History Rewritten (Original Thread)

[Azoth]

Not even 50 turns into my first game, I already have much to report:
(Your earlier points about Wines, Furs, and Nasser are well-taken.)

Amber: In a hilarious turn of events, Amber spawned on coastal tiles and was hooked up with fishing boats. I can't imagine that's what you were going for...

Health Resources: I'm not sure why Smokehouses expire at Refrigeration. The result is that Sheep, Pigs, Cows, and Deer stop providing health in the Industrial and Modern eras, and Pigs and Salt in particular have no further use. On a related note, seafood now provides health only to coastal cities that can build Harbours. You might want to pair some of these resources with Grocers or Supermarkets to spread their benefits to more cities and later eras.

Slightly off-topic, I'd love to add Bison, Yaks and Llamas but I've never been able to find suitable graphics.

Resource Icons: For Bison, let me refer you to WildMana, a modmod of Fall from Heaven II. WildMana has long since been discontinued but you can still find a copy in post 56 of this thread. WildMana, like Fall from Heaven II, only runs on Windows so I don't know if you can extract the necessary files. (Obviously, you'll also want to ask permission from Sephi, the mod's creator, who has a few posts in that thread. He might even have the graphics files on hand, though I don't know how quickly he'll respond to a PM.) In any case, WildMana had very serviceable Bison graphics, as well as good Amber and Tea icons which you may want to look at. (I'm not exactly fond of the new Tea and Coffee icons, mostly because they emphasize the dishware over its contents. Potatoes and Seals are looking good, though. And let's just say "Chocolate" wasn't the first thing that came to mind when I looked at its icon...) I'm sure there are other mods that might carry what you're looking for but I can't think of any off the top of my head. I'll keep looking.

Shale Plants: I forgot to mention this when I was talking about UBs. Now that you have five separate power plant options, I don't think it's fair to ask the Japanese to build a Coal Plant-replacement UB (with its attendant health problems) alongside whatever other plant they might normally prefer. I would change this to a Factory- (or Industrial Park-) replacement UB and simply carry the +10% production bonus over. Shale Plants were designed to supplement or compensate for the lack of more traditional power sources, so the move makes sense.

Overall, I haven't yet been won over by the new resource mechanics. You may have doubled the total number of resources but you've halved the benefits of each individual resource; and since the average size of an empire will stay the same, players will have access to less health and happiness over the course of the game. This may not be a bad thing: I need to finish my game before I make any judgements. Still, I do worry that the AI will not prioritize the buildings appropriate to its local resources and be stuck with smaller city sizes in the long run.

 

[Howard Mahler]

Minor annoyance.
It seems like all of the resources are now classified as "general" rather than food or luxury.

 

[LordofDarkness]

Hi, I downloaded the mod and extracted it to C:\Program Files (x86)\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 Complete\Beyond the Sword\Mods but when I try to load it, I keep getting tons of XML errors. I also tried moving it to C:\Users\Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword\MODS, still nothing. I also tried to extract the Mac folder to C:\Program Files (x86)\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4 Complete\Beyond the Sword\Mods but when I load it, it just shows me regular BTS. I'm using a windows 7 64 bit computer. Can someone help?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Howard Mahler]

The final and 14th religion was founded in 290 BC.
I founded one and the other 13 were founded by AIs.

So with the changes the AI seems very able and willing to found religions.

I notice that (on Huge Maps and Marathon Speed) it takes 100 GPP to get first Great Person. (I believe that is how it has been.)
It takes 200 GPP to get the second Great Person.
While this seems more than before, I could be mistaken.
Did you make any changes here?

 

[Xyth]

I seemed to have missed an xml tag in one file which is causing numerous errors when launching on Windows. I've attached a replacement file. It needs to replace the one found at this location:

/History Rewritten/Assests/XML/Terrain/CIV4BonusInfos.xml

If are still errors after replacing this file please post in this forums any that look vaguely like this:

Failed Loading XML file xml\Terrain/CIV4BonusInfos.xml. {.\FXml.cpp:133] Error parsing XML File -
File:      xml\Terrain/CIV4BonusInfos.xml
Reason: Element content is incomplete according to the DTD Schema.

