Why does it take so long/is it so difficult to get an heir?

[Ori'verda]

I'm fairly new at the game but in the several sessions I've had I have noticed that my rulers just don't like having heirs it seems. Fertile, infertile, no modifiers, some.

Moreover, if the heir is a brother to your current ruler why is he not allowed to get his own heir to keep the succession going? I've experienced a generation gap where the brothers die within a handful of years forcing me into a PU.

I was always led to believe that royal families were big and that the lines of succession were almost always guaranteed with a handful of exceptions throughout history, yet keeping my Romanovs and Habsburgs bloodlines from dying out seems to be a rather difficult task.

 

[tommister]

I find it strange how if your brother, or cousin or such is your heir, and you are say 20 years old. Why cant you have a child that replaces your brother, thereby not having a 60 year old King and a 59 year old heir, leading to losing the dynasty.

 

[GurenGaaze]

Realisticly, the brother would be the heir. until you get your own child which would then take over as heir. That however is something PDX have not implemented strangely enough. Moreover, I think the Monarch and Heir system is bad, or rather, not as good as it should have been. What about Uncles, Cousins, Siblings when/if your heir/monarch dies, or in this case you get a son to replace your brother as heir? EU4 system is very basic, and in my opinion, should have a redo. But that's something I doubt will ever happen, at least with EU4. but you never know.

 

[KaiserWilhelmI]

I see "this is not Crusader Kings II" posts coming very soon.

 

[Big Bad France]

When my heir is close in age to the king and both are young, I just make the one with worse stats a general and hope for the best. If they are both over 40, I disinherit and get a new heir. This is assuming I really want to keep the dynasty. Sometimes I'd like to put a different dynasty on the throne, anyway.

 

[Horn and Ivory]

Having an heir apparent vs heir presumptive distinction would be lovely - but overall I don't mind the system. Royal lines did die out due to lack of male heirs, and royal lines from all over Europe were so intermarried that heirs often ended up coming from other countries' royal familes. I don't feel like I see radically more or less dynasty replacements and international dynastic struggles than happened in the time period.

 

[Halo]

they'll probably do a fleshed out family tree DLC for $9.99 next year or something that address these concerns

correction, it'll be a $9.99 family tree DLC for monogamous nations (Christians, some pagans), followed by a $9.99 one for polygamous nations like muslims and China copied and pasted from CKII.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I see "this is not Crusader Kings II" posts coming very soon.

Doesn't need CK2 depth, but it could still use a sanity check in solely the context of EU 4.