Why change state religion?

[Clownfish]

What's the point? Now, when I've already spread Hinduism to all my cities, I felt reluctant to even research in Divine Right. What's the point in founding a new religion? What is it good for? Changing state religion to islam when all cities are hindu wouldn't be appreciated, would it?

 

[Willburn]

Well lets say all the ai's had hinduism and you got christianity. Later you got a city with hinudism. You might want to change to hinduism to get the diplomacy bonus from the AI's. There is probably more examples.

 

[pholkhero]

also, w/divine right, you could discover it so the AI does not...the AI will switch to a religion that IT founds so if one of the Hindu's found Islam, they'll convert and you'll lose an ally...

also, DR is a good tech for trading to gain some techs you missed

but, there won't be any penalty w/in your Hindu cities for founding Islam

 

[cabert]

the switch from religion A to religion B can have two reasons:
- best bonus in your cities (this means there are more cities with religion B than with religion A, or that a particular city needs the bonus, has B and doesn't have A. Pacifism is the best example where you could choose rel B for just one city, the GP farm)
- relations with AIs (as far as i know, human players don't get the modifiers ) : you need good relation to trade, to bribe for war, to avoid being attacked, ..., and the religious modifier can be the easiest way to get there.

There is no point in switching to the newest religion, as far as i can see.
I can imagine you want your new religion to spread, and when in theocracy you may need to switch for this to happen, but you would lose all the bonus from theo, doing this... Bad move, IMHO.

 

[wurm657]

If your State Religion is well established, there really is no reason to change.
However, the more Religions you can found the more options you have. Religious Shrines can bring in a decent amount of cash through Missionaries. A variety of Religions in a City can help with Culture and Happieness, and there's always the satisfaction of doing it so the AI can't.
If your State Religion is one founded elsewhere and you found a Religion, that would be the time to consider switching after spreading it around. Only my opinion though.

 

[Clownfish]

Thanx for the quick answers, guys!

 

[cabert]

If your State Religion is one founded elsewhere and you found a Religion, that would be the time to consider switching after spreading it around. Only my opinion though.

What's the gain?
spreading the new religion to get the max $ is good, but switching isn't going to improve anything!

 

[fortytwo]

If there are 2 or mroe religions in my empire, I tend to spread them to every city, if for only the sake of having their cathedrals. If a Civ asks me to convert and I have that religion in all my cities anyway, then I say sure. Unless, of course, I'm trying to goad them into invading me.

 

[scooter]

What's the gain?
spreading the new religion to get the max $ is good, but switching isn't going to improve anything!

I think what wurm is saying is if the religon you currently have as your state religon is not the one YOU founded, and you found one, you could switch and spread it, but the only point in doing that is if you get a great prophet to build the religon's shrine. So there is not point UNLESS you have a great prophet on hand. Then that gold from the shrine is valuable.

 

[cabert]

I think what wurm is saying is if the religon you currently have as your state religon is not the one YOU founded, and you found one, you could switch and spread it, but the only point in doing that is if you get a great prophet to build the religon's shrine. So there is not point UNLESS you have a great prophet on hand. Then that gold from the shrine is valuable.

Even if you have that Great Prophet, and have the shrine built, you don't need the new religion to be the state religion to get the cash.
You spread the religion, and get the cash. No point in changing.