Well, I would certainly like to see a pop-up "X baby is born, this is his/her name (you can change their name at this point) ... how do you want him/her to be raised?"

And then you decide how they should be raised ... as a Warrior, Administrator, Sage, or Bargaining Chip.

Bargaining Chip would be grooming them to be docile with whatever marriage they have

Administrator would be possible Prestige and/or Diplomatic bonuses

Sage would be possible research bonuses, or could be a philosopher warrior like Sun Zu

Warrior would be either a bloodthirstly front-lines warrior, a Hard-line loyalist, or a great general.

Theoretically Sage should have the best building/science bonuses, but also have the lowest relative loyalty (because they are more inclined to seek either higher ethics, or power, neither of which necessarily follow loyalty) ... however the rewards of a sage are usually enough to compensate, its better to not anger them (even though they are your children).

Of course, this decision only "influences" what sort of people your children will become as they age, and will largely refect their "learned" talents only. Natural talents, and Natural tendencies will most likely still be portrayed, however sometimes this is muted with a Warrior upbringing. There is always a random factor, and each Child usually has their own stats. (it might be possible to find out the child's natural talents and stats from a foresight spell, and from their decide how to raise them).

I mean, I'd rather have *some* choice in what my children and grandchildren will become, instead of it being completely random.

Would be great gameplay mechanic to be able to influence your children because that happens in real life, its positive / negitive some things might make them run away and change their name so they might become one of them wondering heroes we see. great idea because getting random children isn't helpful all the time i would like to be able to get some more mages (should say channlers) or warriors etc by trying to get them raised/influenced as they grow up.

hopfuly stardock reads every great ideas from its fans/zealots.

Protoss!!!

So long as any disadvantage is balanced by advantages mechanically I'm fine with it.

Downtime in the field might in return give the offspring higher loyalty to your faction and more likely to return to you

yea you got me i am i protoss player from starcraft

i know what zealot means i'm sure most of us here are one.

I think that Frogoby said (don't make me search for the link right now...) that the children were decided (in class and stats apparently) once born but that we didn't get to know until they were 20 years old (grown up). But to be able to provide some education to the children would be good. SO if my baby Miranda is going to be a Channeler (thing that I won't know until she is 20) and I happen to give her a education based on magic, she would get a bonus to it. BUt if instead of that education I had decided to give her some martial training, she would end as a Channeler that is not so weak in combat like a non trained one.

Not having total control about how they turn out is also fun. Imagine that little girl you trained as marriage material growing to be your best warrior.

its going to go both ways so really you would chose your least liked or most benafical i'm sure i would keep all my girls if my sov was female there is a role playing part behind there.

I would like to have some effect on what the end result is since i am their father / mother ... thinking of that reminds me of starwars the classic golden 3. if we have a look at that you could see it was in luke's blood to become a jedi but in fantasy storys the main character depends on how they were grown up 99.99% of the time like at below 20ish they usesly get an idea of what they have to do like the epic quests they have to do, i could name a few books but you all should know most of this.

so far its to much to think about since its so early on in development we can only see where its heading.

So yea, I think 10-50% of a Child's stats/attributes comes naturally from when they are born, and that the other 50-90% of their stats/attributes comes from how they are raised.

Stats gained from being raised should have a 40% chance to be positive, 30% chance to be negative, and 30% chance to be really good at what they do.

I concour.

The point is, if it only lasts 1 turn then why not require it for both genders? The Husband has to do his part at one point too. And if does last more than 1 turn, there will be always ways to abuse it against your enemies. Like initiating an attack while the enemy sovereign is busy. Or simply keeping him busy so she cannot generate offsprings.

Difficulty has always been based on the strength and number of opponents in strategy games. Thats fact. If you find that dumb then you shouldnt play these games. Anyway, there will be multiplayer and choosing a female sovereign will then be a way to handicap yourself. I am pretty certain noone will do that in competive games if it does not yield any kind of benefit.

So if you really want that kind of feature than you can mod it in, it wont be used in multiplayer anyway.

Really?

i like this idea, bravo!

Straying slightly from the topic of pregnancy, but I suggest you play Crusader Kings. In fact, I suggest you all play Crusader Kings. It is exactly this. And it is awesome.

IMHPOW pregnancy in-game is a level of detail we don't need, and the game will play better without it. Not only heroes can become pregnant. If you build an army of amazons you don't want them to stay at home to raise kids, however realistic that might be.