My input:
- works for every religion until global religion is enforced,
- when global religion is enforced, works only for that religion.
This change greatly aids tall diplomatic civs. 10 or so extra votes on a huge map can be a serious issue in winning if you can't do anything aside from taking the city with Grand Temple. Less votes on smaller maps, but it's still a lot.
It does aid them, however a civ can never gain more than 5 votes from the Grand Temple (it maxes at 5, though I might reduce this to 4 or 3). As such, I don't feel it is too much of a boost, especially considering that other civs will also have access to the wonder, and, ultimately, it gives a faith-based empire much more diplomatic power (and thus greater purpose). These values will need to be balanced, of course, but for now I think it is suitable.
Regarding the other two points, shutting off the power of the Grand Temple because of another World Religion feels too strong that's potentially a 7-vote swing in power. I think the added boosts from World Religion are enough by themselves (besides, just because another religion is dominant doesn't mean that lesser religions lose all power entirely).
Adding a trade route seems like a cool way to make it a little bit more interesting. Where will this wonder appear?
It appears in the Capital. There's no way to control this without re-writing a lot of .dll values, something I'd like to avoid. To compromise, I gave the admiralty a static +5 Gold, simulating the effects of an additional, average trade route. Isn't perfect, but it works well enough. Overall, do you feel the project is strong enough? I think I'm going to make a modern project as well on a similar theme (Military Games or something) that benefits land conquerors military conquest is not terribly well represented in the WC resolutions (in a positive way).
If not for the fact that SS parts are already produced almost exclusively via faith-bought GE pops or gold. Now gold becomes a much better option (it was hard to pop all SS parts with GEs).
Indeed, you raise a good point. I might reduce the production penalty to -25% and simply increase the baseline gold cost of the parts by 15% via xml (and the faith cost of engineers by 15%). The problem with 'balance' in this regard is that you don't want to nerf a victory strategy so much that you neuter the entire victory. I'm not out to eliminate the science victory, just to extend the victory timeline for other civs.
As I said, v.22 is still a work-in-progress. I still plan on adding the following:
- a modern-era project (military-themed)
- a late-game faith world wonder (possibly the Lotus Temple in India) that, like the Grand Temple, grants votes for faith (helping diplo players clench that last little bit of vote power needed)
- late-game national wonders for the three ideologies. Ideas for this are as follows:
Order: Palace of Science and Culture. Can only be built in capital. Grants science and culture (obviously), and one vote for every research agreement the player currently has.
Autocracy: Hall of Honor (Ehrenhalle). Can only be built in capital. Grants faith and military experience, and one vote for every two puppets.
Freedom: United Nations. Can only be built in capital. Grants tourism and happiness, and one vote for every declaration of friendship.
Thoughts?
G