England Heir Problem

[Ash]

For the past two England games I have experienced problems with the English throne succession.

I'm always doing fine until Richard I appears. Then all the other heirs are "de-heired" and all Richard does is produce a few princesses.

In the last game I made sure every Prince was married early, but this didn't stop Richard from blazing the scene and not producing any heirs himself.

Before the above two games I never had problems. So what am I doing wrong? And can I fix the situation? Richard usually lives quite long, and in my last savegame I he is 50 and his brother is 47. But I know Richard won't produce heirs anymore (and John doesn't seem to be very active either) so what can I do?

[CherryDanish]

But I know Richard won't produce heirs anymore (and John doesn't seem to be very active either) so what can I do?

I'd suggest Viagra ...
Nothing you can do, that said, save the game yearly and if he dies, launch from the previous year, eventually he'll have to produce. I had a Danish king producing sons on one game well into his 70's. I was actually cheering him on every time I saw the message at years end, but that said, the visual image is disturbing.

[Ludens]

You can, of course, cheat. If you enter

.unfreeze.

in the campaign map a heir will be born when you hit 'end turn'.

Another option is killing the King. There is a chance that a number of princes will appear when there is a new monarch, if he has been married for a number of years.

Otherwise, there is nothing you can do. Though, I doubt it is Richard's fault, it may just be bad luck. I once lost an empire because the King died the year before his son matured. Now that was frustating, especially since I had forgotten to save!

[Ash]

You can, of course, cheat. If you enter

.unfreeze.

Otherwise, there is nothing you can do. Though, I doubt it is Richard's fault, it may just be bad luck. I once lost an empire because the King died the year before his son matured. Now that was frustating, especially since I had forgotten to save!

Yeah well that happened to me the first time 'round.

Richard died 3 years before the heir could mature, and reloading couldn't prevent it for some reason (I thought the patch would've solved the problem but it didn't).

I'll try to load up the game a few times and see what happens. Otherwise I'm cheatin' cuz it's the second time the game screws me.

[Ludens]

Richard died 3 years before the heir could mature, and reloading couldn't prevent it for some reason (I thought the patch would've solved the problem but it didn't).

I'll try to load up the game a few times and see what happens. Otherwise I'm cheatin' cuz it's the second time the game screws me.

There is a number of actions in the game whose outcomes are pre-determined to prevent people from reloading until they get the desired result. For example if an assassins fails his assignment and dies reloading won't help because he will always die. This has been pre-determined, though I do not know when or how. I remember reading a post some time ago in which this was explained, but I could not find it. The (natural) death of a King works probably the same: reloading won't help, it was determined earlier. The patch doesn't solve your problem, it merely stops Kings from dying when they are 56 years old.

[bretwalda]

In civ3 there is a 'random seed' that is stored - that helps to alleviate the save-reload cheat. Might be the same here. The random seed is what the random number generator is using. Random events are determined using RNG so if the seed stay the same, so movements done exactly like before will give precisely the same outcome.

[CherryDanish]

The (natural) death of a King works probably the same: reloading won't help, it was determined earlier. The patch doesn't solve your problem, it merely stops Kings from dying when they are 56 years old.

Actually ... I had this problem when I played England on my first monarch (England/hard/TD/early/MTW-VI 2.01). I saved every year and reloaded when he died until his heir was mature enough to take over. There was much re-loading, but I thought getting hosed on something out of my power so early in a promising campaign was unfair, so I was motivated. Re-loading worked fine for me.

What NEVER sems to work is trying to extend the life of an AI monarch. In my most recent game, I had just ransomed off the Byz emp to his last province in Cyprus. For various reasons I had to reload that year end 5 times (multiple CTDs, one mouse malfunction/USB bus issue, one being stalked by my wife) and EVERY year like clockwork the Byz emp croaks. I was crafting his faction as a trade mule (banishing former enemies to island states that have fortifications with no navy and small numbers of usefull troops and then invading and leaving before their forts fall to make peace and create a docile trade partner). I had to crush the rebels there to prevent any future faction re-emergances.

[DragonRider]

For the past two England games I have experienced problems with the English throne succession.

I'm always doing fine until Richard I appears. Then all the other heirs are "de-heired" and all Richard does is produce a few princesses.

In the last game I made sure every Prince was married early, but this didn't stop Richard from blazing the scene and not producing any heirs himself.

Before the above two games I never had problems. So what am I doing wrong? And can I fix the situation? Richard usually lives quite long, and in my last savegame I he is 50 and his brother is 47. But I know Richard won't produce heirs anymore (and John doesn't seem to be very active either) so what can I do?

Can I suggest an idea that's briefly mentioned in thee handbook:
Play the game in 'normal' mode or higher. Then take a very high ranking general, put him in a remote province, raise all provinces taxes sky high, give him plenty of troops, & then drop an emmissary on him to remove his rank. At the same time try spying on your king (Richard 1), and that should bring on a rebellion.
Now back the rebels, and with enough quality troops you should win. You now have a new king in the same campaign, & a new chance to produce heirs from him! Good luck.