Dom Pedro II
Modder For Life
Religion Mod: The First Testament
(screenshots soon...)
Religion Mod Part 1
This mod comes in two parts. The first deals with the spread of religion in the game. The second deals with the effects of religion in the game.
With only a few days left until the release of BtS, I decided to embark on some much-needed changes to religion in the game since the Apostolic Palace will be adding new levels of depth to religion. There are two major complaints that I hear from people: 1) Islam comes in too late in the game, and the map is usually dominated by Buddhism and Hinduism as the two religions that can be acquired immediately after Mysticism, and 2) Great Prophets are useless after the religious shrines have been founded.
I tried to address both of these issues without actually making any changes to the religions themselves. Firaxis, ironically, opted to make religions exactly the same for the sake of not stepping on any toes, and yet they made one religion (Islam) very much inferior to the others by appearing so late, and Buddhism and Hinduism superior by appearing so early. I also find building Missionaries to be tedious although occasionally necessary. I wanted to remove them as the primary means of spreading religion.
While testing my changes, I waited as long as possible to found Christianity with the discovery of Theology, and by the late Middle Ages, all the civilizations on the continent were Christian and I didn't build a single Missionary!
How? Well, there are now more factors that contribute to spreading a religion besides just having a shrine in the holy city. Religion spread factors now include whether the target city belongs to you, whether the religion being spread is the state religion, trade routes between the spreading city and target city, whether the spreading city's owner is in a Golden Age or in the midst of anarchy, the power differences between the spreading city's owner and the target city's owner, the era the spreading player is in, techs, specialists and buildings of each. I've tried to include GlobalDefines for each of the different factors so that people can tweak it to their needs.
So one can make it that religion spreads much more slowly in the early game and really only starts spreading rapidly just before or just after Islam has been founded. Of course, this doesn't do much for the happiness and cultural bonuses a player can get early on in their cities that they won't be able to if they hold out for Islam, but it will at least make Islam competitive in terms of its reach.
Note: The file includes two text files. The reason is that I found the percentages for the state religion modifiers were pretty useless since you don't know exactly what they're modifying, so I decided to go with something a bit more pleasing to the eyes without any numerical value.
In the next phase of this mod (when it's done), I will add one new spread factor: a new Civic feature called ConvertOnConquest. Basically, a player will have a very good chance of spreading their State Religion to a city right when they conquer it and a smaller chance of removing any Non-State Religions the city might have.
I'm also including Building tags that will change War Weariness, Hurry Anger, and Military Production in cities with your State Religion.
GlobalDefines
BASE_MAX_RELIGIONS_PER_CITY - This defines how many religions can be allowed in one city. A value of 0 means no religions are allowed in a city. If a city has reached the limit, religions cannot spread automatically to the city and missionaries cannot spread religion to it manually. The only way a religion could spread beyond the max is if it was founded there. I didn't want a new religion being founded to be blocked from being in its holy city if the city had already hit the limit. This limit can be increased with techs [see below...]
BASE_MAX_RELIGIONS_SPREAD_PER_CITY - This number restricts whether a religion can spread automatically to a city if the number has been reached. So, for example, if the number is 3 religions, a new religion can spread if there were 2 religions already in the city, but it would be unable to spread there if there were already 3. A value of 0 means a religion can't spread to a city at all regardless of how many religions are already there. This maximum value can be increased with techs [see below...]
Note: Each new religion decreases the chance of a future religion spreading. The number is based on how many religions are in the game.
TRADE_ROUTE_RELIGION_SPREAD - As I said, trade routes will now help spread religion. If the two cities share a trade route with each other, this value is applied. Increasing the value increases the significance of a trade route existing between the spreading city and the target city. For this reason, choosing civics, building Wonders, and researching techs that increase trade routes will consequently increase the spread of your religions (and it will also increase the spread of religions into your lands as well). A value of 0 disables this feature.
GOLDEN_AGE_RELIGION_SPREAD - It seemed like a good idea that a civilization in the middle of a Golden Age should spread its religions more easily. It was fun starting a game with this value cranked way up and all other factors set to zero, and not see any religion spread at all... then burn two Great People and watch as my state religion spread to several cities a turn!
VASSAL_RELIGION_SPREAD - This factor increases the spread of a religion from master to vassal (but not vise versa).
ANARCHY_RELIGION_SPREAD_DIVISOR - This reduces the chance of a religion spread when the spreading civ is in the middle of Anarchy. This indirectly gives a bonus to Spiritual leaders who don't have Anarchy. A value of 2 cuts the chances of spreading a religion in half. DO NOT use a value of 0 if you want to disable this... instead use a value of 1.
