Order the traits in your order of preference.

[Monkeyfinger]

If you like, state your current difficulty.

I recently moved up to emperor, mine looks like this, best on top:

1) Charismatic
2) Financial
3) Philosophical
4) Creative
5) Industrious
6) Expansive
7) Spiritual
8) Organized
9) Protective
10) Imperialistic
11) Aggressive

4 and 5 are very close to one another and could reasonably be switched, same for 10 and 11. Other than that, it seems about right.

in before people kicking up a ruckus about how there are no bests in civ

 

[Giaur]

1) Financial
2) Organized
3) Spiritual
4) Industrious
5) Aggresive
6) Charismatic
7) Creative
8) Philosophical
9) Protective
10) Imperialistic
11) Expansive

 

[Scaphism]

This feels like a Civ IV General forum poll, not Strategy and Tips.
Why make a thread that you predict will be locked?

 

[Polycrates]

Something like this:

Spiritual
Charismatic
Philosophical
Organised
Financial
Expansive
Creative
Aggressive
Protective
Industrious
Imperialistic

 

[Winston Hughes]

1) Spiritual - By a huge margin. Awesome for intense micromanagement.

2) Philosophical - Gotta love the early gambits this baby opens up.

3) Creative - Not the strongest, but saves a lot of messing around.

4) Financial - I love those watery maps.

5) Charismatic - So many promotions. And early to boot.

6) Organised - Not much fun-factor, but awesomely powerful.

7) Industrious - For the occasional wonder-heavy game.

8) Imperialistic - GGs are cool, but not that cool.

9) Aggressive - Gives you an edge, but not a patch on Charismatic.

10) Protective - Occasionally very useful. Usually cack.

11) Expansive - The definition of 'meh'.

Difficulty: Emperor on Warlords. Recently got BtS, finding Monarch too easy atm, will hopefully reach Immortal in a month or so. But...

I haven't rated the traits on strength alone. If I had, Organised and Expansive would be a bit higher, and Creative much lower.

@Scaphism: Fair point, but it would be interesting to see what some of the S&T regulars say, and could provoke a bit of strategic discussion.

 

[oyzar]

1) Financial
2) Organized
3) Spiritual
4) Creative
5) Expansive
6) Charismatic
7) Aggressive
8) Philosophical
9) Industrious
10) Protective
11) Imperialistic

 

[axident]

This is a flawed question as the COMBINATION of traits matters more than any individual one. That said, these would be my tiers, highest to lowest quality:

TIER 1 POWER TRAITS: Cha, Fin, Phi, Cre, Org

TIER 2 SITUATION-SPECIFIC TRAITS: Agg, Exp

TIER 3 UGH: Pro, Imp, Spi (BtS only; as Cristo/Golden Ages make Spi less powerful)

X-FACTOR: Ind (tier 1 if Emperor or lower, tier 2 Immortal, tier 3 Deity)

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Axident, you left out Ind altogether. As I know it you're the resident wonderspammer here, so... ?

I see Organized being put on the same tier as, or above, financial and/or philossohpical on some lists. Why? The savings you get from your civic upkeep and city upkeep costs being cut in half don't keep up with the commerce bonuses you get from Financial, or the extra buildings/great specialists/lightbulbs from bonus GPs. And the city upkeep being cut in half isn't even a static or unique property of organized, just something you can get more easily with a cheapened building.

This feels like a Civ IV General forum poll, not Strategy and Tips.
Why make a thread that you predict will be locked?

Because no one gives a damn about which of the Civ4 related forums gets used for a topic as long as the topic has SOMETHING to do with the game.

 

[Percy]

I see Organized being put on the same tier as, or above, financial and/or philossohpical on some lists. Why?

Half-priced courthouses, i'd say.

 

[Silence101]

I usually play Prince - (the top 4 or 5 for me are almost interchangable) favorites are:

1) PHI
2) AGG
3) IND
4) CHA
5) ORG
6) FIN
7) CRE
8) SPI (Axident's right - used to be a favorite until BTS)
9) IMP
10) EXP
11) PRO

 

[xfactor99]

These are the traits we like the most, right? Not the ones we think are the best.

01. Philosophical
02. Charismatic
03. Industrious
-------
04. Spiritual
05. Creative
06. Financial
07. Aggressive
08. Organized
-------
09. Expansive
10. Imperialistic
11. Protective

 

[axident]

Axident, you left out Ind altogether. As I know it you're the resident wonderspammer here, so... ?

