RELIGION 2.1 (Hosted by Stefu)

[Harel]

Raingoon, le'ts bygone be bygone.

Someone probaly allready suggested it, by I will try anyway.

About the "virus" idea Raingoon: it's good, really it is. But isn't it about creating generic religons? Civ is about duplicating alternative histories. We use names of civ that allready existed, and build cities that allready have been built. My point is, all civ is centered about our history, which might or might not go in the same direction of our history.

We don't have technology we havn't discovered, or cities we never have dreamt of building. My point is, as much as we can wish, we need to use real religon in history: that just how civ works.

Now, I agree that using the actual names might be a bit too touchy. But, we should stick with catagorizing real religons: mono-theist or paganism, not "worship" or "evanglist".

However, I agree to disagree that we could never, ever agree on a set of SE modifactors. Who is to say what bonus should Athiesm or Polytheism get? Every person in this room would have diffeent ideas.

So, this is what I suggest: scrap the SE options, but still keep the old catagories and give religon other benefits, not SE.
I mean, like special bonuses.

Polytheism should get +100% extra from temples.

Monotheism should get +100% from churchs.

Atheism should get no hap bonus from temples/churchs, but get a double science bonus from universties.

Religous freedom gets +25% extra from all holy buildings and wonders.

I think that on this reward system we can all agree. We still pick our religon from a menu: or atleast the "declared". I agree that you should have factions and steams: most of your cities would be what you decided, but those who are very unhappy might change thier religon to something else and get the different bonuses. Then, it could spread like the virus idea, and change other civ or yours, what ever you like.

Tell me what you think.

[Maniac]

I have just noticed I forgot to answer a post of MBrazier on August 9. If you want my response...

"And now, back to the serious work of this thread. M@ni@c (BTW, do you mind if I call you Bruce?)"

If that @'s are really too tough, call me Peter.

" I do agree that unhappy people are more receptive to new doctrines in the real world. But the way you've got it set up, a few aristocrats will be able to convert a large mob of the discontented. And still worse, the same aristocrats can twist an equal number of your "revolutionaries" around their little fingers. Worst of all, the conversions would raise some of those discontented and revolutionary citizens up to contentment, making it much more difficult to convert them back. Did you intend that?"

All of that is made redundant if we use the happiness indicator of Theben.

"My suggestion that not having a state religion give a Culture bonus makes sense only if Culture affects migration and assimilation, as you had it doing originally. As you intelligently observe, the most realistic effect of "religious freedom" is to attract immigrants and weaken religious convictions -- which can be simulated exactly in your former SE terms as a Culture bonus and Nationalism penalty. I left off the Nationalism penalty for reasons of game balance, not realism."

Hmm... You have a point.

To everyone : Should I rechange Culture?

Harel :

With my system of Religion and State Religion, you can have real religions in Civ3.

[raingoon]

Instead of "virus," let's call it "the religion sim model" since this is really what it is.

Harel

Since my original post, the generic religion idea has changed to historically accurate ones. For the reason you mention.

Actually, there is an idea that the player can name or re-name the religions himself, and there is further idea that actual real-world prophets start them up... Nothing solid yet, so religion names are still on the table, but generic is out.

I like your suggested SE replacements for their simplicity. It's this or a simplified SE, something on the order of Mbrazier and M@ni@c's suggestions.

Will

Good ideas again. Leaving out what I DO agree with, here are some points I have --

2.6. Declare a defender of the faith.

This could be accomplished de facto by the appearance of a Holy City.

Funding. I think the easiest way to model this is to have religions periodically make requests/demands for lump sum donations. The player could have the choice to tithe regularly in smaller amounts. In the long run, the AI would ask for more in lump sum payments than if you tithed small amounts regularly.

Donating money to a religion should have the effect of increasing the strength of its hold on the citizenry. It should take a LOT of money, but eventually you'd notice an increased evangelist or conviction rating for that religion.

