Elemental Forums
Why is that? Didn't these cities takes years to build and poof they're gone in an instant? Wouldn't a better option be to have those cities turn into neutral cities or minor faction owned cities?
This is a hot topic right now. The best way to address this is the most obvious: allow offspring to ascend to the throne. If there are no offspring, then the kingdom should either go neutral or have a NPC hero take over.
This issue really needs to be addressed ASAP since it is hamstringing a crucial game mechanic (dynasties).
Completely agree with the OP. Cities just going "poof" doesn't make any sense at all.
There are some "nuetral" Minor factions in the game. The thing here in particular is what happens to the "left over" cities of an enemy Empire after we defete them in game.
One idea would be to check if there are champions in those cities, grab the one with the higher overall stats and have them take over the cities. If the Sovereign had children, they should have an opportunity to take over if they're not in the captured city.
I imagine that they don't have code in place to generate a new kingdom, empire, or minor faction on the fly in the middle of the game.
Speaking about sov children in a captured city, it would be cool if we could capture them and ransom 'em off. Maybe even after a battle (i.e., not everyone dies in a lost battle; some are merely wounded and can be captured).
There's a great opportunity to make the champions / dynasty interaction work here. If the sov falls, whomever is left should try to pick up the pieces to keep the kingdom going, but not the entire kingdom. An enterprising champ who's squirreled away in a back corner may suddenly decide to go independent, and a new neutral city is formed. All those +10% production and +20% farmers come to mind. The spouse of the sov and any kids would probably try to stick together, unless that spouse is from another empire - loyalty to that family might trump their adoptive home.
It's not a fun situation to dig out of, but it's better than losing the game outright. Plus, it's pretty freaking epic to have a large empire shattered when the king falls, and the remnants avoid notice long enough to recover and get revenge.
you used to be able to steal and ransom spouses in Beta ... 2? 1? It was a long time ago. But you could capture them!
The idea of such a cool feature missing from the final game makes me sad... Does anyone know why it has been excised? (did I spell it correctly? excised? :p)
It was a "bug". Basically, every unit that has 0 strength (Caravans, Pioneers and some spouses) was captured instead of engaged and destroyed.
At the time it existed, diplomacy wasn't completely hooked in, so you couldn't actually ransom. But you totally could now.
You could even marry the "abducted" spouse. A true Helen of Troy 
Wow, my Italian Blood demands some love affairs "Faida" then!
The cities and whatever units owned by the sovereign which was permanently killed should turn independent. They should not simply vanish.
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