Line:     1558, 5
Source:             </BonusInfo>

With that information I'm able to fix such errors and post a patch very quickly. Apologies to all Windows users of HR; the Windows version is a lot stricter at parsing xml than the Mac version is and as I don't have a copy of Windows BTS (or even Windows) some of these occasionally slip by me.

 

[davidtylr]

Downloading it now. It looks good. thanks.

 

[LordofDarkness]

I seemed to have missed an xml tag in one file which is causing numerous errors when launching on Windows. I've attached a replacement file. It needs to replace the one found at this location:

/History Rewritten/Assests/XML/Terrain/CIV4BonusInfos.xml

If are still errors after replacing this file please post in this forums any that look vaguely like this:

Failed Loading XML file xml\Terrain/CIV4BonusInfos.xml. {.\FXml.cpp:133] Error parsing XML File -
File:      xml\Terrain/CIV4BonusInfos.xml
Reason: Element content is incomplete according to the DTD Schema.

Line:     1558, 5
Source:             </BonusInfo>

With that information I'm able to fix such errors and post a patch very quickly. Apologies to all Windows users of HR; the Windows version is a lot stricter at parsing xml than the Mac version is and as I don't have a copy of Windows BTS (or even Windows) some of these occasionally slip by me.

Thanks, it works great now.

 

[Xyth]

B]Amber:[/B] In a hilarious turn of events, Amber spawned on coastal tiles and was hooked up with fishing boats. I can't imagine that's what you were going for...

Actually... yes. 80% of the world's amber is found in and around a certain stretch of the Baltic sea. Some is scavenged but a lot is fished or dived for. More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_amber

Health Resources: I'm not sure why Smokehouses expire at Refrigeration. The result is that Sheep, Pigs, Cows, and Deer stop providing health in the Industrial and Modern eras, and Pigs and Salt in particular have no further use.

I wanted to emulate how refrigeration superseded earlier forms of food preservation such as salting and smoking. The Smokehouse would obsolete, the Supermarket would become available and the food bonus from pastures would tide the player over the transition. I intended to make that all work better than it does before releasing 0.9.3 but I seems I forgot ><

On a related note, seafood now provides health only to coastal cities that can build Harbours. You might want to pair some of these resources with Grocers or Supermarkets to spread their benefits to more cities and later eras.

Good point, this needs addressing for sure. I'll see what makes sense.

Resource Icons: In any case, WildMana had very serviceable Bison graphics, as well as good Amber and Tea icons which you may want to look at. (I'm not exactly fond of the new Tea and Coffee icons, mostly because they emphasize the dishware over its contents. Potatoes and Seals are looking good, though.

It's not letting me download that atm but I'll keep trying and see what's extractable. I think I saw an icon somewhere that was just a coffee bean, I'll see if I can find it again.

And let's just say "Chocolate" wasn't the first thing that came to mind when I looked at its icon...)

Hehe. Cocoa was a last minute addition and I created that icon in a bit of a rush. Seeing it in game was a bit of a facepalm moment but I decided to leave it in so as not to delay 0.9.3 any longer. I'll be changing it for sure in 0.9.4.

Shale Plants: I forgot to mention this when I was talking about UBs. Now that you have five separate power plant options, I don't think it's fair to ask the Japanese to build a Coal Plant-replacement UB (with its attendant health problems) alongside whatever other plant they might normally prefer.

Good call. I'll try some of those options out.

Overall, I haven't yet been won over by the new resource mechanics. You may have doubled the total number of resources but you've halved the benefits of each individual resource; and since the average size of an empire will stay the same, players will have access to less health and happiness over the course of the game. This may not be a bad thing: I need to finish my game before I make any judgements. Still, I do worry that the AI will not prioritize the buildings appropriate to its local resources and be stuck with smaller city sizes in the long run.

I haven't got time to respond to this at the moment, I'll make a new post about it later on. Some very valid points.

Minor annoyance.
It seems like all of the resources are now classified as "general" rather than food or luxury.

Hmm. It seems this relied on whether a resource gave health or happiness to sort them. I'll have to try find where this code is and see if I can do anything about it.

The final and 14th religion was founded in 290 BC.
I founded one and the other 13 were founded by AIs.

So with the changes the AI seems very able and willing to found religions.

