There are a total of 21 traits that can potentially be picked for the luminary at the start of the game, 14 positive, and 7 negative.
I’ve been thinking about potential Luminary builds, and here are my thoughts. Feel free to share yours. What do you think would be good combinations, or aspects of these traits that I may not have considered?
Commanding Presence (Authoritarian)- As far as I can tell, the only other source of additional diplomatic acceptance is from Diplomacy traditions or favors, so paired with the former that, you get +20, making forming pacts or ending wars on your terms a bit easier. That in itself is notable. Unlike favors, the flat +15 from this trait (and the +5 from diplomacy traditions) is static, and can be applied to more situations. The extra envoy is also flexible, and while less impactive next to the other bonuses, the extra loyalty lets you be a bit more aggressive in contract terms for resources or holdings with your vassals.
High King (Authoritarian) - Stability bonuses are always beneficial to your economy, and the large happiness bonus to your ruler strata, especially at higher levels, will further boost stability, especially in a stratified/slave-focused regime. Maybe less exciting, but definitely practical/serviceable.
Brutal (Authoritarian)- The 30 extra crime on all planets can cause some issues if not dealt with, but it can be fairly easily dealt with, in exchange for a small happiness malus. May cause you to waste a building slot on an earlier precinct house or some energy/unity on earlier anti-crime campaigns.
Genome Artist (Xenophobe) - The decreased pop upkeep is good at higher levels, but while the pick is quite fitting for RP’ing the Emperor of Mankind, as I’m sure lots of players want to do, I can’t see this as much as a compelling pick, because the bonuses to species modification and special projects only become relevant once you get the tech for them. Edit: Conversely, if you upgrade the trait early, it should give a handy extra amount of food at the start, and a few extra consumer goods. Not sure if it’s immediately worthwhile next to the other traits, but along with a steep discount on genetic engineering, should get better as the game goes on.
Ever Vigilant (Xenophobe) - The early extra envoy can offset xenophobia’s diplomatic weaknesses, and it’s certainly an espionage-centric trait... but espionage simply isn’t very good with its prohibitive influence costs. If you get the spymaster paragon though and sufficiently decrease operation costs, this could become much more interesting.
Blunt (Xenophobe) - The loss of an envoy hurts, but if you’re taking a more aggressive or isolationist play style, you likely won’t care that much about the loss of diplomatic weight.
Inspired General (Militarist) - This is one that gets stronger the later into the game you get, though the main initial benefit is experience for your ships. But even at max rank, +300 experience just gives a +10% firepower bonus. As stated, bonuses to naval capacity will be very small at first, and fleet command limit is not immediately relevant until you build enough ships to get up to it. These two bonuses seem quite good later though.
Unwavering Aggressor (Militarist) - This seems like the far stronger militarist trait, especially early on. +15% fire rate, +10 tracking, and +10 chance to hit at its strongest level. With Distinguished Admiralty and opening with Vaults of Knowledge (though that civic shouldn’t be kept past the initial stages of the game), that’s potentially +25% fire rate for your ships on Day 1, before those of the militarist ethos itself.
Warmonger (Militarist) - The happiness penalty reduces your economy by a bit through its effect on stability. Piracy isn’t usually a big issue, though certainly the increased incidence of pirates could pose an annoyance / occasional disruption to trade networks.
Wise Mentor (Spiritualist): +1 leader capacity is nice, considering how precious those slots are. The extra experience is also nice at higher levels, though the leader capacity does not scale any further.
Pious Ascetic (Spiritualist): Makes things a bit more efficient by requiring less housing and amenities (probably the more important of the two), and lets priests generate some research. Feels like the less exciting of the two, but probably the more impactive on your empire as a whole.
Absent-Minded (Spiritualist): This really hurts basic resource output and wastes significantly more consumer goods on research. Definitely seems painful to pick, especially at the start.
Gunboat Diplomat (Xenophile): The extra power projection influence is a very nice influence bonus, and the ship upkeep bonus gets better with time. The diplomatic weight from fleet power is irrelevant until the Galactic Community forms (or you get a federation, but even then it usually takes a few decades to unlock diplomatic weight voting).
Brain Poacher (Xenophile) - What is not stated on the wiki: at level 1, gives 3 Physics/Society/Engineering research per migration pact, 9 at Level 2, and 18 at level 3. If you manage an early migration pact, you can nearly double your initial research (especially with Distinguished Admiralty and an Admiral leader to let you max the trait right away). That seems very powerful, though it will get weaker as time goes on. BUT the research speed bonus will always be relevant. The Diplo weight bonus has the same issue as Gunboat Diplomat though.
Naive (Xenophile): The -2 Encryption is mostly irrelevant, because espionage is not usually used enough or serious enough to the player to be a serious threat. The +15% pop upkeep though is more problematic, as it makes your economy less efficient, but it can be managed around.
Autark (Pacifist) - Helps improve efficiency by requiring less farmer and entertainer jobs. Trade protection is less important, but potentially lets you have more anchorages instead.
Fearful (Pacifist) - Even pacifists need to maintain either a good navy, chokepoints, or diplomacy if they want to stay safe. If you have the latter two, you can probably get away with it, but it will hurt when the time comes to eventually expand your navy, with the increased upkeep and reduced naval cap.
Enlightened Ruler (Pacifist) - This is a very good trait, I think. Similar to High King, with slightly less stability, but benefits ALL of your pops and especially your advanced/research/strategic resource jobs by reducing pop upkeep and increases ethics attraction (though the latter is less important)
Titan of Industry (Materialist) - Excellent economic bonuses, especially for churning out a large navy.
Great Inventor (Materialist) - More limited than the above I feel, but the extra research and amenities lets roboticists benefit you while pops are growing, plus you’ll get your robot pops faster.
Elitist (Materialist) - This could significantly eat into your early tradition progress, especially if you took a build to increase your starting leader levels, in which case you could be very unity starved with how high leveled your Luminary can get. Increased amenities usage also decreases the overall efficiency of your economy.
