Hello!
As we all know, not all religious beliefs are on par. As it happens though, religion is one of the easiest parts of the game to mod (at least the XML files - I just modified some pantheons, but don't know how to modify the descriptions - didnt have the time to learn how, at least not yet).
The best place to start are Pantheons. I think the problem is not nerfing the most powerful ones (Desert Folklore ^^), but bringing the rest up to this level. For example, Dance of the Aurora (amazing name by the way) does pretty much the same thing, but is largely worse - why? because there're no flood plains and because there's no Petra... And your better tiles (forested) are excluded. At least hills still work...
Of course, tundra tiles are just a little bit better than flat desert, but the first two things outweigh this fact (because lets face it, a tile just a bit better than a very bad tile is still a very bad tile).
So, the list of Pantheons:
Ancestor worship +1 Culture from Shrines
Dance of the aurora +1 Faith from Tundra tiles without Forest
Desert folklore +1 Faith from Desert tiles
Faith healers +30 HP healed per turn if adjacent to a friendly city
Fertility rites 10% faster Growth rates
God of craftsmen +1 Production in cities with Population of 3+
God of the open sky +1 Culture from Pastures
God of the sea +1 Production from Fishing Boats
God of war Gain Faith if you win a battle within 4 tiles of your city
Goddess of festivals +1 Culture and +1 Faith for each Wine and Incense
Goddess of love +1 Happiness from cities withPopulation of 6+
Goddess of protection +30% increase in city Ranged Combat Strength
Goddess of the hunt +1 Food from Camps
Messenger of the gods +2 Science in cities with a City Connection
Monument to the gods +15% Production of Ancient/Classical Wonders
One with nature +4 Faith from Natural Wonders
Oral tradition +1 Culture from Plantations
Religious idols +1 Culture and +1 Faith for each Gold and Silver
Religious settlements +15% faster border growth
Sacred path +1 Culture from Jungle tiles
Sacred waters +1 Happiness from cities on rivers
Stone circles +2 Faith from Quarries
Tear of the gods +2 Faith for each Gems or Pearls resource
Of this list, I think the weaker ones are God of Craftsmen, Monument to the Gods, Messenger of the Gods, Goddess of Protection, Sacred Waters and Goddess of Love. The problem with those is that the benefit either doesn't last long or is simply negligible. God of Craftsmen is similar to the Liberty policy, which - imho- isn't that strong and add's 5% to production for buildings. Yes, it lasts, but doesn't provide any faith - if it provided faith from workshops, forges etc. it would be better, but those come a bit late for religion founding.
Monument to the Gods becomes useless after the wonders have been built, so I suppose adding something like 1 faith per turn from wonders would fix it.
Messenger of the Gods - I honestly have no idea. I tried adding faith on a city connection (whopping 3) as well as increasing the beakers to 3 and adding some culture - it was too strong as I was able to get first religion (it was king though) as well as get policies fast (though if you go wide you probably won't be able to make up for the increased beaker and culture costs for techs and policies). It's hard for me to say what to do - I was thinking about a bonus scaling with the population, the distance to the capital... But that's harder to code as the only other beliefs that scale with pop (followers) are religious community (just a % hammer bonus for a city), the one which gives happiness for followers and Tithe (followers in all cities), nothing like plus 1 science per 2 followers... Also, it's messenger. Passing information means passing science, but also culture... And travelling might be a religious act, so it actually might be a solution to tweak it so that every connected city would give some faith - and the amount of faith gained doesn't increase as sharply as science throughout the game. How to make this science gained from messenger meaningful throughout the game? Library remains useful, granting up to 15-25 science by itself in large cities and messenger will still only give 2.
Goddess of Protection - faith or culture yield from walls, castles etc. will make it, I think it's as simple as that.
Sacred Waters - faith from riverside tiles won't make it stronger than Desert Folklore already is.
Goddess of Love - 6 happiness can be quite hard to achieve early on and for a tall empire 3-5 happiness is weak. I think making it like 1 happiness per 6 followers in the city or adding some faith (1 per 5 followers perhaps?) would make it quite strong.
