It's not only about values and categories, but also about the way you can do things. For instance you could choose the trait "life bringer" that would bring a square back to life if you just stay on it for 3 turns. That's not about numbers, it's about gameplay.

Or the "researcher" : each movement points you don't use at the end of a turn will be added to your research pool.

Or "Fire hater" (or water hater or ...) : you can't research or use fire spells, and you gain the ability to mix other spells in one spell (think ligtning + water and you get electrocution. And without that trait you just can't create mixed-spells)

Or getting some personnal spells that you can never get in a nother way ...

Is the idea of your sovereign's dominion spreading overland still in? As in, when you found a city, its surrounding lands slowly start to come under your dominion, changing them from the default lifeless state?

If so, then faster or slower spread of dominion is a fairly logical perk/trait/attribute.

Assuming morale is included (and I hope it will, because battles that are to the death tend to feel too abstract and unreal), sovereign traits/perks/attributes that deal with morale are a shoe-in. Fearful sovereigns whose troops test their enemies' morale with their wild barbarian habits, the inspiring sovereign whose troops stand when others' will run off, the cowardly sovereign whose example makes his troops more likely to break than those of others.

Traits that boost certain kinds of research.

And of course, plenty of people in this thread have already given a number of very good suggestions.

Charisma:  Raises tax revenue (Or you can raise taxes higher with less determental effects)- makes it cheaper to convince your race heroes to join you, etc.

Agreed.

Yup, I heartfully agree with the idea of real game changing perks/flaws that cannot (or hardly be) emulated through normal sovereign progression. I'm not so fond about numbers either, I'd rather have traits that bring a new twist to the game like vieuxchat and others mentionned.

I think that bonus/malus is okay for faction traits, but the sovereign deserves something really unique (hint: Fallout 1&2).

I also like the idea of traits that are not outright positive but that can also be detrimental in ways, as long as it's consistent of course. I'm afraid that separated perks and flaws could be balanced out by power gamers and thus become more or less pointless.

My 2 cents:

Magic flavour. Provide bonuses, or just starting ability, to earth or fire or water or air magic, a bit like in MoM you selected spell books, or magic paths in Dominion. You can always get other books/empower later on.

Family. The sovereign could start with brothers or cousins, so he could have relatives on the map, either independent but friendly, or as extra units accompanying him at the start.

I'm not clear about Fertility. Is it the likelihood of the channeler getting children? Or the impact on the terrain his dominion covers?

Perks like causing awe, fear, resistance to an element, animal awe, stealth... could also be nice.

Monagomous: can only have one wife, +20% fertility factor for that wife, +1 attribute point

Polygamous: can have multiple wives -1 attribute point

Harem: can have 100 wives, -10% fertility factor for each wife, -1 attribute point

(place-holder): -10% fertility rate, +1 attribute point

Randy: +10% fertility for each wife, -1 attribute points

Titan's Blood: +100% fertility for each wife, each wife always dies upon giving birth, all children born with "taint of the titans" trait and "Titan's Blood" trait -1 attribute point

In terms of straight stat bonuses, I'd prefer to have percentage bonuses.penalties that are independent of other gameplay changes, so that the bonuses/penalties would last throughout the game.  (For example, instead of getting "+1 to mana", or whatever is used for spellcasting, they would get "20% cheaper spells", that would be considered after all other factors had been calculated)

I don't care whether the abilities are straight numbers, or new effects, though the numbers should be large.  I also would prefer ot avoid too many traits that could be wildly effected by bad terrain or such.

I'd like some to be gameplay changing. Maybe some that use all but 1 or 2 points to choose. Or had massive penalties. Like playing master of magic with no magic.

Necromancy -15 points to start with (more than you have to spend). So to pick it you have to give up all the good traits and pick 5 bad ones, like repulsive... it could be as unbalancing as you like in the end game if it made you relatively weak against rushes at the start. Or it could be free but cause war with all races, repulsive and prestige penalties (neutrality with other necromancers)

(Hydro)phobic skin - no (water) mana, 25% (water) resistance. more points to spend. (for the warlord type builds - hydrophobic/impermeable - water, fire retardant/inflammable -fire, unsoiled -earth, rubber -air)

Oblivious - can't see new resources on map outside your borders, gains 100% extraction rate to res of choice.

Keen eye - can see resources within the sovreigns line of sight 2 levels above current research. (large cost?)

Vampiric - must win a battle (feed) or perform a spell in town (feast on the tasty) every 5 turns. For every 5 turns missed the sov's attributes suffer. after 25 turns the sov's vampiric unveiling causes rebellion/unrest/diplomatic penalties. But no longer needs to be hidden. Gains bonuses for each kill from that point onwards. (say up to a limit based on essence)

Werewolf - the sov alternates between 2 forms, a high power, fast form with no magical spells or the spell casting but weaker form. The alternating could be every 15 turns. The sov could also become a greater werewolf or control the transformations with magic. Allowing transformation at will and the creation of lesser werewolves.

