The benefits of marriage?

[The Konrad]

Just started with this delightful little game.
My dude is happily toiling away, late autumn.
He enjoys being outdoors and alone, he has a nice cottage, some workbench and even started to plant some fruit trees.
He is flirting with some ladies and while the prospect of having someone warming your hay bed during the coming cold winter nights is probably appealing I'm not sure he is ready for the next step.

First of all, the lady in question is way too old for him.
Secondly he is already flirting with others, why should this be hampered by marriage.
Thirdly, the option of just "convincing" only the prettiest young ladies to join his Dynasty and work the fields sounds even better than marriage.

I get it, at some point we need an heir, and I think the game needs a marriage for that, but there is time for that right?
Is there an optimal time to marry?
Are there benefits marrying some one late?
Which is the best seaon to marry?

How many children can your waif(u) bear?
So many questions... I could go on, but the forest calls and we have boars to hunt, stone knives to cobble together and mushrooms to pick up.

[VanZan_75]

Yeah, glad you asked this question. Started playing the game yesterday, and I'm really enjoying it ( new to the genre ) . I'm also wondering what happens if you don't bother with marriage / an heir ? Is it game over at a certain age ?

[Holyvision]

When you die (random happening when you are around 60) if you do not have an heir which is at least 18 years old it's game over. If you wait and have an heir too late they may not have time to age up, also consider that your wife will have pregnancy time too and both pregnancy and growth is effected by how long you set your season length at the start of the game.

If you have an heir, they take your place when you die, and you continue playing as them. They then have the chance to have their own heir, and so on.

You also get a game over if your dynasty reputation drops to a very negative level, in which case you are banished from the valley.

[Masha]

You need to have an heir age 18 by the time you possibly die (starting age 60 there's a growing chance you die of old age), so 40-42 is the maximum, else yes, game over.
Also, I think in general new villagers that you recruit are a certain age range (under 30). You can only marry someone that is within 10 years of your age. So unless you do some juggling in terms of housing eligible women, mid to late thirties is probably the latest you want to tie the knot.
Your wife can only have one child, your heir. And if your heir grows to an adult and you pair him up with someone, that heir will also only have 1 child. (as far as I am aware)

Since it's not that difficult to marry, some people get married early to cut down on housing in return for an extra pair of hands. The season doesn't really matter for that so much, though you get a nice cutscene that implies it's spring or summer, so if you want it to be consistent... I suggest one of the two.
Your wife also can give you random gifts (food, drinks etc) and clean you off if you greet her while being dirty.
Since you can choose when to have a child, you can easily get married early but hold off having a child. Remember that your pregnant and nursing wife won't be able to work. So people tend to hold off with kids until the village is running smoothly.

[Viktor Von Groyper]

Your wife heals you
She will turn in some missions for you so you dont waste a trip
You get a "free" worker who doesnt need a house

Find some one with lots of high skills. Its not 100% clear but seems like some of the parents levels effect the childs.

Start flirting with ALL potential mates immediately, It can take some time. You literally have to court them which means going to their village daily. Their affection has to be nearly 100 to avoid rejection. If you dont act they may move along and you might never find them again.

If you invite to village you have to give them their own house or else they will shack up with another man

[The Konrad]

Originally posted by Masha:

You need to have an heir age 18 by the time you possibly die (starting age 60 there's a growing chance you die of old age), so 40-42 is the maximum, else yes, game over.
Also, I think in general new villagers that you recruit are a certain age range (under 30). You can only marry someone that is within 10 years of your age. So unless you do some juggling in terms of housing eligible women, mid to late thirties is probably the latest you want to tie the knot.
Your wife can only have one child, your heir. And if your heir grows to an adult and you pair him up with someone, that heir will also only have 1 child. (as far as I am aware)

Since it's not that difficult to marry, some people get married early to cut down on housing in return for an extra pair of hands. The season doesn't really matter for that so much, though you get a nice cutscene that implies it's spring or summer, so if you want it to be consistent... I suggest one of the two.
Your wife also can give you random gifts (food, drinks etc) and clean you off if you greet her while being dirty.
Since you can choose when to have a child, you can easily get married early but hold off having a child. Remember that your pregnant and nursing wife won't be able to work. So people tend to hold off with kids until the village is running smoothly.

While I appreciate your reply the content is sadly far too modern and creates a disconnect with "medieval" dynasties where you had a whole truckload, I mean carriage-load of children, to crawl through the tiny mine shafts and pick away the delicious ores. Besides contraception wasn't really a thing, maternal leave wasn't either and planned parenthood is something that happened, in the uhm 60s I don't know, in some countries we still haven't achieved that. A bit disappointing we have the "1 Child policy" in this game to be honest.

[Elric]

The 1 Child policy is a requirement in order to be able to market this game in China.
I could be wrong about this.

So, yeah, it's a bit dumb that you can only have 1 child. You should be able to have 10 of which 5 will die before they reach the age of 10.

Also, that the male heir has to be at least 18 or game-over seems a bit harsh. I think the kid should probably be able to step in daddy's shoes from age 14 on, but perhaps with some penalties until they reach age 18. That would be interesting.

[Masha]

Originally posted by Elric:

The 1 Child policy is a requirement in order to be able to market this game in China.

