What are the best civ traits for OCC?

[Sim_One]

I want to know what are the best civ traits for OCC. I personally think religious and scientific are the best for cultural win. Industrious is kind of useless because you would have workers working one city, and commercial is just useless for obvious reasons. Militaristic is not very useful because I'd be trying to stay out of wars.

Expansionist could be useful for that early tech lead.

[WillJ]

Defenitely religous and scientific. As you said, industrious would be kind of silly since it wouldn't take too long to completely improve one city anyway. Commercial's corruption lowering effect would be utterly useless. Industrious's and commercial's extra shield/commerce in city squares wouldn't mean much for just one city. Expansionist might be good due to getting more out of the goody huts, but I don't think it would be as good as religous or scientific.

So play Babylon for OCC!

[BCLG100]

i like religious commercial you need money to keep an army up

[MSGT John Drew]

Let's dissect what you all said...

Industrious - Yes, it wouldn't take long to completely improve one city BUT getting all the tiles 'fixed' as quick as you can will allow you a comfortable lead in the early wonders. If you can finish the Colossus as quick as you can then that is one more wonder that the AI civs cannot do much prebuilding on. Even if they got a turn or two on that wonder you'll still beat them to the Oracle with the appropriate production.

Religious - This, I think, is a dumb choice. If you get one luxury resource then chances are Anarchy will not last for much longer than 3-4 turns. It's only one city for godsakes! The more cities you have, the longer it will take. So if you can build the road to them and get at least 1 more resource then 1 turn Anarchy is easy! (Also I don't build temples in OCCs until I get past the Great Library so I don't need the lessened cost.)

Commercial - Will not kick in that much really but the added commerce can boost research. The benefit of lessened corruption, however, is lost.
EDIT: Ok it won't necessarily "boost" commerce. Just a little dime here and there for popcorns and sodas.

Scientific - Is a must if you plan to get the Copernicus and Newtonian wonders. With that you'll be hard to beat even with your lone city.

Expansionist - This is a good choice. Crank out 2 of them at the start and let them roam for some goody-hut hunting. If not at least you get to know where the 'others' are.

Militaristic - Useless since you'll be fighting a defensive and passive game throughout. Getting GL's in OCCs is not even an option - more like a fluke (and it is).

So I'll say, if you are battling it out with non-scientific foes then non-scientific OCCs will work. Otherwise, I'll choose -

Scientific & Industrious --- PERSIA!! My FAVORITE and also most HATED Civ!

[Karasu]

Well put, MSGT!
There are indeed OCC implications to each trait's value that I had never figured out with my very limited experience at that kind of game.

I am now convinced that Scientific needs to be there; good candidates for the second attribute might then be Industrious, Expansionist, and Religious (I would not disregard cheaper temples and cathedrals). Then Commercial.

Militaristic is useless, but it could be fun trying an "imperialistic" OCC game...

BTW (and completely off topic), what is your avatar? I cannot understand it by looking at my cheap monitor...

[MSGT John Drew]

I did puzzle over the religious trait for some time (been playing OCC non-stop for almost a month now) and it doesn't suit my style is all I can say. I find that having to build anything else after the first two unit builds will guarantee me a hard time of getting my 3 favorite wonders in OCC -- Colossus, Oracle, and (the ever important) Great Library. Without having to build the temple that early, I do find that I can get the Hanging Gardens also if I do it right.

the avatar looks like a Mecha -- sort of like those ones on Gundam -- with plates for shoulders giving that extra - "tough-mech" image.

Civ2_ToT_RA-MARU.gif -> is what it says it is.

Correction - it doesn't look like any Gundam model I've seen, but I've seen the likes in MechWarrior (looks like an Awesome).

[Karasu]

Maybe you're right with Religious -too much building for a single city... I'll definitely have to play more OCCs (if I don't get myself fired for playing too much and working too little... )

Wow. I loved both Gundam and MechWarrior!

[MSGT John Drew]

Frankly, I do not understand why they want to build the temple that early. Yes it will save you pennies for happiness but what's wrong with setting your luxury tax to 40%? If your aiming for the Great Library anyway, why need research that quickly at all? And in almost all of my OCC games there has always been at least 1 resource just within 4 tiles of my city. Just get 2 units on MP duty and moving the lux. tax slider even to 10% will give you a lot (relatively) of happy faces.

Also, by the time you finish building the Great Library, you should be on your way to getting the republic and/or building the Hanging Gardens (if it is still available). By the time you switch to republic, there are no wonders left to build for the mean time until you get to the Sistine Chapel and that is several couple of turns away. Exaggeratedly long enough to squeeze in 3-4 turns of anarchy without losing any necessary production turns. So why fret over it? And does anyone even go Democracy anymore? - the unpredictable war-weariness is just too much to burden.

So what if you have the religious trait and 1 turn of Anarchy to pull yourself into Democracy when railroads come? - I have industrious workers that will do just as well.

I'll take religious civs for OCCs if the terrain is too good to pass. But don't expect me to be happy about it. I might just as quickly start a new game.

[MSGT John Drew]

I'll also put something in defense of the expansionist trait. Since it's rarely a chance you'll get ambushed while looking at goody huts with the expansionist trait (I'm not sure if the chances are 0 or just very slim) then getting even conscript warrior is enough of a bargain since it can then serve as MP so you can then move on to bigger and brighter things (namely the Colossus or Oracle). If you get a settler, then start thinking if you'll go the strict OCC route or a core-cities variant that will still net you the wonders you'll need while maintaining a good core of cities. Got coins? - then spend it! Got nothing? - then save it to experience and move on. The thing is, OCC is nothing more than getting the right wonders before others get them. And most of those wonders lie in the Ancient Age. Win the Ancient Age, then you can start planning how to avoid the UN defeat.