In Civ IV, how many religions do you think they should make for us to found?

Please vote, post, and LIST them.

I thinke they should have 12.

1. Christianity (Theology)
2. Judaism (Monotheism)
3. Islam (Divine Right)
4. Bahai (Internationalism?)
5. Sikhism (Syncretism?)
6. Zoroastrianism (Dualism?)
7. Hinduism (Polytheism? Monism?)
8. Buddhism (Meditation)
9. Confucianism (Code of Laws)
10. Daoism (Philosophy)
11. Jainsim (Priesthood?)
12. Cao Dai (Radio?)

I think the 7 we have are fine.

Yeah, Firaxis was doing some beta testing and they found that 7 religions worked well in the game. 7 Worked well for a lot of things, like civs on a standard map.

7 is fine. Considering the standard map has seven players, what would be the point of allowing more religions than players? Besides, rarely more than 3 religions end up playing dominant roles in the world. Maybe if you're playing on a map with 18 civilizations it might be nice to have a couple more religions, but other than that there is absolutely no need for more. Especially considering that they're all irrelevant once Free Religion comes along.

It would be kind of interesting if an event could occur that would "split" a religion, kind of like Catholicism/Protestantism and Shiites/Sunnis. These differences have definitely influenced relations between countries that share the same basic religion. However, this would be hard to implement and probably wouldn't be dramatically game-changing.

Perhaps there could be a wonder that triggers off a schizm (e.g. Diat of Vurmz (sp?), Vatican II, etc.)

I think each civilization should get the choice of whether they want to found a Religion, even if they discover the tech first. it's very annoying when you have to go through Judaism's and Christianity to get to Islam. the computer should ask you do you want to found this religion? if yes, you get to found it. if not? it's passed, up for grabs, for other players who have the tech to found the religion.

the computer should ask you do you want to found this religion? if yes, you get to found it. if not? it's passed, up for grabs, for other players who have the tech to found the religion.

What difference would that make? Except loosing all the advantages of having a religion founding city in your country???

7 for me is perfect as well...

What difference would that make? Except loosing all the advantages of having a religion founding city in your country???
In an unmodded version of cIV then nothing, but a few mods have different pros/cons for each religion.

Personally then I never understood why Firaxis/2K were so scared they might offend that they didn't include some of the obvious differences between the religions (such as the dietary restrictions/preferences that many religions have).

I want to be six, not seven. Islam plays absolutely no role other than to flirt with ME buyers, so it can be scratched.

I think each civilization should get the choice of whether they want to found a Religion, even if they discover the tech first. it's very annoying when you have to go through Judaism's and Christianity to get to Islam. the computer should ask you do you want to found this religion? if yes, you get to found it. if not? it's passed, up for grabs, for other players who have the tech to found the religion.
Sorry, but... that's just stupid. There is no reason to not want a religion. First, you get to build a shrine in the holy city which brings in 1 :gold: for every city in the world that has that religion. Second, your rivals don't.

Sorry, but... that's just stupid. There is no reason to not want a religion. First, you get to build a shrine in the holy city which brings in 1 :gold: for every city in the world that has that religion. Second, your rivals don't.

Money isn't everything. sometimes a player just wants to promote one kind of religion. why have other faiths in your city even if they do bring in money? Also i believe Islam enters the game too late. thus once one competes monotheism tech they should choose between Judaism, Christianity & Islam.

Not a complex issue dude, just an idea. :spear:

wants to promote one kind of religionBecause they have OCD? I can still think of no reason not to want that extra religion. :confused:

To be devils advocate,I think if you are on an island with people that don't pursue religion, and you have the only one I wouldn't go after other ones just so there wouldn't be any chance that one of them would splinter off on one of your other religions. If you wanted to play a peaceful game anyway. I found the religions whenever if they are not going to take me too far away from what i am trying to do.

I like the islam musc the most so I play choose religions and always pick them to found if I can. Second choice is Judaisim.

Yeeees, but if you research Divine Right say to get Spiral Minaret, why would you choose not to get the religion anyway?

Well with divine right it may not be that bad because religions are wll established by then, but with confuciounisim or whatever it is there is still possibility ofthe AI converting to that religion by accidental spread when you want them to be hindu. I mean you can obviosuly missionary them to change them, but it may take a bnch of them depending on how fast the new religion spreads.

