What's your favorite trait?

[xifeng]

I like the Financial the best. It is flexible. You have powerful research at the opening. After a while, you can swicth between research/culture/production.

I share my game using the Financial trait.
I am playing monarch. Qin Shi Huang, Financial/Industious

at the opening, grab a religion (hindu or jew)
found the 2nd, 3rd city
rush Oracle for free tech (Metal casting - forge)
( if you can get stonehedge, that's nice too)
go for alphabet --> tech trading, filling in the blank
go for construction, for warelephant and caps
then go for religion techs.

Normally, one of my neighbour will declare war on me, because he/she convert to a new religion. Take he/she down, occupy 3-4 his/her cities including the holy city, ask for techs, then cease fire.

My culture influence will flip 2-3 cities for me. After the war, I am way ahead.

 

[fightcancer]

omg. why would anyone choose Spiritual as their fav?

I chose Industrious. Financial sounds better but I haven't tried it personally. (I have tried Spiritual and was NOT impressed.)

 

[Dairuka]

For early game leads. Industrious is the best. Not because of the Wonder Bonus, but because of the Cheap Forges.

For mid-to-late game leads, Financial is the best. More money means more cash rushing and upgrading units. Not to mention more research and culture depending on your slider's position. Cheap Banks is also a majorly nice bonus.

 

[Pinstar]

Expansive. More people means more of everything else. More food, more hammers, more gold and more specialists, depending on how you run your cities.

 

[Abacus]

I like philosophical. More great engineers, faster, means more wonders and the benefits of most of the other traits.

 

[DarMan]

I gotta go with philosophical too. That 2 culture/turn bonus means newly-founded/-captured cities will start pushing out their borders right away without the need to build any cultural buildings, allowing me to concentrate on defense/growth/production/etc.

 

[eewallace]

I thought it was creative that got the 2 culure points per turn... I like getting the one for increased production of great people.

 

[WoundedKnight]

After trying many traits and combos, I've settled on financial & philosophical -- Elizabeth (England) as my favorite.

Financial gives a whopping boost to both research and income. Faster tech = greater productivity, more wonders, stronger military, and more culture.

Philosophical 'cuz GP rule, and the +100% bonus is enormous. In my last game as philosophical/financial, I had more wonders than I ever had as industrious. Thanks to chop-rushing, great engineers, and fast tech, I got almost every wonder in the game on a large pangaea noble map with 8 AIs! (Over the whole game I only missed three wonders -- hagia sofia, oracle, and great lighthouse -- that I didn't even want. And every couple turns I was popping a great person from somewhere, with philosophical/mercantilism/pacifism/statue of liberty/parthenon. My research went through the roof 'cuz all my big cities got academies in addition to the standard library/university/observatory stuff. I was almost an era ahead of everyone else by the end.

Basically every other civ trait can be replicated, or close to, by financial & philosophical.

Want creative to help your borders? A great artist giving +12-+14 culture/turn, PLUS gold, in your border cities will help you much more than a measly +2 culture/turn from creative (not to mention the dreaded "culture bomb"). Why waste a trait on creative when the culture bonus is something you would get (and better) completely for free from great people as merely a side effect, in addition to the finance, research, & production benefits they offer? Creative offers nothing for making your empire smarter, richer, or more productive.

Want industrious for wonder speed? Philosophical can give you great engineers to permanently boost city productivity instead, or in a pinch, rush a wonder, while financial will give you the commerce to be way ahead on the tech tree and have earlier access to wonders.

Want expansive for growth? The faster tech rate of financial will help you get health improvements earlier, and future tech will add +1 health and happiness to all of your cities.

Want a good military? Again the faster tech rate of financial (extra commerce) + philosophical (permanent commerce and productivity bonuses from great people joined to cities) can put you ahead. In all of my noble games, I am running around with cavalry (STR 15) while my opponents have horse archers (STR 6) or, at best, an occasional knight (STR 10), plus my cities have the productivity to pump out units faster.

