Will culture be faster and more easily obtained to reach the later policies?

[SJSerio]

One thing that I have noticed is that many of the articles indicate that religions will have an effect on diplomacy for about two-thirds of the game and for the remaining third, the focus will shift towards policies. I wonder, if that means that players will build culture faster (like Freedom, Order and Autocracy), allowing the player to more easily reach the later policies. When I have played, by the time they open up, I am lucky to break into them as there are still some policies that I am after from the earlier trees... plus you unlock new policies at fewer intervals.

Obviously, it would mean that the Cultural Victory would have to be extended to 6 trees, but I am fine with that.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Unless they add new policies or trees, I would think the answer is no just because this would dramatically affect the balance of something that I think is decently balanced at the moment.

 

[drubell]

Well there does seem to be that Flourishing of the Arts founder belief that gives 10% culture when not at war, so there seems to be options to get culture faster through religion.

 

[Babri]

Just curious whether religious bonuses would diminish once u get freedom, autocracy or order ? (it is already stated that religion will become a less driving force in diplomacy due to these later trees)

 

[Camikaze]

I agree with Louis, but I also wonder how they're going to get people onto Autocracy and Order without some sort of added incentive or allowing them to get their sooner.

 

[joncnunn]

It appears several choices in religion will increase culture per turn. So if you turn on save policies it would help for Order & Autocracy; (Freedom actually available plenty early when you build the PT and use the GS for Astronomy as unlike the other two it doesn't require Industrial era)

My guess about late game decreased religion is that most of the Religous benfits are going to be flat (add 5 gold per city) and few percentage based (like adding 25% per city).
That policy that gives gold when any city first converts is also going to be top of the list of religious policies that may typically have zero impact in the modern era (unless somebody is razing cities down and refounding in masse to "fix" bad AI placement.)

 

[Seek]

It seems likely that some of the current culture buildings will become religious buildings, so I expect that culture will be rebalanced somewhat towards the back half of the tech tree to allow for more late-game policies. I wouldn't be surprised if Piety will also be refocused to give religion points, which will help slow policy acquisition as well.

 

[Babri]

Religion -> More culture -> More policies -> Autocracy & Order more useful & perhaps buffed to make them an alternative to religious bonuses. That is what I am hoping, currently Autocracy has limited uses unless u r trying to roleplay.

 

[SJSerio]

Unless they add new policies or trees, I would think the answer is no just because this would dramatically affect the balance of something that I think is decently balanced at the moment.

I agree with Louis, but I also wonder how they're going to get people onto Autocracy and Order without some sort of added incentive or allowing them to get their sooner.

I don't agree that it is well-balanced as is since it is rather limiting. If you want to explore the Policy trees, you have to remain small (and tall... as they put it). If you want to expand, you sacrifice culture, meaning you get less policies. In games where I have reached the modern age, I have barely even cracked into the later policy trees, with still earlier trees left incomplete. The more recent patches have helped some, but it is still a struggle. You have to focus solely on Culture if you want a chance to get to the later policy trees, in my experience.

 

[Louis XXIV]

I've gotten better at playing them well. However, I will agree that I haven't used Order at all recently and, when I have the most culture, I usually need Freedom for the cultural victory (although its importance has dropped).

 

[anandus]

I think it won't matter much.

There will be a lot less culture through the buildings we now know as culture buildings, such as temples, monasteries. Although I think monument will still be a culture building.
And some UA's and such will also be reworked to be faith-based instead of culture-based.

But as long as one can gain culture through certain beliefs, we don't have to worry about us not getting enough culture.
And maybe there'll also be some additional culture buildings to compensate?

Either way, there will be additional ways to generate more culture so it'll be on par with the preG&K culture gaining.

 

[SJSerio]

True, Religion will probably provide a boost to the culture. I just hope that they don't raise the culture requirement for policies or anything. Since the last third of the game will be focused diplomatically on who has one of the latter three trees, it just seems that it is important that most players (not just those who play a specific way) will need to be able to reach those trees without sacrifising that early policy that they have been trying to get to.