Genetics, Stats, Traits, and Mentors, what is best way to get a worthy heir?

newuser99 · May 22, 2012

I'm trying to breed some talent into the gene pool before it gets too shallow. But I open up that big ol list of possible brides/grooms and it's a bit intimidating.

Trawling the forums it seems like certain features like genius, slow, hunchback, have a slightly greater chance of happening if one or both parents have it. So having a good trait is always a plus. (though it rarely seems to pay off from what I've read) When it comes to the profession I know to get my kids educated by a talented Mentor. (who is 3-4 educated in Stewardship or Diplomacy, and hopefully passes off the same to the kid)

With stats I'm not sure how things are calculated though. Are the parents' stats a strong predictor on the resulting children, or is the mentor's influence vastly more important? If the mentor's influence is more important I will worry less about the spouse's stats when choosing (or whatever compliments my ruler), and just get a high-stats mentor.

Likewise when it comes to the misc personality traits like the 7 virtues/sins, you can steer this somewhat by mentoring the child yourself and cherry-pick through random events. But for instance are two parents with Just/Lustful more likely to get a kid with Just/Lustful, even if the kid is tutored by a Mentor who is not? If there is no correlation then I could just disregard things.

So I guess my question is what is most important regarding genetics, high stats, or personality? Or is it all so random should I keep a good mentor handy and then just marry for huge tracts of land?

MartinSWE · May 22, 2012

I´m not sure I understand your question but from what I have seen 'Strong' seems to be a very good 'genetic trait'. Added Fertility, Martial and not to forget Health is never wrong.

On the issue of Mentor I would almost exclusively use my ruler as tutor unless he/she is really bad at learning (worse then 'decent'), is a Foreigner (and thus risk to make the child a foreigner aswell) or have a useless 'Main Trait' (which doesn´t really exist). Getting to steer the random traits gained by the child is extremly important especially for the Heir who needs to stay clear of traits that ruin relations with Vassals (Cruel, Arbitrary, Gluttonous and so on). Ofcourse there is always the 'gamey' way of using the Ruler as mentor right up until the moment when the child is about to become 'adult' and then change mentor to a high learning character with the 'Main Trait' you want (Midas Touched for the Heir).

I personally like to 'Roleplay' a bit so tend to send away Children to a Mentor who have the traits I´m looking for (and a decent learning skill ofc).

n000b · May 22, 2012

Have a Quick man and a Genious woman marry. It seems to work better to combine those 2 traits instead of just having 2 geniouses marry eachother. Im asuming this also is the case with the other genetics traits (like strong and attractive), tho i havent tried. But in an earlier game of mine i was able to get at least 1 genious or quick child each genration with this method. Combined with elective succession your ruler will always be awesome, it takes alot of efford tho. Also, always educate your own children, you cant trust that Ai.

Edit: Oh, I didnt read the OP proberly. Gonna try again

So I guess my question is what is most important regarding genetics, high stats, or personality?

Its all important, only genetics are somwhat random, you shouldnt pay that much attention to genetics, but it can be fun sometimes to breed awesome kids. By educating your child yourself you will be able to chose his traits, and what stats he will be good at, wich is indeed important, your vassals is gonna hate you if you have all the 7 sins for example.

Or is it all so random should I keep a good mentor handy and then just marry for huge tracts of land?

Personally i really hate marrying my heir off to some duchess or even queen, becouse the AI will spoil you future heirs, and im a big stat whore, i want my ruler to have perfect stats and traits always, cant leave such important things to the AI's randomness. But sometimes when i get the chance to marry someone important (like the queen of france), I just cant fight the temptation for that much easy land

gedsaro · May 23, 2012

This thread:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?594591-Education-what-determines-the-base-stat-gain-of-a-child
from March has some useful info on teachers affecting their wards.

Also from ward event files, AI wards with the diligent and temperate traits will usually pick the 'good' option in education events (the encourage or show them off to the court).
and cruel and wroth makes them more likely to pick the beat-the-child option.
Zealous, of course, makes it Highly probable they will 'thank god for virtues' or 'pray for their sin'
cynical removes the possibility that they will choose the zealous response.
Also if the guardian has the chance to give the child a trait they have, they will probably try to do so, and if the child gains their opposite, they will probably try to remove it given the chance

If the guardian has the genius or quick trait, then some event options will give an extra point to the event-relevant stat of the child.
The same goes for having: 'relevant-stat' = 10.

