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Dev Diary #132 – Eccentricity & Adoption

Eccentric​

Hello hello hello, welcome to another Wards and Wardens dev diary! Today I'm going to be talking you through two new features: adoption and the Eccentric trait! We'll start off with the simpler of the two features: Eccentricity.

Why add a new trait in Wards and Wardens?​

Friends and Foes added the Loyal and Disloyal traits, but unfortunately these came quite late in development and as a consequence they were quite under-utilized, so we decided to have the discussion around new traits quite early this time around and we went over a few different ideas including Superstitious, Silly vs Serious, but we kind of knew all along that what we really wanted was something analogous to the Wild Wasteland trait in Fallout or CK2 Lunatic.

For those unfamiliar, Lunacy in CK2 was usually where we made our more… out there content. There are still echoes of this here and there in CK3, but for the most part, Lunacy isn't really the same as it was.
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The decision was made quite early in CK3's development that the lunatic trait would be analogous to real-world mental illness so this kind of content was typically deemed inappropriate. As a result of that decision, we've not really had an easy way to gate the sillier side of things when it comes to the player character. This has been a bit of a divisive subject on the forums, so we felt we needed some way to gate the content without resorting to game rules.

What is Eccentric? Who is Eccentric?​

Eccentric is a personality trait meaning it is an essential part of a character's personality. Eccentrics are erratic and irrational, but there is a method to the madness so they may be able to see things that other characters don't.
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Numbers are subject to balancing

Wards and Wardens being all about children and childhood made it the perfect fit for a new Personality trait, and as with all other Personality traits in the game, Eccentric can be acquired during childhood.
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People have been known to lose their marbles later in life, so a particularly stressed character may have a mental break which causes them to start seeing things in a more Eccentric way.
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As you can see in the below screenshot, a non-Eccentric child would just guess at the options presented to them, but an eccentric may think of something a bit more creative.
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There has also been an audit of some existing content to add checks for the Eccentric trait where sensible. The now-infamous Cat-apult event, for example, has now been made into an Eccentric event.

Something I'd like to nip in the bud quite early is that the Eccentric trait is not intended to reflect any real-world disabilities, illnesses, or neurodivergence. I think it's wonderful if you are able to project some of your own experiences onto the trait, but making a direct and conscious effort to make the Lunatic trait analogous to real-world mental illnesses is the reason why we ended up making Eccentric to begin with and we'd rather not have to come up with another trait for our silly content.

Eccentric is a free feature and will be available to everyone, but some unique content related to the trait will be exclusive for DLC-owners.

Adoption​

Now onto the next feature of this diary and one that's quite exciting to me personally is the Adoption interaction! Now many many patches ago we introduced the Same-Sex marriage rule and ever since then it's just kind of been there and we've yet to introduce a way to actually make same-sex play… well, playable.

Who can adopt?​

Under the default game rules, Adoption is available to characters who are in a same-sex marriage, the childless and elderly/infertile, and Compassionate characters. Compassionate has long been a bit of a weak trait to have, so it's nice to give them a powerful way to secure succession and bring talented orphans into the family.
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Who can be adopted?​

Children can be adopted as long as: they're not a ruler, they're not in prison or otherwise unavailable, nobody in their family is a ruler, they're not already part of your house, and they're not in the realm of someone of their dynasty. This does mean you're technically allowed to adopt noble children, and children whose parents are still alive, but they are highly reluctant to accept adoption in those circumstances.

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Noble Adoption​

If you want to role-play a culture where adoption is commonplace (as it was in some off-map and out-of-period cultures), you can take up the Noble Adoption cultural tradition!

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Hold on a minute, isn't this anachronistic?​

Sort of! While adoption amongst nobility was exceptionally rare, it wasn't completely unheard of. As such, we've restricted access to adoption quite a lot as described and the AI is quite reluctant to do it.

Can the restrictions be loosened?​

Absolutely! Adoption comes with three new game rules that can forbid it or make it easier!
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Just like the Eccentric trait, Adoption is part of the free update releasing with Wards & Wardens on August 22nd. Next week we will talk about the new Court position and share more details on what to expect from this event pack. See you then!
 
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Emperor 1997 said:
But, what happens, if an AI Ruler under Male only succession Law has only Daughters?

Will they then adopt a Child, so they can have at least 1 Heir or will they simply ignore it and let their Brothers or other Dynasty Members inherit or in the extreme case of having no Relatives, let their Dynasty die out.
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In order for the AI to even consider adopting, they must have less than 2 children, and either be infertile themselves or have no fertile consorts (same-sex spouses are not considered fertile). So they will adopt if the chance of producing a legitimate heir is very low.
 
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Here's hoping that we will get Glitterhoof back.
Can I adopt them? I want to make Glitterhoof my heir.
 
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This has been a bit of a divisive subject on the forums, so we felt we needed some way to gate the content without resorting to game rules
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...why?

