Financial trait - the best of the traits, and unbalanced? Should it be changed?

[Levgre]

I think the consensus among players, for good reason, is that the financial trait is the most powerful. How I think the traits should work, ideally, is that all the traits are equally useful when they are all used in their different proper manners.

What the financial trait gives to the player is really counter-intuitive... it gives more commerce rather than gold, and as we all know, 70-90% of commerce typically goes into research. So the "financial" benefit really translates into being a "scientific" trait.

In reality, the connection between a country being skilled financially DOES NOT translate to being better scientifically. In my mind philosophical and creative should be closer to equal ground with financial in benefiting technological research.

So, that's my take on it. Possible changes to the financial trait? One idea I had was give them increased growth rate of cottages. It will keep some of the essence of the financial trait intact, but get rid of the possibly overpowered ability of additional commerce on EVERY shore tile. Increased growth rate of cottages may not be enough in itself(although I think it would be quite useful), so perhaps something else is needed.

I guess this discussion is more pertinent for multiplayer balance, but I thought I'd post it here.

 

[Inspector Javert]

a fair point it's worth discussing and I think your cottage idea is a possible change.

 

[Enigma256]

it isn't the best, it is just the most straight forward, but it forces you into a cottage economy

most other traits are easily on par, although Expansive or Protective could use some help in my opinion, or it might be that they just don't fit my playstyle

 

[HUSch]

If you have philo strait, then you take the SE-strategy. With Pyras you should be better then a financial civ. I myself like to play CE, but my wins are rare.

 

[Silence101]

I rarely play the financial as it is... don't get me wrong, it's not a bad trait. It's definately powerful if you use it in the right manner (CE like Enigma said), but the same could be said for most of the traits. I don't think it needs any changes.

 

[gettingfat]

This horse has been beaten to death, seriously

Financial is strong, but not so overpowering to the point that calls for a major re-balancing as you describe. As one of the posters said it's just most straightforward to use. And it still depends on the map type. Yesterday I played Mansa and got a pretty dry map with tons of plains. My cottaging ability was essentially taken away.

No matter how you put it, tech discovery/research is strongly correlated to a thriving economy. It's not a pure coincidence Chinese was most technologically advanced before 16th century and they were the richest country, England were doing great later when they had a great economy, then now the US and Japan were so advanced and they were two top money making countries. When people get rich they want better life and here comes the technological advancements.

 

[DigitalBoy]

I think it would be better balanced if it were +1 on tiles that produce at leat 3 , but it doesn't matter hugely to me as a SP player.

 

[Underdawg]

Hum de hum hum

 

[Silence101]

In Warlords and BTS, you already don't get a building production bonus on any builds with Financial... and that's a major drawback... as expensive as Courthouses are to build in the early game, I'd rather have Organized. (Yeah... sorry, I think I'm beating a dead horse here.)