Is it just me or do the traits seem off.

For a negative trait, Guild Enemy is pretty easy if you don't buy a lot with that character. Even then once you have a bit of money it doesn't matter.

Dread Pirate, well it does a little more then other legendary traits seem to. I mean you can sail on a boat for piratey fun.

But the two regular traits are kinda annoying.

Call of the Sea you get a negative moodlet if you haven't been out to see for a while which doesn't seem to go away with talking. You actually have to go out to sea and fish.

Entitled. I hate this one. It's even annoying on a monarch. If you aren't in a well enough decorated place (including outdoors) you get a negative moodlet.
Yes, you can get some pocket change from the post box once a day but I don't think it's worth it.

Anyone else have any insight into these?

they suck just as much as the other ones, never bothered being picky with the traits tbh.

I use the same traits/legendary traits i used in the original TSM.

Call of the Sea works great with Whale Ate My Parents. I can usually kill two birds with one stone, by sending my hero on a whale hunt. And it provides a great boost for a while.

Dread Pirate, honestly it seems like a weird legendary trait, considering I see barely any difference then becoming a Pirate by the quest. Except you get a cool title.

Guild Enemy and Entitled I haven't really messed with much.

I was a bit disappointed that the old Guild Connections trait didn't come with a title like the Dread Pirate does now. It would be awesome not to have to do the pledge quest every single time you want a guildsman.

Call for the sea is great for the mage or physician as it gives them a little buff as well as a lot of fish for food.

Entitled is horrible and was only good for the 'slumming it' achievement I got for getting married to a pirate. I'm not sure but I think it even replaces the usual 'well decorated' buff which is higher.

I used to care and read guides on maximizing each character to have the most benefit with the least negatives but found it wasn't as fun as every hero basically had the same traits. When I started not being cookie cutter with it and 'role playing' a bit I have more fun and daily routines can negate most of the negatives.

I enjoy that my blacksmith is a drunk and smells as I figure a blacksmith would be 'blue collar' enough to enjoy a drink to relax after a long sweaty day slaving over a forge. Each of my heroes has good and bad traits as I believe they would and I just take the negatives with stride.

Problem is that some supposedly positive traits are actually negative.

Like "whale ate my parents" and call of the sea.

Then again, negative traits like puny have no effect at all if your character is not a fighter.

Probably would have been better if they had traits done similary to sims3, with five traits and a lot more. And them being a mix of positive and negative at times.

I actually find Call of the Sea pretty useful, especially for a merchant, knight or spy. You get fish to sell and anytime you're patrolling the sea or patrolling the route to some oversea territory, you get a great +15 moodlet. 'Whale at my parents' is pretty good too because you get the chance to have a long-lasting and high food buff. It's probably not as useful as it once was, because the mechanical falcon is now a great and frequent deliverer of whale meat and whale choice cuts (and bear, boar, venison and unicorn meat - it rocks!).

Entitled is probably the worst trait ever: it seems to negate +40 environment bonus and replaces it with just a meager +15. The pocket money is very low - 50$ per day is nothing, so that's a bad, bad trait to choose.

I haven't used Guild Enemy or Dread Pirate yet, but I'll probably try it out on my next kingdom. I'm thinking a Guild Enemy (turned Dread Pirate) merchant might be a fun character to play


Regarding other traits: what are your thoughts on the nerfing of the Hopeful Orphan trait? You no longer get a constant +30 buff, there's just a one-off, non renewable bonus :/ I used to get it for all my priests and knights but it's no longer a useful trait to have.

Yeah, I'd rate Hopeful Orphan to be useless nowadays. Tried it on a new monarch, got the letter off the very first sim I asked, had a buff for a couple of hours on the first day of the First Steps quest, and that was it. Seemed like an awful waste of a trait slot, when there are just two. Mind you, it's not as bad as those that give negative moodlets, but still, even for RP purposes I can think of better traits.

And I don't think I'm having cookie-cutter characters, tbh, if I avoid the useless traits. There is plenty of stuff to spread around, like unkempt, scholarly for the priests and mage, friendly, eloquent for the priests and bard, chivalrous for the king and knight, earthy for those who harvest plants or ore, etc. Even jokester seems to be usable to make friends. There's not as much stuff as I'd like, but there's enough to have some among 10 characters without having to gimp them with bad "positive" traits.

TBH, though, I'd like to see more traits that affect the performance of different daily activities, to actually have some reason to spread stuff around. I mean, Herculean for the knight or Earthy for the gatherers already affect something they do lots. I'd like to see stuff like having Eloquent affect the priest's sermons and the bard's plays and poem recitals (currently seems to do nothing for the priest at least), maybe something like the perfectionist trait from TS3 for the smith and maybe bard's writing stuff, maybe some musical talent trait for all those fiddles, etc. Not that it's hard without them, mind you, but it would give more reason to spread different traits to different people.