Do you guys find other pantheons weak? Do you have any ideas? Please share your thoughts, let's brainstorm
As we all know, not all religious beliefs are on par. As it happens though, religion is one of the easiest parts of the game to mod (at least the XML files - I just modified some pantheons, but don't know how to modify the descriptions - didnt have the time to learn how, at least not yet).
The best place to start are Pantheons. I think the problem is not nerfing the most powerful ones (Desert Folklore ^^), but bringing the rest up to this level. For example, Dance of the Aurora (amazing name by the way) does pretty much the same thing, but is largely worse - why? because there're no flood plains and because there's no Petra... And your better tiles (forested) are excluded. At least hills still work...
Of course, tundra tiles are just a little bit better than flat desert, but the first two things outweigh this fact (because lets face it, a tile just a bit better than a very bad tile is still a very bad tile).
So, the list of Pantheons:
Dance of the aurora +1 Faith from Tundra tiles without Forest
Desert folklore +1 Faith from Desert tiles
Faith healers +30 HP healed per turn if adjacent to a friendly city
Fertility rites 10% faster Growth rates
God of craftsmen +1 Production in cities with Population of 3+
God of the open sky +1 Culture from Pastures
God of the sea +1 Production from Fishing Boats
God of war Gain Faith if you win a battle within 4 tiles of your city
Goddess of festivals +1 Culture and +1 Faith for each Wine and Incense
Goddess of love +1 Happiness from cities withPopulation of 6+
Goddess of protection +30% increase in city Ranged Combat Strength
Goddess of the hunt +1 Food from Camps
Messenger of the gods +2 Science in cities with a City Connection
Monument to the gods +15% Production of Ancient/Classical Wonders
One with nature +4 Faith from Natural Wonders
Oral tradition +1 Culture from Plantations
Religious idols +1 Culture and +1 Faith for each Gold and Silver
Religious settlements +15% faster border growth
Sacred path +1 Culture from Jungle tiles
Sacred waters +1 Happiness from cities on rivers
Stone circles +2 Faith from Quarries
Tear of the gods +2 Faith for each Gems or Pearls resource
Of this list, I think the weaker ones are God of Craftsmen, Monument to the Gods, Messenger of the Gods, Goddess of Protection, Sacred Waters and Goddess of Love. The problem with those is that the benefit either doesn't last long or is simply negligible. God of Craftsmen is similar to the Liberty policy, which - imho- isn't that strong and add's 5% to production for buildings. Yes, it lasts, but doesn't provide any faith - if it provided faith from workshops, forges etc. it would be better, but those come a bit late for religion founding.
Monument to the Gods becomes useless after the wonders have been built, so I suppose adding something like 1 faith per turn from wonders would fix it.
Messenger of the Gods - I honestly have no idea. I tried adding faith on a city connection (whopping 3) as well as increasing the beakers to 3 and adding some culture - it was too strong as I was able to get first religion (it was king though) as well as get policies fast (though if you go wide you probably won't be able to make up for the increased beaker and culture costs for techs and policies). It's hard for me to say what to do - I was thinking about a bonus scaling with the population, the distance to the capital... But that's harder to code as the only other beliefs that scale with pop (followers) are religious community (just a % hammer bonus for a city), the one which gives happiness for followers and Tithe (followers in all cities), nothing like plus 1 science per 2 followers... Also, it's messenger. Passing information means passing science, but also culture... And travelling might be a religious act, so it actually might be a solution to tweak it so that every connected city would give some faith - and the amount of faith gained doesn't increase as sharply as science throughout the game. How to make this science gained from messenger meaningful throughout the game? Library remains useful, granting up to 15-25 science by itself in large cities and messenger will still only give 2.
Goddess of Protection - faith or culture yield from walls, castles etc. will make it, I think it's as simple as that.
Sacred Waters - faith from riverside tiles won't make it stronger than Desert Folklore already is.
Goddess of Love - 6 happiness can be quite hard to achieve early on and for a tall empire 3-5 happiness is weak. I think making it like 1 happiness per 6 followers in the city or adding some faith (1 per 5 followers perhaps?) would make it quite strong.
Do you guys find other pantheons weak? Do you have any ideas? Please share your thoughts, let's brainstorm