Starting stats of Princes...

[ChaosLord]

Alright, i've been playing Medieval for a long while now and I still can't figure out what determines a Prince's stats when he first matures. Is it based off of your influence as i've heard before? Is it based off the kings stats? Or is it just plain chance?

I've seen outcomes that support all three of these so i'd really like to know. I'm currently trying to build up to a 9 star King. Using the Russians at the moment who start with a 4 star king. Third generation now and my current king is a 5 star but has skilled defender/attacker, last stand/risky attacks. So hes 7 usually on attack or defense. Oddly though his brothers were both 1-2 stars. His son is a 7 star wonder who I have high hopes for. Anyway, i'm rambling, post your thoughts.

[YAKOBU]

Hi ChaosLord http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

Probably not been playing as long as you but this is what I gleam from the threads.

I think princes are normally within +/- 2 of their father, but when a king reaches 8/9 there may be a wraparound so that +2 on a king of 8 may give a prince of 0.

[Xiphias]

The King's Influence rating when a son is born seems to influence whether the son has higher or lower stars than the king.

[katank]

stats will always be good if you max out influence always.

they often get +1/+2* from king if maxed influence.

fight with your king often and frequently means a strong, free replenishing unit of heavy cav as well as better heirs.

warrior kings seem to get better heirs.

Also, the 0* from wraparound usually have good stats anyhow.

as long as they don't become king, I don't mind getting a 6+dread, 6+ acumen unit of heavy cav for free. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

do I smell a gov? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[motorhead]

From a CA dev. The original question was roughly "Why does my high command king have idiot heirs?"


Quote[/b] ]Captain Fishpants
Conjugator of Verbs
Group: CA
Posts: 175
Joined: Sep. 2002
Somewhere below the waterline, in steerage... Posted: Nov. 19 2003,09:13

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Sorry to disappoint all the hungry bugseekers out there, but this isn't a bug.

Just because your king has a large number of command stars, there's no reason for his heirs to have the same level of generalship. If the king has a high influence, this will *tend* to mean that his sons/new generals follow his lead, but this isn't always the case.


- i've also noticed when i've got, say, a 6-star ruler, max influence, ships and general candidate units (like CMAA, ChivSgts, etc) tend to come out with 1-3 stars. The max being 1/2 your ruler's command rating -- with 6-star ruler roughly 1/4 of my ships come out with 3-stars, with only a 2-star ruler i've never seen more than a 1-star ship come out of the docks.

[katank]

that's very true, motorhead.

I've never seen ones with more than 4* that's non hero though.

current byz campaign has 7* max influence emperor with 7* and 8* heirs popping out like rabbits and I frequently get 3* katanks, varangnians, avar nobles as well as ships with at least 2*.

[ChaosLord]

Ah, thanks for the info. So I need a strong and influential king to make sure I get good heirs. What about who your kinh marries? I've always thought foreign Princesses produced better heirs, rather then aristocrats daughters. Or does that not come into it any?

[son of spam]

also, you get much better Virtues if you have maxed influence, like pride, argumentative, killer instinct, natural leader, etc.

[katank]

Foreign princesses are also better.

always try to get a mate for your crown prince as he will also have heirs ready when he comes to throne.

it's difficult once you get big though and some even suggest habitual incest to get heirs fast.

I personally just have packs and packs of emissaries hounding for the hands of the princesses every turn.

[motorhead]

Quote[/b] ]Foreign princesses are also better.

- i can't find the thread, but i know i read that when MTW first came out, people were discussing if foreign princesses passed some of their father's traits to your royal line. A dev came on and said 'No, but we could add it to the patch if you'd like', but the consensus among posters was No. So let your emissaries kick back and relax, the grass is not greener in foreign pastures.

edit: found a reference to the original thread (it was quite old) by Kraxis:

Quote[/b] ]We had a discussion about it, but then a developer enter the frey and said it wasn't the case, but asked if we wanted it like that, for he could add it to the expansion or patch (can't remember which). We quickly desided that it wouldn't be that great, as it was presented as a penalty if you didn't get a princess. Now I'm not so sure it was a good idea, it could have been he meant it in a positive manner (getting more and better V&Vs as well as stats instead of a penalty).

edit2: also keep in mind that certain factions have higher base influence than others, which makes it easier for their ruler to pass on his (hopefully) good traits to his sons and generals. In all eras, even newly minted byz emperors seem to start with 5/6 influence, which means right off the bat he's got a decent chance of passing on traits/command. In my current english/late campaign, each new king seems to start with 3/4 influence and if a son matures too soon, he's often crap. I try to save a few invadable provs when it looks like a new king is going to ascend in a few years so he'll get an immediate influence boost.

edit3:
Found a thread (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=20;t=5903) from '02 where Kraxis refers to longjohn being the source of this info.

[katank]

yep, that's always a good idea to have invadable provinces ready as well as spare crusade/jihad markers lying around.

as muslims, I always keep a set of 4 for each new sultan.

croronation makes him a sweet ruler no matter where he started.

Also, I tend to feed my first born to the wolf...I mean send him out in a blaze of glory by chargin by his lonesome against over 1k of rebels and making sure the rebels have fast cav to catch him if he routs and also cut all naval links etc. so I can refuse ransom and kill him successfully.