Dev Diary #114 - And the Winner is…

[Nawolith]

Look, Villains & Vagabonds may not have won as it should have, but it did beat Love & Lust and I think that's something we can all appreciate. Literally all of us. Not a single person who doesn't.

I sweat, if this we will not see Villians & Vagabonds, i will reach stress-level 3!

 

[The_Sterwood]

Given the teaser, and the previous hint that the next expansion will be to do with roleplaying and increase the connection between the map and character, I'm assuming these are locations that you can visit? And the expansion is going to be to do with moving around the map, going to various places etc?

Makes me think, this is the medieval times, this could be about knights and questing...

 

[HarenBS]

Greetings!

The polls are closed, and the winner is…

Wards and Wardens

Which I’m very excited about! Not only because it was the theme I personally liked the best, but because there’s a lot of interesting history to explore! We’ll definitely aim to make both rearing and playing as children more historically immersive, while also adding timeless content such as the (sometimes tenuous, sometimes wholesome) relations between parent and child.

As mentioned in the previous Dev Diary, this event pack will be worked on later this year, after the next expansion is finished. For now, we will slowly start drawing out plans of content we’d like to make, and areas that’d be fun to explore - and here you can help!

If you have a specific topic you’d like to see made into an event, or a situation you’d like to see expanded upon, please reply in this thread!

For example, a specific topic might be ‘I’d like to see an event about one of my foreign wards missing their home’ or ‘I’d like an event where I as a child can become best friends with a vassal child’.

Examples of situations you’d like to see improved could be ‘I’d like to have the ability to impose a specific personality trait on a ward’, or ‘I’d like if educating another ruler’s child would have more diplomatic benefits/complications’.

Finally, I’d like to leave you with another small teaser for the expansion. Last time some of you came extremely close to the truth, to the point where we had the artist of the image giggling with excitement… we’re hoping this one will throw you off a bit.

View attachment 941734
[Image - Teaser2]

I would love to see as an event: pets being able to be adopted, found, picked as a choice/trait in character customizer instead of just being random and only having like 2 things to do with them. I would love the chance to breed them, have more than I, fight alongside them and even have more than just dog and cat options

 

[Portius]

I'd love a set of events that let children "dip" into a a second lifestyle tree bonus. Something like a chain where your diplomat child gets really into chivalric poetry, sneaks off to practice riding and whatnot, ends up with a modiifer for -10% to the main trait's lifestyle's experience, but +10% to martial, or whatever numbers work. I don't want to see it on every character, but I a "dedicated hybrid build" as an option or occasional surprise could be a lot of fun. Theme them around having hobbies or childhood interests, and maybe have drama when the guardian doesn't let the kid do what they actually like!

 

[firespark 84]

I hope that guardianship has diplomatic consequences, like not being able to declare war on your liege if they have your child as a ward.

 

[Fugitivebush]

I want there to be something for kids to grow and appreciate, or loathe, the education/tutor they had, i.e. "He really was very good", "He set me down an awful path".

To expand on this, I would also like to see more educator/guardian and ward relations. Like if your children or your court's children aren't being raised by their parents, I feel like the child should have a stronger kinship to their guardian. Like, maybe some sort of godfather/mother role, that can also be used in naming their future children after someone who they ended up idolizing more instead of just their family or parents or in-laws.

And lastly, since this DLC is about children, can we raise the infant mortality rate up a bit more? I know this is a game, but I want the struggle bus of trying to keep my dynasty alive as well as the potential real life consequence of switching dynasties to a daughter's new family, like the English Monarchy did countless times.

I know it goes against the grain a little bit of the game and the goal of creating a dynasty, but the armchair historian and cthulu in me demands the blood of infants.

 

[kosteyy]

More deaths depending on - Parents, Guardians, Regents, Wards and Wardens.

Example: guardian is an alcoholic, gets drunk, accidentally kills child, (hit by horse / shot at hunting / burned at bonfire).

Example2: Wards or Wardens (envy) kidnap child, demand ransom. Ransom paid - OK, not paid - Rip, something went wrong Rip.

Something along those lines.

 

[Coplantor]

Makes me think, this is the medieval times, this could be about knights and questing...

My most tinfoil hat worthy wishful thinking theory is the glorious return of societies or a similar mechanic.