This is precisely what we, the people on the side of the divide that is kinda fed up with this type of content, are asking for? Just like with Harm events.

Game Rules are the answer.
 
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If a character in a same-sex marriage adopt a child will both the character and his/her spouse be shown as the parents in the family tab? What about characters who have multiple spouses?
 
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Ostermex said:
...why?

This is precisely what we, the people on the side of the divide that is kinda fed up with this type of content, are asking for? Just like with Harm events.

Game Rules are the answer.
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I don't agree that game rules are the answer for events of a specific tone that some people on our forums don't like. If we did that, we'd end up with game rules for just about all the different types of content we have since each player has their own idea of what kind of content they do and don't want to see. If you don't want to see eccentric content, simply make sure your heir doesn't become eccentric.

There are a lot of issues with the idea of a game rule that have already been discussed to death both on the team and the forums, so I don't want to go into all of them here. The new trait felt like a nice compromise that also offers a lot of flavour and opportunity to make newer better content in the future!
Łabądź said:
Will character with Enuch trait be able to adopt? Having in mind famous Munis of Acre gameplay
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If you are childless and infertile, yes! If you managed to have a kid and then became a eunuch later, then no. Not unless that kid died in that time as well. The trigger is low fertility + no children.
 
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Blocking adoption of those in your house seems odd. An niece, nephew or cousin would be my first choice to adopt.

Why not an adult? If I were 45, I'd adopt a promising young adult. Especially a relative.
 
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FPSeph said:
If a character in a same-sex marriage adopt a child will both the character and his/her spouse be shown as the parents in the family tab? What about characters who have multiple spouses?
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The interaction is personal, between the adopter and the adoptee. So the child only considers the partner that adopted them to be their parent. This made implementation simpler and it also meant that in the rare circumstance where two players have married each other, each can adopt their own child and continue playing as normal upon succession.
 
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Meka66 said:
The interaction is personal, between the adopter and the adoptee. So the child only considers the partner that adopted them to be their parent. This made implementation simpler and it also meant that in the rare circumstance where two players have married each other, each can adopt their own child and continue playing as normal upon succession.
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But when it comes to modding will it be possible? You mentioned earlier that you've added a "real_mother" trigger so if an event would give a child both the "mother" and "real mother" would they both be shown as parents or would one just overwrite the other?
 
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FPSeph said:
But when it comes to modding will it be possible? You mentioned earlier that you've added a "real_mother" trigger so if an event would give a child both the "mother" and "real mother" would they both be shown as parents or would one just overwrite the other?
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They are two separate things. "Mother" is the person who you consider to be your familial mother, "real mother" is merely the person who birthed you. Real mother is not typically displayed, nor is real father. In terms of modability, you can mod the interaction to your heart's content, but the game does not support having several mothers and fathers, beyond the distinction between familial and biological if that makes sense.
 
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Irisiane said:
Blocking adoption of those in your house seems odd. An niece, nephew or cousin would be my first choice to adopt.

Why not an adult? If I were 45, I'd adopt a promising young adult. Especially a relative.
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Adoption seems like a mechanism that is ideally suited to expanding on/adjusting. It makes sense for it to be relatively simple/straightforward/constrained initially. Then if it's working as intended, further options for it can be added in down the line.
 
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Maybe it could be added an extra option to adopt the child of your dead friend/best friend or if your child has a friend who is/becomes an orphan. Maybe through an event when that happens or shortly after similarly to the event where the spouse of your dead friend asks you to go to bed with them
 
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These both seem like good additions to the game. But I do think a Game Rule is a better way of turning off content that some players don't want. If my heir becomes Eccentric I now have to choose between breaking roleplay and getting Pants Act events I don't want.
 
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funkyfreshrat said:
Why did you interpret that this condition would only fit either in the Eccentric trait or Lunacy/Possession? Why can't there be another, more appropriate trait for such conditions that aren't an obvious vehicle for Glitterhoof content? I don't think that is too much to ask of Paradox.
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Well, I suppose there are different degrees of eccentricity.

On the low end there's the eccentric ruler who dedicates an entire wing of their palace to the world's largest collection of conically shaped sea snail shells, or spends all week days starting with a T in their private miniature castle on the top of a nearby mountain while refusing to speak to anyone. Basically, somewhat weird, but generally benign behavior with a hint if obsession or compulsion, but not particularly detrimental to the realm as a whole. This is something I can see happening for a neurodivergent, somewhat detached character.

On the high end, there are the CK2 lunacy shenanigans like appointing a horse to the council or forbidding pants on pain of death. That's something that can easily mess with the stability of a realm, especially when they're in a situation in which they need a competent chancellor or, well, pants.

If the eccentric trait is supposed to represent strictly the latter (and there's evidence that it is) I agree with you, but I'd consider the low end to be worthy of being called eccentric as well.
 
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