On the Feeding and Breeding of Governors and Generals

[sunsmountain]

First of all, great guide, Aesculapius! This one was definitely on my to do list, and i'm glad you already did it. This certainly deserves a Sticky, though all threads are still on the first page. It took me some time here before i even noticed it, though!

Everything seems in order, except for one section, the one about building. I'm quoting here for reference, with comments in between.

2. Build Wisely

Completing any building at all gives your governor a 20% chance of becoming a ‘Good Builder’, and an 8% chance of developing ‘Architect Skill’. In particular, completing buildings while your tax level is ‘high’ or ‘very high’ gives you a chance of becoming a ‘Good Administrator’, and (if your ‘face’ is yellow) a ‘Good Taxman’. Conversely, NOT building (when you have cash to do so) gives you a 3% chance per turn of becoming a ‘Bad Builder’.

The tax level has to be 'very high', in order to get Good Administrator. > does not mean equal to, and export_descr_character_traits says > high, therefore: very high.
For the same reason, your face has to be blue (disillusioned) AND the tax level has to be very high, in order to get 'Good Taxman'. Since you only want the first level of 'Good Taxman' - no side effects - it is a good idea to increase the public order from 75% to 85% after you got the trait and keep it there, unless you can handle the unrest at 24000 pop.

Conversely, when tax level is 'low' or 'normal', and your face is yellow or green (not disillusioned), you stand a 15% chance of gaining BadTaxman (when a building is completed, of course, as above).

Your choice of buildings is important. It is worth completing farms, mines, roads, ports and traders early, as each time you complete a building after these are present, you stand a chance of becoming a ‘Good Farmer’ (farms), ‘Good Miner’ (mines) or ‘Good Trader’ (roads, ports and traders). Conversely, if you complete other buildings before these, you may be labelled a ‘Bad Farmer’, ‘Bad Trader’, or ‘Bad Miner’ (particularly if Victoria advised you to build mines and you ignored her).

In short, no, choice isn't important. The traits Good Farmer, Trader and Miner are ONLY checked when you build Farms, {Traders, Roads and Ports} and Mines respectively.
* Building anything other than 'Farms' (farms level 1-5), will get you an 8% chance at gaining 1 point in Bad Farmer. Should this happen to you, let that governor build a farm next, not necessarily in that settlement, to get rid of it.
no going back: 3 points either way.
* Building anything other than 'Traders' (trader level 1-5), including Roads and Ports, give you 1% chance at gaining 1 point in Bad Trader. You get rid of it the same way.
no going back: 2 point either way.
* Building anything other than Mines (mines, mines+1), while Victoria is advising you not to, will always gain you 1 point of Bad Miner; you can ignore her 7 times.
no going back: 2 points either way.

Since these traits have thresholds, to get them your governor needs to build:
- 6 farms,
- 2 mines, and
- 48 traders or 30 ports or 30 roads (or for example 16 traders and 10 ports and 10 roads) just to get the 1st level, on average, a similar amount for the 2nd level, and two times more to reach the 3rd.
They also cannot be inherited, making good trader something for trade temple factions only.

Because of no going back its good strategy to have every governor build:
- 3 farms
- mines when necessary (destroy and rebuild once)
- 4 traders or 2,5 ports or 2,5 roads (or 1 trader and 1 ports and 1 roads)
to get into the safe zone.

Once an amphitheatre is present, each time you complete a building you are guaranteed to become more of a ‘Games Fan’ (unless you already have the ‘Games Hater’ trait, which cannot be lost). Being a ‘Games Fan’ is a good thing on balance. Likewise, once a hippodrome is present, any further building will make you into a ‘Races Fan’, (which is not necessarily such a good thing), unless you are already a ‘Race Hater’.

When you build 2 out of the 3 (arena, amphitheatre AND coliseum), you are guaranteed to become a Games Fan (threshold 2, both give 100% chance on increasing the trait by 1).
Same for Races Fan if you build 2 out of 2 (with hippodrome AND circus maximus).
Buiding anything else does not trigger the governor to become more or less of a fan.

Certain buildings are intrinsically corrupting, and it is probably wise to avoid building these for as long as possible, if not indefinitely. These buildings are the Theatre, City Plumbing (yes, City Plumbing!), the Silk Road, and the Tavern. The first three all give (per turn) a 5% chance of becoming ‘Aesthetic’, ‘Epicurean’ or having ‘Expensive Tastes’, and a 3% chance of developing a liking for ‘Gambling’ or ‘Girls’. In the case of the Silk Road, the chances are applied twice per turn. The Tavern gives a 5% chance per turn of becoming addicted to ‘Drink’ or ‘Gambling’. As with Temples, these corrupting influences may be prevented by the tedious expedient of ‘going for a walk’ every turn.

Amen, and nothing wrong with this. Thanks for blacklisting these! :)

Each time you train a unit, when your tax level is ‘high’ or ‘very high’, you have a 3% chance of enhancing your ‘Good Administrator’ skill.

This is perhaps a bit out of place (move to first paragraph?) and your tax level needs to be 'very high' as before. It may be noted that this is the only trait that uses GovernorUnitTrained, and rightly so.