In order to better appreciate/understand/like the game, I wanted to look at the faction creator to see what traits were available. Doing so was an eye-opener and uncovered some bugs (see the tech traits) and some frustrations.
12/23/10 Update: I've cleaned up the document, added comments, and left some open questions.
1/3/11 Update: I've added my opinions of the faction traits. I've also started on the sovereign traits.
1/11/11 Update: I made some minor updates to the sovereign creation lists. I wanted to emphasize that Cowardly and Stupid are two weaknesses that you can take that have no effect on gameplay in 1.11.
1/16/11 Update: Added charisma/champion recruitment cost information.
1/28/11 Update: Added the 1.19 changes. (All the juicy bugs are still in!) The Sovereign customization portion of this FAQ is where all the changes occur.
Current Favorite Faction Builds
Exploited Kingdom
Normal Kingdom
Open Questions
Combat Related
Death Worship
Cost: 2
Effect: Our people cull the weak and gain a +10% bonus to HP.
True Effect: Units get a +10% bonus to HP.
Rating: 8/10
Comment: Everyone can use extra HP when battling. This bonus comes cheaply.
Brave
Effect: All units start with more health.
True Effect: Units get a +5% bonus to HP.
Rating: 5/10
Comment: Why the disparity between Death Worship and Bravery? Both cost 2 points. Shouldn’t death worship also come at a cost to relations, cost 4 points, or reduce prestige (slow city growth due to culling aspect)?
Great Warriors
Cost: 8
Effect: All units have a combat speed increase.
True Effect: Units get a +10% bonus to combat speed. This appears to round up. A combat speed of 3 would convert to a combat speed of 4 with this trait. A combat speed of 11 would convert to a combat speed of 13.
Comment: Combat speed affects how many action points a unit receives in tactical. Most units have a base speed of 3 (giving you 3 action points), but most actions require 2 points. In order for you to see a benefit from this trait, you must keep your speed at an odd number. This means you'll need to increase your base combat speed by 1 additional point (base 2 + 1 for GW + 1 from extra source = 5). This means equipping an edged weapon, equipping a magic doodad or mount, or casting the spell Haste (+1 speed). The most powerful weapons for normal troops provide no combat speed bonus, magic doodads require crystals, and mounts require horses or wargs. Haste, however, is part of the mobility spellbook, which I consider essential for every sovereign. This trait is best used with warrior-based champions, because their best weapon gets +1 speed, they can buy a bunch of doodads, and they can buy mounts.
I gave this trait a low score because you need to work with it to make it good, you need to spend 8 points, and Tarth (overbalanced warrior faction) already gets it.
Egalitarian
Cost: 1
Effect: Can design male or female warriors.
True Effect: This used to reduce the population cost of your units, but now it just lets you create female warriors. It’s 100% aesthetic.
Rating: 1/10
Comment: When you start researching heavier armor, the warrior sex aesthetic is diminished. You can’t tell if an armored knight is male or female.
Siege Masters
Effect: City walls reduce effect of attack.
True Effect: ???
Rating: 2/10
Comment: In my brief searching, I can’t find out how much this affects units attacking defenders. Still, by the time city defenders get a defensive bonus from a hedge wall or fortress, you should have climbed up the attack tree and armed your troops with something that can punch through.
Master Scouts
Cost: 3
Effect: Units have a greater line-of-sight.
True Effect: +1 Base Sight
Rating: 4/10
Comment: This is useful in the beginning-to-mid portion of the game, but it is offset when you start creating units with equipment that grants a bonus to sight. I don’t think it should cost 3 points.
World Related
Civilized
Effect: It costs less to establish settlements.
Comment: This used to reduce the administration penalty for extra cities, but now I’m not sure what it does.
Industrious
Effect: Metal production is increased by 10%.
Comment: Metal is only used as raw material for weapons and armor. If you’re not a warmonger, this trait may not be worth it. You only need enough metal to arm your defensive troops. (Though metal CAN be used as a powerful bargaining chip.) Metal is a scarce resource, and I've been penalized by not having access to enough. Without any other refinements, this trait gives you an extra 1 metal every 10 turns. It's best used if your sovereign has the naturalist trait.
Master Smiths
Cost: 5
Effect: Metal production is increased by 25%.
Rating: 7/10
Comment: Metal is only used as raw material for weapons and armor. If you’re not a warmonger, this trait may not be worth it. You only need enough metal to arm your defensive troops. (Though metal CAN be used as a powerful bargaining chip.) Metal is a scarce resource, and I've been penalized by not having access to enough.Without any other refinements, this trait gives you an extra 1 metal every 4 turns. It's best used if your sovereign has the naturalist trait.
Educated
Effect: Worldly Knowledge production is increased by 10%.
Rating: 10/10
Comment: Knowledge = Power
Influential (Bugged)
Effect: Area of influence increased by 1 tile.
Rating: 0/10
Comment: This does not work. Your area of influence is determined entirely by your city.
Diplomatic
Cost: 6
Effect: Faction receives relation bonus.
True Effect: Adds +10 to your diplomacy rating, or the ability to swing deals to your favor.
Rating: 3/10
Comment: There is a similar Diplomacy ability exclusive to Sovereigns that adds +20. I'm not sure how this bonus works. I rarely need extra leverage when dealing with negotiations anyway.
Resourceful
Effect: Faction starts out with 10 materials and 10 metals.
Comment 1: The starting materials are nice, as it lets you build a hut after you build your beacon and initial farm. If you are lucky, though, you can find enough materials in goodie huts to make this trait useless.
