Giving leaders a 'Favorite Religion'... is it possible?

Is there a way to give each Leader a 'favorite religion'?

In all my games, it seems every civ selects Buddism as it's state religion which gets boring after a while. Not only that, but NONE of the civs ever select Christianity or Islam, EVER.

I just want to vary it up a little, and try and keep the religions as historically accurate as possible. So that way, the Arabs will select Islam at most times, the Romans select Christianity at most times, Chinese select Buddism, etc.

Looking at the the CIV4LeaderHeadInfos, I don't see something that would allow this, but maybe there's a way?

Lol, I had this proposed earlier!

this one is worth another bump...

GraveEatr said:

Is there a way to give each Leader a 'favorite religion'?

In all my games, it seems every civ selects Buddism as it's state religion which gets boring after a while. Not only that, but NONE of the civs ever select Christianity or Islam, EVER.

I just want to vary it up a little, and try and keep the religions as historically accurate as possible. So that way, the Arabs will select Islam at most times, the Romans select Christianity at most times, Chinese select Buddism, etc.

Looking at the the CIV4LeaderHeadInfos, I don't see something that would allow this, but maybe there's a way?

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Funny you asked this now as I am working on something you may find of interest. As you can see I have fooled around with the tech tree and changed the start up a bit.

This is a mod that allows you to research ALL or just 1 of the religions in the game from the start. I've always felt the weight of early religions over later ones was not the balance I was looking for.

Now I still have some tweaking to do but it basically allows you to choose which religion to go for at turn 1. Of course the AI will go for one as well, but the good thing in my games so far is the AI's can be flavored to go for a certain religion etc.. Plus in a game with at least 7 civs, you rarely see religion monopoly by Ghandi or any one else. This makes for a much spicier interaction with the AI that is bound to have a different religion than you.

As time goes by they tend to stick to their religion vs everyone going Buddhist as in the past.

Also notice that ALL of the paths leand straight to Mysticism. That means that all of those spirtiual leaders were gifted another tech instead of mysticism to make the mod work properly.

Nothing else was changed in terms of Monastary and Temples being attached to the regular techs in order to be able to build them. Still a WIP but I'd like some feedback.

Although it is a nice idea I think that if you really make a techtree like that, you should disband all the connections to non religious techs.
Masonry would have developed most likely without mysticism too, in my opinion at least.

Richosh said:

Although it is a nice idea I think that if you really make a techtree like that, you should disband all the connections to non religious techs.
Masonry would have developed most likely without mysticism too, in my opinion at least.

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Maybe I'm a bit thick here. I have just added a line of religious techs that just needs one to be researched to move on to mysticism. I have not touched anything else. Disbanding non religious techs??? What do you mean?? Masonary?? LIke I said the tech tree is unaltered other than the religious tech line which ALL lead to mysticism.

I like the idea because it gives multiple religions, and Saladin, for example, can start with Islam instead of Mysticism. However, technologically it doesn't make much sense because you will develop Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the 3 big monotheistic religions, before you even research monotheism, or even polytheism.

Still, that aside, this was a good idea and good step forward in varying the game religiously speaking.

Shqype said:

I like the idea because it gives multiple religions, and Saladin, for example, can start with Islam instead of Mysticism. However, technologically it doesn't make much sense because you will develop Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the 3 big monotheistic religions, before you even research monotheism, or even polytheism.

Still, that aside, this was a good idea and good step forward in varying the game religiously speaking.

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Yeah good point about the accuracy of Monotheism and Polytheism etc..

If one were to suspend reality just a bit more, I think its a good tradeoff because you get an even chance to spread any religion without handicaps of early vs late. Also the techs(Mono and Poly) are still useful because you need them to build Monastaries and temples.

As stated good alternative but not perfect. However, the games really play differently because of the spread of all the religions from the start. One of the main differences is no more religion dominance by only the spritual leaders.

Yea, it is a way to get around the current system.

It would be nice if Firaxis introduced the ability in the XML files to set a favorite religion (just like a favorite civic). Still, the religious leaders might get the upper hand in controlling the holy city, but isn't that supposed to make the religious trait a little more balanced?

Shqype said:

Yea, it is a way to get around the current system.

It would be nice if Firaxis introduced the ability in the XML files to set a favorite religion (just like a favorite civic). Still, the religious leaders might get the upper hand in controlling the holy city, but isn't that supposed to make the religious trait a little more balanced?

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Ideally yes, but it just seems that the way religion effects so many things in the game, the spacing and a number of sprituals cause a religion monopoly in most games. Since I did this not "1" game has had the same problem

The strength and variety of religions in this world, "really" adds a diminsion of depth in gameplay/strategy that is/was missing in the spritial/religion dominant games.