Yeah, that's what my testing seemed to indicate as well. Worth keeping an eye on though, just in case. I don't want to make it impossible to get 2+ religions. In your game did each civ have one religion each or did some have 2 or 3?

I notice that (on Huge Maps and Marathon Speed) it takes 100 GPP to get first Great Person. (I believe that is how it has been.)
It takes 200 GPP to get the second Great Person.
While this seems more than before, I could be mistaken.
Did you make any changes here?

Each Great Person is meant to cost twice as much as the previous one, I'm not made any changes to that. If the second takes 200 GPP then it sounds like it's working as intended.

Thanks, it works great now.

Glad to hear!

 

[Hib]

I'm getting these strange errors while playing. (I play BtS on Windows)

 

[Howard Mahler]

Huge / Marathon / Monarch
I had a good starting position, although the Napoleon's tactical trait had been weakened.

I suspect some AIs founded two religions, and some none, but I am not sure.

At least in this game up to 10AD the new resources and buildings seem to be providing enough happiness and health.

The change to granary is slowing growth somewhat, but I like it.
I assume it has also lessened the effective of slavery somewhat, also a good thing.
(I have been trying to play this game without slavery up until now.)

I have attached some game saves.

 

[Howard Mahler]

In version 9.0.3, I have only played one game up to 10 AD so far, but here are some preliminary thoughts on the changes to resources.

Seems to be working well so far. Very interesting.

Obviously you will need to carefully review to see which resources are not giving enough benefit overall, including the maximum benefit it can give at any one point in time, when a benefit is available, and when it obsoletes. (There has already been some brief discussion of this.)

Once this review is done and revisions made, you should go back and review the benefits to a map square from having a special resource in that square.

Overall you have made each individual health and happiness special resource less useful. Even when you end up with the same benefit eventually, it may be delayed considerably and requires a building it did not before.
Also, camp, some civics, and some other changes have increased the value of some non-special map squares.

Therefore, it makes sense to make some of the special resource map squares somewhat more special.
For example, a spice plantation might have 1 or 2 more coins than currently.

I am suggesting this should be part of your overall review of this whole area for version 9.0.4.

 

[Xyth]

Got a weird message when I finished researching riding

Text_Trigger_ Key_Event_ Tavern_Riding

I've found what's causing this and fixed it. It was some experimental code I was trying out but neglected to remove. It's harmless and should only ever appear once per game.

I'm getting these strange errors while playing. (I play BtS on Windows)

That's strange, I've not seen errors with that function before (onBeginPlayerTurn). The only code I've added there is related to Religious Victory and Vassals so I'm guessing it's to do with one of those.

Could you go into the file CivilizationIV.ini (not sure where it is on Windows, but it should be in the same location where BTS keeps your save game folder), find the line LoggingEnabled = 0 (near the bottom of the file, and then enable it by changing the 0 to 1.

Launch HR and play until you get that error message. Then post or attach the file Logs/PythonErr.log. The Logs folder should be in the same location that CivilizationIV.ini is.

I hope that's not too much trouble, this error is not something I can replicate easily and that file will have info that will be helpful in tracking it down.

 

[Azoth]

Overall you have made each individual health and happiness special resource less useful. Even when you end up with the same benefit eventually, it may be delayed considerably and requires a building it did not before.
Also, camp, some civics, and some other changes have increased the value of some non-special map squares.

Therefore, it makes sense to make some of the special resource map squares somewhat more special.
For example, a spice plantation might have 1 or 2 more coins than currently.

I am suggesting this should be part of your overall review of this whole area for version 9.0.4.

I couldn't have put it better myself. My experience is much the same: because their health and happiness benefits come later (sometimes much later), I find myself ignoring resources in favour of other improvements. Their tile yields could use a boost. I would elaborate further but... I've now finished my review of the leader traits.
I have some free time today, so I though I would roll out my suggestions over the course of the afternoon.