Want a large empire? Instead of organized, financial gives the better boost. This is widely discussed elsewhere on the forum and I won't repeat it all here?

Spiritual? More great prophets and faster tech means more religions you will discover as philosophical/financial than spiritual.

etc.

In contrast, none of the other traits can come anywhere close to reproducing the benefits of financial or philosophical. No matter how many wonders an industrious civ gets (and they would have to be pretty lucky to pull this off against Phi/Fin), their GP rate will never experience the +100% boost per specialist of philosophical. No matter how "creative" your civ is, it will never match up with the culture power of great people (in fact, just a handful of GPs can outshine the culture value of creative among ALL your cities over an entire game). and so forth.

WoundedKnight

 

[Legal_My_Deagle]

While I wont debate your points about being able to imitate the other civ bonuses, (and I think you are a good poster so dont take this the wrong way) I think it is important to also remember that most of the other civ traits and civics can imitate each other....the REAL question is what does what you wanted to do best. =D

I think the Phi/Fin might be the best techer combo at least though. Also, depending on how you play your cards you also have good Culture potential. However, you wont get early religions. And also while that combo gives you a lot of all-around POTENTIAL, you cant possibly execute them ALL in one game. You only get so many GP and so much gold =D This might be the "jack of all trades...." combo. And besides, I have come to realize that you cannot rely on Great Engineers to help you all the wonders you want...you just do not get that many in one game, or that often.

Though, you could also say, for example, that the freedom that Spiritual gives you to change civics with the wind offers a unique advantage and is "the best trait". It is certainly not a passive trait, it is only as good as you make it be.

Then you could also go on to say that maybe Expansionist is the best because you will always have bigger cities than everybody else, bigger cities = more tiles worked, more specialists, more production, more taxes.

Anyway, my point is that I think for the most part, the traits are actually really well balanced, and every combo will give you the sharpest edge in some areas...just not all of them IMO. Well, except for maybe Organized...but that depends. I read posts by people who said that despite the description, that it shows up as -50% costs on the city screen...which I havent tested yet, but if it is true then it might be a contender with Fin.

ANYWAY, I am off on a tangent. I really do think that the traits are mostly balanced though...which makes it really hard for me to try and pick a civ to stick with

 

[WoundedKnight]

Though, you could also say, for example, that the freedom that Spiritual gives you to change civics with the wind offers a unique advantage and is "the best trait". It is certainly not a passive trait, it is only as good as you make it be.

Then you could also go on to say that maybe Expansionist is the best because you will always have bigger cities than everybody else, bigger cities = more tiles worked, more specialists, more production, more taxes.

Well people can say whatever they want. The real test is how will it stack up in online or offline play?

My feeling is that people who do well and are at the top of the MP ladders are going to be people who gravitate towards a few specific traits. If someone really feels that spirituality is "the best trait" (and can say this without laughing), well...I think a lot of us would like to have MP opponents like that.

Well, except for maybe Organized...but that depends. I read posts by people who said that despite the description, that it shows up as -50% costs on the city screen...which I havent tested yet, but if it is true then it might be a contender with Fin.

I tested it (in the "Wounded Knight's Strategy Guide" thread) and it isn't true. Organized affects ONLY civic upkeep and has no impact on city maintenance (either city number or distance costs) at all.

 

[walkerjks]

Then you could also go on to say that maybe Expansionist is the best because you will always have bigger cities than everybody else, bigger cities = more tiles worked, more specialists, more production, more taxes.

Expansionist sounds a lot better than it is. First problem is that it is of no value at the very start of the game. Until you get some cities hitting their health limit, it does no good at all. Second problem is those games where you have a lot of health resources, but few happiness resources. In those game, the benefit is almost zero. Granted, I generally hit health limits more often than happiness limits, but it's not always that way. Third, +2 health really only equates to 1 new citizen. Being over by 2 health means you are losing 2 food, or the equivalent of 1 citizen. So when your cities are size 10 or 15, the extra person means 1 more specialist or perhaps 1 more tile worked. Of course in this case it will be the 11th or 16th best tile, so it's unlikely to be a hugely productive tile (there are, of course, cities where almost all the tiles are excellent producers and getting an extra cottage or watermill would be great). Expansionist is nice, but not as good as "+2 health" sounds.

