I want.... to cheat...

[Maeda Toshiie]

Never thought I'd say this... but I'm playing as Takeda and pretty much own the western side of the map, Shimazu owns the eastern side and we both have massive legions guarding the borders....

Takeda died, long live the new Takeda...57 years old, 4 years later, Takeda died, long live the new Takeda...again in his late 50's, no heirs...6 years later Takeda died, long live the Ronin

Is there a cheat to produce an heir instantly ?

Short answer:

There is no cheat that can help you even if you want to use it.

Long answer:

Heirs in STW are handled differently from the later games. Each faction has a fixed set of heirs that appear at fixed times. It is always a good idea to have a heir appear in a suitable unit. Having them appear in Ashigaru units (Yari, Teppo or x-bow), No Dachi and WMs are generally a bad idea, since the Ashis are crap, ND tend to die fast while killing fast and are vulnerable to missile, and WMs are vulnerable to missile even if their melee is strong.

Generally Daimyos, unless they die on the field (not difficult to prevent) or assassination (maybe a problem if it involves Geishas but there are some measures that can be taken to help) can life to ~70. If they die of illness, reload once or twice and he should live through it, though the occurrences of these can increase. The seed for Daiymo deaths are not fixed like those for assassination attempts.

[barocca]

i wonder if that is what .prototypearmy. does?
makes your leader live forever??

[Seven.the.Hun]

this natural death problem can be avoided by the above mentioned tactic. simply save over the same slot, but do it just b4 you click that turn button, and save it EVERY season. after avoiding this method of death a few times i believe that it will no longer be a problem, and i can only hypothesize that this is due to the idea that this tactic wasnt factored in when the game was created, and that because of this, the random chance of these deaths occurring begins and ends within a certain age range...after which they simply live on.
i only know this because i used this method to avoid the natural death thing...and i just wasted time never really conquering the whole map, and i think last i remember, i ended up with a Takeda Nobutora who was alive and well at the ripe old age of 126.
and of course heirs never die naturally as i noticed. so there was Takeda Shingen in line to ascend to the big seat...at the age of 100something.
i believe after age 76 or 86 perhaps, these deaths for a daimyo simply ceased to pop up altogether.
i dont know if patches or what not addressed this, as i never use them unless its required for an expansion or mod for a game...and of course that this method would be described as cheating by some...who knows?

[Wasp]

Hm, would it become a problem when the game goes on for a really long while? As in, all the heirs would be 'used up', and you simply can't continue?

Would be a shame for a turtler like myself.