First, a few things about my play style so you know where I'm coming from.
1. I play at Emperor level. Monarch gets boring fast once I inevitably reach the #1 spot while Immortal is frustrating early on when I have so little commerce and expansion opportunities. Emperor is just right.
2. I play Standard maps at Normal speed. Any larger or slower, and the game seems to take forever.
3. I'm more of a builder than a warmonger. Starting in the Renaissance, I find wars become very tedious with over 50 units to direct every turn. As a result, I often win Space or Culture victories, occasionally take Diplomatic when I'm in a position to do so, and rarely reach Domination or Conquest. If I wanted to play a war game, I could do much better than Civ IV.
4. I'm not a fan of the espionage or corporation mechanics introduced in BtS. Espionage introduces a fourth commerce output (after science, gold, and culture) and some very imbalanced missions; I would have preferred fewer missions which cost gold. Meanwhile, Corporations remove strategy from the game: 9 times of out 10, Sid's Sushi + Mining Inc. along with Free Markets is your best economic option.

I've tried to take account of other play styles when suggesting trait changes but maybe I've missed something important. My priorities for redesigning the traits were as follows:

Fun: Obviously. To this end, I have preferred active bonuses that encourage certain builds or strategies over passive benefits that work in the background. I've also identified the strongest traits and tried to bring the rest up to par, instead of the other way around.
Variety: I've tried to include bonuses that affect every part of the game so that different leaders will play noticeably differently. I want the choice of leader to be meaningful and have a big impact on the game.
Flexibility: I've tried to give each trait enough flexibility to be (at least somewhat) useful in all situations: in war and through peace, from ancient to industrial times. That said, some traits will remain stronger than others, depending on the situation.
Compatibility: I've tried to encourage players to mix and match the traits to suit their play style. No one trait is superior on water maps, in wartime, or for culture; the bonuses are spread over several traits.

I've divided the traits into four groups and will address them over the next four posts.
Strong Traits: Expansive, Humane, Industrious
Military Traits: Aggressive, Charismatic, Imperialist, Protective, Tactical
Economy Traits: Enterprising, Financial, Judicial, Organized, Philosophical
Weak Traits: Creative, Diplomatic, Progressive, Spiritual, Traditional

Stay tuned.

 

[Lirvan]

Xyth, I love your mod and your work so far, it's giving new life to civ4.

Just a few things to point out.

Not sure if this is true for both your second post on the thread explaining the traits, as well as the civilopedia entry, but aggressive still calls the stadium building "colosseum"

Also, terra map type on massive size seems to be heavily bugged, there is no water, it's just all land at the moment.

I also agree with many of the other posters about the new resource scheme needing to be reworked.

 

[Azoth]

In my opinion, these traits are the best in the game. Leaders with these traits, both human and AI, rank consistently among the top civs. My suggestion is to keep these mostly the same (they are very fun to play) and bring the rest to their level.

Expansive
Current: +1 food/city, +50% Settler, double Harbor
Suggested: +1 food/city, +50% Settler, double Harbor+Sewer
Comments: Strong early game trait. Leads to big empires. Adding Sewers fits thematically and helps shine light on one of your new buildings.

Humane:
Current: +100% Golden Age length, +2 health/city, +1 happy Aqueduct+Hospital
Suggested: +100% Golden Age length, +2 health/city, +1 happy Aqueduct+Bath
Comments: Strong late game trait. Doesn't do much in the early game. Replacing Hospital with Bath will help somewhat, and highlight another new building.

Industrious
Current: +1 hammer/city, +50% worker+workboat, double Forge
Suggested: no change
Comments: Strong early game trait. Leads to well developed empires. Fine as is.

 

[Xyth]

I've been delving a bit deeper into the AI code and I've come to the conclusion I'm going to need to abandon the health/happiness resource change. Reason being, the AI seems to rely on that +1 health/happiness to determine category of resource. Resources without happiness or health are treated by the AI as strategic resources (like Horses, Iron, etc). I'm not quite sure exactly what sort of problems this is going to create but it will undoubtably cause some.

My goals for the change were: a) to slow city growth a bit, and b) allow the addition of new resources/buildings/wonders without making happiness and health too abundant (in the early game at least). I'll need to look into other options for achieving this, preferably without undoing any of the new content.

 

[Xyth]

The change to granary is slowing growth somewhat, but I like it.
I assume it has also lessened the effective of slavery somewhat, also a good thing.
(I have been trying to play this game without slavery up until now.)