 

[petey]

Financial is definitely #1. Commerce is king in this game and having the extra cash makes all the difference, since it can be converted to science to grab the techs you need to simulate the effects of any of the other traits, as well as all the other things you can do with it.

Playing on Noble, I like Industrious, since it gets you mucho Wonders, but that may not work as well on the higher levels where the AI beats you to most techs and grabs the Wonders before you have a chance. I'd have to try some games at those levels before I can say anything about it there.

I think that Agressive would be great if early war is your strategy and you have a civ with an early UU, since a 10% difference is much more effective against early units than later ones and you only need 10xp to be able to build a Heroic Epic. For any other type of strategy, I'd say that Philosophical would be the way to go, since the extra GPs will go a ways to adjusting for the AI's advantages at higher levels.

 

[remconius]

They all have their benefits, here is my favorite benefit.
Financial - more gold from towns good for big civs
Industrious - more chance at wonders
Philosophical - easier to get leaders
Creative - Extra culture is especially nice when founding new cites, or taking captured cities.
Aggresive - Extra promotion is great for warmongering
Organized - cheaper courthouses good for expansion
Spiritual - No anarchy saves lots of turns when switching
Expansive - cheap granaries is good and I guess extra health is best at high levels.

 

[Skippa]

All of the traits can be good when taken advantage of. I, of course, whipped the CDs out of the box and began playing with no regard to traits at first. Then I began wondering why, in my last game as Musa, I had no problems changing civics and in my current game with Elizabeth I was going into 1-2 turn Anarchy periods with every government tweak.

Traits?

For now, I enjoy the no Anarchy period of Spiritual with 1/2 price temples. I just couple that with a early religion tech rush and can found 3-4 religions easily (if I started with Mysticism go for the Polytheism, Montheism, Theocracy trio and then snab a Philosophy or Divine Right).
With the Stonehenge wonder I can push out a good few Great Prophets and have Religious wonders established to get +1 gold for each city with the religion (+4 gold if the city has all 4 of my founding religions). BTW if I'm lucky enough to establish a religious wonder and my neighbours have no religion yet then the, ahem, chosen path of righteouness will spread like wild fire to their cities (increasing my gold and making them into sympathetic nations once they convert).

Well thats about all my dealings with the Spiritual trait. I may have to work with Philosophical to see how many GPs I can give the world or use Financial on a map built up with suburbs. That just might make me the wealthiest ruler that the globe has ever seen.

Oh the possibilities are endless . . .
Maybe by the end of the month Organized will be my favourate trait . . . just need to find a fun way of using it

 

[takatok]

While I think certain traits like financial probably hold their value across many difficulty levels, it seems like discussing "best trait" in a vacuum might tend to distort results. While spiritually is probably the weakest trait, I suspect its value (and those 1/2 cost temples) will at least gain some ground as the difficulty goes up and your poeple are unhappy a lot faster. I have noticed at least on noble/prince temples are no longer vital, or for that matter even necessary. I currently am the only player with optics in a Prince level, terra game. I'm the german and I don't believe any of my cities (some at size 9ish) have built a temple, nor do I hav any plans to.

If higher levels (emperor+) have significant happiness problems maybe spriitual could help, I think it might be more desired if anarchy were longer too, maybe 3 turns

Takatok

 

[xifeng]

Financial ensure me running 100% research at the mid game.
In a game, after I learn that Washington is building spaceship, I switch the slider to culture, and happily find out that my 3 major cities generate 1000+ culture per turn!

 

[nevs69]

Ok, now that I ahve been playing for a week or so (with some lack of sleep)... I think I like financial best. I used to like industrial for wonders, but if you don't start near marble or stone, it can still be hard to grab wonders. Plus wonders are not quite as powerful as they were in Civ 3. So for pretty much all starting locations, financial has worked out best for me.