The way that religion has been incorporated into Civ has mostly not been very interesting from a game play perspective. If you invest early resources (at some opportunity cost) in claiming one, you get to choose some set of bonuses, then can decide whether to invest some resources and clicks to spread those bonuses across your empire. In Civ 6 you additionally can choose whether to invest a lot of resources and clicks to try to win by converting the world, and might need to defend against opponents pursuing a religious victory. There are choices here, to be sure, and there can be some fun combos between religion bonuses and particular Civs, but many of those choices are either made before the game starts or are somewhat obvious (some religious beliefs are just stronger in more situations than others) or lead to dull game play on larger maps (see: religious victory).
Whether you buy all of this description of how it's been, what if religion could be different in Civ VII?
Here's my rough idea. Instead of players choosing religions and deciding whether to spread them through buying and moving missionaries (and a little through trade), what if religions chose players, and players had to make decisions about whether they liked the effects on their civilization or wanted to resist them in some way? A new religion could have some probability of being created in a given part of the map on any turn through the game, and they would spread probabilistically via contact and trade and through some fitness function for a given context (e.g., competition with other religions, degree of welcome/support/resistance), meaning that religions could also die out or be replaced. There could be ways to promote religious discovery, both through eXploration of the map (independent powers might each have different religions I might like to adopt or avoid adopting according to my interactions with them) but also through fostering kinds of mystical/spiritual/religious discovery within my own population. If I want to attract a particular religion to my civilization, I might encourage contact or cultural exchange with wherever that religion is, might buy temples to that religion (increase probability that some of my population converts), or pay a religious tax to that religion, or invest in methods to suppress other religions that I don't want. Some religious effects might be net positive for my empire (whether in scientific discovery, economics, wellbeing, health, culture); other religions might have negative effects. The presence of a religion with certain attractive effects in a neighboring civ might cause me to lose population to that opponent unless I welcome that religion too, even if it has other effects I'd rather avoid. Some religions might make my population unhappy unless we go to war against civs with a different religion; other religions might be pacifist or support pluralism, and so on. The effects of religions could change over time in ways that I might or might not like, or could interact with other game mechanisms (e.g., once certain new technologies are imminent, my religion might give a particular boost [yay printing presses!] or inhibitory effect [boo nuclear bombs!]). And at any given moment, new religious movements could arise (perhaps some of them having some fitness advantages over older religions to help spread more quickly), whether through splitting of existing religions over some issue or other or just new in some way, meaning that the changing religious landscape and its dynamic effects would be something that players would be constantly having to adapt to, even in the late game.
Seems like there are all kinds of cool ways that this could go, all by taking religion out of the direct control of players and instead making it something that players have to try to harness--eXploit, even--to advance their goals.
What do you all think? Better fit for a more Paradox-style simulation game, or could it fit Civ VII as one of the major expansions?
Whether you buy all of this description of how it's been, what if religion could be different in Civ VII?
Here's my rough idea. Instead of players choosing religions and deciding whether to spread them through buying and moving missionaries (and a little through trade), what if religions chose players, and players had to make decisions about whether they liked the effects on their civilization or wanted to resist them in some way? A new religion could have some probability of being created in a given part of the map on any turn through the game, and they would spread probabilistically via contact and trade and through some fitness function for a given context (e.g., competition with other religions, degree of welcome/support/resistance), meaning that religions could also die out or be replaced. There could be ways to promote religious discovery, both through eXploration of the map (independent powers might each have different religions I might like to adopt or avoid adopting according to my interactions with them) but also through fostering kinds of mystical/spiritual/religious discovery within my own population. If I want to attract a particular religion to my civilization, I might encourage contact or cultural exchange with wherever that religion is, might buy temples to that religion (increase probability that some of my population converts), or pay a religious tax to that religion, or invest in methods to suppress other religions that I don't want. Some religious effects might be net positive for my empire (whether in scientific discovery, economics, wellbeing, health, culture); other religions might have negative effects. The presence of a religion with certain attractive effects in a neighboring civ might cause me to lose population to that opponent unless I welcome that religion too, even if it has other effects I'd rather avoid. Some religions might make my population unhappy unless we go to war against civs with a different religion; other religions might be pacifist or support pluralism, and so on. The effects of religions could change over time in ways that I might or might not like, or could interact with other game mechanisms (e.g., once certain new technologies are imminent, my religion might give a particular boost [yay printing presses!] or inhibitory effect [boo nuclear bombs!]). And at any given moment, new religious movements could arise (perhaps some of them having some fitness advantages over older religions to help spread more quickly), whether through splitting of existing religions over some issue or other or just new in some way, meaning that the changing religious landscape and its dynamic effects would be something that players would be constantly having to adapt to, even in the late game.
Seems like there are all kinds of cool ways that this could go, all by taking religion out of the direct control of players and instead making it something that players have to try to harness--eXploit, even--to advance their goals.
What do you all think? Better fit for a more Paradox-style simulation game, or could it fit Civ VII as one of the major expansions?
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