Maybe by giving bonus to the successor's influence among your generals depending on various factors? Eg: being your offspring would be a bonus (dynasty and all that). Being a competent commander would be a bonus, etc.... Being officially designated would be a large bonus. So normally, if you designate as successor someone who stands out of your various liutenaunts (offspring, competent, whatnot), it stays at that. But if there are several mighty candidates, it might be enough evened out so that the others revolt?
That sounds really good, actually. If there is one lead candidate (be it the player, or not!) then that person gains control with ease. If your designated successor is that character, great; but if not, you might have to fight for it. Similarly, if your successor character is by far the strongest, things will be easy, but if the top people in your civilization/army are all of roughly equal influence/experience/etc, that'll generate a struggle!
Your first character's background is important too. Like in Mount&Blade, if your father is a thief, farmer, smith or someone else without renown, you are a nobody. If your father is a noble, you have a slightly higher renown.
Agreed; I'm not sure how skills and other attributes will 'pass down' to your offspring/chosen successor yet, so I'll have to think about that one...
Also, URR now has a delicious
sidebar! This week's devblog entry discusses this, the UI, and the direction I'm moving in in terms of ease of use, the UI, and getting efficiently around the map. What does everyone think of the sidebar, and the UI in general?
http://www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk/game/2012/01/09/sidebars-and-scrolling/