Can we stop pretending the family tree works?

[Camcolit]

It's bugged and fixates on one character and therefore marriage/adoption decisions are next to useless.

Factions which assume this isn't bugged and have the lines matter for 'interloper' etc. are very annoying in this aspect.

Also it really reduces the fun of interesting cultural groups and associated traits that obviously a lot of effort went into because you have next to no control over it and the game pretends you do.

Short of being able to fix this bug which presumably isn't possible, does anyone have any ideas on if the following workarounds can be achieved?

1. A console command to simply delete characters. This would avoid having to load non-royals up on a leaky canoe and sailing them into the nearest Spanish Armada.

2. A setting to change (lower) the chances of female children or simply remove them and have another mechanism for introduction of new lines.

3. A way to change the cultural group of a character in-game (probably not doable)

4. Any other ideas?

At the moment I'm simply refusing all marriages and adoptions which is very unfun. Will try setting the "past child-bearing age" for females to 17 next game I guess, but will probably just play a faction where the lines don't matter instead.

[Roma_Victrix]

Yeah, it is frustrating since the princess agent in regular Medieval II can at least be used to marry her relatives (i.e. her cousins) and thus continue the patrilineal line of the monarchy with the original surname. Otherwise the game is consistently determined to wipe out the original line by the fourth generation or so.

That's largely the reason why I prefer to play with republican rather than monarchical factions in our game, i.e. Rome, Carthage, and the Greek League (Koinon Hellenon). Hereditary monarchies are a headache in M2TW for this reason. It's a breath of fresh air when you are no longer given a reason to give a crap about traits associated with the royal line. For Rome, Carthage, and KH, the roleplaying of some random person advancing up the career ladder to lead the realm as consul/suffet/strategos is actually a fun aspect of gameplay for EBII, and reflects the kind of social mobility in societies that lack a king and royal family paranoid about leading men rising to the top. Woe unto the great Iranian general Surena who was executed due to the paranoia of a Parthian king, who wouldn't suffer his popularity following the victorious battle of Carrhae against the Romans.

[Camcolit]

Agreed, but only playing 3 factions in not my preferred solution.

This reminds me to ask about another quick and dirty fix - mods, is there a way to simply remove the "interloper" trait completely so we don't have to bother with this uncontrollable family tree nonsense?

[romulus_aeneas]

Agreed, but only playing 3 factions in not my preferred solution.

This reminds me to ask about another quick and dirty fix - mods, is there a way to simply remove the "interloper" trait completely so we don't have to bother with this uncontrollable family tree nonsense?

Everything you’ve asked about is possible. Requires a simple Google search. If you want really advanced console commands (such as killing a character) check out the EOP project: https://youneuoy.github.io/M2TWEOP-library/

Simple things like removing traits: https://www.twcenter.net/forums/show...Is-it-possible

[Camcolit]

Everything you’ve asked about is possible. Requires a simple Google search. If you want really advanced console commands (such as killing a character) check out the EOP project: https://youneuoy.github.io/M2TWEOP-library/

Simple things like removing traits: https://www.twcenter.net/forums/show...Is-it-possible

Many thanks, that's very useful.

[romulus_aeneas]

And I forgot to say. You can change someone’s culture group to keep them alive. As you’ve both said, it’s very common for these monarchical lines to extinguish. So a character’s culture group is a trait, meaning you can use the “remove_trait” function to accomplish it. I have removed Dahae from characters and given them the trait for the Arascids. You can even make a dumb character smart, selfish to unselfish, etc.

[Camcolit]

And I forgot to say. You can change someone’s culture group to keep them alive. As you’ve both said, it’s very common for these monarchical lines to extinguish. So a character’s culture group is a trait, meaning you can use the “remove_trait” function to accomplish it. I have removed Dahae from characters and given them the trait for the Arascids. You can even make a dumb character smart, selfish to unselfish, etc.

All save-compatible then?

[romulus_aeneas]

All save-compatible then?

Yes. None of the console commands will cause issues.

[Camcolit]

Thanks man, I might just take the lazy way and remove interloper via the text file for now until I have time to play with the engine overhaul but nice to know it's an option.