3. Interaction. How do you see Holy Cities as better when religion is small and weak? I'm thinking Vatican, etc. I still like the Holy City as a requirement for diplomatic relations, and limiting how a Holy City can emerge. You're right about the Christians and many others who were small but dealt with great civs. So what about this:

a. Diplomacy. Any religion can ask for donation (to help it grow), or defense (to prevent it from shrinking), at any time.

b. Holy Cities are required for full diplomatic relations (this represents the power of the Vatican, or the Dali Lama, etc.)

bb. Full Diplomatic relations include the ability of the religion to:

i. ask for money
ii. lend money (?)
iii.demand a jihad
iv. demand defense against a jihad
vi. demand that you cease fire/sign treaty
vii.demand missionary
viii. ask for a crusade if its Holy City is captured by a civ whose main religion is a different one.

Likewise,the player would have the ability to:

i. ask for money?
ii. ask for blessing (= happiness boost for X turns, or a boost in any morale factors)
iii. in planetary council type votes, all religions with Holy City's could have some votes and these could be bartered for.
iv. ?

Since nobody has commented on it, I'm assuming there is agreement that the unit to unit part of the model can be scrapped.
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by raingoon (edited August 11, 1999).]</font>

[MBrazier]

M@ni@c:

No, I don't really have a problem with the @ signs; I was only making a casual allusion.

"Makes 5 choices. Is that really so much? Considering you wouldn't choose Animism later on anyway, it's 4. Is that really so much and complex?

Animism : -2 Res
Religious Freedom : +2 Hap, +1 Res, -2 Nat, -1 Eva
Establishment : +2 Eva, +1 Urb, -2 Tax
Fundamentalism : +2 Nat, +1 Mor, -2 Dipl
Prosecution : +2 Pol, +2 Eva, -2 Hap"

OK, that's workable; a clear continuum of policies, with Persecution as the step past Fundamentalism, and Animism as the unstated default, discarded as soon as there are real religions to deal with.

"Could somebody point me a post where the advantages of all the people having your religion are mentioned?"

Well, one benefit has been mentioned several times by several posters. In the terms of your SE model: religious improvements affect the local Happiness. Building a temple in a city gives +X per citizen belonging to your state religion, and -X per citizen who doesn't, within that city's boundaries. (I'm not comfortable enough with your SE system to say what X should be.) Moreover, X varies according to your Religion SE setting -- under Religious Freedom it's 0, under Establishment it's at a base value, under Fundamentalism it's double that base, under Persecution it's larger yet. Thus your citizens' religion doesn't matter at all under Religious Freedom, and the more you entangle your civ with a religion, the more important your citizens' religion gets.

Will:

Your sections 1) and 4) cover what we've been discussing so far; see what I just said to M@ni@c for my thoughts on 1), and check back for my comments on "prophets" appearing on the map for an implementation of 4).

2) and 3), though, start a new subject: religious diplomacy. All your subheads are good ideas, too; herewith thoughts on each.

SUBSIDIES, ALMS, MISSIONS: Let's say that once your civ has met a religion, you have the option of sending it some of your tax funds. The rule would be that, if you pay out X gold for each current member of the religion, the religion's Evangelism rating rises by 1. That is, it costs twice as much to help out a religion with 20 members as it does one with only 10.

BLESS THE GODLY, CURSE THE INFIDEL: There should be a "threshold number" of members that a religion must reach, in order to gain diplomatic recognition and the ability to do things of this sort. OTOH a religion should definitely _remember_ what civs did to its members before it found its voice.

For this purpose we can borrow the current diplomacy system in Civ2; religions react to your general fame as the other civs do, and also have a private opinion of you based on what you've done for/to them personally. What a religion with diplomatic facilities can offer you is, naturally, the happiness of your citizens -- that is, it can tweak the Happiness in your cities by an amount proportional to the religion's local strength. This can be used either to start "golden ages" or to throw a civ into disorder.

