Right. I'm thinking between 3-5 GuildClasses at most, all with at least 2 members and up to 4 or 5 (Engineering/Economy will have a couple each, most likely).
I had a few crazy thoughts this morning over coffee.
The first was that classes could correlate to classes of civics. Government, hmm, maybe that would be Crime. Labor would be Engineering, Economy is Financial, Cultural Values made me think that a Social class of guilds might be the fifth class, and instead of council membership there would be the cults.
The second crazy thought that immediately followed was if the Overcouncil and Undercouncil could somehow manifest as guilds.
Just early morning synapses firing wildly. So then I thought a bit about what a social class could have.
- The Masquerade, which brings culture and gold to a city the more resources available that actors can use as props. Faster production of theaters.
- The Caliguli, providing entertainment to the masses regardless of the costs. Faster production of Hippodrome. Perhaps the only guild that allows you to build public baths. Additional happiness and unhealthiness from some buildings. Healing rate decreased in cities with the Caliguli, as soldiers tend to spend longer on R&R nursing their wounds.
- The Archivists, dedicated to preserving and rediscovering lost culture. Overall science penalty but science bonuses to Libraries, Inns and Taverns can quickly turn this into a positive. Faster production of monuments. Allows units that can explore enemy territory and are invisible if the owner of the land has also adopted the Archivists.
Perhaps the happiness bonus for the culture slider could be halved unless one of the Social guilds is activated since they are better at channeling the focus on culture.
The problem with that is it adds a lot of code to the GuildClasses; As of now they'll be just a description and a type, like the CivicOptionTypes. I'd rather have just one standard cost, and keep it simple.
I don't know anything about how things could be or are being implemented. I'm just thinking about how the game could behave. And thinking about it again, it sounds overly complicated for the user. All civics are changed the same way, all religions likewise. It should be no different for guilds. I just never like the arbitrary 1 turn anarchy, no changes for 10 turn, limitation on changing civics. I figured the penalties could be a little more creative and allow civs, if their traits were right and their economy was focused that way, to switch from wartime to peacetime and back again very rapidly.
Perhaps only one guild activation can be made per turn, anarchy ensuing. Organized would still have the one guild per turn limit, but no anarchy. Spiritual has no effect.
Honestly, in this case the RELIGION would be the Cult, and the guild would be the organizational side of things. It'll be in the Crime class, as well as (most likely) a Corsair guild.
I'm a bit confused, but I think we're thinking the same thing. The Cult of Esus is the Religion and the Council is a Crime class guild.
I'm not going to downgrade the Hand, either; With some tweaks to how Hell spreads, a return to the AoI will be a valid choice. Which was most of my intention in adding it, something I think it's pedia shows quite well.
I still have a hard time believing that some civilizations who were almost wiped out in the Age of Ice would welcome returning to those times, no matter how un-fun hell is. The Bannor are probably the most likely to, since they've already been to hell and never had to endure a New England winter, let alone a whole AGE of New England winters.
In the games I've had, following the White hand was a sure way to end a civilization. Two games ago the Illians got the White Hand ridiculously early, and it spread to their neighbors the Bannor. When I finally met Sabathiel on turn 200 he was ruling one city with a population of one. Maybe that's fixed in the upcoming version.
I suppose giving civs the freedom to make choices that are out of flavor is in the FfH spirit. Maybe I'll warm up to the idea, if you pardon the pun.
I do agree about cults as a whole, though; Intolerant civs (Cualli, Scions, few others) would have Cults. Lesser religions, can spread them to conquered cities or even allies. In the case of the Scions, the Emperor's Cult would give a small amount of culture, and grant access to the Scion religious buildings/units if followed. If a foreign civ follows it, they get a diplo bonus with the scions (can add a tag like 'NativeCult', if someone follows it you get a boost) but have various bad effects as well... Units can 'defect' to the Scions, creepers/HL begin appearing, etc.
I like this a lot. This really does fix the problem with all those agnostic civs who weren't really agnostic, just would never follow the standard religions. This really just leaves the Grigori as true agnostics, the rest are just cult worshippers.
Some of the cults I plan (as of now):
Cult of the Dragon
Cult of the Emperor
Cult of Machines
Cult of Agruonn
I can see all these cults behaving the same way as you described for the Cult of the Emperor. Does it make sense that some civs start with the appropriate cult in their first city? They would have the HQ, which could have benefits that blank out the penalties for having a cult in the city. In fact, that might be the only way to found these cults, outside of events, so games without the Scions might not have a Cult of the Emperor.
Cult of the Dragon is kind of the odd one here, since both Kuriotates and Sheiam lay claim to it. I don't really know enough about it to suggest how to deal with this one.
The Mazatl are also left out. I don't really see the worship of their gods as being very relevant to the civ or worthy of inclusion as a cult. Perhaps they might also lay claim to the Cult of the Dragon.