I'm a big fan of allowing as many choices as possible, but the greatest balance is in seven religions in any one game, potentially less.

I mean, there's only four extremely popular religions worldwide: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.
# Christianity: 2.1 billion
# Islam: 1.5 billion
# Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
# Hinduism: 900 million
# Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
# Buddhism: 376 million
(adherents.com (http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html))

What Firaxis should have done is make Choose Religions the default and allow you to make any religion you wanted. After all, the different religions aren't historically accurate anyways (in vanilla, Buddhism and Hinduism are most often dominant, and Buddhism can be founded before Hinduism), why not just allow you to found anything or make up a name and symbol?

The current religion system is stunted, hackneyed, and shows obvious Western prejudice. Hell, Sikhism has more adherents than Judaism does!

I want to be six, not seven. Islam plays absolutely no role other than to flirt with ME buyers, so it can be scratched.
WTF??? :confused: :mad:

I want to be six, not seven. Islam plays absolutely no role other than to flirt with ME buyers, so it can be scratched.

Pfff, that has to be the stupidest possible solution to a real problem.
If anything, I'd imagine conservative Muslims would be most offended by the fact Islam is treated equal to the other religions (esp. the religions "not of the Book"), and other Muslims disappointed that Islam gets the rough end of the deal.

Like I said, people put a lot more into their understanding of religion than this game could ever hope to emulate. We should cut out the fake historicity.

7 is fine. It would be insane with more than 15.

What difference would that make? Except loosing all the advantages of having a religion founding city in your country???

7 for me is perfect as well...

I often avoid religion-founding techs when I want more animation in diplomacy. A civ which found a religion when it has already an other it has not founded has much more chances to convert to the new one :)

I want to be six, not seven. Islam plays absolutely no role other than to flirt with ME buyers, so it can be scratched.

I don't have this problem; all religions play a role in my games. But I made two changes:
- I play with more than 7 civ (thus making religions spread more - see point above)
- I give a free prophet to the first with divine right; having a shrine encourages the AI to spread the religion

I often avoid religion-founding techs when I want more animation in diplomacy. A civ which found a religion when it has already an other it has not founded has much more chances to convert to the new one :)



I don't have this problem; all religions play a role in my games. But I made two changes:
- I play with more than 7 civ (thus making religions spread more - see point above)
- I give a free prophet to the first with divine right; having a shrine encourages the AI to spread the religion

So you're basically shooting yourself in the foot (founding a religion has no negative game effect outside your control) to create a more realistic/fun game experience? I do the same, but we shouldn't have to.

I can see how playing with more than the standard seven would decrease the impact of the problem (since no of religions doesn't scale with map size etc), but wasn't the religion system supposed to be balanced on standard?

I can't imagine giving a prophet would help all THAT much. Most of the cities by that era would have a religion, I would think, which certainly was not the case in pre-Islamic Arabia et al.

So you're basically shooting yourself in the foot (founding a religion has no negative game effect outside your control) to create a more realistic/fun game experience? I do the same, but we shouldn't have to.
Well, I don't consider "shooting myself in the foot"; because if I really need a tech, I will try to get it even if it gets me a religion (CoL for courthouses, philosophy for pacifism/liberalism and theology for the apostolic palace are the best example of this in my case); and I'm thinking of that usually when religions are not spread enough imo, which is not always the case. So that's right that I would be glad to have an option which says "found a religion: yes/no?", but I really don't care.

I can see how playing with more than the standard seven would decrease the impact of the problem (since no of religions doesn't scale with map size etc), but wasn't the religion system supposed to be balanced on standard?
Note that I don't say that things are not balanced this way, but that I prefer them my way. I will not pretend to have the general people's opinion because I don't know it.

I can't imagine giving a prophet would help all THAT much. Most of the cities by that era would have a religion, I would think, which certainly was not the case in pre-Islamic Arabia et al.

Actually it does not always work (depends on the civ who has the religion), but lots of times yes. Civs have a much greater tendency to spread a religion to their city and then to adopt it as a state religion if they have the shrine (I'm not talking about natural spreading here).