PLAYER_INTERNAL_RELIGION_SPREAD - This increases the chance of a religion spreading to one's own cities. A value of 0 disables this.
STATE_RELIGION_MULTIPLIER - This only applies to the above value. A value of 2 doubles the internal religion spread value if the religion being spread is the player's State Religion.
CIV4TechInfos.xml
<iStateReligionSpreadModifier> - This increases the player's ability to spread his State Religion.
<iMaxReligionsSpreadPerCityChange> - Increases the maximum number of religions a city can have for a new religion to spread there. Negative values can work, but they won't display properly.
<iMaxReligionsPerCityChange> - Increases the maximum number of religions a city can have. Negative values work, but they won't display properly.
CIV4SpecialistInfos.xml
<iStateReligionSpreadModifier> - This increases the player's ability to spread his State Religion. This is intended to make Great Prophets more powerful after shrines are built by increasing the player's total religion-spreading ability after settling in a city.
CIV4BuildingInfos.xml
<iStateReligionSpreadModifier> - This increases the player's ability to spread his State Religion.
<iStateReligionInfluence> - This increases the influence of the player's State Religion regardless of what that might be. I've applied it in this demo to the Arab Madrassa and Hindu Mausoleum.
<BlockNonStateReligion> - This acts like a one-city Theocracy civic. A city with a building that has this tag will be immune from foreign religions spread either automatically or by missionaries. I've applied it in this demo to the Spanish Citadel.
CIV4GameSpeedInfo.xml, CIV4EraInfos.xml, CIV4WorldInfo.xml
<iReligionSpreadPercent> - I haven't tweaked these values, but each of these settings adjusts the chance for a religion spreading. This tag in the GameSpeed info modifies the "RELIGION_SPREAD_RAND" value in the GlobalDefines. So if that number is 1000, you have to roll greater than 1000 to spread the religion. A higher value increases the likelihood of failure.
The tag in the EraInfo modifies the total religion spread probability. Increasing this value will increase the spread of a religion in a particular Era (only applies to the spreading player!).
The WorldInfo might not be particularly necessary, but it modifies the distance divisor. Increasing that number will decrease the chance of successful religion spread based on the distance from the spreading city to the target city.
(screenshots soon...)
Religion Mod Part 1
This mod comes in two parts. The first deals with the spread of religion in the game. The second deals with the effects of religion in the game.
With only a few days left until the release of BtS, I decided to embark on some much-needed changes to religion in the game since the Apostolic Palace will be adding new levels of depth to religion. There are two major complaints that I hear from people: 1) Islam comes in too late in the game, and the map is usually dominated by Buddhism and Hinduism as the two religions that can be acquired immediately after Mysticism, and 2) Great Prophets are useless after the religious shrines have been founded.
I tried to address both of these issues without actually making any changes to the religions themselves. Firaxis, ironically, opted to make religions exactly the same for the sake of not stepping on any toes, and yet they made one religion (Islam) very much inferior to the others by appearing so late, and Buddhism and Hinduism superior by appearing so early. I also find building Missionaries to be tedious although occasionally necessary. I wanted to remove them as the primary means of spreading religion.
While testing my changes, I waited as long as possible to found Christianity with the discovery of Theology, and by the late Middle Ages, all the civilizations on the continent were Christian and I didn't build a single Missionary!
How? Well, there are now more factors that contribute to spreading a religion besides just having a shrine in the holy city. Religion spread factors now include whether the target city belongs to you, whether the religion being spread is the state religion, trade routes between the spreading city and target city, whether the spreading city's owner is in a Golden Age or in the midst of anarchy, the power differences between the spreading city's owner and the target city's owner, the era the spreading player is in, techs, specialists and buildings of each. I've tried to include GlobalDefines for each of the different factors so that people can tweak it to their needs.
So one can make it that religion spreads much more slowly in the early game and really only starts spreading rapidly just before or just after Islam has been founded. Of course, this doesn't do much for the happiness and cultural bonuses a player can get early on in their cities that they won't be able to if they hold out for Islam, but it will at least make Islam competitive in terms of its reach.
Note: The file includes two text files. The reason is that I found the percentages for the state religion modifiers were pretty useless since you don't know exactly what they're modifying, so I decided to go with something a bit more pleasing to the eyes without any numerical value.
In the next phase of this mod (when it's done), I will add one new spread factor: a new Civic feature called ConvertOnConquest. Basically, a player will have a very good chance of spreading their State Religion to a city right when they conquer it and a smaller chance of removing any Non-State Religions the city might have.
