Which Leader Traits Do You Think Will Be Best

[DarkSchneider]

I was reading over the pre-release info provided on this site, and it sounds like the leader traits will be pretty important. At least as important as the Civ traits in the last Civ. How would you rank them in order of preference? Please vote for your favorite two in the poll.

My personal guesses for usefulness, based on previous Civs:
1. Expansive - If this does what I think it does, it should easily capture top spot, pop is the #1 most important thing to your civilization... and if health lets your cities grow larger without needing aquaduct type improvements...
2. Industrious - It sounds like you should be able to beat just about every other civilization to any wonders that you choose, as long as you have the tech for them.
3. Organized - Sounds a bit like the old Trading Company wonder, will have to see which is better, this one or financial.
4. Financial- Should be especially good when you run government types which use gold to rush jobs.
5. Creative- If the computer really respects your borders now, this might actually be worth something.
6. Philosophical - Hard to say without playing the game, but this ones sounds like this one could be great or terrible.
7. Agressive - Generally, it seems better to aquire higher tech units than to improve the ones you have
8. Spiritual - It was decent in Civ 3, but based on what I've read for this one, I'm not a fan

 

[King Jason]

Agressive and Spritual.

Agressive because... against what you've said, upgrading existing units in civ4 is MUCH more viable, since that Warrior you've had since day one would be massively promoted by the time he upgrades into his modern day equivalent.

Spiritual because of the civic changes, each one is followed by a period of anarchy, as well as religions. The civic system is specialized in Civ4, meaning there are certain civics best for times of peace and others best for times of war. Thus the ability to switch without anarchy is a rather valuable trait.

Edit: For convienance:

Aggressive -Free promotion of melee and gunpowder units. Double production speed of barracks and dry dock.
Creative - +2 culture per city. Double production speed of theater, coliseum.
Expansive - +2 health per city. Double production speed of granary and harbor.
Financial - +1 gold on plots with 2 gold. Double production speed of bank.
Industrious - Wonder production increased 50 percent. Double production speed of Forge.
Organized - Civic upkeep reduced 50 percent. Double production speed of lighthouse and courthouse.
Philosophical - Great People birth rate increased 100 percent. Double production speed of University.
Spiritual - No anarchy. Double production speed of the temple.

 

[JakeCourtney]

Finance is the best.

 

[Aramazd]

Industrious-half wonder production is powerful, perhaps too much

Spiritual-with so many civic choices no anarchy is a huge time saver

Organized-good for large empires; the other 2 are a bit better though

expansive is good, but since settlers don't require population anymore so graneries are not as valueable, though still good. Environmentalism gets rid of health problems so unless you want to use free market of state property

 

[NuclearElephant]

Industrious and aggresive get my vote and in that order. It seems to me that a 50% bonus to building wonders will make it pointless and wasteful to even compete with a comparable civ in a wonder race if they have it and you don't (Unless you have access to some resource that speeds production and they don't). Throw in a couple of relatively advanced civs with this trait, and you will be hurting if you don't have it. Free promotion of units is also a big big bonus for anyone who has a massive army. Add in +2 happiness from barracks and you have a one shot deal to boost happiness and military early on.

The next in line after that would be spiritual because of the anarchy period and bonus to temple building. As for the others, we will have to wait and see how they play out with the new game features.

-NE

 

[viper9527]

financial and industrious are my best choice

spiritual is also not bad.

 

[NightReaper]

Creative/Philsophical for me.

 

[King Jason]

I think it's awesome there are so many opinions - will make for awesome multiplayer games.

 

[Alphidius]

Industrious & Spiritual for me

 

[anjinsan1966]

Industrious & Spiritual looks intresting.

 

[AndrewN]

Philosophical and Financial

Financial goes without saying, you can never have too much cash in a civ game

The new great people looks exceedingly powerful and having twice the number of your opponent could be very powerful

 

[Shillen]

I picked Spiritual and Financial. Spiritual for the no anarchy, since there are so many civic choices you can change them at will. Financial because I think money is going to be more important in Civ4 than it was in Civ3. This is due to all the increased maintenance costs with larger empires and units outside your borders, etc. If I picked a third one it would be philosophical. I was never a fan of building wonders so much. For how much production they take they're really not that big of a bonus. If you built other stuff with all those hammers you could get nearly equal value most of the time. Philosophical on the other hand will double great leader birth rate, and great leaders seem to have a very large impact on your empire.

 

[troytheface]

Balance looks really good with these traits on the surface. I voted Creative but only because it is new. Looking at these, Frederick and Roosevelt have good trait combinations-(Industerious just never seems like a bad idea)

 

[Bast]

Philosophical and Expansive

 

[mitsho]

Industrious seems overrated to me, just because of the fact that prebuilds aren't possible anymore which means that this tech is only worth something when you are somehow up to date in the tech race. If you fall a bit behind it' might already be too late. Additionally, the question remains wether buildings bonusses are added up. If I am industrious and have a certain resource, will I get a 75 % (50 + 50 %) account on the wonder? That would probably be insane, wouldn't it? Otherwise, a non-industrious civ can be as fast as you, which means that trait heavily depends on tech-situation AND geographical area (how many hammers?), which makes it a rather weak trait in multiplayer games (where you cannot reload until you have a good starting position.
However, the creative trait seems strong too me for a builder. With it, you should probably have at everytime just a little more culture than your neighbor, which would result in border expansions and should help a lot in acquiring the culture victory. Again, this is rather pointless if you want to conquer the world.
So, in my opinion, there aren't really a best traits. There will be optimum traits for sure (best at doing something special), but none seems to give you an uberedge as agricultural did in civ3!

mitsho

 

[Blazer6]

Organized, Expansive

 

[Khaim]

Voted all.

No, really. They seem well balanced this time. I think it's just a matter of playstyle. And even then, I think you can reasonably get any kind of victory with any combination of traits. It'll just change how you micromanage your empire.

Also, barracks add happiness? That's a new one to me, although I can see how maybe a civic choice adds that.

 

[josephstalin]

Creative with Expansive/Philosophical

 

[Prometheus1992]

IMO, Industrious and Expansive a nice blend of traits for a soon-to-be superpower

 

[The End Is Nigh]

If the Leader traits are properly balanced, there should be no problem. As long as there are no advantages or disadvantages, I'm happy with all traits...