My train of thought is "reinforcing map and character" -> Travelling/location mechanics -> improved pilgrimages -> Knights Templar were founded to protect pilgrims

 

[MirrorMonkey2]

I‘d love there to be some childhood/child rearing events which are specific to regions and/or religion groups.
An example of this would be the first cutting of the hair, which was important in various european pagan religions such as norse, slavic and baltic faiths. This event could happen at a certain birthday for your player heir or when you‘re a child yourself.
These region/religion/culture categories should be broad enough so the event doesn‘t get super rare. Think an event in the middle east relating to a child wanting to feed the pidgeons (which I believe is quiet a big thing in many middle-eastern cultures).
Another event that comes to mind is a pious child of a religion with monasticism expressing their interest in joining a monastery. The monk mechanic is cool but I don‘t think it has nearly enough triggers.

 

[Arko]

Also, I'd be remiss not to mention ideas I made into mods, because they'd be better if they were proper features with code support

- hide genetic traits on birth, and unveil them through childhood events
No more genius babies, please!

- make an ironman compatible gamerule for playing a random heir that inherits something, and not necessarily the primary heir
Give some incentive to players to actually care for their offspring besides the one they'll get to play as next!

+1

Primary heirs should die more often to shake things a beat (second spouse scheming to kill first spouse children anyone ?).
Non primary heirs should serve some purpose either, like inheriting some temple instead of some random generated guy, or getting some hereditary position f.e.

 

[Space Cartographer]

Many people said it already, but I want more dire events for educating children. Maybe something like what happened to Frederick the Great of Prussia in his youth. Frederick wanted to flee to the English court with his friend (and maybe even lover) Katte, but the attempt was discovered and they were both imprisoned for treason. For many days it was uncertain if Frederick would be disinherited or even executed but in the end nothing of the kind happened. Probably, because Frederick's father (the king in Prussia) was a vassal of the HRE and didn't have the right to kill or disinherit an heir. In the end Frederick had to watch from his prison cell how his friend Katte was executed on his father's order...

 

[Tilarium]

You have all made a terrible, lupine mistake.

Did we? Or did we just add more content because now we will be getting the entire Wards & Warden's pack along with 15.3 pieces of new wolf related content. I see it as a win-win.

 

[Werther]

We should have pages and young squires. Bishops should have events related to education.

Also, it is a good opportunity to give more flesh to universities. What are their speciality between the 4 medieval categories (Medecine, arts, theology or law)? It should have an impact on the education (and skills) of your princely children (even if they don't go to the university) as they have access to better professors. And you can add a ton of historical flavours (Trivium and Quadrivium etc...).

 

[PrimaItalia]

I am amazed Love & Lust didn't win.

I think one of the reasons is because of the rampant fornication throughout the game and broken events dues to missing flags that are still/maybe never will get fixed.

Hopefully the ideas in Lust and Love can be expanded into a full fledged DLC with those fixes while reowrking seduction all together instead of just an Event Pack.

I would like to see that happen.

 

[Cèsar de Quart]

I'd like it if the team took some historical events, works of literature and other bodies of evidence as reference.

"My ward misses his home" is a very universal kind of event, but let's not have more baby parties with cakes, please.

My suggestions for childhood events is basically SQUIRES and MAIDS. Send your children to the courts of neighboring, friendly or famous lords to be broight up, to network, to bolster your relations with them and to strengthen the diplomatic web.

This also works for other cultures, where the sovereign required wards from their vassals to educate them, to make them into their loyal servants, but also as hostages.

There are hundreds of different events that come from reading a couple of books on squiring. I've suggested Duby's two booklets, "The Sunday of Bouvines" and "William Marshal" as books filled with examples of knightly life in the 1150-1200 period, but there are many more. Grab them and strip them for parts, use them to create your events. Please.

Trivium and quadrivium should also be featured. Do you send your child to squire and become aquaninted with war and courtly life, or to learn the letter and numbers with the clergy? Do you send one of your children to start a Church career?

 

[Foswa]

1. I would love some sort of environmental (perhaps even social?) influence to my children's/ward's educational preference.

If I am a martial genius and was the guardian of my ward since his birth , surely that should mean he is more inclined to be martial focused.
It is frustrating when my player is a Martial powerhouse and so is my wife and yet none of my children are interested in the art of war.
Same thing with my knights. My knights are amazing martials and have high prowess and yet their children are often unrecognisable to their warrior fathers.


