Hints That Religion Won't Be Returning?

[I_qua_I]

Is anyone else interpreting some things (like how Isabella is holding a cross or how Gandhi's intro makes reference to the religions founded in India in RL) as a sure sign that religion will NOT be released in a future expansion? In the case of the former let's say there's a game where Isabella ends up founding Islam. I can't imagine a company wanting to take the risk of having a supposed founder of Islam always dragging around that Christian cross when it doesn't really need to. As for the latter, it just seems slightly awkward to think that we can read that and then 5 minutes later BAM! Judaism is founded in Delhi. What do you think?

 

[forty2j]

Is anyone else interpreting some things (like how Isabella is holding a cross or how Gandhi's intro makes reference to the religions founded in India in RL) as a sure sign that religion will NOT be released in a future expansion? In the case of the former let's say there's a game where Isabella ends up founding Islam. I can't imagine a company wanting to take the risk of having a supposed founder of Islam always dragging around that Christian cross when it doesn't really need to. As for the latter, it just seems slightly awkward to think that we can read that and then 5 minutes later BAM! Judaism is founded in Delhi. What do you think?

Of all the things...

I'm sure they can come up with new art if they need to. Maybe they'll do Isabella holding the Crescent Moon, Isabella holding a Buddha, Isabella holding a sacred cow, and so on and so forth and use the most appropriate one..

I don't know whether or not Religion will return in an expansion. But I don't think Vanilla's artwork is a barrier.

 

[lordsurya08]

Of all the things...

I'm sure they can come up with new hard if they need to. Maybe they'll do Isabella holding the Crescent Moon, Isabella holding a Buddha, Isabella holding a sacred cow, and so on and so forth and use the most appropriate one..

I don't know whether or not Religion will return in an expansion. But I don't think Vanilla's artwork is a barrier.

Being a Hindu, the "sacred cow" comment was amusing. I guess the idea of cows being sacred is the most well-known aspect of Hinduism to Westerners (so don't blame yourself for anything). I suppose Bella could hold the Vedas for Hinduism...

Back to the OP's point - you know, I think it could be true. Firaxis could have planned from the start not to reintroduce religion, but it could also be that Firaxis decided to release it via an expansion and forgot to make everything else religion-free...

 

[Truthy]

What do you make of this?

Edit: Ah, I see. They were too lazy to create new xmls so everything was simply copied from Civ IV. Anyway, I don't think that Isabella's cross is too much of a barrier to bring religion in. They can remove the cross if it's that problematic.

 

[code9]

I think they said they left some stuff in the XML from Civ4 that the game doesn't use. They were just irresponsible and left them there. I doubt religion will ever be back, thank god for that.

 

[lordsurya08]

What do you make of this?

Yes, Firaxis was so lazy that they simply copied-and-pasted the Civ 4 XMLs and used the ones they needed.

 

[lordsurya08]

What do you make of this?

Yes, Firaxis was so lazy that they simply copied-and-pasted the Civ 4 XMLs and used the ones they needed.

 

[I_qua_I]

Of all the things...

I'm sure they can come up with new art if they need to. Maybe they'll do Isabella holding the Crescent Moon, Isabella holding a Buddha, Isabella holding a sacred cow, and so on and so forth and use the most appropriate one..

I don't know whether or not Religion will return in an expansion. But I don't think Vanilla's artwork is a barrier.

I didn't mean to suggest it was a barrier. It would cost more money/time/energy to come up with each of those screens when they could have just made Isabella religion-free from the get go like everyone else. I'm understanding their conscious decision to use religion-laden artwork as a reflection of a design direction that never included religion in another form.

 

[Horizons]

My theory is that religion might be implemented with the city-states but not with civs, because Firaxis seem to be dead-set on their crappy diplomacy model.

 

[ezwip]

I think they said they left some stuff in the XML from Civ4 that the game doesn't use. They were just irresponsible and left them there. I doubt religion will ever be back, thank god for that.

They did say that but it doesn't mean it is true. If that slipped by unnoticed I still think they'd issue the statement. More likely they would say that then... oh yeah that's for the expansion pack.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

I doubt religion will ever be back, thank god for that.

Even i couldn't resist such a weird coincidence of tricky words.