I'm also including Building tags that will change War Weariness, Hurry Anger, and Military Production in cities with your State Religion.
GlobalDefines
BASE_MAX_RELIGIONS_PER_CITY - This defines how many religions can be allowed in one city. A value of 0 means no religions are allowed in a city. If a city has reached the limit, religions cannot spread automatically to the city and missionaries cannot spread religion to it manually. The only way a religion could spread beyond the max is if it was founded there. I didn't want a new religion being founded to be blocked from being in its holy city if the city had already hit the limit. This limit can be increased with techs [see below...]
BASE_MAX_RELIGIONS_SPREAD_PER_CITY - This number restricts whether a religion can spread automatically to a city if the number has been reached. So, for example, if the number is 3 religions, a new religion can spread if there were 2 religions already in the city, but it would be unable to spread there if there were already 3. A value of 0 means a religion can't spread to a city at all regardless of how many religions are already there. This maximum value can be increased with techs [see below...]
Note: Each new religion decreases the chance of a future religion spreading. The number is based on how many religions are in the game.
TRADE_ROUTE_RELIGION_SPREAD - As I said, trade routes will now help spread religion. If the two cities share a trade route with each other, this value is applied. Increasing the value increases the significance of a trade route existing between the spreading city and the target city. For this reason, choosing civics, building Wonders, and researching techs that increase trade routes will consequently increase the spread of your religions (and it will also increase the spread of religions into your lands as well). A value of 0 disables this feature.
GOLDEN_AGE_RELIGION_SPREAD - It seemed like a good idea that a civilization in the middle of a Golden Age should spread its religions more easily. It was fun starting a game with this value cranked way up and all other factors set to zero, and not see any religion spread at all... then burn two Great People and watch as my state religion spread to several cities a turn!
VASSAL_RELIGION_SPREAD - This factor increases the spread of a religion from master to vassal (but not vise versa).
ANARCHY_RELIGION_SPREAD_DIVISOR - This reduces the chance of a religion spread when the spreading civ is in the middle of Anarchy. This indirectly gives a bonus to Spiritual leaders who don't have Anarchy. A value of 2 cuts the chances of spreading a religion in half. DO NOT use a value of 0 if you want to disable this... instead use a value of 1.
PLAYER_INTERNAL_RELIGION_SPREAD - This increases the chance of a religion spreading to one's own cities. A value of 0 disables this.
STATE_RELIGION_MULTIPLIER - This only applies to the above value. A value of 2 doubles the internal religion spread value if the religion being spread is the player's State Religion.
CIV4TechInfos.xml
<iStateReligionSpreadModifier> - This increases the player's ability to spread his State Religion.
<iMaxReligionsSpreadPerCityChange> - Increases the maximum number of religions a city can have for a new religion to spread there. Negative values can work, but they won't display properly.
<iMaxReligionsPerCityChange> - Increases the maximum number of religions a city can have. Negative values work, but they won't display properly.
CIV4SpecialistInfos.xml
<iStateReligionSpreadModifier> - This increases the player's ability to spread his State Religion. This is intended to make Great Prophets more powerful after shrines are built by increasing the player's total religion-spreading ability after settling in a city.
CIV4BuildingInfos.xml
<iStateReligionSpreadModifier> - This increases the player's ability to spread his State Religion.
<iStateReligionInfluence> - This increases the influence of the player's State Religion regardless of what that might be. I've applied it in this demo to the Arab Madrassa and Hindu Mausoleum.
<BlockNonStateReligion> - This acts like a one-city Theocracy civic. A city with a building that has this tag will be immune from foreign religions spread either automatically or by missionaries. I've applied it in this demo to the Spanish Citadel.
CIV4GameSpeedInfo.xml, CIV4EraInfos.xml, CIV4WorldInfo.xml
<iReligionSpreadPercent> - I haven't tweaked these values, but each of these settings adjusts the chance for a religion spreading. This tag in the GameSpeed info modifies the "RELIGION_SPREAD_RAND" value in the GlobalDefines. So if that number is 1000, you have to roll greater than 1000 to spread the religion. A higher value increases the likelihood of failure.
The tag in the EraInfo modifies the total religion spread probability. Increasing this value will increase the spread of a religion in a particular Era (only applies to the spreading player!).
The WorldInfo might not be particularly necessary, but it modifies the distance divisor. Increasing that number will decrease the chance of successful religion spread based on the distance from the spreading city to the target city.
even if it lacks originality.