And also, great prophet are the only kind of great people without a tech which says "get a free great people" (music -> artists, physics -> scientist, economics -> merchants, fusion -> engineer, communism -> spy, fascism -> general; prophet -> none); and Divinr right seems to me the perfect tech for this. I'm also thinking about moving the free great general to military science but that's another story ;)

what i want is 1. polytheistic cults and 2. different bonuses from different religions. Maybe polytheistic religions will be available from the beginning since first city setled [and each nation have its specific religion]. The bonuses from this religions will not be so great (and they could not to be spread by missionaries) that will motivate players to discover more progressive religions and convert to them.

ps: Cool idea with free great prophet at divine right discovery.

Cai Dai is only a fraction of vietnam, hardly a major religion.

I think conservative adherents to all religions would have a problem with civ representing other ones.

Isn't there an option in BtS to decouple the religions from the techs, so that when you earn, say, Polytheism, you aren't automatically given Hinduism, but can choose? (or you're just given one at random).

I'm a big fan of allowing as many choices as possible, but the greatest balance is in seven religions in any one game, potentially less.

I mean, there's only four extremely popular religions worldwide: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.
# Christianity: 2.1 billion
# Islam: 1.5 billion
# Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
# Hinduism: 900 million
# Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
# Buddhism: 376 million
(adherents.com (http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html))

What Firaxis should have done is make Choose Religions the default and allow you to make any religion you wanted. After all, the different religions aren't historically accurate anyways (in vanilla, Buddhism and Hinduism are most often dominant, and Buddhism can be founded before Hinduism), why not just allow you to found anything or make up a name and symbol?

The current religion system is stunted, hackneyed, and shows obvious Western prejudice. Hell, Sikhism has more adherents than Judaism does!
Dude, you realize that cIV starts in 4000BC not 2007AD. Judaism WAS very important IN ITS TIME. And, cIV does go THROUGH ITS TIME.

Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, T/Daoism, Shintoism, The Sun God Religion's (Aztec, Egypt, Maya, Inca), Paganism!
Gran total of TEN!

Okay, lets look at it this way...
How many religions should there be in the game, regardless of what has actually happened on Earth.
Which religions should those be? I think the ones they have now is fine.

Okay, lets look at it this way...
How many religions should there be in the game, regardless of what has actually happened on Earth.
Which religions should those be? I think the ones they have now is fine.

IN THAT CASE, NONE!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Civ3 fan!! EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE....

YES and NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only if you admit your phrase of: "How many religions should there be in the game, regardless of what has actually happened on Earth", then religion is no more tham a mere act of reaching the supernatural to explain it!

And you don't need it!!!
So if you want religion you need the ACTUAL RELIGION ON EARTH!!!

And you don't need it!!!
So if you want religion you need the ACTUAL RELIGION ON EARTH!!!
It too, you two minutes to think of that to say?
So, lets rephrase that. How many thing-that-start-in-a-city-when-you-discover-certain-techs-and-may-spread-to-other-cities-and-allow-you-to-build-buildings-that-increase-happiness-increase-research-and-let-you-build-units-to-spread-them-and-choosing-one-for-your-civ-to-live-by-will-give-every-city-with-that-one-culture-and-happiness-and-if-you-have-the-right-civic-production-or-experience-or-more-happiness-and-if-you-use-the-same-one-as-another-civ-they-like-you-and-vice-versa's should their be in the game?

Well I think 7 is fine. In this game religion is used to unite factions and there's only usually 2 or 3 religions that take off in a game. I see no reason for having more than 7.

468,727,091

I think that the number of religions should vary with map size and number of players instead of being fixed as it is now. Same with the great wonders really.

It too, you two minutes to think of that to say?
So, lets rephrase that. How many thing-that-start-in-a-city-when-you-discover-certain-techs-and-may-spread-to-other-cities-and-allow-you-to-build-buildings-that-increase-happiness-increase-research-and-let-you-build-units-to-spread-them-and-choosing-one-for-your-civ-to-live-by-will-give-every-city-with-that-one-culture-and-happiness-and-if-you-have-the-right-civic-production-or-experience-or-more-happiness-and-if-you-use-the-same-one-as-another-civ-they-like-you-and-vice-versa's should their be in the game?

Answer: B-I-G _ L-O-L :lol: :lol: :lol:

I agree with Guagle! The size of the world and the number of players should be it! If you have a small world 2 or 3! If you play enormous one, 7 or more!

I need a number.

Now who's not thinking of that to say, by read the previous reply's!!!

For "How many thing-that-start-in-a-city": only one!
For the all game: 3! (Depending on the size of the world)
For the all civ4: 7-10!