Handling decadence

[Hound Archon]

Esteemed lords, ladies, kings and viceroys, I once again humbly request your advice and helpful assistance.

After many, many hours of playing christian and pagan rulers I finally turned my gaze towards muslim lands. And everything is fine and dandy with the exception of the decadence mechanic.

Whenever I ask one of my wayward sons to straighten up, they tend to agree because of my awesome diplomatic skills (so I cannot invoke condemnation against them) only to slip back into decadence a week afterwards.

And each attempt costs me 100 piety, which is apparently quite a big deal to muslims. And I cannot imprison them without having condemnation (tafir? takfir? what's the word?) invoked first.

How do I keep in check those silly buggers of my dynasty?

[Skyte100]

Land or kill them.

[Hound Archon]

Not really an option, I am afraid. Landing the buggers makes them breed, and their vile offspring, in turn, becomes ever more decadent.

Killing is certainly an option, but it's damn messy without the handy assassination button Paradox took away from us a couple of patches ago.

[markdb92]

i just use my advisor in my capital to incrase chance to arrest then toss each extra son into jail and execute them.

[Hound Archon]

Doesn't that give you ungodly tyranny penalties of -80 or somesuch every time you do this?

[Skyte100]

Originally posted by Hound Archon:

Doesn't that give you ungodly tyranny penalties of -80 or somesuch every time you do this?

Yes but the unwashed masses will never under the sacrifices that must be made.

[Thundercracker]

you've been setting family members up with titles, right?

wait just a couple of days to see if anyone else asks him to straighten up first.

playing abbasid from old gods start, by the 3rd or 4th ruler i controlled, i never really had to personally ask anyone to straighten up.

but, i sure did imprison them if the straightening up talk failed. of my 300 or so living member family, 18 or 20 (including several of my sons) are living out their natural lives in my dungeons.

i'm not sure how that works with a family in which you do not have the religious head title (suni/shia caliphite), but the only time i ever had decadance over 10% so far is when i had a decadant son inherit near the begining of a war. had to fight the whole war before i could go on a hajij and get rid of the decadant trait... it was 80% by then.

[Hound Archon]

Originally posted by LORD GALVATRON:

you've been setting family members up with titles, right?

Actually no. I was keeping all my sons in my court with the exception of the one I want to make my heir, who gets a single barony.

So I should have been landing them all, let the dynasty spread beyond control and hope the pious progeny asks the decadent progeny to straighten up so that I get excuse to jail them, and just eat decadence until then?

[Reverend Belial]

Originally posted by Hound Archon:

Originally posted by LORD GALVATRON:

you've been setting family members up with titles, right?

Actually no. I was keeping all my sons in my court with the exception of the one I want to make my heir, who gets a single barony.

So I should have been landing them all, let the dynasty spread beyond control and hope the pious progeny asks the decadent progeny to straighten up so that I get excuse to jail them, and just eat decadence until then?

Yes. Pious landed dynasty members are ineligible for becoming decadent.

[Japzzi]

Salaama le kum fellow follower of Allah. I am the Emir of Sanaa. Follower of the only true heir to the holy prophet blessed be his name! And that heir is Ali!

If you can try and straighten him up. Talk with gods words. If he has been corrupted and refuses there is no way back for him! Thee must invoke holy Takfir against him!. Then thy shalt banish him and maybe with luck he will get a fief of his own and spread! Spread!.

(I once banished one of my sons. Suddenly I saw that he was the Sultan of Africa.)

[Hound Archon]

Originally posted by Japzzi:

Salaama le kum fellow follower of Allah. I am the Emir of Sanaa. Follower of the only true heir to the holy prophet blessed be his name! And that heir is Ali!

If you can try and straighten him up. Talk with gods words. If he has been corrupted and refuses there is no way back for him! Thee must invoke holy Takfir against him!. Then thy shalt banish him and maybe with luck he will get a fief of his own and spread! Spread!.

(I once banished one of my sons. Suddenly I saw that he was the Sultan of Africa.)

Terrible ideas.

Straightening him up costs 100 piety (and he slips back into decadence the very next month anyway). And if I banish him, he simply goes to be decadent elsewhere. SO OFF WITH HIS HEAD.

[Moo-Viper X]

I just went into the game files and set it so asking them to clean up only costs 20 piety instead of 100. Doing this has made the constant decedance totally controllable, and since I don't care about achievments its a win win.