The player is typically humming through skill trees fast enough to become a true master in multiple fields over 30 years. This is not impossible and shouldn't be prevented. But it is something that takes a lot of work and persistence. Most people in the position of being medieval lords who already have all of their needs and most of their wants taken care of would not bother.
Of course this is a game and the player is going to want to excel and optimize their life in ways a real person wouldn't. This is good. But it should be challenging and require strategy! One idea for making it more challenging and strategic is to add constant stress gain from progressing "normally" through skill trees. I'm not sure exactly how much is right. Maybe enough so that a character with no bonuses would pick up 100 in filling out a full tree. That's high enough to require some thought to combat it but low enough that a character who otherwise has few major stressors can manage it without much trouble. There should also be a way to stop or reverse this at the cost of greatly slowing progress.
Realism aside, I think this would be good for gameplay. Stress is too easy to manage and lifestyle traits are too cost-free. Now sometimes you'll say "hey, I really only need 1 very specific skill tree for this character and coincidentally I may get a bit stressed about needing to murder a few people (ok, close family members), think I'll chill and play some relaxed games of crochet in between plots for a few years," and others, "I will reform the faith and turn all my men at arms into siege engines and be utterly irresistible to every man alive and I don't care if it kills me!" Maybe a genius is worth pushing to the breaking point. Maybe your style is that every character is worth pushing to the breaking point, even if some break quite hard. Or maybe you don't like stressed out characters and want to play more relaxed. All of these are fine, but now it's a real choice with tradeoffs.
Just to preempt the usual objections:
1) Yes, maybe it can be in a game rule. Although I'd prefer it just got turned off on easy difficulties, it seems like that's what they're for.
2) If it seems like it's going to be a problem for the AI in testing, it can be scaled back or turned off for the AI. This is OK, the idea is to improve the player's experience and it may not be good for the AI which already struggles with stress.
Of course this is a game and the player is going to want to excel and optimize their life in ways a real person wouldn't. This is good. But it should be challenging and require strategy! One idea for making it more challenging and strategic is to add constant stress gain from progressing "normally" through skill trees. I'm not sure exactly how much is right. Maybe enough so that a character with no bonuses would pick up 100 in filling out a full tree. That's high enough to require some thought to combat it but low enough that a character who otherwise has few major stressors can manage it without much trouble. There should also be a way to stop or reverse this at the cost of greatly slowing progress.
Realism aside, I think this would be good for gameplay. Stress is too easy to manage and lifestyle traits are too cost-free. Now sometimes you'll say "hey, I really only need 1 very specific skill tree for this character and coincidentally I may get a bit stressed about needing to murder a few people (ok, close family members), think I'll chill and play some relaxed games of crochet in between plots for a few years," and others, "I will reform the faith and turn all my men at arms into siege engines and be utterly irresistible to every man alive and I don't care if it kills me!" Maybe a genius is worth pushing to the breaking point. Maybe your style is that every character is worth pushing to the breaking point, even if some break quite hard. Or maybe you don't like stressed out characters and want to play more relaxed. All of these are fine, but now it's a real choice with tradeoffs.
Just to preempt the usual objections:
1) Yes, maybe it can be in a game rule. Although I'd prefer it just got turned off on easy difficulties, it seems like that's what they're for.
2) If it seems like it's going to be a problem for the AI in testing, it can be scaled back or turned off for the AI. This is OK, the idea is to improve the player's experience and it may not be good for the AI which already struggles with stress.
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