Terrible idea.
CKII compensates the lack of child deaths by you having less kids.Increase infant mortality and it will not only be a mess,people will do a uprising because their genius strong attractive heir died randomly.Isn't there already a hidden fertility modifier that sometimes makes it *very* difficult to have kids? I've definitely had a couple ostensibly healthy kings & queens (or duke & duchess) who struggled to make babies. I even remember once after like 15 years of fruitless marriage an event chain popped up - IIRC rumors were spreading that my king might not be able to "perform", hence the lack of an heir. There was a prestige or reputation hit involved or something. I thought it was vanilla but maybe was playing HIP/VIET or something.
I think in general it works well as-is. People in those days pumped out babies like crazy, but every so often you do get a couple that struggle to do this. The one historical thing I could see changing for accuracy is infant mortality, which strikes me as waaay to low for the Medieval period. There should be a period from birth to age 2 or thereabouts where survival is very dicey, plus more of a chance of the mother dying due to childbirth complications (I can't recall a single time this has happened for me).
It would be a pain in the arse I know. That's the point. Obstacles such as this are what make the game fun. There is a loading screen that states that if you are old and childless your vassals or family members may demand your titles. This has never happened to me once, but I kinda wish it had. It sounds fun.
I still see plenty of cases of infertility, though rarely with the character I am playing. I see landed dynasty members die all the time without heirs. I have unlanded dynasty members in my court who have trouble having kids (even though my court is relatively small).
It's not that it would be an obstacle, it's that it would be instant game over. I'm talking about people that are the only dynasty member or only viable dynasty member at game start. If you can't have a kid as them its game over. If you random the infertile trait, its game over from the second you press play.
CKII compensates the lack of child deaths by you having less kids.Increase infant mortality and it will not only be a mess,people will do a uprising because their genius strong attractive heir died randomly.
Also making the game more deadly could be a thing, with more random results for the events. Now they are just boring. Nobody can still enjoy these repetitive hunting events, you just act like a robot, clicking always on the same thing.There doesn't have to be an infertility trait. Just increase the fertility range to allow for people to be born with extremely low to no fertility.
I don't think we need an infertile trait.
But this is a good idea: There doesn't have to be an infertility trait. Just increase the fertility range to allow for people to be born with extremely low to no fertility.
And another piss poor idea sees the light of day. Good job OP
In one recent Indian game, I matrilinieally married a Strong daughter to a Sayyid Fatimid (to get Sayyid into my blood line). Married them off when they were 16. By 30 they had a single kid (fortunately, a boy, for Sayyid). I cycled through all the siblings (it was Ultimogeniture) until I got to play the Strong daughter, but even then she only ended up having a single kid.
As of the moment there seems to be very little risk of your character dying without a bunch of children - marry at 16 and you are all but guaranteed to have a brood of five or more princes and princesses running around your palace. My suggestion is that there should be a hidden trait, 'Infertile', which affects around one in fifty individuals (I think that is the rough prevalence), and would make it impossible for that character to have children. This would in turn lead to more interesting successions with different branches of the family inheriting things, and would make the game more unpredictable in general, which is always good.
There's a difference between not popping 6 and not being permitted any. Given that its not unusual to start a game with the only member of a dynasty, if a Random Number Generator doomed that person to being infertile and incapable of having any kids you'd be guaranteed Game Over. With no warning if its an invisible trait.Care to explain why and actually say why you think it's a bad idea?
Seeing as one of the main challenges to this game is succession, I think it would be interesting to have the occasional game where one of my kings didn't churn out six or so kids before popping his clogs.
There's a difference between not popping 6 and not being permitted any. Given that its not unusual to start a game with the only member of a dynasty, if a Random Number Generator doomed that person to being infertile and incapable of having any kids you'd be guaranteed Game Over. With no warning if its an invisible trait.
It may be realistic but its not fun and in general bad game design to be pre-ordained to be guaranteed to lose and have game over completely outside of your control before you've put a second of effort into the game let alone hours.
That would be a good compromiseThere doesn't have to be an infertility trait. Just increase the fertility range to allow for people to be born with extremely low to no fertility.