I don't know if its ever been done before on a mainstream game but what if a charachter, while they were still alive, could get an heir to their "fortune"...this heir would be a different charachter with a different name and so forth... it makes sense in a game where you can die only once to have some form of half-save (the heir) but the problem is...how does the charachter get the heir w/o...making the game rating go up shall we put it... any ideas? -Ajain

I don´t see any problem with letting the character find a wife and create an heir the old-fashioned way (and as long as you don´t include any full-on sex scenes you probably won´t have any trouble with the ratings either).
The only example I can think of right now is Medieval:Total War where the crown would pass on to the next generation every now and then. Marriage politics weren´t really all that important in the game though (a nice touch though), since there always seemed to be a bastard around to carry the family torch...

the problem with that is...

how to do it tastefully and how to do it so it doesn't scare away all the possible players...

you could do it like they do in "the sims" (whatever that expansion is...w/ the "love bed" where you just see bumps in teh covers when 2 people go in) but that scares away customers...you could have them go into a room together and have the door closed but that is kinda...creepy...

the problem is not what to do...its how to do it...

-Ajain

Europa 1400: The Guild is a game that has managed to implement the heritage system good.
You live in a small city in the 15th century, playing as some profession like smith, politician, thief and so on.
Your character ages during as the seasons change and finally dies. In order to have your family survive you have to find someone to court, marry and breed with. You then have the ability to affect your child during it's upbringing with toys and such.

I believe this was also made a critical part of the story in, for example, Romance of the Three Kingdoms - you were REQUIRED to get an heir at some point, since the timeline was longer than your lifespan.

If the game had a science fiction setting, clones could replace the heirs. [wink]

Quote: Original post by Wysardry
If the game had a science fiction setting, clones could replace the heirs. [wink]

Wisa-R-DRY-5, is that you? [grin]

The problem is not how they work or wether or not they r required...it is how to tastefully make the transition from no kids to kid to + kid and so on and so forth...

-Ajain

I'm fairly certain that few people would be offended by the image or description of someone having DNA samples gathered from their hair or skin for a clone to be grown from. [smile]

"Don't just throw your nail clippings away - protect your future by sending them to our clone lab!"

ehm, I´m really not sure what you´re thinking of there but I think that you´d have to make an effort to present the creation of kids in a way that´s offensive of not tasteful enough.

I doubt that people resent being reminded of the fact that sex leads to kids so much that you have to blank out that aspect of the game entirely.

Depending on the setting you can always go with cutscenes or message boxes, have anything you deem inappropriate happen "off stage" or during a phase of the game where the player isn´t "present".

You might wanna have a look at Fallout, it did a great job of presenting sex scenes in way that was both mature and completely inoffensive.