Dominant Leader Traits

In a different Forum, some one asked how to write a mod to support a double-traited leader (e.g., Agressive/aAgressive, Spiritual/Spiritual, etc.)

I'd like to see it another way - A dominant trait. Which ever trait is listed first confers addition benefits. Finacial/Organized would be different from Organized/Financial. This would double the possible combinations.

Here are some suggestions for the dominant traits:

Aggressive

• All units start with Combat I.
• All military units have access to all promotions, once unlocked. E.g., an Axeman may select CG or drill after archery has been researched. Non-standard promotions cost 10% of the hammer cost in gold for the first promotion and doubling for subsequent promotions in the promotion line. For a Horse Archer (cost 50), a CR I promotion would cost 5 gold (assuming the unit has enough XPs, of course); CR II, an additional 10 gold; CR III, 20 gold.
• Universities add +1 XP to all units produced in the city.

Financial

• Each city gains +1 commerce/4 population points (+1 at 4, +2 at 8, etc.)
• Each trade which involves a commodity yields +1 gold/turn.

Organized

• May develop tiles (but not work) outside of cultural borders.
• The support cost of units outside borders is reduced by 50%.
• After changing civics, the Organized civ has to wait only 1 turn before another change can be made. This is independent of anarchy.
• At CoL, add +1 to road movement.
• When fortified/sleeping in a city or fort, maintenance cost is reduced by 50%.

Protective

• All land units start with CG I.
• City defenses cannot be reduced below 1%/pop point, even during anarchy. E.g., a size 8 city cannot have its defenses lowered below 8%. Note that, in this case, it is assumed the defenses were above 8%.
• Units attacking from a city or fort receive a +10% withdraw bonus.
• Forts in enemy lands may be used.

Philosophical

• Cities can set Great Person bias by 50%, even if such a specialist is not available. E.g., a city running an artist specialist wanting a Great Engineer, can select Engineer and have 50/50 chance of getting either.
• Each city gains +1 beaker/4 population points (+1 at 4, +2 at 8, etc.).
• Each city gains +1 GP point/turn.

Charismatic

• Historic negative modifiers are dropped/ignored/overlooked within 20 to 40 turns. (“You declared war on us” – will eventually be dropped; “You are at war with us” – will not).
• Rioting cities recover 100% faster.
• Garrison troops count double for controlling population.

Spiritual

• Religions spread 100% faster.
• Up to two external religions will spread naturally to cities; Up to three internal religions will spread naturally to cities.
• The missionary unit cost is reduced 50%.
• Missionary missions are 100% more successful.

Creative

• All government buildings (Courthouses, Jails, Security buildings, etc.) add +1 culture.
• Improved, worked tiles themselves produce culture.
• Forts produce +1 culture.

Expansionist

• A worker fortified in a city adds +2 health.
• After Construction + Bureaucracy, desert tiles may be farmed. Farmed desert tiles have +1 food; after Biology, tundra may be farmed. Farmed tundra tiles have +1 food (+2 with the Biology bonus).
• At Calendar, Each city tile produces +1 food. At Biology, Each city tile produces +1 food.

Industrious

• Jungle may be harvested. The hammers harvest would be 50% of that if it were a forested tile.
• Each city gains +1 hammer/4 population points (+1 at 4, +2 at 8, etc.)
• The chance of discovering minerals in a mined hill is increased 100%.
• There is a small chance of discovering a stone or marble resource in any non-resource laden, improved tile.

Imperialistic

• Attached GGs get free Leadership promotion.
• Vassals produce +1 happy citizen.
• The cost of maintaining vassals is 50% as costly.
• Rivals are 25% more like to capitulate.
• The spy unit cost is reduced 50%.
• Spies may hide in a city for an additional 6 – 10 turns for a continued mission success rate increase.

Yeah, that could be interesting. It may be subject to game balance problems, though, and some traits would inevitably have to be nerfed, but it does make sense.

I like the idea, and you have certainly thought it through. But the effect should be small as the character/effect of the dominant trait would diverge to much from the sub-dominant version.
I mean : if Alexander is philosophical/agressive and his father Philip II is agressive/philosophical, both should be recognisable as agressive leaders. Instead of one super-agressive and the other mwah-agressive.

E.g. the suggestion for Spiritual (Religions spread 100% faster) is to strong. Keep it at 25%.

Otherwise a good idea. It would open up new slots for new leaders in a natural way, in line with CIV concepts.

I like the idea. Certainly adds some flavor to the traits.

In my opinion...
Honestly, these are extremely unbalanced.

Financial above is very weak. Aggressive would be ridiculously strong.

Generally speaking I don't agree with boosting the existing traits any further. Various ideas of super traits are common for mod suggestions but how many have actually worked?

There's also the problem that by increasing trait strength by too much you narrow the strategic options in a game to only a couple that are optimal with a given super trait.

In BtS traits the traits are often not strong enough on their own to almost completely dictate your optimal strategy. That's a good thing.

PieceOfMind said:

There's also the problem that by increasing trait strength by too much you narrow the strategic options in a game to only a couple that are optimal with a given super trait.

In BtS traits the traits are often not strong enough on their own to almost completely dictate your optimal strategy. That's a good thing.

Click to expand...

Personally I think it's nice occasionally to have a strategy handed to me on a plate and not have to fight hard to get each small advantage. Sometimes I play a home-bake game where the traits are far more overpowered and one-dimensional than those listed above and it's a total blast

Aggressive would be simply ridiculous in this incarnation. I can just imagine CRIII+Withdrawal Keshiks... it would be absolute carnage. Not to mention CR Infantry, Rifles, Muskets in masses. Industrious is equally as ridiculous, you'd have so many great, early happy resources that are amazing tiles as well (Silver, Gold, Gems) along with Stone/Marble popping up all over the place+the extra hammers, hell you wouldn't even NEED slavery you'd have such ridiculous production capacities.

I'm not even gonna touch the sheer power that Philosophical has in this case, you'd be able to have basically ANY Great Person you want, and they'd be coming in MASSES. The main problem that comes in here is that some GPs (Engineers, late Prophets) are an incredible pain in the arse to get. Hell you could run a bunch of Scientists in Caste, set it on GE, and no matter which one comes up you have a useful GP for the situation. These would need to be heavily rebalanced.