With death on, clans need children of varying ages when the game starts...

[Old-Bull]

Now you play about three or four years and you're left with clans that have no one of age to fight anymore and a bunch of children.

I know this is a balance issue and this feature is brand new. I'm sure they'll fix death rates as they go.

Still, now that there's marriage to restock the lords that die in battle, everyone rushes off and gets married at the start of a play through and it creates a baby boom. That brings up another good point. There needs to be more married couples at the start of the game, which would fix the first problem because they would have kids of varying ages.

Right now I have seven clans in my kingdom and only about 12 lords that can actually fight(that number is getting smaller rapidly as well).

I'm sure it will come with time, but there's a big gap at the start of the game between fighting age lords and the children born when all the single people get married to start a play through.

What might be cool is illegitimate lords produced out of wedlock hanging out in taverns, that a guy can recruit.

Something needs to be done though. 1.5.6 is quickly coming to an end for me because there's not many lords still alive or old enough to fight.

 

[Antaeus]

Does the mechanic for other lords work the same way as it does for the player? As in they need to stay in the same settlement as their partner for a period of time to become pregnant? I've left my family companions in cities with their partners and they've grown worryingly large families - basically continually having kids that are each separated by the appropriate pregnancy period...

If this is the case, then if you're always at war, lords are more likely to be in armies and less likely to be patrolling their fiefs - so less likely to bump into their partners in a city or castle at the same time.

I think lords should have to spend time with their partner to become pregnant. So maybe the solution might be allowing them to spend that time more frequently to have more children over time.

 

[Old-Bull]

Does the mechanic for other lords work the same way as it does for the player? As in they need to stay in the same settlement as their partner for a period of time to become pregnant? I've left my family companions in cities with their partners and they've grown worryingly large families - basically continually having kids that are each separated by the appropriate pregnancy period...

If this is the case, then if you're always at war, lords are more likely to be in armies and less likely to be patrolling their fiefs - so less likely to bump into their partners in a city or castle at the same time.

I think lords should have to spend time with their partner to become pregnant. So maybe the solution might be allowing them to spend that time more frequently to have more children over time.

I know it works the same for your family members. Niassen and Faroc knock up their wives while we're waiting in towns.

I'm not sure about the a.i. couples that aren't in my party though.

 

[Old-Bull]

Does the mechanic for other lords work the same way as it does for the player? As in they need to stay in the same settlement as their partner for a period of time to become pregnant? I've left my family companions in cities with their partners and they've grown worryingly large families - basically continually having kids that are each separated by the appropriate pregnancy period...

If this is the case, then if you're always at war, lords are more likely to be in armies and less likely to be patrolling their fiefs - so less likely to bump into their partners in a city or castle at the same time.

I think lords should have to spend time with their partner to become pregnant. So maybe the solution might be allowing them to spend that time more frequently to have more children over time.

That works for 18 years into the game, but not really at the start. At the start of a play through there's a wedding blitz across Calradia and a resulting baby boom.

I think they just need to add a few more married couples with children of varying ages to each clan when the game starts so there isn't an 18 year gap between the lords you start the game with and the lords born after everyone rushes off to get married.

 

[Antaeus]

I think they just need to add a few more married couples with children of varying ages to each clan when the game starts so there isn't an 18 year gap between the lords you start the game with and the lords born after everyone rushes off to get married.

I thought there already was a lot of children on start. Maybe I'm not killing enough nobles... I know the devs are worried about lord inflation so perhaps this balance will be tinkered with over time now that they see it playing out in the real world rather than their small beta group.

 

[Apocal]

Does the mechanic for other lords work the same way as it does for the player? As in they need to stay in the same settlement as their partner for a period of time to become pregnant?

No, fixed with daily chance, modified by age, number of children and maybe something else. It is kinda tangled up in other stuff, so I might have missed something though.