Influencing Ruler Quality

[Lee Saxon]

As I was writing a suggestion thread on RNG having too much impact on the game (https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/tone-down-rng.875685/) I realized that there ought to be a way to exert some influence over the quality of your heirs, sort of like how you can get better generals with high Army Tradition.

Doesn't it make sense that the technology, stability, good economy, etc would affect the quality of education that your heir receives? It just seems like growth (and good strategy) should begat growth, but right now no matter how well I'm doing the next heir could be a complete dud and that could bring everything to a screeching halt.

 

[Emre Yigit]

As I was writing a suggestion thread on RNG having too much impact on the game (https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/tone-down-rng.875685/) I realized that there ought to be a way to exert some influence over the quality of your heirs, sort of like how you can get better generals with high Army Tradition.

Doesn't it make sense that the technology, stability, good economy, etc would affect the quality of education that your heir receives? It just seems like growth (and good strategy) should begat growth, but right now no matter how well I'm doing the next heir could be a complete dud and that could bring everything to a screeching halt.

I think it's a good idea, but there are plenty of examples of dud rulers coming to thrones of flourishing realms.

I'd suggest the possibility of a 1-1-1 boost being a possibility before the child turns 11 and 16 (that is to say, twice) with there also being the possibility that the training backfires. I.e. if the child is, say, a 1-1-1 it would be 75% likely that the training would turn him off completely; there would be a 50-50 chance at 2-2-2; say, a 75% chance of success at 3-3-3 and a 100% chance at 4-4-4 and above.

No chance of success with a 0-0-0.

And plenty of adm, dip and mil points needed event to attempt.

 

[Lee Saxon]

I think it's a good idea, but there are plenty of examples of dud rulers coming to thrones of flourishing realms.

Sure. I'm not saying a flourishing realm should have zero chance of it happening, just less of a chance of it happening.

I'd suggest the possibility of a 1-1-1 boost being a possibility before the child turns 11 and 16 (that is to say, twice) with there also being the possibility that the training backfires. I.e. if the child is, say, a 1-1-1 it would be 75% likely that the training would turn him off completely; there would be a 50-50 chance at 2-2-2; say, a 75% chance of success at 3-3-3 and a 100% chance at 4-4-4 and above.

No chance of success with a 0-0-0.

And plenty of adm, dip and mil points needed event to attempt.

Not a bad idea, but your numbers are pretty harsh. The training actually backfiring would be a very uncommon thing, there shouldn't be much chance of that at all. Maybe a fairly high chance of it being ineffective and not doing anything, though. And I sorta think the chance of success should go down, not up, with better heirs - under the theory that it's easier to find something a dumb heir doesn't already know than it is a smart one.

Either way, you have to be careful with the MP costs of the attempt. This kid's only going to live so long, PLUS if there were a high chance of not even getting the bonus. It's a return on investment problem. Nobody's going to do it if chances are high it'll be a net MP loss rather than gain. The game has struggled with the ROI problem before; pre-1.12 I never bothered building Temples because they look unreasonably long just to break even.

But, all of this is probably not what I'd want. Per the linked thread in my OP, I think we've got too much RNG already without a whole new lottery to waste MP playing (I'm still mad about all the MP I've wasted on dud generals). I say look at stability and economics to give us some kind of bonus which tweaks the existing new-heir-diceroll in our favor (but as you say not TOO much in our favor). Keep it simple.