Who's getting those good traits?

In my UP campaign, the year is 1716 and on a new turn i got a notification that a man named Alfonze Brill had acquired a well connected mistress, which gave +1 management and +1 treasury management. I thought i'd check him out since my treasury headman was fairly so-so, so i looked at my ministers. There was neither a minister nor opposition member named Alfonze Brill. Strange, i thought, since the only person that trait would be any use to it a king or a minister. Must be my king, i thought. No, my king is named Willem II.

A general? No. An admiral? no. A rake? no. A bishop? no. Captain? no.

There is no man in my kingdom named Alfonze Brill, and no man that has a well-connected mistress. I thought it may have been an heir to the throne, but that could not be, as my king ascended the throne at the age of 4, and is now only 7 years old, and i have had no notification of marriage or producing an heir, although he does have a mistress already, the sly little bugger.

So, where in the name of Thor is this elusive man with good credentials and the skill to manage my treasury? He's nowhere, i tell you.

A gentleman?

He is propably in the opposition (check in the ministers screen). I have had the same situation as well and I found him there.

I have had those too. It didn’t much matter to me though when it was obvious that it didn’t impact the government.

Negative traits still seem to outnumber the positive ones and mistresses and idiots seem to lead the pack. Some just have too high a frequency and a few are just down right boring or silly.

I would wish they could come up with some that are useful, or even interesting.

By the way has anyone been able to switch any ancillaries? I thought it was supposed to be a feature but I have found none changeable.

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Originally Posted by Beskar

A gentleman?

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Nope. I clicked on the agents tab and looked through all my agents, none of them are named Alfonze brill.

He also isn't a member of the opposition. I've checked, double checked and triple checked every single minister. There is no man named Alfonze Brill to be seen in the kingdom of the United Province. He doesn't exist.

And no, i haven't been able to swap ancillaries. I'm glad, really, because there were many tempting things in RTW, like cheating and exploiting the dumbest AI a video game has ever seen, and i could resist them all, but one thing i could not resist, not even when playing with my strictest list of houserules in Europa Barbarorum, was giving a 16-year old family member i had chosen to become a great general and leader in the future 8 members of retinue that increased his command, the morale of his men and his influence.

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Originally Posted by Dayve

Nope. I clicked on the agents tab and looked through all my agents, none of them are named Alfonze brill.

He also isn't a member of the opposition. I've checked, double checked and triple checked every single minister. There is no man named Alfonze Brill to be seen in the kingdom of the United Province. He doesn't exist.

And no, i haven't been able to swap ancillaries. I'm glad, really, because there were many tempting things in RTW, like cheating and exploiting the dumbest AI a video game has ever seen, and i could resist them all, but one thing i could not resist, not even when playing with my strictest list of houserules in Europa Barbarorum, was giving a 16-year old family member i had chosen to become a great general and leader in the future 8 members of retinue that increased his command, the morale of his men and his influence.

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I have had brigadiers and captains get traits and ancillaries so he may still very well exist. It is not worth the time it takes to find who it is though…unless you want to make him a general or admiral.

Also there is nothing wrong with preparing your leaders to lead, so swapping ancillaries makes sense from a political and military view point.

Why the learned Gentlemen and Politicians seem to love to keep idiots is just a bit beyond me.

I guess all you can do is have them duel or sack them but usually it is too much trouble.

Don't you think the traits and retinue are quite dull and not too diverse? In Medieval 2 I enjoyed managing the family tree... The diverse traits and nicknames made characters more unique, in Empire all characters seem so generic and indifferent. :candle:

I tend to agree. Especially when it comes to the Generals and Admirals. It is hard to tell them apart. They even all look the same.

There seems a bit more diversity in the Gentlemen and Politicians but not near as much as in past games.

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Originally Posted by Guru

Don't you think the traits and retinue are quite dull and not too diverse? In Medieval 2 I enjoyed managing the family tree... The diverse traits and nicknames made characters more unique, in Empire all characters seem so generic and indifferent. :candle:

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Yep, I know exactly what you mean! I don't give a stuff about generals, kings etc. in ETW. In other TW games, I've grown quite attached to my "family". I think the sheer diversity of traits went a good way towards it. Also having to wait for good family members to emerge rather than creating them seems to help; it makes good characters more precious.
:2cents:

The lack of diversity is soul destroying to be honest. It's also rather rubbish that generals can't join the ranks of politicians later in life, or at any time really. To go from RTW, which had a good deal of diversity and traits to bring your pixellated video game leaders to life, to Europa Barbarorum, which had a mesmerizing amount of traits that really, really made your political and military figureheads come to life, then to Empire which has about 10 different traits (at most) and around 4 or 5 different retinues, it's just dull.

Takes points away from empire/kingdom management, which i enjoy more than battles.

I must agree, I thought that the vast number of weird and completely whacked traits and ancillaries was great fun. It was fun to see what kind of 'nicknames' you could get your family members. Even if they were sometimes very random or terrible (I hated having a whole branch of the family going loony), it made the characters much more unique and memorable.

Also, it seems like the traits of the heads of governments are random, and do not seem to have any bearing on what has happened while they are in charge. :huh: Surely if during the reign of Nonentity I the kingdom went from 1 to 30 provinces he should get some conquering or military traits? Since we can only see 1 family member at a time, we should at least be able to influence their traits.

You see the 5 government & 5 opposition ministers in the government screen. But behind the scenes, there are a number of minister candidates that also age & get traits, as do brigadiers & captains. You won't see that character until you've fired a sufficient number of ministers (or in the case of b & c, promoted them).