State Religion

[Villager720]

Not sure if this has ever been noted by the community yet, but I was mucking with numbers in the GlobalDefines folder in the game files and came across this:
</Row>
<Row Name="HAPPINESS_PER_CITY_WITH_STATE_RELIGION">
<Value>0</Value>
First question: Do you think this is just a relic from Civ 4 programming?
Second: If not, do you see it as a potential precursor to a new mechanic to be added in the future?

 

[Jon the Bastard]

I don't look at coding for my video games and I am certainly not savvy enough with programming to even begin to think about modding. But, what I do think is that religion will turn up in some way over the next 6 months or so. I think too many people have been calling for it to make a come back. I am actually a fan of the game the way it stands and wasn't all that sad to see religion go... but, I also wouldn't be upset if it came back either.

The short of it is: I think religion will come back in some form.

 

[Nyanko]

Someone mentioned that its a leftover from CivIV, as they just used the same xml's
Thats just what I heard though, dont know if its true or false

 

[filli_noctus]

Someone mentioned that its a leftover from CivIV, as they just used the same xml's
Thats just what I heard though, dont know if its true or false

That's one version, it's also been mentioned that a religion mechanic was being worked on but was cut as they were having trouble making it fun and balanced. As far as I'm aware no indication has yet been given if they intend to revisit it in a patch.

 

[markusbeutel]

That's one version, it's also been mentioned that a religion mechanic was being worked on but was cut as they were having trouble making it fun and balanced. As far as I'm aware no indication has yet been given if they intend to revisit it in a patch.

There's references to religion all throughout the game's code. Much of it identifies new idea's, (like "shrines" for example), and this seems to indicate that these examples are not hold-outs from CIV IV.

The Dev's have also stated on many, many occasions that Religion doesn't work with how Diplomacy functions in CIV V, and that they wanted to remove the "mechanical" element of Religion from the game and how it mainly served to create religious blocs in CIV IV.

Unless they go completely 180 degrees with Diplomacy, (they've probably gone a good 90 degrees already by adding positive modifiers and hints), I wouldn't expect to see religion make a comeback in CIV V. Adding religion would also force them to re-tool Social Policies and I don't see them doing that when they've spent all this time tweaking policies through patches to begin with.

What's more likely to happen is that religion will get added to the game through mods based on the XML and LUA that's currently in place and just waiting to be exploited.