivalry 1
ancillaries troops_dwarf, gimli_axe, gimli_axe_small
army
unit Noble Bodyguards 1 exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Miners exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Dwarven Warriors exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0

character Thorin, named character, male, heir, age 21, x 329, y 271, portrait Thorin ;iron hills
traits Factionheir 1 , LoyaltyStarter 1 , GoodCommander 1 , ReligionStarter 1 , GoodDefender 1 , Brave 1 , HaleAndHearty 1 , RansomChivalry 1, Chivalry Legacy 1
ancillaries dwarf_halls, dwarf_music, mithril_west
army
unit Noble Bodyguards exp 2 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Iron Guard exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Miners exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Miners exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Dwarven Warriors exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0

character Gloin, named character, male, age 32, x 51, y 290, portrait Gloin ;Ered Luin
traits LoyaltyStarter 1 , GoodCommander 2 , ReligionStarter 1 , HaleAndHearty 1 , BattleChivalry 2
army
unit Noble Bodyguards exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Clan Warriors exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Miners exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Miners exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Axethrowers exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Dwarven Warriors exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0


character Lofar, named character, male, age 30, x 54, y 285, portrait Lofar
traits LoyaltyStarter 1 , ReligionStarter 1 , GoodCommander 2 , HaleAndHearty 1 , BattleChivalry 1
army
unit Noble Bodyguards exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Miners exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Miners exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Miners exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0

character Oin, named character, male, age 41, x 55, y 273, portrait Oin ;nogrod
traits LoyaltyStarter 1 , HaleAndHearty 1 , GoodCommander 2 , BattleChivalry 2 , ReligionStarter 1 , Loyal 2
army
unit Noble Bodyguards exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Miners exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Miners exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0

character Dwalin, named character, male, age 27, x 296, y 270, portrait Dwalin ;erebor2
traits LoyaltyStarter 1 , HaleAndHearty 1 , GoodCommander 2 , BattleChivalry 2 , ReligionStarter 1 , Loyal 1 , Fertile 3
army
unit Noble Bodyguards exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Miners exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0

character Nar, spy, male, age 24, x 292, y 268
traits NaturalSpySkill 2 , GoodSpy 2

;Dains line
character_record Amma, female, age 150, dead 95, never_a_leader
character_record DainI, male, age 134, dead 117, past_leader
character_record NainII, male, age 150, dead 95, past_leader
character_record Feima, female, age 134, dead 110, never_a_leader
character_record Gror, male, age 118, dead 101, never_a_leader
character_record Heid, female, age 118, dead 90, never_a_leader
character_record Nain, male, age 102, dead 53, never_a_leader
character_record Kolga, female, age 102, dead 30, never_a_leader
character_record Thora, female, age 32, alive, never_a_leader
;Gimlis line
character_record Borin, male, age 133, dead 84, never_a_leader
character_record Gunnlod, female, age 140, dead 88, never_a_leader
character_record Farin, male, age 117, dead 64, never_a_leader
character_record Ledis, female, age 105, dead 45, never_a_leader
character_record Groin, male, age 101, dead 59, never_a_leader
character_record Rud, female, age 102, dead 30, never_a_leader
character_record Lokk, female, age 32, alive, never_a_leader
;Oin (41)
;Gloin (32)
;Balins line
character_record Fundin, male, age 116, dead 52, never_a_leader
character_record Idunn, female, age 100, dead 25, never_a_leader
;Balin (36)
;Dwalin (29)

;Dains line
relative NainII, Amma, DainI, Borin, end
relative DainI, Feima, Gror, end
relative Gror, Heid, Nain, end
relative Nain, Kolga, Dain, end
relative Dain, Thora, Thorin, end
;Gimlis line
relative Borin, Gunnlod, Farin, end
relative Farin, Ledis, Fundin, Groin, end
relative Groin, Rud, Oin, Gloin, end
relative Gloin, Lokk, Gimli, end
;Balins line
relative Fundin, Idunn, Balin, Dwalin end

[Withwnar]

The log probably tells you what the problem is, or at least give you a clue.

[Eronor]

The log probably tells you what the problem is, or at least give you a clue.

Infortunately it doesnt tell me anything. It counts the game as running properly.

[KEA]

"relative Fundin, Idunn, Balin, Dwalin end"

it is:

relative Fundin, Idunn, Balin, Dwalin, end

[Finlander]

Nice work Kilic!

[Spice Master]

Can non_family be used when spawning a general via script? For example, I want to spawn Rhudaur hillmen generals for Eriador/Arnor on some conditions, but I want to make sure they aren't able to become faction leader/heir.

[Den Stark]

Hi, done without the family
for example

		spawn_army 
			faction england
			character	Richard Plantageneto, named character, age 37, x 69, y 199, label Richard1
...

[Spice Master]

Thanks. To clarify, I'm specifically interested in making sure they are prevented from ever being adopted into the family tree as well (if that's even possible).

[Gigantus]

That will not be possible - the game uses named_characters for adoption, I am not aware of a way to disable individual adoption.
Playing with the min and max_adoption_age (putting unrealistic high values) in descr_campaign_db may prevent adoptions globally.

[Withwnar]

I have found that characters spawned using the unique names method (link) are not being adopted into the family tree. Or, at least, they are never becoming faction leader/heir in teutonic factions. I don't think that I have tested it on normal factions.

I can't say with 100% certainty that it will never happen but from my tests it didn't. Which is a shame because I wanted them to be able to become leader of a teutonic faction and I tested for quite a while to see if they would.

EDIT: I have updated that tutorial with this info.

[Kiliç Alì]

non_family can't be used in script (at least, I can't get it working), only in descr_strat, and it actually should prevent marriage, adoption and such.

So you can place them in descr_strat with this attribute inside a settlement\army\fort, then send them off_map at game start and finally re-spawn them when conditions are fulfilled.

With the method den5104 suggested I think you risk the "man of the hour" adoption anyway.

EDIT: added info to OP

[Miguel_80]

Great work Kiliç Alì!

[Reaper Of Kingdoms]

hey my family tree isn't working whenever I try to play as that faction I get kicked one step back. Any one know how to fix it?

[Gigantus]

One step back - back to menu?
If so, check the log, it should have a detailed error message.

[Reaper Of Kingdoms]

We're cam I find the log?

[Gigantus]

Either in the root directory of the main game or the \logs sub folder. Make sure the file got the current date if it is the former.

[Reaper Of Kingdoms]

thanks! but I still have the problem. It says it cant find the spouse even though I have the spouse in a character record. Do you know what it could be?