JFogg
Chieftain
I've been lurking in this forum for a short time, and I've been thinking a little bit about the use of religion in the mod. I've seen proposals ranging from ditching religion altogether, to creating a new set of religions within the SMAC fiction, to using religions as substitutes for the Wealth/Power/Knowledge civic choices. Instead, I'd like to propose an alternative that I think is closer to the original SMAC spirit: using religions to represent the ideologies of each faction. Besides giving ideology a more central role in Planetfall, the main advantage of this alternative is that it allows factions to try to spread their vision of society through means short of conquest. Lal and Deidre are ideologues, yes, but crusading warfare doesn't quite fit their personalities- they would try to win hearts and minds through peaceful means.
It would work like this: there would be at least seven "ideologies" (religions), one for each of the original factions and probably for several of the Alien Crossfire human factions as well. Ideologies would not be discovered, but would exist at the beginning of the game, and would be permanently associated with a certain faction (e.g. "collectivism" for the Hive, "survivalism" for the Spartans). Every new base would automatically be given the ideology associated with its founding faction. The primary effect of having an ideology present in a base would be that the citizens would demand certain Social Engineering choices, creating positive happiness if the preferred civic were chosen and negative happiness if a different one were chosen.
At the beginning of the game, this would primarily function as an elegant way to encourage the player to choose the "right" civic type for his faction. After researching an appropriate technology, factions would be able to build "missionaries" to spread their ideology at foreign bases, which would coexist alongside that base's original ideology, just as in Civ 4. This would create a commerce bonus between the owner of the base and the owner of the new ideology, in addition to the happiness bonuses/penalties resulting from Social Engineering choices which are pleasing/hateful to that ideology. The presence of foreign ideologies in a particular base would give that base's owner an incentive to pick Social Engineering choices in line with those ideologies, which in turn means better relations with that ideology's owning faction. Peaceful ideological struggle, then, becomes both a possibility and a worthwhile goal: if Lal can convert enough of the Morganites to humanitarianism, he not only wins the friendship of that faction but also a valuable boost in base-to-base commerce.
Politics choices in the Social Engineering screen could also determine how you interact with foreign ideologies, sort of like how in BTS your Economics civic determines how you interact with Corporations. A Fundamentalist faction might be completely immune to the spread of foreign ideologies; a Police State might be threatened by them and have to resort to costly methods of stamping them out; a Democracy might be powerless to prevent their spread but suffer fewer negative consequences from having them around.
Representing religion as ideology in this way would be very consistent with the original SMAC flavor, and a great way to leverage a uniquely-Civ 4 feature to enhance the original SMAC experience. To be frank, I wish there had been an option like this in SMAC to begin with.
Please, let me know your thoughts!
It would work like this: there would be at least seven "ideologies" (religions), one for each of the original factions and probably for several of the Alien Crossfire human factions as well. Ideologies would not be discovered, but would exist at the beginning of the game, and would be permanently associated with a certain faction (e.g. "collectivism" for the Hive, "survivalism" for the Spartans). Every new base would automatically be given the ideology associated with its founding faction. The primary effect of having an ideology present in a base would be that the citizens would demand certain Social Engineering choices, creating positive happiness if the preferred civic were chosen and negative happiness if a different one were chosen.
At the beginning of the game, this would primarily function as an elegant way to encourage the player to choose the "right" civic type for his faction. After researching an appropriate technology, factions would be able to build "missionaries" to spread their ideology at foreign bases, which would coexist alongside that base's original ideology, just as in Civ 4. This would create a commerce bonus between the owner of the base and the owner of the new ideology, in addition to the happiness bonuses/penalties resulting from Social Engineering choices which are pleasing/hateful to that ideology. The presence of foreign ideologies in a particular base would give that base's owner an incentive to pick Social Engineering choices in line with those ideologies, which in turn means better relations with that ideology's owning faction. Peaceful ideological struggle, then, becomes both a possibility and a worthwhile goal: if Lal can convert enough of the Morganites to humanitarianism, he not only wins the friendship of that faction but also a valuable boost in base-to-base commerce.
Politics choices in the Social Engineering screen could also determine how you interact with foreign ideologies, sort of like how in BTS your Economics civic determines how you interact with Corporations. A Fundamentalist faction might be completely immune to the spread of foreign ideologies; a Police State might be threatened by them and have to resort to costly methods of stamping them out; a Democracy might be powerless to prevent their spread but suffer fewer negative consequences from having them around.
Representing religion as ideology in this way would be very consistent with the original SMAC flavor, and a great way to leverage a uniquely-Civ 4 feature to enhance the original SMAC experience. To be frank, I wish there had been an option like this in SMAC to begin with.
Please, let me know your thoughts!