That's bull. The one-child policy has been gone for over half a decade. Not to mention that is was never popular with anyone who wanted to be a parent in china, not to mention the many girls that were abandoned in the hopes of the family having a son. That joke is in incredibly poor taste.

Every NPC family in the game can only have 2 children at a time because of the way the game handles housing. Your heir used to be able to have multiple children before you took control of them, but I assume that has been changed solely to streamline the "takeover" and to avoid potential issues & bugs.

It doesn't have anything to do with "modern sensibilities" but with programming & balancing, frankly it's funny how hypersensitive some people are. It's still a game and bound by what the developers can reasonably accomplish without breaking the game's balance. Being able to deal with the reality of that and still find immersion in this frankly wonderfully immersive game is called suspension of disbelief. Some of these statements make me wonder if this is your first ever video game.

[Turin]

Originally posted by Elric:

So, yeah, it's a bit dumb that you can only have 1 child. You should be able to have 10 of which 5 will die before they reach the age of 10.

Odds were actually far worse and more recent... by my own family example (Central Europe early/mid 1800s) 14 kids and only 4 survived to have children of their own.

It's really only since late 1800s anticeptics and then mid 1900s antibiotics has children surviving to full adulthood become the norm not the exception.

[Elric]

Originally posted by Masha:

Originally posted by Elric:

The 1 Child policy is a requirement in order to be able to market this game in China.

That's bull. The one-child policy has been gone for over half a decade. Not to mention that is was never popular with anyone who wanted to be a parent in china, not to mention the many girls that were abandoned in the hopes of the family having a son. That joke is in incredibly poor taste.

Every NPC family in the game can only have 2 children at a time because of the way the game handles housing. Your heir used to be able to have multiple children before you took control of them, but I assume that has been changed solely to streamline the "takeover" and to avoid potential issues & bugs.

It doesn't have anything to do with "modern sensibilities" but with programming & balancing, frankly it's funny how hypersensitive some people are. It's still a game and bound by what the developers can reasonably accomplish without breaking the game's balance. Being able to deal with the reality of that and still find immersion in this frankly wonderfully immersive game is called suspension of disbelief. Some of these statements make me wonder if this is your first ever video game.

404 Error: Humor not found

[The Konrad]

Originally posted by Elric:

404 Error: Humor not found

This is the Steam Forum,
write your humour at your own peril...

In unrelated news.
I still want him to have 14 offspring, one child feels not enough, even though it might be hard to lose half of them to the mindshafts, bears, childbirth etc.

[josephvala5733]

So at the risk of being flogged ... how soon should I get married? I am playing now and got married at 20 in winter (yeah I got mad skillz), but it seems like I went too fast ... thoughts?

[lmill1]

Marry as soon as you can. My first play through Racimer was 45 by the time I took it seriously, and most of the women would say he was too old for them. It became very hard to find anyone to try and woo. One of the developers actually was kind enough to help me find a woman and by then she was like 47. I was worried she was too old to have a kid. So, buy trinkets like crazy and woo every woman you meet. Second time. as the heir, I was married at 18 and she was 20. It was a enormous relief. Plus the wife can act as a barometer of the town telling you when buildings need repair and when the people need resources.

[Littlelamb]

For me I am just very grateful that the developers made this terrific game, therefore happy to go along with what they have allowed or not allowed in the game, I enjoy the game for what it is - a game. To compare to with real life, to me is senseless.

My fellow has completed quests, killed wolves and boars, trapped rabbits and been chased by buffalo making it to his house before he died. Now he is ready to look for a wife,

My advice to all is to just enjoy the game as it is and forget about trying to compares it to real life, No computer game is going to exactly follow real life, The developers do the best they can within the allowances of video games. I am happy to be able to have the one child as I only need the one to be able to continue playing the game

I am 72 years of age and have been playing video games for 29 years. I have been amazed a the things that the developers are able to do now with the games. In this one for instance, the people and animals look realistic. I love every thing about the game,

[The Konrad]

Fair enough, I've been playing video games for 35 years.
I had developers and publisher presenting their game in a way and then delivering on what their "vision" or "idea" was.
I also had publishers and devs who oversold their ideas, were unable to delivery and barely scratched the surface.
I want to support one of those groups and I want the other one to learn and grow and be less fake, too.
And if a game's tagline is: "Create your own Medieval Dynasty" and you can only have one child, something is very very wrong, however grateful some players may be.

That said, apparently at least we *now* have windmills, something feature in all major artwork, icons etc. on release. So yay?

[thaaug]

Originally posted by Turin:

Originally posted by Elric:

So, yeah, it's a bit dumb that you can only have 1 child. You should be able to have 10 of which 5 will die before they reach the age of 10.

Odds were actually far worse and more recent... by my own family example (Central Europe early/mid 1800s) 14 kids and only 4 survived to have children of their own.

It's really only since late 1800s anticeptics and then mid 1900s antibiotics has children surviving to full adulthood become the norm not the exception.

A decrease in mortality was primarily due to the widespread use of soap in 1900s, which also improved medical practices and lowered the risks of infection. While hygiene and medical technologies improved in the 19th century, it took decades for their use to become common and widespread enough in order to have a significant impact on mortality rates and life expectancy. Up until 1860 or 1870 the life expectancy was still about 30 years old.