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The New York Times last week had an interesting article about Corruption and Religion -- revisiting the idea of the "protestant" work ethic, and suggesting the closest modern equivalent is in buddhist / confucionist influenced populations.
A few thoughts on how religion might play out:
1. have states make a choice, with the opportunity starting in the second era, on separating church and state. Not doing so could bolster unit probability of winning and provide some reward to expansionist civilizations (e.g., like the Arabs sweeping across Africa and Asia on the wings of Islam in the 6th through 13th centuries). Making the switch could lend some benefit to research and, taking one of the other ideas I just read, might lead the AI to generate missionary spies on behalf of a your particular religion without you having to pay.
2. Religion could serve as a separate factor from culture, or multiplier for culture (in fact, culture in reality is mostly ethnic affinity, religion, and language, isn't it?) -- so if a neighboring city has been evangelized it would be more likely to flip. Your religion taking hold in another player's recently conquered city could also increase the likelihood of that city revolting, or could undermine its productivity (ala the corruption penalty in Civ III)
3. Give states a window in the 3rd or 4th era to have a Reformation (like a revolution). The upside would be scientific breakthrough benefits and more culture points. The downside would be a period of diminished productivity and greater possibility of civil wars (which should probably be a bigger part of the game to make it a bit more realistic -- will put this in another post).
If states do not split church from state and/or have a reformation within the allocated window, they can't go to democracy, master scientific concepts through their own research (though espionage and conquest might still work).
4. Could also set it so that failure to keep investing in research (i.e., later in the game when it is tempting to turn off instead of going for future technologies) leading to emergence of Zealotry, with deleterious economic consequences, upping the hatred level of other civs, increasing some terrorism factor (more realistic than volcanoes), and maybe increasing the likelihood of revolts or plagues.
A few thoughts on how religion might play out:
1. have states make a choice, with the opportunity starting in the second era, on separating church and state. Not doing so could bolster unit probability of winning and provide some reward to expansionist civilizations (e.g., like the Arabs sweeping across Africa and Asia on the wings of Islam in the 6th through 13th centuries). Making the switch could lend some benefit to research and, taking one of the other ideas I just read, might lead the AI to generate missionary spies on behalf of a your particular religion without you having to pay.
2. Religion could serve as a separate factor from culture, or multiplier for culture (in fact, culture in reality is mostly ethnic affinity, religion, and language, isn't it?) -- so if a neighboring city has been evangelized it would be more likely to flip. Your religion taking hold in another player's recently conquered city could also increase the likelihood of that city revolting, or could undermine its productivity (ala the corruption penalty in Civ III)
3. Give states a window in the 3rd or 4th era to have a Reformation (like a revolution). The upside would be scientific breakthrough benefits and more culture points. The downside would be a period of diminished productivity and greater possibility of civil wars (which should probably be a bigger part of the game to make it a bit more realistic -- will put this in another post).
If states do not split church from state and/or have a reformation within the allocated window, they can't go to democracy, master scientific concepts through their own research (though espionage and conquest might still work).
4. Could also set it so that failure to keep investing in research (i.e., later in the game when it is tempting to turn off instead of going for future technologies) leading to emergence of Zealotry, with deleterious economic consequences, upping the hatred level of other civs, increasing some terrorism factor (more realistic than volcanoes), and maybe increasing the likelihood of revolts or plagues.
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