Yeah I'm liking this change and it will reduce some of the health issues when I revert the resource change.

Overall you have made each individual health and happiness special resource less useful. Even when you end up with the same benefit eventually, it may be delayed considerably and requires a building it did not before.
Also, camp, some civics, and some other changes have increased the value of some non-special map squares.

Therefore, it makes sense to make some of the special resource map squares somewhat more special.
For example, a spice plantation might have 1 or 2 more coins than currently.

I couldn't have put it better myself. My experience is much the same: because their health and happiness benefits come later (sometimes much later), I find myself ignoring resources in favour of other improvements. Their tile yields could use a boost.

I agree with what you are both saying here, I don't wish to make resources feel less appealing just because there are more of them. Question is, once health/happiness is added back to them do you feel any still need to be boosted further?

4. I'm not a fan of the espionage or corporation mechanics introduced in BtS. Espionage introduces a fourth commerce output (after science, gold, and culture) and some very imbalanced missions; I would have preferred fewer missions which cost gold. Meanwhile, Corporations remove strategy from the game: 9 times of out 10, Sid's Sushi + Mining Inc. along with Free Markets is your best economic option.

I've not touched these mechanics much yet but at some point I'd like to see if I can find a way to make them more balanced, simpler, and thus more appealing. Perhaps a task for 0.9.5.

I've divided the traits into four groups and will address them over the next four posts.
Strong Traits: Expansive, Humane, Industrious
Military Traits: Aggressive, Charismatic, Imperialist, Protective, Tactical
Economy Traits: Enterprising, Financial, Judicial, Organized, Philosophical
Weak Traits: Creative, Diplomatic, Progressive, Spiritual, Traditional

Your analysis is fairly similar to mine.

Xyth, I love your mod and your work so far, it's giving new life to civ4.

Thanks! I really appreciate the feedback and bug reports.

Not sure if this is true for both your second post on the thread explaining the traits, as well as the civilopedia entry, but aggressive still calls the stadium building "colosseum"

Oops, I'll fix that up.

Also, terra map type on massive size seems to be heavily bugged, there is no water, it's just all land at the moment.

That mapscript seems to do its own custom things to mapsize, I'll see if I can figure out what's going on.

In my opinion, these traits are the best in the game. Leaders with these traits, both human and AI, rank consistently among the top civs. My suggestion is to keep these mostly the same (they are very fun to play) and bring the rest to their level.

I agree that bringing the other traits up to the standard of these is the best goal. I like your suggested changes.

 

[Azoth]

These traits are geared for war. My suggestion is to spice up their bonuses and give them some peacetime options.

Aggressive
Current: +100% pillage gold, Combat I on Melee+Gunpowder, double Barracks+Stadium
Suggested: Combat I on Melee+Mounted+Gunpowder, double Barracks+Stadium, all Military civics available on Turn 0
Comments: Basic war trait. Combat I on Mounted units gives added punch. (Aggressive leaders love their cavalry.) Unlocking all Military civics was my brainchild. I do hope you can code it in. It lets Aggressive leaders customize their military machine with no war wariness, drafting, bonus XP, or bonus unit production - but not all at the same time. Not too imbalanced but very fun. I'm moving the pillage bonus elsewhere.

Charismatic
Current: +1 happy/city, -25% promotion XP, +1 happy Monument+Broadcast Tower
Suggested: +2 happy/city, +1 XP/battle, immunity to culture flips
Comments: An alternative war trait. I was never happy with that -25% promotion XP: you had to memorize a new set of XP thresholds. In fact, I would simplify promotion levels from 2/5/10/17/26/etc. to 2/5/10/15/20/etc. On the margin, this would result in a few higher promoted units but that's no problem. This way, the +1 XP/battle from Charismatic would catch up to a free Combat I promotion from Aggressive after five battles, which is about right. The immunity to culture flips is a flavour addition (people do not desert Charismatic leaders) while +1 happy from Monuments is moved elsewhere.

Imperialist
Current: +100% Great General, double Jail, +1 happy Barracks
Suggested: +100% Great General, no resistance in captured cities, +50% worker speed
Comments: Another war trait. No resistance in captured cities because Imperialist leaders know how to govern foreign peoples. Worker speed boost because Imperialists are hard task-masters and the trait needed an economic dimension. Double Jails has been moved elsewhere.