Comment 2: The starting metals portion of this lets you produce 5 units with beginner metal weapons (axes, daggers) before you can mine. By the time you should be producing units, you probably have acquired enough metals from goodie huts.
Starting Technology Related
NOTE 1: If you pick one of these traits, you are given a free tech. All other techs still cost 15 TK to learn. If you were to take the Wanderlust trait, you’d start off with the Exploration tech and all other techs in all other trees would cost 15 TK. If you were to learn Exploration on your own, the next tech in the Kingdom Adventure tree would cost 44 TP and all other techs in all other trees would start out at 17 TK.
NOTE 2: Most technology traits only give techs to a Kingdom or Empire, but they still give their effects. Taking Cartographers as a Kingdom, for example, will not give the Kingdom the Mapping tech, but it will give them all the non-building benefits of that tech. Your quest level increases.
Wanderlust (Kingdom Only?)
Effect: Start with the Exploration technology.
True Effects:
Rating: 6/10
Comment: Exploration leads to the resource revealing tech chain and to the champion recruiting tech chain. The quest track is not affected. More resources at the start is a good thing, provided that you can claim them.
Civics (Kingdom Only)
Effect: Start with the Civics technology.
Comment: Civics is a root tech that unlocks most of the civilization tech tree. Thus, it gets a higher rating than other techs.
Adepts
Effect: Start with the Arcane Research / Lore Mastery technology.
Comment: This tech is not as critical as shard harvesting, which unlocks the use of shards and leads to the elemental spell books. It still lets you harvest Arcane Temples, but you have to start close to one for this tech to take off.
Darkling Ambassadors (Empire Only)
Effect: Start with the Reunion technology.
Comment: Darklings aren't that great any more. This is a gateway tech.
Habitation (Empire Only)
Effect: Start with the Proper Living technology.
Comment: This unlocks more of the imperium tech tree, and it also allows your hovels to be automatically upgraded.
Entrepreneurs (Kingdom Only, Bugged for Empire)
Effect: Start with the Trading technology.
NOTE: Even though Empires can learn Trading, they cannot take this trait and get the Trading tech. They still can train caravans, though. Bug?
Rating: 9/10
Comment: Early caravans let you get your faction to profitability faster, as each caravan boosts the guildar produced in the home city by 10%. It's even worth considering for Empires despite the bug.
Weathered Warriors (Kingdom Only, Bugged for Empire)
Effect: Start with the Training technology.
NOTE 1: Even though Empires can learn Training, they cannot take this trait and get the Training tech. They still can train experienced troops. Another bug?
NOTE 2: It looks like you can train experienced units without this tech anyway. Bug?
Comment: This is more useful as a stepping-stone tech. Extra HP is nice, but currently defense rules the roost. You need it to unlock larger unit sizes and the raze city command.
War Machine (Empire Only, Bugged for Kingdom)
Effect: Start with the Tools of War technology.
NOTE: If a kingdom takes this trait, they can train units that use bone spears and fang daggers, too! Unfortunately, they are no different than oaken spears and daggers.
Rating: 10/10 Empire, 8/10 Kingdom
Comment: Arming your champions with basic armor can give them enough umph to defeat all early monsters (and fledgling factions) with ease. For a while, you only see monsters with a max attack of 8. Plus, this is a root tech for the Empire's Conquest tree. Kingdoms can't get the same benefit, but they CAN use the extra armor.
Cartographers (Empire Only)
Effect: Start with the Mapping technology.
NOTE: Kingdoms can't get the tech, but they can get the effect of the questing and notable levels increasing. If you pursue Adventure tech, it will put you well ahead of the curve, for better or worse.
Comment: For both realms, this is an extremely useful trait. Kingdoms don't get a free tech, but they do get the benefits!
Weaknesses
Arrogant (Bugged in a good way)
Cost: -1
Effect: Makes it more difficult to recruit champions.
True Effect: REDUCES the champion cost by 20%.
Rating: 11/10
Comment: Bug Bug Bug! According to the XML, this reduces the champion cost by 20% (A_Recruiting = -20).
Uneducated
Cost: -2
Effect: Worldly Knowledge production is decreased by 20%.
Comment: This will cripple you. Taking this excludes you from Educated, meaning you'd start at 80% learning rather than 110%.
Superstitious
Effect: Decreases arcane knowledge learning ability.
True Effect: Arcane Knowledge production is decreased by 20%, just like Uneducated and Tech Knowledge.
Comment: Magic research currently dead-ends once you hit spell level 5 and learn all the spells. (You can learn higher spell levels, but they do nothing.) There are only a handful of spells worth learning. Unless your strategy hinges on a key spell (Raise Mountain), you will not miss the lost research.
Faction Point Totals
Or… “Why is Tarth lopsided?!?”
Altar
Capitar
Gilden
Pariden
Tarth
Kraxis
Magnar
Resoln
Umber
Yithril
Comment: All pre-made factions, save the Tarthans suck from an optimization standpoint. Custom factions are superior to 9 of the 10 pre-built factions. Umber only gets a +3 total? Seriously? Why would you want to play as them instead of creating a custom faction?
Conquest-minded players can use the revive/desecrate spells to swing combat in their favor. Raising and lowering lands can also affect combat, as hills give a defensive bonus for auto-resolving.
In 1.19 you can't aim revive/desecrate at enemy-owned territory anymore. So now, that strategy doesn't work, with one exceptional case. (If the enemy army is 1 tile away from his border, you can still screw it over by aiming revive/desecrate at the valid tile next to the enemy army, and the spell radius will bleed into the enemy territory.)
Noted. I'll make the update when 1.2 comes out.
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