I have noticed that NiCads tend to have higher no-load voltages as they age or are consistently overcharged. I wouldn't take the no load voltage as an exact indication of the charge level. If you load the cell for some time, the voltage could drop considerably and recover slowly once the load is withdrawn. Individual cells could have different characteristics. I would assume that if measured and plotted the individual cell's voltage/charge, that could be used to predict the charge for a given voltage(for that individual cell). Then again, my experience has been that this changes with cell aging.