Originally Posted by Dopp
I took a look at the unpacked character traits file and noticed that characters are SEVERELY penalized for being in cities. Basically, if a character governs a city with a certain level of structure built, he stands a pretty good chance of becoming a useless bum. This was particularly pronounced in RTW where every one of my governors became corrupt, womanizing catamites who were also bad taxmen, poor farmers, poor miners, poor administrators and hated merchants to boot. This is because of the way the traits system works. Every time a character ends his turn in a settlement, he stands a chance of picking up traits based on the level of buildings there. These chances stack and are pretty high. Considering that governors have to spend turn after turn in their settlements, they will eventually become totally useless.
For example, the expensive tastes trait line can cut your income by 30%, yet it is insanely easy to pick up. The coaching house, theatre, public baths, merchant quarter and pleasure palace each give a 3-5% chance of your character picking up 1 point of expensive tastes every turn and these chances all stack. Furthermore, there are triggers for the "bloated empire" effect. If your treasury is above 50k florins then any character that ends the turn in any settlement in your empire stands a 3% chance of getting expensive tastes, plus additional 3% checks if your treasury is above 100k and 150k respectively. These are all in addition to the chances from the settlement buildings, making it extremely unlikely that any character will escape unscathed after even a single turn in a settlement. And of course, expensive tastes is hardly the only trait you can pick up this way. Girls, gambling and drinking are easy to pick up; in fact gambling and drink are 5% checks for each level of brothel/tavern you have built.
Characters in castles are safe from most of these vices, yet an oversight causes them to pick up bad traits as well. Any governor whose people are content and happy and whose tax rate is normal or lower stands a 15% chance every turn to pick up the really harmful bad taxman trait (-30% to taxes at the highest level). The problem is the tax rate for castles is fixed at normal and public order for castles is usually very high, so any character who manages a castle is almost guaranteed to become a bad taxman.
Unless addressed in a patch or modded, there is really no point to having governors in M2TW, just like there was no point in RTW. Most of the negative traits cause unrest or reduce income, so the settlement is actually worse off by having a governor. All characters should avoid settlements like the plague and stay in the field.
Generals in Cities and Bad Traits?
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