Traits are, indeed, very important and are almost crucial for easier survival in the harsh Cataclysm; the traits you mentioned are VERY far from being the most important ones on the trait list, and are also far from being good options for a new player to the game.
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Scout is practically useless unless you’re not starting in the shelter, as you’ll almost always spawn next to a town, a river or a forest which can easily provide your basic needs.
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Martial Arts Training isn’t necessary, and even then is only relevant for a melee character. You can easily do well without it.
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Fast Learner isn’t a good starting option if you pick the skills you need the most to begin with. Optimally, you want to have your basic (cooking, survival, fabrications) skills already at a level high enough to do basic stuff, and to pass that threshold and do things beyond-basic you’ll look for books to raise your skill level even higher. This perk gives you a somewhat faster progression, but isn’t necessary for a beginner.
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Robust Genetics is literally useless at first, as you won’t be mutating until you’ve survived far into the mid/late game. A waste of points unless you’re aiming for a specific mutation build.
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Pretty shouldn’t be in this list either; generally I’d avoid any trait that has to do with NPC interaction as you can do well without them too. As you start, you can get a quest from the starter NPC, then have 100% success to get both an item and have them follow you around after you do. Plus I believe you can mutate into Pretty later on so there’s that.
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Tough is a straight up stat-up. You might as well raise your attributes instead of picking this trait. I’d avoid this one as well.
As for bad traits, don’t take Wool Allergy as you will probably be using wool clothing at one point or another. It’s an unnecessary limit and considered a bad trait to choose in general.
The traits I usually pick:
Animal Empathy (animals are a good source of food and you’d want easy access to it at some point).
Night Vision (for that night looting and basemet-foraging, especially useful in the experimental versions where your night vision increases from a 2-square radius to, like, 5 squares).
Light Steps (decreases the sound your footsteps make from 6-8 to 2, making you harder to spot whdn looting houses and walking around at night).
Weak Scent (your scent is harder to track by animals and zombies).
Bad Tempered (a mere constant -5 moral debuff which doesn’t really affect anything).
Addictive Personality (if you don’t intend to use alcohol and drugs to boost your stats, risking addiction).
Forgetful (skill-rust is cancer. Turn it off and get free points).
Trigger Happy (you won’t be using automatic weapons any time soon, unless playing with a specific build).
Weak Stomach (again, if you don’t plan to drink alcohol. Other than that it won’t be an issue as you’ll always purify your water and eat fresh, cooked food).
Ugly / Truth Teller (if you don’t intend to interact with NPCs too much this won’t really be an issue).
This creates a very nature-friendly character, zombies and hostile animals not being an issue if you’re being careful enough. Combine this with an archery setup and you get yourself a very competent hunter. Note how I made sure I’m not easily detectable by zombies and don’t scare animals off as easily.[/quote]
what you’ve given is a minmax recipe, and not somethinig a new person, one who presumably doesn’t have minmaxing in mind, would use. for shame.
-Scout and selfaware provide new players with the information they’d need to make choices without exposing themselves to city hordes. binoculars have become markedly more rare in newer experimentals as well.
-youre right that martial arts are not necessary, but if youere going to bumble around the world they do wonders on your life expectancy. honestly, how are you telling a new player without meta-knopwledge not to take a melee oriented character to begin with? Serious?
-Robust genetics I could grant you, but for 2 points its a nice way to ease into mutagen, radiation, or bionics.
-Pretty is similar, except that when a crazed npc wielding a submachine suddenly appears in the dark at me I die if I dont let him rob me. Dont know about you. The bonus to pacification is enough that Ive gotten single digit successes with pretty RE: ‘Drop your weapon’, ‘No, go eat a dick’.
-Tough is a percentage based statup. Dont be silly.
Your own suggestions are fine, and in many ways line up to my suggestions
