The proper care of Characters: A guide to character development
Guide to Character Traits
In this guide, I’ve listed and analyzed the Character traits that I found the most useful to have in the game. You’ll find a lot of information on what to do with your characters to insure that they get good stats. This is a work in progress and I will be adding new sections as I complete them.
Good family traits:
Key
Trait Name A/B/C/D… (E) –Conditions that will give you points to reach the threshold.
ABCD…: Points required to attain the multiple levels of the character trait.
E: The max level of the Trait.
GoodCommander 1/2/4/8/16 (5) – This traits and it’s many variants (Good attacker, defender…) has too many conditions to list here. Suffice it to say, if you win battles, this stat will go up. If you make certain that you only have the minimum amount of troop to win the fight, it will go up much faster.
Disciplinarian 1/2/4 (3) – Although this trait gives you a morale penalty at the 2 higher levels, the move bonus compensate for that. The only thing you can actively do to get this is to stage riots(10%) or rebellions(15%) in the city the character is in.
LogisticalSkill 1/3/5 (3) – This one is really hard to get. In the triggers the only way to gain it is to have less than 16% move left and then you have a 60% chance of getting a 15% chance of having it. In essence you have 4% chance if you use up all your move points. I usually tweak this trigger by removing the “RandomPercent > 40” entry in the trigger, leaving me a 15% chance of getting it if I use up my move.
Brave 1/2/4/8/16 (5) – This one is easy to get. Join a Crusade (100%). Besides that, you get points for losing HP in battle. If you lose 1/3 of your General’s HP, you get 15% chance. And if you also kill at least 6 enemies, there’s another 60% chance. If you lose 2/3, you get another trigger that gives you a 33% chance.
Energetic 1/3/5/8 (4) – Mobility is one of the hallmark of a good army. Unfortunately, the only way to get this is to be born with it. It is self-perpetuating though at 7% if you have no more moves left. So if you have it, drain all but 10% of your movement points every turn and it has a chance to go up.
Prim 1/3/5 (3) – Some of you may wonder why Prim is here as it has as many negative effects as positive. The reason is that it prevents you from getting the following REALLY bad traits: Lewd, Feck, Perverted, Girls, Arse. All you need to do is have all your move points and be in a town or castle with a church building and you get 2% chance. Considering that the other BAD traits are much easier to get, I usually tweak this one for a higher percentage.
GoodAdministrator 1/6/12 (3) – There are two ways to get this one and many triggers for each so I’ll keep it simple. If taxes are at least high and you complete a building or train a unit and your people are still happy, you get a 10 and 4% chance respectively. Also if your taxes are on Very High and your people are yellow or green, you get a 5 and 10% chance respectively.
InspiringSpeaker 1/2/4 (3) – If you win a battle with fair (1.2) odds, your character does not have Ignorance or InspiringSpeaker itself, he gets a 75% chance to get the skill. If he already has InspiringSpeaker, the chance goes down to 10%.
StrategicSkill 1/3/5 (3) – If you win a battle with close odds (1.2), you get 25% chance if you were attacking and 30% if defending. Furthermore, if you win at least a Clear victory with less than half the forces (0.5) you get 60% chance.
Upright 1/2/4 (3) – In the same line as “Prim” this trait prevents lots of other BAD traits: Corrupt, Embezzler, Liar, Disloyal, Gambling. For that alone, it’s good. When you build any church you get 10% chance at a point of “Upright”. Again, I usually tweak this one as the other traits are much easier to get.
GoodMiner 1/2/4 (3) – You get a point if you finish a Mine building (100%). There’s another broken trigger that should give you 1% chance if you end your turn in a settlement with mine buildings. As it is it gives you the 1% only if you finish the mine. You can fix this by replacing the “SettlementBuildingFinished >= mines” by “SettlementBuildingExists >= mines” in the “Trigger building_mines”. I would also tweak up the percentage to 5%.
GoodTrader 3/6/10 (3) – If you end your turn with 100% move points in a town with at least a Merchant Quarter, you get a chance at a point(15%). If you train a merchant, you get a point (100%). If you build a money building (Markets, Ports, Roads, Banks, Merchant wharf and Caravan stop) you get a point (100%).
Just 1/3/7 (3) – If you have at least 1 Chivalry and you complete a Town Hall+, you get a point (100%). Just is self-perpetuating.
KindRuler 1/3/7 (3) – If you keep People Happy at low tax rate (easy to do), you get 8% chance. If you have chivalry and you “occupy” a settlement you just conquered, you get 2% chance. There are other ways to get it if you have Trusting or NonAuthoritarian through self-perpetuation but KindRuler itself is not self-perpetuating. I usually tweak the second trigger at 15 or 30% as I don’t “Occupy” settlements that often in the game.