The ability to choose would be nice, but they could not do that and stick to the same historical tech tree. Frankly, they would have gotten fried by the strict historical types. The good thing for me is that I "LOVE" to mod games and they gave me the ability to make it work "my" way and that is more than worth my $40.

Oh BTW, this along with the 35 additional civics choices that I added, the AI is quite a different cat so to speak. Man I love modding this game.

You made 35 additional civics? Where!?

Shqype said:

You made 35 additional civics? Where!?

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Sorry so many threads etc. In my game I completely revamped civics. In the 5 categories now I have a total of 9 per so its 45 civics. Basically, I set it up so that you have a couple of choices per civic opening up as you complete the tech tree. Gives you a better way to pick and choose and shape your civ better. These are not my final civics but you get the picture.

Frankly, the default civs just don't make sense to "me". I'm just glad I can put in things I felt add to the game.

Those look really good, I'de like to see what they do, but don't you think "Jihad Crusade" is a bit religion-specific?

Shqype said:

Those look really good, I'de like to see what they do, but don't you think "Jihad Crusade" is a bit religion-specific?

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Your wish is my command Yes it is supposed to be. You have to remember my tech tree has ALL of the religions from the start so this really comes in handy at times in the game now. Frankly, my civ4 is really different from the boxed version. I like it that way.

The AI treats religion VERY different now. MUCH harder to spread and hence a little more conflict based on civics and religion, just like RL. It's a little funny now too because if you see someone flip to Jihad Crusade and Wartime economy you know something is aobut to jump off

For me, part of the whole 'rush to Bhuddism' thing is a result of Bhuddism being WAY to early in the tech tree. If anything, the tech for Bhuddism should grow out of Polytheism, given that Bhuddism had its roots in Hindu India, plus meditation is a far more appropriate outgrowth of the temple life which emerged out of Polytheism and Pantheism!
Oh and rather than call it Jihad Crusade, can't you simply label it as 'Militant'? This makes much more sense to me, and is certainly the direction I will be taking

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

+2% Birth Rate? That seems a bit odd..

There are no negatives it looks like.

Would you be willing to send me a current version so I can test it out?

Shqype said:

+2% Birth Rate? That seems a bit odd..

There are no negatives it looks like.

Would you be willing to send me a current version so I can test it out?

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Ah, but the high cost upkeep and the lack non state spread(less temple cash culture etc.) does limit what is seen as positive. The 2% birth rate is because there is a chance of great leaders emerging from campaigns in history. Of course all of this stuff is "TOTALLY" subjective IMHO and that's how I take it.

The last thing I would ever try to do is to make a civics Mod that would in someway be an attempt to cover all or even niche users needs,wants,preferences,desires etc... No way

I come here to see others thoughts and ideas and implement them in my own way to get the game "I" want. That is the infinite beauty of PC games and the ability to mod, it has been from back in 80's when I started to hex edit pc games

Aussie_Lurker said:

For me, part of the whole 'rush to Bhuddism' thing is a result of Bhuddism being WAY to early in the tech tree. If anything, the tech for Bhuddism should grow out of Polytheism, given that Bhuddism had its roots in Hindu India, plus meditation is a far more appropriate outgrowth of the temple life which emerged out of Polytheism and Pantheism!
Oh and rather than call it Jihad Crusade, can't you simply label it as 'Militant'? This makes much more sense to me, and is certainly the direction I will be taking

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

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Militant, hmm that is a thought. I think I got Crusade from that Europa mod and I added the Jihad part for balance. None of this is set in stone and its all personal anyhow, no attempt to please all in a mod with 45 civics, err emm no thanks

The only reason for me to have all of the religions from the start barring logic is because of gameplay and how the game implements religion. It effects the game in an unbalanced way IMHO to have the religions discovered in a staggered manner, despite the historical aspects.

If religion did not effect the gameplay balance the way is does none of the tech tree changes would be needed. Once again this is just the way I set it up for me and was suggested as an alternative not as "the" way it should be.

can it be done that religions rate of spread decreases with time.. and giving christianity and islam an additional bonus that they can spread into cities already occupied by other religion as if there was no religion.. what about making religion spread by conquest (as it happened in real life--especial christianity and islam)

I really like your Civics RED DIAMOND, great job!

Republic looks like one of my favorites since the beginning of the game!

Although I think that +1% and +2% and +3% birthrates are pretty much useless, and most of these have no negatives (save high maintenance cost), I like your creativity and what you've done with them!

I was a little surprised you didn't really change the existing civics, namely slavery. But thanks for providing your file to download!