+20% to fertility and no children

[TrickyTrix]

I`m playing Iron game where I created Abyssinian Empire and one of my daughters had a weak claim on Kingdom of Bulgaria. I found her a nice husband and won her the Kingdom of Bulgaria title which costed me 50 hate, but whatever... everything for my daughter.
She have Fortune Builder (+10% fertility) and Strong (+10% fertility) trait and her husband doesn't have negative fertility. And still after 16 years of marriage (she was 20 when I married her) they haven't managed to get a child!
Is there any reasonable explanation for this?

 

[CocoCincinnati]

I would use the console to find out what their fertility is. (charinfo I think) There are apparently potential penalties to fertility that aren't shown. Also, if one spouse is away from home too often. leading troops or participating in the rulers council or fabricating a claim or whatever then that can cause a penalty as well I think. (not sure about that one).

 

[Asiak]

I've long suspected that certain characters are infertile simply to simulate the reality that certain humans are infertile.

It doesn't happen a lot and I have no hard evidence. But there have been characters similar to yours where even with all the cards stacked you still make no babies. You and the spouse are lovers, you have ambitions, family focus and yet still no babies. They aren't many, it isn't noticeable but there are those few times where it is noticeable that have made me think they have to be simulating infertility in some way behind the scenes.

 

[Dahoota]

I don't think it has happened here, but characters have their fertility scaled to the number of people in their court as an optimisation measure which occasionally leads to situations like this. The AI gets hit a bit more heavily than human players.

IIRC the scaling starts around 25 or 30 courtiers.

 

[Robert II]

I've long suspected that certain characters are infertile simply to simulate the reality that certain humans are infertile.

It doesn't happen a lot and I have no hard evidence. But there have been characters similar to yours where even with all the cards stacked you still make no babies. You and the spouse are lovers, you have ambitions, family focus and yet still no babies. They aren't many, it isn't noticeable but there are those few times where it is noticeable that have made me think they have to be simulating infertility in some way behind the scenes.

I think some people are just born with a massive negative fertility very rarely.

 

[Anonymous01]

I don't think it has happened here, but characters have their fertility scaled to the number of people in their court as an optimisation measure which occasionally leads to situations like this. The AI gets hit a bit more heavily than human players.

IIRC the scaling starts around 25 or 30 courtiers.

She only has 18 people in her court. It also doesn't affect the ruler and heir. It's just the random number generator. @OP, just make her fall in love with her husband and find her some lovers. She'll get pregnant eventually. 17 years is weird though.

 

[StarSword]

Check the inheritance list, too. You might end up ruling Bulgaria yourself.

 

[Dragatus]

I think the problem is not the daughter, but her husband. He's got a clerical education and doesn't have the ambition to have children. I'd still expect him to produce children by now, but he's still the less fertile of the two.

 

[RelVleDy]

It's a shame you're not controlling the daughter, otherwise I'd say pick up a lover. Having a lover AND a husband improves pregnancy chances.

 

[RelVleDy]

I don't think it has happened here, but characters have their fertility scaled to the number of people in their court as an optimisation measure which occasionally leads to situations like this. The AI gets hit a bit more heavily than human players.

IIRC the scaling starts around 25 or 30 courtiers.

I wasn't aware the AI was hit more than humans by this. Makes sense though.

 

[Pode]

I don't think it has happened here, but characters have their fertility scaled to the number of people in their court as an optimisation measure which occasionally leads to situations like this. The AI gets hit a bit more heavily than human players.

IIRC the scaling starts around 25 or 30 courtiers.

IIRC it's a soft cap. When there are more than 32 people in a court, AI controlled couples will only have one child per couple. So an AI could in theory have 32 men marry and have 1 child each for a max court size of 96. Until they started cheating with each others' wives, then in theory each of the 32 men could have a wife and 32 kids.

 

[Sergeant Flutter]

The husband doesn't have a lot of siblings, low fertility is probably in his family. Fertility's base number is hereditary. Their lack of children shouldn't be too much of problem, unless of course, she's your only kid, in that case, there's also infertility on your side.

Try to seduce her and get her pregnant with your kid, then he'll pass it off as his. It's not ideal, and there could be some deformities, but it's all I can think of.

