Can't have kids

[The Candyman]

Hi. For the first time in my CKII experience I want to have a hier with good stats/traits and not only with good claims.
But here is the problem.

I am buddhist, so I can choose my heir. My current heir is junk and I'll make him die in battle as soon as he'll grow 16.
I have already lots of daughters and I have 65 courtiers. I have no concubines.
My current spouse has boosted fertility for a year for the "entertainment for my lover" feature.

I tried and tried at least 30-40 times to continuously reload my save (done when my spouse got the boost... yeah, yeah I know... I'm no man 'cause I dont play Ironman XD) and let a year (+ 2 months) pass, but nothing. Some of my courtiers got children sometimes but not me. No message of pregnancy ever came.
I know that the breeding penalty for a huge court it is said to affect only unlanded courtiers and not the ruler but I begin to think that this could not be true.
Just to try I even tried to CHEAT my fertility and boost it to abnormal values (like 100000%) but nothing happened.

Do you guys have any ideas?

There is a limit of children a ruler can have maybe?

 

[gdj]

Having children depends on the fertility of both the ruler and his wife. Even with boosted fertility, she might just be not fertile enough for a reasonable chance of pregnancy. If she is from a family with very few siblings over generations, it is likely that her dynasty has a very limited fertility by default.

 

[The Candyman]

Having children depends on the fertility of both the ruler and his wife. Even with boosted fertility, she might just be not fertile enough for a reasonable chance of pregnancy. If she is from a family with very few siblings over generations, it is likely that her dynasty has a very limited fertility by default.

using the charinfo command, our (uncheated) fertilities are 60% and 65%

EDIT: I tried now to cheat both our fertilities to 1210000% and still no pregnancy.

 

[smellymummy]

I tried and tried at least 30-40 times to continuously reload my save

Save yourself some trouble and use the pollinate command to impregnate your wife:

pollinate <momCharID> <dadCharID>

Otherwise though, it sounds like a lot of continuous bad luck

 

[The Candyman]

Save yourself some trouble and use the pollinate command to impregnate your wife:

pollinate <momCharID> <dadCharID>

Otherwise though, it sounds like a lot of continuous bad luck

but I don't like to cheat, even if I'm not ironman...
But since it doesnt work even with cheated fertilities, I think it's the only way... And if it is the only way, it means that the game itself is cheating against me and my decent-heir ambition! So cheating is a correct countermeasure XD
Any way... I'll maybe wait other answers before I do that.

 

[mr_human_555]

Do you have way of life? If yes, this one might work for you:

1. DIVORCE your wife
2. Choose seduction focus and seduce your wife. Make sure you choose "Love & leave" at the end. Reload if she refuses your attempt
3. Repeat 2 until she's pregnant
4. Once she's pregnant, marry her again / take as concubine.
5. Repeat 1-4 after your kid is born until you get your desired heir. It will be much cheaper if you take her as concubine since you don't need to pay divorce money

I remember there is a soft limit to how many children you can have. Above method is one way you can bypass the limit

 

[Audoucet]

You shouldn't cheat with such big numbers, in my personal experience it can screw up the algorithm and lessen your chances in place of boosting them.

But mr_human_555 solution seems pretty solid.

 

[The Candyman]

damn. I don't have WoL and currently I need money for other things (also, I'd prefer to buy such DLCs discounted)

Lot of thanks though

 

[Chunakun]

but I don't like to cheat, even if I'm not ironman...

You already cheated by boosting your fertility.

 

[The Candyman]

After 30-40 reload, I cheated only to check if my wife could actually get pregnant. If the pregnancy message had come I would have rewritten the save file as it was before and I would have reloaded and reloaded it again until I succeded.

 

[Jia Xu]

I have no concubines.

...Why?

One of the reasons to take concubines is to propagate the dynasty. Having a harem increases the odds of having a large pool of heirs to choose from. The more heirs you have, the more likely it is that one of them will be a golden child who has great stats/traits. In any case, CK2 isn't meant to be played with 700 years of back-to-back strong geniuses. Sometimes it's going to be the case that you have to play a bad character for a few decades. Having a terrible character and keeping the realm together is one of the game's challenges. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

[Zsrai]

If you're having trouble getting an heir, and you have no concubines... take some concubines. Even if you won't get the claims from your wife, it's better than nothing. The game is best when you are dealing with adversity, not when you are on auto-pilot to winning.

EDIT: Also, how old IS your wife? The cut off is 45 I believe.

 

[King Anund]

Welcome to the main problem in Medieval Europe!!!

 

[Bernard95]

If the concubines don't do the trick, pretty much your only option is going to be the Family or Seduction focus. With seduction, I personally wouldn't bother with a divorce- just start hitting on courtiers and you're bound to sire a bastard. Legitimize the one kid that turns out decent and you'll be good to go. Family on the other hand will only be a fertility boost, but at least you don't have to take the slight risk of your wife trying to off you.

 

[The Candyman]

...Why?

One of the reasons to take concubines is to propagate the dynasty. Having a harem increases the odds of having a large pool of heirs to choose from. The more heirs you have, the more likely it is that one of them will be a golden child who has great stats/traits. In any case, CK2 isn't meant to be played with 700 years of back-to-back strong geniuses. Sometimes it's going to be the case that you have to play a bad character for a few decades. Having a terrible character and keeping the realm together is one of the game's challenges. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

yeah but the problem with a large pool of heirs is that on succession my realm will be devided among them (especially since I have lots of kingdoms but still no empires) , and I hate this.
Anyway I think that I'll keep the current heir and forget the no-pregnancy thing... I'll have a good heir the next time.

EDIT: Also, how old IS your wife? The cut off is 45 I believe.

she's 28

 

[Audoucet]

It's THE main difficulty of the game. Ultimogeniture rox.

 

[Rags17]

but I don't like to cheat, even if I'm not ironman...
But since it doesnt work even with cheated fertilities, I think it's the only way... And if it is the only way, it means that the game itself is cheating against me and my decent-heir ambition! So cheating is a correct countermeasure XD
Any way... I'll maybe wait other answers before I do that.

If you don't want to "cheat" cheat but don't mind using the console then why not adopt ? Simply pick a suitable heir and console change his father ID or dynasty to yours. I'm not sure of the syntax but I'm pretty sure that those commands exist.

 

[The Candyman]

Ok, Thank you guys. I think I have decided to keep my actual heir. He is not that good but at least he is better than his father, who has literally 0 stewardship.
I'll leave to him the duty to breed a monster

 

[Zsrai]

yeah but the problem with a large pool of heirs is that on succession my realm will be devided among them (especially since I have lots of kingdoms but still no empires) , and I hate this.

If you're Buddhist, change succession to anything but Gavelkind and you can designate your heir. Problem solved.

 

[The Candyman]

Wait.
You are telling me that if I set a ultimogeniture succession I can still pick my older son and say "this is my fucking heir, bitches"?