How Should Religion Function in Civ7?

[BackseatTyrant]

I'd say little bit like in Civ IV.
Every single religion is equal, but they are real historic ones, choice is for the player to make. Buffs to happiness and culture. Extra bonuses for cities following state religion. Interactions with buidings, wonders and civics like usual.
And if you dont care about religion at all you can go for free religion from paganism.

I honestly preferred how religions were implemented in subsequent games, what with the introduction of unique bonuses and religious capital (i.e. Faith). Also didn't really like how religions got unlocked with specific technologies; that never really sat right with me. Though I do agree that state religions and religious freedom should be brought back as game mechanics

 

[Teutonic_Tirade]

I'd say little bit like in Civ IV.
Every single religion is equal, but they are real historic ones, choice is for the player to make. Buffs to happiness and culture. Extra bonuses for cities following state religion. Interactions with buidings, wonders and civics like usual.
And if you dont care about religion at all you can go for free religion from paganism.



I did enjoy Secret Societies quite a lot actually. It was pretty much always on for me in Civ VI. Just gave that little gentle prod in some direction when it was hard to choose what to go for. Sometimes it didnt do too much. I think a vampire now and then helped AI to defend a little bit better from my invasion too that made things more interesting. I would not mind something like that either.
Balance is what I am worried about, Firaxis has to nail it better I think if its so. Also I always like it be more realistic and historic. Secret Societies is actually odd ball in my taste I guess.

It seems like they did use some of the scenarios/game modes in Civ 6 to test the mechanics for 7. Barbarian Clans mode for example is basically how City States and Barbs work now. It looks like there is a plague of some sorts as a crisis from some of the screenshots, while there was a plague scenario in 6.

I would like to see some more variety in religious mechanics, with more intra-cultural focuses (tall scaling) and more extra-cultural focused (wide scaling) ones as well. There are many examples of religions that don't try to make as many converts and are tied to the culture instead. They could make the religions function in a much broader way now because it isn't a victory type any more. They could boost culture form external or internal Civ pops based on the type/beliefs they have, without having to have a 100% unique in function belief system. This would also prevent the insane micro management of some Civs and also stop random civs from spamming missionaries.