[Suggestion] Diplomatic marriages

Devs have already outlined this as a major gameplay element.  It's even been mentioned as a path to victory.

Klaxton is right, the devs have announced this. If your looking for games to try that deal with political marriages in the meantime id suggest Crusader Kings or Knights of Honor. Both games have marriage in them, though both of them kinda miss the mark imo. cuz you have to deal with all the marriages and educations of your royal court in Crusader Kings (which gets tedious and confusing when thousands of kid's names you don't even know start to pop up), while Knights of Honor doesn't really focus too much on it, and makes it hard for you to see if other nations even have marriagable descendants (sometimes you forget they are even there until your king dies and you realize you never married him off... ) But both are more than worth a try if you are interested in this sort of thing

Yes, I knew that the game was going to incorporate a dynasty system, but I haven't seen specifics about exactly how it was going to work and was looking to kick around ideas that people might like to see.  If it's already planned out in detail, would some kind soul please link it so I can learn the details?

The devs have outlined a pretty subsystem specific beta release schedule, and they tend to get a bit um, irked if people go too crazy about making suggestions about pieces they have not released yet. So although we know there is some kind of dynasty idea where you can marry off your descendants etc. you will probably need to wait for that piece to get released to get much info. The good news is they are releasing each chunk in a very simplified state (at least that appears to be the plan) and then they are going to make modifications based on feedback.

At least that is my understanding of how they want things to unfold. No harm in speculating and throwing ideas around IMHO.

I would certainly be interested to know if the family tree ages over time, and how many "World Turns" it takes for a hero/adventurer/noble to age 1 year ... 10 years ... 50 years, and so on. And also if this is related to in-game time (counting births and so on) or if its going to be an abstraction (important people randomly live 10x longer) or if its going to be an explained abstraction (those with royal blood/connected with the sovereign live longer than others) ... this will be especially important for channelers, as it would seem a magician you imbued with essence could gain the same immortality as you (partly due to their magical nature, and partly because essense is a limited resource).

If those you imbued with essence do end up dying however ... I would be greatly interested to learn if the essense will return back to the sovereign once that unit/person dies, is dead, or is killed in combat. Equally if there will be a specialized unit that could steal essence from imbued units, and grant it to their master instead of the unit's creator.

I think this could be a really neat aspect of the game.

Below are some ideas I had from a longer thread concerning this -it may get a few more eyeballs if posted on this interesting thread.  Forgive me if there are a few people out there who will read this twice.:

Breeding and social norms: As one Way of making these all-human fractions different- they could have different social norms.  for instance:

-only males can be king.

-only females can be rulers.

-both males and females are OK.

-incest is strictly taboo-any attempt at this will likely cause some sort of rebellion, loss of faiths, loss of vassel states, ect.

-incest encouraged-sort of a xenophobic society where mates brought in from out of the country cause political unrest.

-religeous societies- can only marry those similar allignment (fallen can only marry fallen) -otherwise political unrest.

-open society- perhaps trade is more important than morals- can marry anyone

-strict customs whereby people will only accept leadership from the first born.

-not so strict-people expect that the king will choose the best successor for his offspring-whoever that may be.

Breeding and politics events

Infidelity-Arranged marriges do not alway work.  If too many social norms and  allignments are crossed -there may be a greater chance that the union fails and political rest (displayed as lower productivity or the ability to amass troups or less dipolmatic power or loss of vassel states) may result.  This could be modified by the trait of "passivity or willfulness"--you may want to breen passive sons and daughter who will do what they are told (for political stability)- but they will likely not be the best leaders.

-event-infertility--every now and then there is a chance that no childern are produced in a royal union.  Polical unrest is increased for a bit and you have to go back down the bloodline.

-True love- every now and then, love between between two people will not be denied despite you best efforts.  You will just have to make the best go of the situation. Not likley with passive folks but more likely for willful characters.

Incest-an easy way to keep good genes in the family and holding onto power if socially acceptable. But to represent inbreeding there should be a 10% each generation of gaining a deleterious gene.

It would be interesting. I always wished in Crusader Kings (where they provided an age for your people) that they would show a person aging via the portrait. I never understood how my 16 year old heir who just came of age had a huge beard or looked older than his father. I think that showing age is an important aspect to getting drawn into the world

This aspect could really shine if done right. I only fear the "done right" part will vastly differ for different people. I try to add my couple of cent.

@Rising Legend: Person aging in portraits is important for me also. It does help the immersion and helps to feel with the characters - for example done in "King of Dragon's Pass".

@ Tasunke i wanted to start a new topic about descendants/heroes death but i think it now fits in here: i really would like to have a possibility to make some of my descendants and most of my heroes immortal by investing essence if needed. It would be really bothersome for me to see my carefully risen heroes die of old age, myself being a near all-powerful channeler. The same goes for some selected and tried family members.

A style of play where a lot of my essence is invested not in land or army but in just one or two cities and in a multitude of then powerful people - family clan and adventurer party being viable would be something i would like to see very much. The political marriages could play a very powerful role in this scenario - what would happen if an immortal daughter of mine marries a mortal king/crown prince? what happens after he dies? It could become a game in and of itself. I would cheer the possibility.

I wanted to let you know, i've spent the last 4 hours reading AARs about that game and it looks fantastic! I did notice the aging of the clan circle, and thought it to be really neat. I hope that the devs decide to do this sort of thing for Elemental and that if they do then hopefully they will do children/teen portraits as well. I do not know how many of you have read the "Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R.R Martin, but Brad has stated that he likes the series and in those books children play a large role and i think they would deserve portraits as well.

yah, having royal children would be cool.

It would be interesting to have a child be part of the battle/lead an army at a young age ... and for that to result in him/her gaining the "psychotic" trait ... a good start towards a Dread Lord/ Dread leader, if Dread and Valor are possible traits in the game. (dread causing fear in enemies, Valor increasing the strength of your own armies, if you have equal dread and valor you have none at all, therefore you have to invest in One for each general)

Psychotic could be similar to the "fine with blood" trait, which iirc decreased enemy morale, and increased troop morale (it might of had some negative side effects, like being a poorer governor or something)

@Risinglegend

glad to hear you like it. The only sad thing as the game was made, modding was still very unusual, and some things i would like to change in the game are hardcoded. Still a real hidden gem.

"Song of Ice and Fire" - heard about it a bit but didn't have time to pick it up yet. Is it a good read?

Well if you are into fantasy novels i would most certainly recommend it!!