 

[AchedTeacher]

I don't think it has happened here, but characters have their fertility scaled to the number of people in their court as an optimisation measure which occasionally leads to situations like this. The AI gets hit a bit more heavily than human players.

IIRC the scaling starts around 25 or 30 courtiers.

I'm fairly certain this simply does not apply to non-AI couples.

OP, you can try to use charinfo to check her actual total fertility.

 

[Katsue]

The husband doesn't have a lot of siblings, low fertility is probably in his family. Fertility's base number is hereditary. Their lack of children shouldn't be too much of problem, unless of course, she's your only kid, in that case, there's also infertility on your side.

Try to seduce her and get her pregnant with your kid, then he'll pass it off as his. It's not ideal, and there could be some deformities, but it's all I can think of.

I'm pretty sure you can't seduce your daughter without the use of mods, and I believe this is an Ironman game.

 

[Kardo]

I've long suspected that certain characters are infertile simply to simulate the reality that certain humans are infertile.

It doesn't happen a lot and I have no hard evidence. But there have been characters similar to yours where even with all the cards stacked you still make no babies. You and the spouse are lovers, you have ambitions, family focus and yet still no babies. They aren't many, it isn't noticeable but there are those few times where it is noticeable that have made me think they have to be simulating infertility in some way behind the scenes.

I once had this happen to a character I was controlling. The moment I killed off his wife and married a new one they were popping out babies left and right.

 

[Sergeant Flutter]

I'm pretty sure you can't seduce your daughter without the use of mods, and I believe this is an Ironman game.

I know you can seduce sisters.

I think you can seduce any family member, and then there's a message like this: "I'm going to use all of my seduction and wrap X around my finger. Oh the scandal!"

 

[TrickyTrix]

I`m playing Ironman, so I can't open console. But I played 4 more years (she's 40 now, so her biological clock is ticking) and that idiot husband of hers got Infirm trait (-30% fertility and -1 health) so I guess that you were right about him being infertile.
I only have Sword of Islam, Legacy of Rome and The Old Gods DLCs, so there is no seduction in my game.
But I also realized that Bulgaria is Agnatic-Cognatic Elective, so I guess even if she had children, they could end up without kingdom title.
But on the other hand, should I try killing him (120% chance, and I guess with some persuasion with money others will join) and try marrying her with someone from my court?
In CK2 what is the age limit for woman to become pregnant?

 

[StarSword]

I`m playing Ironman, so I can't open console. But I played 4 more years (she's 40 now, so her biological clock is ticking) and that idiot husband of hers got Infirm trait (-30% fertility and -1 health) so I guess that you were right about him being infertile.
I only have Sword of Islam, Legacy of Rome and The Old Gods DLCs, so there is no seduction in my game.
But I also realized that Bulgaria is Agnatic-Cognatic Elective, so I guess even if she had children, they could end up without kingdom title.
But on the other hand, should I try killing him (120% chance, and I guess with some persuasion with money others will join) and try marrying her with someone from my court?
In CK2 what is the age limit for woman to become pregnant?

According to the wiki it becomes impossible for women to conceive after age 45, though AI men don't like to marry her after 35.

 

[Thrake]

According to the wiki it becomes impossible for women to conceive after age 45, though AI men don't like to marry her after 35.

They can still have kids at 45 though.

But I also realized that Bulgaria is Agnatic-Cognatic Elective, so I guess even if she had children, they could end up without kingdom title.
But on the other hand, should I try killing him (120% chance, and I guess with some persuasion with money others will join) and try marrying her with someone from my court?

Sure thing. Find a lusty man and there will be a good chance that they have a kid. Problem is that you will have to find a relative of a noble to not get the prestige penalty modifier for marriage, and preferable a close relative to not have the desire a better alliance.

 

[beartjah]

There's also a random fertility thing that isn't visible without console(that's also inheritable)


But I think everyone is forgetting oen rather important thing: getting children is a random process in this game. A character with 100000% fertility could still end up without children, and a character with 5% fertility with 100s of children simply through pure dumb luck. Given the massive amount of characters, such a situation isn't entirely unlikely to occur at some point, and it seems you just got on the wrong side of RNJesus. Nothing to be done about it...

They can still have kids at 45 though.

No, women are incapable of getting children after 45 in game (to simulate menopause, it's in the defines)