Leisner · May 23, 2012

Mentor them yourself.
Then, if you do not have the education you want your child to have, when (s)he is 15, send your child to a mentor that do. This way you can have control over which traits your child get (mostly), and increase the chances that your child gets the education of your choice (education is only decided on the day the child turns 16, how long the mentor has tutored the child doesn't matter).
Never let anyone mentor your favourite heir for more than that though, it just doesn't pay.

knppel · May 23, 2012

Once your son gets off age and hangs at your court, he will constantly aim to be part of the council as whatever position. Aalways fulfill this ambition, and then fire him immediately.
He will now choose to aim to get another Council position most likely.
Every time he gets appointed to his desired position, one of his stats raises by 1.
Repeat until you die/Hold so much land you just have to share it with your son.

newuser99 · May 23, 2012

knppel said:
This thread:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...what-determines-the-base-stat-gain-of-a-child
from March has some useful info on teachers affecting their wards.

I believe gedsaro when he is talking about Mentors making automatic choices during the kid's childhood. It makes a lot of sense.

Well here's me trying to make sense of it all, I hope it helps someone understand it:

Kid 0-5: Certain traits have a chance of appearing form birth (Club-footed, hunchback, quick, genius) based in part on parental genetics and partly random. In the game I've observed limited stat growth in this period. Making a complete guess I'll assumed this stat game is predicated on the parents stats somehow. (since no mentor is involved yet) This limited stat growth never seems to add up to very much. (I think I've seen an untraited 4 on a five year old before, so maybe 0-5 in stats, not counting traits?)

Kid 6-15: Stat gains are influenced solely by the Mentor's stats. If the mentor has any low scores, the kid will have a greater chance of having lower score growth in that stat as well. If the player mentors then they make life event choices that impact non-inheritable personality traits (Wroth, cruel, kind, etc) though what specific events come up (if they are based on the personality traits of parents, mentor, or just random) is unknown.

16: Whatever the Mentor's education is has a strong influence on whatever the kid's education will be. (Though not guaranteed, as per the website post shows, kids can rebel and get an education that the Mentor does not have)

-If I have lousy stats then I make sure I get a mentor who has good stats (with the highest stats in the highest stats I want for the kid obviously) and personality traits that I want my kid to have.
-If I have good stats then I mentor the kid myself and pick the personality traits myself for greatest control.
Get a good mentor for the last part of the kid's education. (lol, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cram_school)

Each of the kid's stats = (0-5 baby stat growth [parent genetics?]) + (0-10 from Mentor stats) + (up to +9 Education bonus) + trait bonuses/penalties

So to answer my earlier question, since the impact of the Mentor is so great (and much higher then the postulated impact of the parents) the most important things to look for in a spouse are: favorable congenital traits (genius, fair, quick) and huge tracts of land. The spouse's stats appear to have a limited impact (and may be mitigated on your own) regarding the child. As a ruler you may want to get a spouse whose stats compliment your own, rather then worry about those stats impacting the children too much. If the spouse has a lousy education that's probably not going to impact the kid's too much either. (Your adjusted rulership stats maybe, but not the kids)

Note: The limited sample testing done by the guy in the other thread specifically has children with no parents. It may be that parental genetics would further influence the kids during their 6-16 development. For the above blurb, I'm assuming this is *not* the case.

Lord Xia · May 23, 2012

You also want to look at base stats. What are the persons stats without their traits. Parents with good base stats pass on higher base stats to their children. So good genetic traits, like quick, strong, genius, and strong base stats should be the choice for a bride. You should then mentor the child yourself to guide them to having the best traits and avoiding the really bad ones.

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Genetics, Stats, Traits, and Mentors, what is best way to get a worthy heir?

newuser99

Colonel

MartinSWE

Lt. General

n000b

Major

gedsaro

First Lieutenant

Leisner

First Lieutenant

knppel

Court Jester

newuser99

Colonel

Lord Xia

Captain