Agents traits and retinues

[soibean]

This always bothered me. Never in the history of mankind have I been able to find a bad agent. Be it a diplomat, assassin or spy. I know there are bad traits out there for them but basically the diplomats always are positive and the only time you get an alert for a trait increase is when they hit expert, which happens whether they get what you wanted or not. I think the assassin is legit for trait gains, but the spy is very hard to get traits for imho. I also never figured out how you get a retinue for agents... Im guessing its random unless Im just missing the triggering event.

I was just wondering if you guys fixed this and made it possible for agents to get bad traits.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

I've definitely had bad assassins and spies. But they don't tend to live very long.

Bad diplomats are fairly rare, but then someone isn't just pulled off the street to become one usually. I am ok with there being relatively few bad diplomats.

[Malrubius]

Most of the vanilla retinue triggers for agents involved being in a settlement with a certain building or something like that. It looks like the Catamite and Pet Monkey are most common, at least in my games.

I wrote here that EB's traits and ancillaries are about 25% complete. Agent traits and ancillaries would fall into that 75% incomplete area. I'm definitely open to any suggestions for traits and ancillaries that would be:

1. Historically justifiable
2. Different from what already exists (agents only have 4 stats that can be affected by traits/ancillaries: Movement, Subterfuge/Negotiation, Line of Sight, and Personal Security).

There is a bit I've done in this area, but it's very minor and nothing compared to what I've done for generals/governors.

[Spitful]

What about a trait "Knows the right people" which would allow him ot move faster and increase his subderfuge rating as he would be well connected?

[soibean]

That's what I was going to suggest

you could have something along the lines of accomplice
I dont know what you could call it but it could start at something minor and eventually work its way up to noble accomplice...
I feel that that wasn't explained enough so I'll try to say it in a story form. Imagine the family member you want dead is in a city. The assassin could know the inn keeper of the inn that the family member is at, or the guard outside his door, and they could help them get to the target. This way it increases subterfuge.

In response to Teleklos's post: I never had a bad agent... I had an assassin who had 1 subterfuge, he had no chance at killing anything around him, so I sent him after some guy who he had a 12% chance at killing so he'd die and I wouldn't need to bother with him anymore. I tried time after time for 10 turns, my assassin never got any never got a single negative trait. All that happened was the guy gained a personal security trait and the chance went from 12% to 6%. I didn't bother anymore after 10 turns.

[Malrubius]

A "Well-Connected" trait seems to fit with what I'd eventually like to do with agents (a system similar to what we have with generals, but simplified).

I like the accomplice ancillary. My GAFHMod had a "Disgruntled Insider", which sounds very similar. Most everything that was in the GAFHMod is going to be in EB, only better.

I'd also like to have more variety in the traits for agents, so they're not just measured by what level they are.