GoodBuilder 5/12/20 (3) – This one is only hard to get if you don’t focus. The character gets a point if he finishes a building (100%). The Threshold being so high makes it a little hard to get. This is what I recommend: Get every one to the first level which appears on the character scroll as “Active Builder”. You only need to finish 5 buildings. Then you pick the generals you want to be your builders and you make certain that they are in the settlement when a building completes. If you have the trait “Great Builder” in the character scroll, park the general in a town with a high tech level so you can get discounts on the expensive improvements. The only other trait that gives you a Construction discount is “Cheapskate” which gives you a Squalor penalty. I prefer to go for the ancillary “architect and overseer”.
BattleScarred 1/2/3/4 (4) – Dangerous to get but well worth it. If your General looses 1/3 of his HP, he gets 40% chance. If he loses 2/3, he gets another chance at 90%.
Fertile 1/2/4 (3) – There’s really nothing you can do to get this one. If you’re not born with it, forget it. That’s why if a character comes of age and his dad has “fertile” or “wifeIsFertile” and they don’t get the trait, I reload before the turn end and try again. It may be worth adding a trigger that permits you to get it if there’s a hospital or other relevant building in the settlement.
HaleAndHearty 1/2/3 (3) – There are lots of triggers for this Trait. Ending your turn in a settlement with Bizmaristan+ gives you 10%. If you end your turn outside a Settlement and you still have 60% move (not in a siege though), you get 15% chance. If you end your turn in a Settlement with coaching house+, you get 25%; and if the Pleasure Palace is built, you get another at 35%. You also get small percentages if you complete, or finish your turn in a settlement with a Health building. This trait is Self-Perpetuating.
Intelligent 1/2/4 (3) – This one also has lots of triggers but you have to wait until you get Alchemists lab+ and Library+. If you have them, make certain your character’s father is in one of the settlements when he comes of age. Also, you get a chance at a point if you end your turn or if you complete construction on these buildings.
CrusaderHistory 3/6/9 (3) – This is the easiest one to get IMHO. You get 1 point for joining a crusade, you get another when you get to the target region, you get 2 points for laying siege to the target Settlement and finally, you get another 2 points if you take the target. This means that if you complete a Crusade, you WILL have level 2 “Great Crusader”. And if you at least siege the city in another crusade, you get the top level “Grand Crusader”.
BattleChivalry 1/3/6/10/15 (5) – This one has a high threshold because there are lots of triggers to get it. In essence, you get points when you win a battle that the general fought in and where you were outnumbered (0.8 if defending, 0.5 if attacking). Also, the general gets points if he wins against an opposite religion. (Catholic and Orthodox vs. Islam). These only work if you already have chivalry. For those of you who like dread instead, don’t pay attention to this entire guide. I find that it’s better all around to have a high chivalry that Dread.
StrategyChivalry 1/2/4/6/9 (5) – If you’ve been in a settlement for 4+ turns, the taxes are low and the people are happy, you get 25% chance. If you complete any church or joust building, you get a point (100%). If you choose to “Occupy” once you win a siege, you get a point (100%). Again I prefer Chivalry to Dread as it tends to lead to other good traits and Dread tends to lead to bad traits.
CaptorChivalry and RansomChivalry 1/2/3/4 (4) – More easy ways to raise you chivalry. You’ll get a point if you release or ransom at least 80 soldiers. The amount of the ransom must be at least 1000FL though. So once you have “Merciful Champion” always ransom your prisoners because you’ll get no more points for releasing captives.
WifeIsCharming, WifeIsFertile, WifeIsWise 1/2/3 (3) – Marry your princess with the required traits (Charm 5+, FertileWoman and EducatedWoman respectively) to a general and you get these stats. Or, if you’re looking for a mate for your faction heir, Spy on the princesses and try to snatch up these ladies as they not only improve the general’s stats, they improve the traits of their children as well.
AcademyTrained 1/2 (2) – Gotta love easy command points. There is only one trigger for this one. End your turn in a settlement with a military_academy+ and you get 15%. Once a general has “Officer Training” on his character scroll, take him to another town and give someone else a chance.
ReligiousActivity 1/4/8/12(4) – You get really easy Piety and Chivalry points with this trait. Build a religion improvement or train a preist/bishop and you get a point. Once you get “Devoutly Religious” on your scroll, switch to someone else.
This is it for now but I plan to add the following when I have the time:
Hereditary Traits, Self-Perpetuating traits, really bad traits and how to avoid them, good Ancillary and how to get them, bad ancillary and how to avoid them.
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It's nice to know how to get good traits and how to avoid bad ones. *waiting for the guide to be continued*
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