I see Organized being put on the same tier as, or above, financial and/or philossohpical on some lists. Why? The savings you get from your civic upkeep and city upkeep costs being cut in half don't keep up with the commerce bonuses you get from Financial, or the extra buildings/great specialists/lightbulbs from bonus GPs. And the city upkeep being cut in half isn't even a static or unique property of organized, just something you can get more easily with a cheapened building.



Because no one gives a damn about which of the Civ4 related forums gets used for a topic as long as the topic has SOMETHING to do with the game.

Oops so I did. Ind is HIGHLY variable. At the highest diff levels I would rate it tier 2 or 3, at lower tier 1.

 

[IbnKhaldun]

1) Financial
2) Spiritual
3) Organized
4) Charismatic
5) Philosophical
6) Aggressive
7) Expansive
8) Creative
9) Industrious
10) Protective
11) Imperialistic

 

[Norbert]

Noble, and:

1) Spiritual. The definitive trait for my play-style.

2) Charismatic. By end-game, it's +3 in all cities, and it's at least as good as aggressive in the war department.

3) Financial. It's kind of boring, IMO, but the synergy with cottage spam is immense.

4) Organized. This often saves me as much gold per turn at high science levels as Financial, particularly while war-mongering.

5) Industrious. I'm a builder, what can I say?

6) Philisophical. It's good, but situational, and harder to exploit then Financial.

7) Creative is just a bit lower than Philo, although it works great with hattie and Zara Yaqob.

8) Now we get into the iffy stuff. Imperialistic: I just don't expand and go into long wars enough to make it feel worth it. Plus, the settlers make no sense.

9) Aggressive. Imperialistic beats this out.

10) Protective. Just not proactive enough, the cheap Castles are my favorite part of the trait.

11) Guess who? Expansive. Bring back the additional and 50% worker, give Imperial's settlers, and give something sensical to Imperial, and we'll talk.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

On Monarch / Emperor:

1) Financial - just too powerful at the beginning.

2) Industrious - I love wonder spam.

3) Philosophical - Great people are fun.

4) Spiritual - Fantastic opportunities for micro management

5) Charismatic - I love promotions.

6) Protective - I love promotions. I'm liking this more and more - cheap castles are great. Musketmen become awesome killers and crossbows/longbows become much more interesting.

7) Organized - more sustainable warmongering.

8) Aggressive - Again I love promotions - very good for early rushes.

9) Creative - fast libraries and ability to avoid the religious culture paths.

10) Imperialistic - great generals are fun but I usually get enough of them anyway.

11) Expansive - too easy to satisfy health requirements and health cap is not as much of a limit as happy cap. Compare with charismatic and this looks pretty sick.

 

[rhawn]

1) Financial
2) Philosophical
3) Organized
4) Aggressive
5) Charismatic
6) Creative
7) Industrious
8) Expansive
9) Spiritual
10) Imperialistic
11) Protective

 

[Qwack]

I know that certain traits are in general stronger ingame then my preferences, but these are the traits I like playing with most...

1. Creative
2. Spiritual
3. Organized
4. Philosophical
5. Industrious
6. Charismatic
7. Expansive
8. Aggresive
9. Imperialistic
10. Financial
11. Protective

 

[shyuhe]

1. Financial
2. Philosophical
3. Spiritual
4. Organized
5. Industrious
6. Creative
7. Aggressive
8. Charismatic
9. Protective
10. Imperialistic
11. Expansive

 

[Defiance]

Charismat/Spiritual.

 

[Quornix]

11) Guess who? Expansive. Bring back the additional and 50% worker, give Imperial's settlers, and give something sensical to Imperial, and we'll talk.

I gave Imperialist a +3 per city baseline (like Creative's +2 ), which I think fits the concept, buy I also increased the strength of most of the traits, so it won't balance well. However, +2 (or even +1, with another feature or two) may balance better.

As for the traits, it's hard for me to give an order -- I play with my modded traits (with four extras, and three per civ) almost exclusively. Still...

Charismatic
Financial
Philosophical
Aggressive (love those shock axes and cover and shock x-bows)
Creative, Spiritual (miss them when I don't have them, but don't really notice when I do)
Imperialistic
Organized
Industrious
Expansive
Protective