oranje willem
Prince
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2009
- Messages
- 323
What do you do when you are lying sick in bed with a laptop next to you? You try to kill time with silly things you might normally not do. I noted all the lists of traits people wrote in the thread and let the computer calculate some statistics. Some traits were ranked in a random order within a tier, in that case I gave them all the same average number, resulting in 29 ranks for each trait. The computer calculated the average and the standard deviation.
Here is the data if you are interested:
Conclusion for each trait with (average rating/standard deviation=SD) behind the name):
Organised (2.55/1.72): Considered the best trait averagely, with a relatively low SD which basically means there is not much contest in its position.
Financial (2.83/1.67): Very close to organised and these two traits together really form the 'top tier' traits in Civ IV according to the forum. Again not much contest in how powerful it is as the SD is also low on financial.
Spiritual (4.52/2.43): A big gap before the next trait shows up: spiritual, starting the 'mid tier' is 'the best of the rest', however it has a considerably larger SD than FIN/ORG. This tells us people value SPI very different from each other. Spiritual is a very playstyle-dependant trait.
Creative (4.59/2.83): Very close to SPI, Creative is ranked #4. Very high SD on CRE just like SPI which means people disagree about it's power a lot. I personally think it's a difficulty issue: the power of some traits is very difficulty dependant and creative is one of those. This list would be better if it had a certain level attached to it, but that would require a lot more data and work
.
Philosophical (5.21/2.94): A bit further away from SPI than CRE, but still pretty close. PHI has the largest SD of all and it's also the only trait that is ranked worst and best by multiple people (which also explains the high SD). Imo strong on every difficulty, but better on higher ones. I think it's mostly a 'how to use properly' issue: some people can exploit this trait so good it will give them a better midgame tech position than FIN or ORG would ever give them (mostly on immortal+).
Charismatic (5.55/1.99): Another 'mid tier' trait, however with a considerably lower SD than the previous ones. My conclusion is that the power of CHA is pretty difficulty and play style independent.
Expansive (5.72/1.87): Very comparable with CHA both in average rating as in low SD. Average trait, no more no less.
Industrious (6.62/2.23): Almost 1 point behind EXP in the average rating, IND is the last of the 'mid tier' traits. A much debated trait, some say its better on lower difficulty because there you can get a lot of wonders , some say its better on higher difficulty, because it gives you a shot at wonders (GLH/Pyramids) that would otherwise be much harder to get and the fail gold is not to be underestimated. I think it's also play style dependant, some say most wonders are not worth the hammers, others love them. We see this back in the SD and overall we think it's average at best.
Imperialistic (8.03/1.66): Imperialistic is far behind IND. A weak trait overall and not much contest about it (low SD). It's considered better than AGG/PRO, but clearly worse than the others.
Aggressive (9.48/1.35)/Protective (10.07/1.83) The forum agrees that PRO/AGG are the two weakest traits. I was wondering which one would be worse, because of the discussion going on the last few days (see Protective Underrated thread). Protective is clearly worse, it's a bit more contested though, but I think the higher SD is mostly because of one individual who ranked it the second best trait there is, without much help for the end result though: PRO is statistically the worst trait.
Conclusion short:
Top traits: ORG, FIN
Many 'average' traits: SPI, CRE, PHI, CHA, EXP, IND
Bad Trait: IMP
Worst traits: AGG/PRO
Not very surprising results (maybe a bit too wide average trait section). Any trait combo with one top trait and one average trait is a very strong combo in my book.
Here is the data if you are interested:
Spoiler :
Conclusion for each trait with (average rating/standard deviation=SD) behind the name):
Organised (2.55/1.72): Considered the best trait averagely, with a relatively low SD which basically means there is not much contest in its position.
Financial (2.83/1.67): Very close to organised and these two traits together really form the 'top tier' traits in Civ IV according to the forum. Again not much contest in how powerful it is as the SD is also low on financial.
Spiritual (4.52/2.43): A big gap before the next trait shows up: spiritual, starting the 'mid tier' is 'the best of the rest', however it has a considerably larger SD than FIN/ORG. This tells us people value SPI very different from each other. Spiritual is a very playstyle-dependant trait.
Creative (4.59/2.83): Very close to SPI, Creative is ranked #4. Very high SD on CRE just like SPI which means people disagree about it's power a lot. I personally think it's a difficulty issue: the power of some traits is very difficulty dependant and creative is one of those. This list would be better if it had a certain level attached to it, but that would require a lot more data and work
.Philosophical (5.21/2.94): A bit further away from SPI than CRE, but still pretty close. PHI has the largest SD of all and it's also the only trait that is ranked worst and best by multiple people (which also explains the high SD). Imo strong on every difficulty, but better on higher ones. I think it's mostly a 'how to use properly' issue: some people can exploit this trait so good it will give them a better midgame tech position than FIN or ORG would ever give them (mostly on immortal+).
Charismatic (5.55/1.99): Another 'mid tier' trait, however with a considerably lower SD than the previous ones. My conclusion is that the power of CHA is pretty difficulty and play style independent.
Expansive (5.72/1.87): Very comparable with CHA both in average rating as in low SD. Average trait, no more no less.
Industrious (6.62/2.23): Almost 1 point behind EXP in the average rating, IND is the last of the 'mid tier' traits. A much debated trait, some say its better on lower difficulty because there you can get a lot of wonders , some say its better on higher difficulty, because it gives you a shot at wonders (GLH/Pyramids) that would otherwise be much harder to get and the fail gold is not to be underestimated. I think it's also play style dependant, some say most wonders are not worth the hammers, others love them. We see this back in the SD and overall we think it's average at best.
Imperialistic (8.03/1.66): Imperialistic is far behind IND. A weak trait overall and not much contest about it (low SD). It's considered better than AGG/PRO, but clearly worse than the others.
Aggressive (9.48/1.35)/Protective (10.07/1.83) The forum agrees that PRO/AGG are the two weakest traits. I was wondering which one would be worse, because of the discussion going on the last few days (see Protective Underrated thread). Protective is clearly worse, it's a bit more contested though, but I think the higher SD is mostly because of one individual who ranked it the second best trait there is, without much help for the end result though: PRO is statistically the worst trait.
Conclusion short:
Top traits: ORG, FIN
Many 'average' traits: SPI, CRE, PHI, CHA, EXP, IND
Bad Trait: IMP
Worst traits: AGG/PRO
Not very surprising results (maybe a bit too wide average trait section). Any trait combo with one top trait and one average trait is a very strong combo in my book.
, but this forum ain't exactly a democracy...
Flammable topic these days!