Turtle magic - understanding the strengths of protection and a shell you became magically shielded. It wasn't till afterwards that you realised that turtles aren't very dangerous. +50% defence (mundane and magical) and +30% HP bonus -75% attack power (physical and magical) bonus to diplomacy on trade, unable to threaten or demand.

Wild magic - each turn your mana income could be +/- 20% of normal, and your spell power fluctuates +/- 30%, allowing you to cast spells early and fast, or not at all. So too the power of each spell can vary, or can have strange consequences.

Attuned Wild mage - same as above but has greater attribute cost but you get to see in advance the spell effect (say it's highlighted in your spell book if you'd have a good trick effect) and able to see the next turns income and power. say +15% to - 25% income and +25% power -40% power as a further cost.

Isolationist - gains a % bonus for each turn inside your own territory, and a penalty each turn outside your territory. (bonus/penalty with diminishing returns, resets very quickly when you switch from inside to outside)
Explorer - opposite of the above, gains a bonus when in unclaimed territory
Warmonger - bonus when on the offensive

Also I'd like some actions that your sov can do that would take them out of action for a while. Unable to move but gives a bonus after the first 4 idle turns. For example:

Sage - able to join any library/alchemists to boost that cities production
Miner - as above with mines
Farmer/horticulturalist - food production
Creater/destroyer of life - spreads terrain type
etc. for mana production, training time, prestige, culture spread, building time

the only unique thing would be to use it for ritual magic. say after 5 turns in one spot you have the option of planting a totem to signify the rutials you've been doing. Do at least 3 of the same rituals and they mark out an area, each totem is another edge to the area. With each having some weakness (anyone can do a 'corrupt ritual' action for 5 turns to remove it) That way you could have your territory protected, buffed or any area that you can mark out.
It would make it a little different if you see someone hanging around your borders, they could be planting totems to gain an attack boost in your lands.

If you are talking about ATTRIBUTES and not special abilities (along the lines of "perks" or "feats"), which I am sure you will integrate at some point, then I would like to see the following added:

- Agility (increases defense much, offense slightly, if high enough opens up special "feats")

- Strength (increases melee damage much, if high enough opens up special "feats")

- Intelligence (increases mana some, if high enough opens up special "feats")

In some ways it's hard to answer this until we have a better idea what we will eventually be able to do with our Sov.  Right now he's mostly just a very powerful unit that I think everyone keeps him on the move exploring and planting cities, unless we stop to heal up for a bit. 

I'm hoping that there will eventually be good reasons to keep him in a city.  Perhaps some ritual magic or summoning will require him to be in the city.  I'd like to see a small bonus to any city where the Sov is at and perks that significantly increase that would be great. 

I fall into the camp that beleives these choices should generally have a long-term impact and not average out that much over time, although having some of that customization happen through adventuring would be pretty cool as well.  Perhaps it's just a simple matter of +1 Strength meaning you also get a bigger strength boost on each level up as well.  At a fundamental level I want the sovs and their powers to have a major impact on the world and the game.  I'm not sure if it should be quite as defining as the picks were in MoM, but I would err on that side of things for now.

- don't see the possibility the channeler with some special "property" can grant a skill to units he accompanies: eg.

- lesser swimming  - the ability to pass water as if the unit was on a ship. If the unit is attacked, it is considered to be dead (drown)

- swimming - the same as above, but units can fight

- flying - units are considered to by "flying"

- resistence of type - various resistences to spells and spell like effects

- element mastery - the attack of units is a bit highered and is considered to be of a different type (air, fire, cold...)

- cannibal lord - if victorious in battle, some health of dead enemies are used to heal his companions. Diplomacy is a bit harder for him.

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Well it would be nice to have more disadvantages in the game (they allow you to get more positive )

- chaotic - slower research

- wasteful - less money earned

- arrogant - worse diplomacy

- unskilled - worse production

- essence spender - he uses more essence (e.g. 6 for a new city instead of 5 etc.

- bad leader - units are less effective in a combat (due to inability to lead them)

- vulnerability on - like the resistence above, but increases the damage

- impotent - lesser chance to have a child

- boy/girl raiser - can have only boys/girls as an offspring

- tyrant - more unhappiness in cities (if something like this is in game)

I guess the one that stands out to me is fertility. That seems like a better faction trait, unless your sovereign is quite... *ahem* busy.

Is essence the modifier for magical strength and defense? If it isn’t I would add the following attributes.

Base magical power (Adds a multiplier to the base damage of spells.)

Base magical defense (Reduces the multiplier for hostile magical power.)

Base magic critical (Provides a chance for spells to do critical damage (or healing). 2 times normal damage (or healing).)