DEUS VULT: Calling a crusade should be fairly difficult. A religion will call for invading a civ only if that civ has seriously offended the religion -- many turns of persecution, a habit of killing its clerics, etc. And it won't ask a civ to invade unless that civ has established the religion.

[Jon Miller]

Hi all

M@ni@c, I was not saying that persecution never happened, I am saying that if you have none as the state religion you would have to persecute everybody who beleives in God and everybody who does not beleif in God

that seem pretty much like everybody to me

as everybody knows sience is the name of the game, giving atheists double science from universities is a bad thing and is not realistic either

Jon Miller

[raingoon]

DANGER! Hardhat area! Post under construction!

This is not the official re-post of my original, but the work in progress. So I'm trying something new. Since this is not my model anymore but all of ours, and because it makes it easier, I'm going to post this in sections so we can attack it in parts. Then when we're done, I'll put up the final post reflecting everybody's input. Summaries for the Version 2 wishlist are due in about 10 days.

Following is section I, the nifty introductory statement, and the first part of section II, concepts.

Note contents in italics.

Everything that follows is up for debate:
_________________________________________
Civ3's Religion Sim Model (version 2.0)

I. Religion in Civ3

A. Why have it?

Religion is a fundamental force driving civilizations. The effects of religion permeate the history of nations, their borders, their wars and their treaties. Your ability to direct religion's impact is likewise varied. For the first time you will be able to identify your citizens individually by their beliefs, track the rise and fall of major religions, and affect the social mechanics that make your civilization grow and evolve over the centuries.

B. Defined.

Religion is a game element comparable to trade. Where trade deals with resources, religion deals with population.

1. Religions are synonymous with citizens. Each citizen has the ability to belong to one religion.
2. Each city is recognized as belonging to the religion practiced by the majority of its citizens.
3. Each religion has a name and a corresponding color. Colors are not the same as civ colors.
4. There can be up to twice as many religions as there are civs at any given time.
5. Religions are visible in the game in three ways:
a. as a color graph in the city window (showing your city's religious makeup), and
b. as a map showing the current religious borders of the world, as determined by cities.
c. as a cleric unit representing both a specific civ and a specific religion

II. Religious Concepts

A. origins
B. religious conversion
C. diplomacy with religions
D. government and religion

A. Origins

Prophets begin to appear in the world almost immediately after the game begins. Religions will spread immediately thereafter. After that, new religions will appear through the centuries, some never growing more than a city or two, others becoming recognized world religions. Some that are irradicated will never be heard of again; others might enjoy a revival two thousand years later.

1. Prophets
a. prophets are citizen units that become defacto clerics (see below) for five turns, then revert again.
b. prophets can appear at any time during the game.
c. an announcement: "Turywenzo has begun preaching in London" begins Turywenzism
c. prophets can appear in any city
d. a religion can re-appear with a new prophet only after its religion has previously been irradicated
e. each civ will experience the emergence of at least one prophet within the first three turns.
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by raingoon (edited August 12, 1999).]</font>

[Maniac]

"5. Religions are visible in the game in three ways:
a. as a color graph in the city window (showing your city's religious makeup), and"

A color graph? How do you mean? How can this reflect how many people follow a certain religion?
I thought each believer would have an own icon, representing the religion he has. Then it would be very easy to see how much followers a certain religion has. eg :
All Christians have some icon with a cross in it.
Muslims part of the moon and a star.
Jews David's Star.
...

[will I]

Raingoon:

Your outline looks really good so far. I have a few suggestions. To make it simple, I'm posing them as alternate language in your graph, followed by the reason for making the change.

I.B.3. Each religion shall have its own symbol -- cross for Christianity, crescent for Islam, lotus for Buddhism, T for Turywenzism, etc.