Protective
Current: +100% Great General in borders, City Garrison I+Drill I on Archery+Gunpowder, +1 happy Walls+Castle
Suggested: double Granary, Drill I+Medic I on Archery+Siege+Gunpowder, +1 happy Walls+Castle
Comments: Yet another war trait. The Great General bonus was removed; it was too much like Imperialist. Double Granary makes sense (Protective leaders take care to prevent starvation), works just as well in peacetime, and isn't too strong now that Granaries are weaker. I've also replaced City Garrison with Medic to support going on the offensive (Gunpowder units have the option to take March!) and included Siege units (because the poor things can't earn XP in battle.)

Tactical
Current: -50% War Wariness, Flanking I on Mounted+Naval
Suggested: Commando on Melee+Mounted+Gunpowder, +100% pillage gold, double Jail+Castle
Comments: A fifth war trait, now just as tempting as the rest. Tactical needed a complete redesign. What's the best way to give a leader tactical options? Give his units Commando promotions! I expect this will fast become a favourite. Note that Siege and Armour units do not get Commando promotions, so the trait is not too powerful. As for the rest, well, players will have to respond by building Forts at strategic locations along their road networks to prevent a surprise attack. Now living next to Attila will really be scary, as it should be. The pillage gold bonus supports hit and run attacks, and double Jails and Castles allows for a strong espionage economy.

Let me know what you think.

 

[Azoth]

These traits improve some aspect of an empire's economy. My suggestion is to give them a slight boost so that they can better compete with the strong traits, and sharpen the differences between them. Economy traits don't need an explicit military dimension because a stronger economy allows you to field a larger, more advanced army on the battlefield in the first place.

Enterprising
Current: +1 trade route/city, +2 move on Naval, double Market+Customs House
Suggested: +1 trade route/city, Navigation I+Navigation II on Naval, all Economy civics available on Turn 0
Comments: A fine trait with a clever name. The promotion change to naval units still leaves them with +2 movement but allows non-Enterprising leaders some chance to catch up if they promote their ships correctly. (Otherwise, both sides could take Navigation promotions, and Enterprising leaders would always be quicker.) The Economy civics allow for great flexibility: Enterprising leaders can pick between more commerce on improvements, a free specialist, another trade route, or more health. Haven't you ever wanted to rewrite history so that all nations embraced Environmentalism by medieval times, and Mother Nature was saved?

Financial
Current: +1 commerce/city, +10% gold, double Bank
Suggested: +1 commerce/city, +1 merchant slot/city, double Bank
Comments: The bread-and-butter economy trait. I kept it mostly the same, only replacing a boring +10% gold with a merchant slot. Running merchants everywhere is one way to keep expansion costs down, and Great Merchants aren't too powerful in the early game.

Judicial
Current: no anarchy, +25% National Wonders, +1 happy Courthouse
Suggested: no anarchy, -25% War Wariness, all Government civics available on Turn 0
Comments: I've made improvements to this trait to fit its flavour. Judicial leaders are law-givers: they led revolutions and founded dynasties. As such, Judicial leaders determine their government at the start of the game. Mostly, this means they will adopt Monarchy on Turn 0. That's fine; it comes early anyway. For fun, you could try to rewrite history as a 4000BC Democracy: the War Wariness reduction will help you get away with it.

Organized
Current: -50% Civic Upkeep, double Library+Courthouse+Factory
Suggested: -50% Civic Upkeep, double Courthouse+Lighthouse, Sentry on Scout+Mounted+Naval
Comments: Possibly the most powerful economy civic on the higher difficulty levels: reduced civic upkeep is just that strong. I removed double Library (I wanted to save it for another trait) and the Factory just comes too late, so I put back Lighthouse. The Sentry promotion was added to bring it up to three bonuses, though it fits surprisingly well. Organized leaders want to plan their cities and battles carefully, so they need information about the local terrain and enemy positions. A useful if minor bonus.

Philosophical
Current: 100% GPP, double School
Suggested: 100% GPP, double School, +1 culture/specialist
Comments: A well thought-out trait taken from standard BtS. The extra culture per specialist is not game-breaking, but gives Philosophical some early game options (I need that copper tile ASAP, hello citizen specialist) and lets it play well with other traits (especially those with bonus specialist slots.) Also, I'm sticking with three bonuses across all traits.

