Empire rulers trait limit?

[Quello Fico]

Hello.
From what i understand, a ruler leader starts with two traits and, as other normal leaders, can gain a third one by leveling. However, a leader cannot gain a trait by leveling if it already have three traits (this info comes from the Stellaris Wiki). So what if my ruler (i'm an imperial government) starts already with three traits due to the third one being Erudite? Does Erudite blocks the possibility of gaining a fourth trait by leveling up or, maybe being a particular bio engineering trait, it not counts against this limit?

 

[HFY]

IIRC from a past bio-ascended game you can acquire the normal amount -- Erudite didn't count as an earned trait, but rather as a separate species benefit.

 

[Ryika]

Afaik, any Trait that doesn't cost Trait Points is ignored by most of such limitations.

This isn't particularly helpful by itself in this case, because the game never tells you which leader perks cost points and which don't (unlike with species traits) - but as a general rule, you can assume that these "extra bonus for all leaders"-type traits are free, while something that is granted to a specific leader only, is not. That's not always true ('Chosen One' Perk is free for example), but it holds true most of the time.

 

[Quello Fico]

Well, that's good to hear. Thanks guys!

 

[Quello Fico]

So, i managed to get to a point where i can test this whole thing. I saved the game right before my current emperor is about to level from level III to IV. He have three traits right now, the two which he spawned with and the third being erudite. I reloaded the save at least 20 times, but he never got a fourth trait, so, unfortunally, it seems like the "three traits max" rule applies with Gene Resequencing tech traits too (unless i've been far unluckier than what appears to be possible by missing a trait gain for more than 20 attempts). Right now, the only case that i can think of in which a leader can gain a fourth trait is by gaining it as a result from some events, like it sometimes happen with scientists researching some anomalies.

 

[Ryika]

Yes, it appears that the information I gave earlier in this thread was incorrect. Having looked at the code, the check is just, among other things, "num_traits < 3", which of course does not take into account the type of trait at all.

I think what got me confused was the species trait limit during species modification. Unless I'm remembering that incorrectly as well, that system does indeed ignore such traits (for example, the void dweller trait won't block you from picking 5 additional traits in any valid combination). But such a system is of course not at play when it comes to the leader level up, and I have no idea why I thought that a possibility.

So sorry for the misinformation from a month ago - should probably have looked it up immediately instead of going by memory.