OT, there's absolutely nothing in Vanilla that can prevent any religions concept into making its way in such a game.
In fact, if 1) some gameplay factors are well integrated (for any Victory conditions, at first) by design... 2) A tricky Balance between WAR & PEACE is ever found... 3) Diplomatic terminology is extrapolated to include philosophical context...

I don't see why the new Head-Designer & staff couldn't come up with worthy solutions beyond what previous titles offered us.

It's not something that *must* spread to be effective but rather a behavior principle that should influence as many features as Science, Social Growth, Politics & Economics, for example.
As a mechanic for progress - Religion sure is one of the basic foundations of Humanity's history.
Not having "it" in a civilization game is a weird contradiction at the intellectual level.
I prefer intelligent fun to *only* boring linear Kill'hem'all activities.

 

[SpearMan153]

suddenly thinking of John Lennon

 

[brxbrx]

Is anyone else interpreting some things (like how Isabella is holding a cross or how Gandhi's intro makes reference to the religions founded in India in RL) as a sure sign that religion will NOT be released in a future expansion? In the case of the former let's say there's a game where Isabella ends up founding Islam. I can't imagine a company wanting to take the risk of having a supposed founder of Islam always dragging around that Christian cross when it doesn't really need to. As for the latter, it just seems slightly awkward to think that we can read that and then 5 minutes later BAM! Judaism is founded in Delhi. What do you think?

I didn't see a jihad over civ 4.

 

[builer680]

Yes, Firaxis was so lazy that they simply copied-and-pasted the Civ 4 XMLs and used the ones they needed.

That may or may not be the case with this specific item, but I don't think so. It's true that some Civ IV stuff is still in the xmls. I think this is pretty common in any software though, old stuff from previous versions just kind of hanging around, in many cases doing nothing.

Religion was in Civ V at one point, but they removed it. Here's why. Stupid reason if you ask me, but I'm past it at this point.

I doubt it will return in an expansion because I doubt there will be an expansion. Or a sequel.

I doubt it will be in DLC because it's not easy, like just adding a new civ.

Why do something hard for $5 when you can do something easy for $5.

 

[BjoernLars]

I suppose Bella could hold the Vedas for Hinduism...

What about the Om Shanit?

 

[VGT]

What do you make of this?

You have no idea, how many lines of code become useless when software is created in some kind of development hell.
Religion stuff in code/configuration files might suggest that it will be implemented, but might also suggest, that it was planned from the beginning, but because of rushing game idea was later rejected.

 

[builer680]

You have no idea, how many lines of code become useless when software is created in some kind of development hell.
Religion stuff in code/configuration files might suggest that it will be implemented, but might also suggest, that it was planned from the beginning, but because of rushing game idea was later rejected.

It was planned from the beginning, then scrapped. See my post a couple up from here.

 

[Deussu]

Regarding the XML picture attachment, the XML files are filled with remnants of Civ4. You can find Philosophical/Financial/Industrious/Charismatic leader traits, Apostolic Palace etc...

 

[War_Pig]

Regarding the XML picture attachment, the XML files are filled with remnants of Civ4. You can find Philosophical/Financial/Industrious/Charismatic leader traits, Apostolic Palace etc...

Thinking this is most likely the case since it says "City Happiness" and we all know that's not the way of the world anymore.

 

[MkLh]

Is anyone else interpreting some things (like how Isabella is holding a cross or how Gandhi's intro makes reference to the religions founded in India in RL) as a sure sign that religion will NOT be released in a future expansion? In the case of the former let's say there's a game where Isabella ends up founding Islam. I can't imagine a company wanting to take the risk of having a supposed founder of Islam always dragging around that Christian cross when it doesn't really need to. As for the latter, it just seems slightly awkward to think that we can read that and then 5 minutes later BAM! Judaism is founded in Delhi. What do you think?

Isabella had a cross in her crown in Civ4 too while in game she was almost always a buddhist. There have been much weirder things in leaderheads than that. The real reason why religions possibly aren't coming back is that they don't fit well with the "AI playing for win" -trash. Thanks to that immersion-breaking development approach, AIs are not characters in game anymore but metagamers like a human player. Religions that affect diplomacy don't fit well with that.