Introduction
To be able to build up a traits system such as the one PC have presented to us in Chapter 2 is no small task. A huge congratulations to the team for giving our community such exciting mechanics to mull over and discuss! I have no doubt PC have spent far more time (and with far more game information) than us deliberating over these traits and greatly appreciate what they have presented.
Great analyses @Caacao and as you have pointed out it is very much worth discussing potential tweaks to the trait mappings prior to immutability to ensure our community has a game that we enjoy playing for the next 30 years. So far it appears you have split the correlation between “Health Regen Speed” and “Ethereality” for SPK. I highly support this as these traits, although very different in mechanics, are both defensive traits. The potential trade-off between the two is not as consequential as it could be. E.g. it is less likely a player would be concerned where exactly they sit in the SPK range compared to NRG, AGG and BRN.
If we instead alter the mappings for AGG, SPK and BRN so that each contain an attacking trait vs. a defensive trait our spectrum of character play styles from Ultra Aggressive to Ultra Defensive is much further widened. This greatly increases the unique play styles available and means that players are more likely to intensively study and critique their chosen Aavegotchi to best decide how to utilise them in the verse.
In addition, the Gotchiverse’s best chance of success is to become a community and guild driven experience that focuses on good communication and strategic deployment of members throughout the verse. As we all know, this style of gameplay is what has made MMO’s so hugely immersive. The more play styles we can introduce for individual gotchis, the better the chances we have of driving communication and co-operation between players.
The Proposal
Below I have attached another potential trait mapping that I believe gets us a bit closer to aligning with current wearables and sets. Again, regen and ethereality have been split and are the key to creating more play styles.
These traits will lead to the following potential archetypes and you can see exactly which builds are the most aggressive/defensive.
I have also noted a few of the existing and rpg wearable sets that would correlate to these archetypes if implemented.
Important note: At this stage it is near impossible to perfectly match all sets and wearables to any given trait mapping. This is both evident in what I have attached above and in the current trait mappings proposed by PC in chapter 2. As a community we are going to have to accept that there will be some oddities between items and the traits they affect (e.g. bow’s reduce AGG which increases armor? But archers are usually light armored?). However. I have great faith that PC will be able to minimize these discrepancies in eventual roll-out due to the item specific mechanics they implement.
Trait Change Reasoning
Now for a brief description of the correlations I have suggested above and the reasoning behind each:
NRG = Carry Capacity vs. Movement Speed
Unchanged
AGG = Armor vs. Attack Speed
The main driver for this change was that a Citaadel Knight should still be strong! Physically, it makes sense that the more armor a character is wearing the less mobility they have which is why I have paired it with Attack Speed. Heavily armed knights favour slow swinging broadswords and this (arguably most classic) knight archetype is still possible with this change.
SPK = Ranged Damage vs. Ethereality
This change was largely driven by the need to split health regen from ethereality. Physically though, ranged weaponry and spells often lead to less evasive capabilities. e.g. a mage concentrates and stands still when casting a spell, a mortar team or archer stabilize themselves prior to firing.
BRN = Melee Damage vs. Health Regen Speed
Brain vs. Brawn is a classic trade-off throughout stories, film and video games. An Aavegotchi with a smol brain makes up for it with raw brute strength. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Aavegotchis with high brain power are more likely to be medically trained or have knowledge of healing spells.
Conclusion
Regardless of the trait mappings being modified or not I have great faith that PC and our community will build out a completely new and immersive experience with the Gotchiverse. These discussions are part of what already make Aavegotchi the gem it is! Where else could we as a community actually have as much impact on the final product as here?
Any and all constructive feedback is greatly appreciated. Let’s keep the discussions going 
