Society traits

[AbedNego]

Lots of society traits seems to be very dependent on map, for example:

Experienced seafarers:
With strong sea legs they are unrivaled on the water and know how to dredge up extra value from its depths.
Fisheries yield +2 gold
Naval units -25% cost and upkeep, and get +2 rank
Basic seafaring

Does this mean, that your selected traits will have some impact on:
1) map generation?
2) your starting position on map?

It would feel pretty bad picking naval specialization and start with no water whatsoever around.
If neither of above, Im pretty worried it might cause similar problems that goblins had in aow3 - they were suited for underground and it was part of their racial power, making them weaker in other places... but due to clunky underground generation and mechanics, wast majority of games was without UG. That caused goblin race to struggle for many months, before they have been buffed few times to compensate this (and after buffs it made UG even worse, because they kept the UG traits, so with buffs goblins and other races with UG pers were only choice).

 

[indradiva]

It's rather vice versa: you choose the map traits and then choose society traits accordingly. There are a lot of map traits and I'm sure you can select a water-heavy option. Don't know about the starting position, though.

 

[Zaskow]

It will be pretty useless society trait on the normal map I'd say. Just like anything connected with naval theme.

 

[Atalvyr]

Considering they say that your faction will evolve based on your choices, Society traits could be something you pick up during the game, so triats like Seafaring may be one of those you select later if you happen to have a lot of coastal settlements.