2. Events related to what my ward's educational focus is.

If my ward is under martial education, some events of me actually teaching him the ways of war would be appreciated.
In the case I am a distinguished Martial ( Level 4 Martial education + combined with intellect trait perhaps? ) some unique events would be really cool.
For a ward to receive level 4 education surely something special was shared between their guardian and them. Let us see that.


3. There are a few times when rulers with amazing traits are the guardians on my children/wards and yet they develop the most random traits. Some event indicating why they got that trait would be great.

For example there was a time a ward of mine, was my son in this scenario, had an amazing guardian, 20+ martial , 10+ learning , Ambitious + Brave + Lustful.
He was educated since the age of 6 with this guardian however seemingly out of no where he developed the Paranoid trait. Having an event showcasing why he developed this trait would be great.

 

[Grizzlymonkey]

yay!! this was the expansion i was really hoping for.

I definitely think it would be great to add an actual SYSTEM to relationships between parents and children (mainly heirs). I want the relationship to be able to be labeled as "hatred, distant, close, adored". The relationship could influence their personality as they grow up ("I want to be just like papa!" ; "I NEVER want to be like papa"). Their relationship could also effect them in the event that the parent dies before they reach adulthood (happy the parent died, indifferent because they didnt really know them, or devastated).

 

[Cèsar de Quart]

what about a more intimate decision for parents with wards? My vassals son bullied my son and I am vengeful and intrigue focused, so I imprison and torture my vassal.

In the Medieval mentality, most parents would see your son being bullied as a chance for him to build character and be strong.

Parenting today is nothing like Medieval parenting, especially for the nobility, where there's a lot of evidence for blatant parenting negligence in the early years. It's shown time and time again that parents leave the 1 to 6 years old parenting to wet nurses, maids and tutors, and that they only take an interest when the children start to be useful. In the case of the poor, they start to help around the house. In the case of the nobles, they help diplomatically, by becoming political pawns or investments in the future of the dynasty.

The Life of William Marshal shows one out of place example of fatherly love, something that may make us go "aaaaw" today, towards their son, and it's used as a bad character trait: King Stephen (whose memory Henry I wanted damned) is shown being very tender towards his son Eustace. Effeminate and unbecoming of a knight and a king.

King James of Aragon tells (himself) in his autobiography of all the times he cried because a knight or friend of his died, and he is distressed when his son and heir dies...but he says almost nothing of his children before they become squires and later knights in his household. It's like they didn't exist from the time they're born until they become polticial agents. Moreso with the daughters. They are born, and then they get married when they're around 18-20 (usually not before, a high noble doesn't marry his daughters right away, he looks for good matches).

Parents seem to have been mostly indifferent towards kids until they developed, and then it was all about how useful they were. Of course, we'll never know if they had real feelings but they suppressed them because it was socially unacceptable.

 

[vandevere]

In the Medieval mentality, most parents would see your son being bullied as a chance for him to build character and be strong.

Parenting today is nothing like Medieval parenting, especially for the nobility, where there's a lot of evidence for blatant parenting negligence in the early years. It's shown time and time again that parents leave the 1 to 6 years old parenting to wet nurses, maids and tutors, and that they only take an interest when the children start to be useful. In the case of the poor, they start to help around the house. In the case of the nobles, they help diplomatically, by becoming political pawns or investments in the future of the dynasty.

The Life of William Marshal shows one out of place example of fatherly love, something that may make us go "aaaaw" today, towards their son, and it's used as a bad character trait: King Stephen (whose memory Henry I wanted damned) is shown being very tender towards his son Eustace. Effeminate and unbecoming of a knight and a king.

King James of Aragon tells (himself) in his autobiography of all the times he cried because a knight or friend of his died, and he is distressed when his son and heir dies...but he says almost nothing of his children before they become squires and later knights in his household. It's like they didn't exist from the time they're born until they become polticial agents. Moreso with the daughters. They are born, and then they get married when they're around 18-20 (usually not before, a high noble doesn't marry his daughters right away, he looks for good matches).

Parents seem to have been mostly indifferent towards kids until they developed, and then it was all about how useful they were. Of course, we'll never know if they had real feelings but they suppressed them because it was socially unacceptable.

Part of that apparent neglect may have been because of high infant mortality. They might not have wanted to get too attached to the baby, just in case he/she died suddenly of whatever ailment...

 

[Thaumics]

All I can think of is a witches cave due to the image. Excited to be able to kick my guardian in the balls (hopefully).