More realistic child death rates and child cap reconsidered

[Demiurge_Suborn]

Let's be honest, the cap on children isn't realistic. There is no reason to say that at a certain point, you can't have any more children. One of the ways to fix this is to improve the realism of child death rates. Basically, children only had a 50% chance of making adulthood. Obviously the nobility would have a better chance due to improved resources, but not by much. More realistic conception functions could also help. There should be academic analysis of birth and death rates of nobility available.

 

[kawamuratc]

For gameplay reasons, I think the current low (compared to historic birth rates) child cap is a better option.

First, it’s less for the game to keep track of; raising the cap but then killing off more results in more or less the same number of children living to adulthood with less characters generated and cluttering family trees.

Second, you are playing a series of generations, not one person’s life. You’re running up against the limit of how many people you as a person who plays this whole saga can connect to, even if you do your best to step into your characters role anew in every generation. The result is that children start to blend together the more there are.

 

[Demiurge_Suborn]

For gameplay reasons, I think the current low (compared to historic birth rates) child cap is a better option.

First, it’s less for the game to keep track of; raising the cap but then killing off more results in more or less the same number of children living to adulthood with less characters generated and cluttering family trees.

Second, you are playing a series of generations, not one person’s life. You’re running up against the limit of how many people you as a person who plays this whole saga can connect to, even if you do your best to step into your characters role anew in every generation. The result is that children start to blend together the more there are.

Yeah, but what you are saying is "it's fine because it comes out in the wash" doesn't wash because not everything comes out even. Stress of losing a child would not be captured correctly, for instance.