Base physical critical (Provides a chance for physical attacks to do critical damage. 2 times normal damage.)

Base evasion (Provides a chance to evade a physical or magical attack.)

Base luck (Potentially adds a beneficial multiplier to any calculation.)

I think any or all of these would be great additions to the attribute system for elemental. 

Sorry if I offended you, wasn't my intention at all.  My only point was that your original bonuses were 80% enhancing the physical characteristics of the sovereign but I'd like to see more far reaching abilities.  Since you like MOM as do I, I pulled some examples from there to give an idea of what I'd like to see the direction go in.  Warlord gives all your units a higher starting experience level, artificer gives bonuses for making items, etc.

Now that I look at this again maybe I misinterpreted things.  Were things like +1 attack supposed to be modifiers to all your troops?  If so than it's better than I thought at first.

Again sorry, I guess I need to choose my words a little more carefully.

It has got to be percentages, adding numbers will not customise in the long term. +10% Attack Damage, not +2 Attack Damage. 

yea, percentages would be best (on the safe side) when concerning Sovereign attack, defense, ect. However, if stats are kept to a low-ish number, its doubtful 10% will be equal to or greater than 1 for half of the game, so maybe +1 would actually be stronger than +10%, except for HP.

I must agree with PiegonPigeon at last  We need more than just modifiers. (When there are simple modifiers these could just be put in brackets behind the explanation of the trait, like "barbarian strength" (+ short cool explanation of how strong you are)  (+3 strength).

The sovereign customization should go much further than just modifiers to the basic traits. E.g. it would be really cool with a mind flayer type of sovereign (mind blast attack on battlefield, but also able to, say, control the minds of other leaders or at least manipulate them: could mean you can "break the normal rules" on the diplomacy screen and e.g. get someone else to declare war like you want or start to like you just through your sheer willpower.

Also: succubus and incubus (yes, there are male succubi): e.g. enemy must make a check (against some attribute or magic) to be able to attack you at all, you can choose your partner for marriage/offspring freely since few are able to resist, you can manipulate on the diplomacy screen ...

Such "unique" traits would make the soveriegn feel like a special personallity and change the way you play. Plusses to a few stats don't really change how you play and in the end it's not that interesting.

• More attributes :
• . Base Age (20, 40, 60) : you can get more points for creating your sovereign, but you'll gain bad effects earlier in-game. (maybe 100 turns = 1 year of life, and if you're too old you can die, unless you cast the "extend life" spell from the life/death category)
• . Base intellect (-1, 0, 1, 2) : you can research more spells in the same time, you have a lesser malus from casting spells higher than your casting level.
• . Base casting speed (-10%, 0, 10%, 20%) : self explanatory
• . Base charisma : you attract more heroes and they are more powerfull (-10%, 0, +10%, +20%), the units you lead gain à bonus in morale.
  
• . Base leadership : you can have bigger armies (-20%, 0, +20%, +40%), big armies suffer less from speed-decrease
  
• . Base Will : you have better chances resisting effects like stun/paralyze/etc. (-10%, 0, +10%, +20%), you get less maluses from hp reduced (you still fight at your max stength even when you're near death)

Unless that changed lately, the Sovereign is ageless. So I'd take the approach of it gives you some extra points but your base stats are diminished proportionally to age selected.

Why not, but aging could be a good way to get the sovereign out. They need to find a way to survive years after years. That would be a strong mechanic : you could extend your life span through magical means, herborism, yoga, changing every piece of you with some magical things (a mystic arm, then legs, then.. etc and you're immortal when you're all .. Elemental)

that would be a good reason for the sovereign to get back on the surface : he/she needs ancient knowledge to stop time damage (yeah another damage type :P)

*stops dreaming*

I think I'd look to the D20 system somewhat---the whole multitude of race and class combos as to tweak the civ's base abilities.  But also to the nesting of traits as in D20.  E.g. I have to take traits A,B,C to be eligible for trait D, with the constraint that the nesting of traits is very logical.  E.g. Have to choose a  high combat-related physical traits for the sovereign before taking some other combat related traits.

Otherwise, I like Red1939's suggestions, excepting I think GalCiv2's number system to traits is not unreasonable.  I think the main alternative is a blind system which might confuse players, and require copious strategy guide reading to comprehend.

Also, I have mixed feeling on balancing of traits in a positive/negative way. During the pre-game generation, it can be needlessly distracting, and creates questions of what is truly negative and what is just neutral or different.  It would be good if traits have inseparable positive and negative game effects that do balance out, though. And that if each trait represents trully different gameplay options. So probably tailor the traits to favor as many possible variations of play as possible.

Definitely agree that traits shouldn't be unnecessarily huge in variety---e.g. quality over quantity. If players want more complexity to describe their civ, give them a story blank they can feel in, rather than have redundant traits.