The Blasios are coming, the Blasios are coming!

[Cataclysm]

Hi,

This might be one for the bug forum, but I'll put it here anyway. In my Sweboz game year 219 BC, my growing kingdom has come into conflict with the expanding SPQR in Gaul.

After a few years of fighting I noticed I seemed to be killing off a lot of patricians named Blasio.

Sure enough, I sent my spies looking around at the various generals and governors and every one I can see is a member of the Blasio clan. See pic.

https://img179.imageshack.us/img179/2032/blasiosrbreedingqy0.th.jpg (https://img179.imageshack.us/my.php?image=blasiosrbreedingqy0.jpg)

The top most army has two Blasios with the same name! :dizzy2:

Anyone else come across something like this?

[Megas Pyrrhos]

Yeah, in my Baktrian campaign, I see one Cotta, a half dozen Blasio's, and about 3 or so Scipio's, two of which are both named Pvblivs Cornelivs...until one of them was killed, and replaced by another man with the same name :dizzy2:

[Maeran]

Well, half my senate are called Aemilivs Scavrvs. 1 adoption, 2 marriages, but the Romans seem to be better at producing sons than they used to be. Time was that I was ecstatic to get 3 generations of Scipios.

Ah well, it may just be a bit of tweaking is necessary, but it doesn't seem reasonable to complain after the gens traits have given me so much joy.

Those Aemillans are outshining a single senator by the name of Jvlivs Caesar. He was a reasonable commander but after he started talking about being the descendant of Aeneas and by extension descended from a goddess, I thought it best to let him do some paperwork.

[konny]

6x Cornelius Blasio in 219 isn't to strange. He is the first faction leader and will most likely have one or two sons, of whom we now see their sons. There will also be one or the other Blasio coming by adaption or marriage.

And yes, two members of a family with the same name is nothing unusally because the Romans only had very few first names (I think most of the Romans were just sharing about 20 to 30 first names).

[C.LVCIANVS]

Those Aemillans are outshining a single senator by the name of Jvlivs Caesar. He was a reasonable commander but after he started talking about being the descendant of Aeneas and by extension descended from a goddess, I thought it best to let him do some paperwork.
:dizzy2: ~D
You're totally EBized man!:laugh4:

[Cheexsta]

And yes, two members of a family with the same name is nothing unusally because the Romans only had very few first names (I think most of the Romans were just sharing about 20 to 30 first names).
In seperate generations, maybe. I've had siblings who have shared the same name in EB, which is a little awkward ~;) But unavoidable, given the way the game works out names.

I also like the way the gens traits work. It especially makes it easy to make descr_strat edits since they all have the internal last name of Romanvs. On the downside it makes using move_character commands a little harder ~;)

[Cataclysm]

Okay, it sounds like this isn't that unusual then. Although that pic was just a sampling. Literally every FM I meet in battle right now is a Blasio. :shrug:

I wonder where the other families are? I don't have any spies in Italy, so there may be a Scipio or Cotta there hiding from my barbarians. :viking:

[Quintus Aurelius]

Same here. In my current carthage campaign (255 B.C.), i have several spies in Italy and ALL roman family members are Blasios. I can not spot a family member with another name.

[Atilius]

And yes, two members of a family with the same name is nothing unusally because the Romans only had very few first names (I think most of the Romans were just sharing about 20 to 30 first names).

Here is the list of the 17 praenomina we use:

Appivs
Avlvs
Caivs
Cnaevs
Decimvs
Kaeso
Lvcivs
Manivs
Marcvs
Nvmerivs
Pvblivs
Qvintvs
Servivs
Sextvs
Spvrivs
Tiberivs
Titvs

In our time period (272- ~50 BC), I'm aware of only one member of the senatorial class with a praenomen not on this list: Mamercvs Aemilivs Lepidvs Livianvs, a consul in 77 BC. We've already used Mamercvs as a cognomen of the gens Aemilia, so we chose not to use it as a praenomen too. The name Nvmerivs appears only twice among all consuls of this period, and Kaeso may have been borne by only one, though it was certainly used by gens Fabia shortly before our time period begins.

So the problem is simply that prominent romans of this time used very few distinct praenomina. This tendency was exaggerated further in certain families. In spite of their historical prominence, I know of only 3 praenomina among the Cornelii Scipiones: Cnaevs, Lvcivs, and Pvblivs. Similarly, the only praenomen that the Fabivs Maximvs family appears to have used was Qvintvs.

We'll add a few more gens in the next release, which should help cut down on the number of identically named characters.

[abou]

I'm sorry, I just have to say this...

The plural of Blasio is Blasiones, and not Blasios.

[Cheexsta]

I'm sorry, I just have to say this...

The plural of Blasio is Blasiones, and not Blasios.
I was wondering when someone would bring that up ~;)

It's like the voice screaming at the back of my head when I read Colleen McCollough's books since she uses Anglicised plurals rather than Latin. But at least it's consistent (*cough*Scipii/Brutii*cough*)...

[Underhand]

So the problem is simply that prominent romans of this time used very few distinct praenomina.
Ah yes, I remember the annoyance caused during Latin lessons by fathers and sons seeming to always have the same damn names :laugh4:

[Maeran]

We'll add a few more gens in the next release, which should help cut down on the number of identically named characters.

Would reducing the fertility of Romani FMs help this (by encouraging adoption)? Or is it already on the edge of that fine balance between no sons and sons?

[Atilius]

Would reducing the fertility of Romani FMs help this (by encouraging adoption)? Or is it already on the edge of that fine balance between no sons and sons?I believe fertility has been reduced as far as possible aleady. BTW, it may be subtle, but the Romani don't use adoption anymore except for man-of-the-hour events. We've re-cast normal adoption as the establishment of a patronus-cliens (patron-client) relationship, though the effect on the family tree is the same.