Is it me, or does everyone want to be the king?

[unmerged(27886)]

It seems like EVERY character in my kingdom wants to become the ruler. Its crazy. Guy is 18 and wants to be a huntsman. I grant him the title. 1-2 months later, he wants to become ruler.

That is the problem with the young today, no sense of hard work and discipline!

Seriously though, is there anyway to decrease the regularity with which this ambition rears its ugly head? It is a good thing that you can bribe these guys and that I make nearly 30 talents per month profit, so I can keep everyone in line, but still.... I'd rather have people with legitimate goals so that I can manage them a little better....

I understand it more in a republic, but in a kingdom, it should be a little more rare.

 

[Descartes]

You could do a little adjustment of your own.
Open C:\Program Files\Paradox Interactive\Europa Universalis - Rome\common\objectives.txt with Notepad.
Press ctrl+F and search for obj_become_ruler.
Change the value below chance to 10 or something.

 

[SirGrotius]

It does seem to be the most common ambition. It's manageable, however, if your king is popular. Go win battles and you'll be fine. If your king is the suck you'll run into problems.

 

[unmerged(119342)]

I agree with what Sir Grotius said. The eminent danger keeps the king on his toes and prevents him from going gaga on everyone and everything that upsets him.

However, I do believe it is human nature that people rise to their level of incompetence and like to stay there or maybe even get stuck there. I see merit in cutting down the king ambition modifier. While many may dream of being king, few attempt it or are given the chance.

Oh weary and uneasy is the head that wears the crown....to contort two old expressions.

 

[unmerged(27886)]

Well, at least they fixed the problem where people with the become ruler ambition kept assassinating heirs. That was just brutal. I lose one every now and then, but it is fairly rare now....

 

[out]

However, I do believe it is human nature that people rise to their level of incompetence and like to stay there or maybe even get stuck there.

Ah, the Dilbert's law.

The problem in EUR is that character's don't get the same ambition twice. So if a character is lucky enough to fulfill several ambitions, he becomes more and more likely to get the "become the ruler" ambition, which in most cases the player doesn't want to fulfill. As such this particular ambition often become what characters getting "stuck" with.

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

Ah, the Dilbert's law.

No, what Dgotrek mentions is the "Peter Principle" after the 1960'ies book. (And quite possibly somebody elses principle earlier yet - the Peter Principle is merely the oldest documented version I know of).

The Dilbert Principle is a variation or subversion of the Peter Principle - rather than competent people being promoted to their level of incompetence (the Peter Principle), incompetents are promoted to limit the damage they do to competent people (the Dilbert Principle).