Just one more post to go.

 

[Azoth]

These traits are generally the weakest in the game, either because they lack a clear focus or because another trait does almost everything they do better. (Traditional is here by default because it's not yet an official trait.) My suggestion is to give these traits a substantial upgrade and in some cases redesign them altogether.

Creative
Current: +25% World Wonders, +2 culture/city, double Theatre
Suggested: +1 artist slot/city, double Theatre+Library, no building requirements
Comments: One issue I had with the Creative trait was that the free culture per turn actually discouraged building Monuments, Theatres, and the like, which made little sense thematically. Substituting an artist slot fixes that problem: you can still get quick border pops, but you'll prioritize cultural buildings the same as everyone else. Creative leaders can also have fun with early Great Artist bombs (others have to wait for Theatres, which come reasonably soon). I don't expect the AI to abuse this mechanic because artists are low-priority specialists when compared to say, scientists, who'll be available with those double Libraries. The "no building requirements" probably needs an explanation. I thought that Creative leaders wouldn't wait for Walls to build a Castle - or four Libraries to build an Academy. If their people have the right technology, they'll work their way around the prerequisites. I don't know how hard that will be to code. It does add much more flavour than a minor production boost for wonders.

Diplomatic
Current: stronger vassals, +15% trade routes, +2 espionage/city
Suggested: +2 relations/civ, +50% trade routes, double Market+Customs House
Comments: Diplomatic needed a complete rework in my opinion. Stronger vassals was awkward because it gave benefits to other civs instead of the player. A straight bonus to diplomatic relations made much more sense. "+2 You are courteous and diplomatic" or something like that. The rest of the bonuses are geared towards commerce and trade. +50% trade routes sounds just about right: it increases +2 commerce foreign trade routes to +3, and +1 domestic trade routes to +2 when paired with Mercantilism.

Progressive
Current: -50% upgrade cost, double Observatory+Laboratory
Suggested: -50% upgrade cost, +1 scientist slot/city, all Legal civics available on Turn 0
Comments: I think Observatories and Laboratories come too late in the game to have an impact on leader traits; by the time you have forges, factories, and levees, building doublers don't mean very much. So I put the scientist slot back in; Universities require Scientific Method, so early Great Scientists aren't much better than other GP. Allowing all Legal civics makes logical sense: Progressive leaders generally implement legal reforms. You might need to remove the happiness penalty from Equal Rights for balance, but I think it's worth it. Either way, Progressive leaders will be motivated to switch to Codification sooner than later to power their cottage economy.

Spiritual
Current: +1 priest slot/city, Medic I on missionaries, double Cemetery+Great Temple
Suggested: +1 priest slot/city, double Cemetery+Great Temple, all Religion civics available on Turn 0
Comments: I'm sure you all saw this one coming. Replace the random Medic I promotion on missionaries with access to the Religion civics. That takes care of every civics column except Labour, which shouldn't be used because Industrialism is too strong for 4000 BC. It might be worthwhile to change the effects of Shwedagon Paya in light of these suggestions, but that's a topic for another post.

Traditional
Current: not available
Suggested: +50% Wonder production, +1 happy Cemetery+Temple, double Walls+Monastery
Comments: I tried to put together a coherent eighteenth leader trait per Xyth's suggestion. Most World and National Wonders are fine examples of traditional institutions and architecture, hence the production bonus. (That bonus also needed to go somewhere; and it would be too strong on Industrious or Creative leaders.) Cities traditionally relied on walls for defense and monasteries for science, so they get doubled. And the happiness bonus on traditional religious structures rounds out the trait. (I was going to put +1 happy on Monuments but chose Cemeteries instead since they no longer go obsolete.)

Well, that took much longer than expected: forget the afternoon, I've spent most of my night! And yet I'm done!
Well, almost. I'd be happy to take your advice for any further tweaks to the leader traits. (Keep in mind that since the traits have been balanced in relation to each other, a change in one place could prompt changes somewhere else.) Still, I'm happy with what I have so far. What do you think?