I don't think there are enough colors to give each religion a separate color. If Firaxis stays with the seven-civ model of Civ1/2, all of the primary colors and the easy blends will be claimed by civs, which will leave only various shades -- lime green, lavender, etc. -- for religions, which could be confusing.

I.B.4. At any time, there can be three more religions than there are civs. If a civ eradication of a civ leaves an excess number of religions, the smallest religion shall be eliminated and its members given to the second smallest religion.

Twice the number of civs seems a bit high if we're playing with 7 civs -- we'll quickly run out of colors/symbols.

I.B.5. Religions are visible in the game in four ways:
a. On the city screen by each member of the population holding a flag with the religious symbol on it. When the population gets too large for this to work, there will be a separate graphic showing the number of each citizen adhering to the religion.
---
d. On the main map, by the symbol of the majority religion appearing on the city flag next to the number of citizens.
I think these are self-explanatory

II.A.1. Prophets
a. Prophets are expert cleric units that are not assigned to a civ, like barbarian generals in Civ2. The prophet dies 20 turns after his/her appearance.
I'm always worried that infant religions will be too weak to survive. I think that making the prophet an expert cleric will help the religion to spread.
---
c. Prophets can appear in any city. They instantly convert one citizen; after that, conversion proceeds under the normal rules. If they are killed within the first ten turns, all of the citizens immediately convert to the religion (martyrdom).
I just want to prevent the city garrison from clobbering the prophet as soon as he/she appears.
---
e. I think your proposal is an interesting idea. Here's an alternative for consideration and debate -- each civ starts with paganism as a religion. Prophets begin appearing in 1000 B.C. That way, we won't have a war of religions interfering with early development.

[raingoon]

Will

Great idea to divvy up sections. In fact, what if we eliminate government and religion from Part II, and fold it into your Part III, "Effects of Religion?" This would leave the outline like this:

II. Religion Concepts
A. origins
B. conversion
C. diplomacy
III. Religion Effects

Regarding your points, I agree with them all BUT -- oh, yes, you guessed it -- Holy Cities. ALthough I acknowledge it's a valid way of looking at it, I was hoping between the other posts we had persuaded you. Hmmm... if you'll suffer me once more to propose:

1. All religions be allowed to ask for money and protection from the first moment they exist.

2. Only religions that reach a certain large percentage size be allowed full diplomatic presence in the game.
2a. Appearance of a Holy City signifies full diplomatic presence.

There, I said it.

M@ni@c and Will

Both of you made the same point about colors/color graphs. I like your solution of using symbols. M@ni@c, there could be a simple pie chart showing the percentages as well, and you wouldn't have to wait until there were too many to have it. I'm sure it would be easy...

[will I]

Raingoon:

I must admit to being intrigued with the idea of putting together a group religion proposal. Rather than just kibbitz from the sidelines, I'd be glad to construct part of it myself. How about a part III on the effect of religions, which would address how belonging to a religion would affect citizens, what a state religion would do to that effect, and how religious buildings would work?

To everyone:

In the meantime, I have some thoughts on the holy city question. I think we're working from different perspectives. You see the holy city as the capital of a religion, rather like the Vatican. Understandably, you believe that a religion would only get a capital if it were big enough to afford one. I see the holy city as simply a place revered by believers, and perhaps a center of scholarship -- more analogous to Geneva for early protestantism, Qum for Shi'ite Islam, or Mecca for all Islam. The holy need not be the center of religious government, but would, as a center of religious activity, give a boost to local missionary activity. I suppose either would work.

Also, some thoughts about the cleric unit for your consideration. I think we're evolving a conception of the cleric as being a cross between the Civ2 diplomat and a caravan. Like the diplomat, it would be able to take actions, such as converting a given number of citizens in a city. However, like a caravan, it could establish a link between cities that would represent the flow of evangelism from one to another. Once that link was established, the cleric would vanish from the board, and the city screens of the originating city and the receiving city would show the existence of the mission). For the sake of discussion, I propose that we refer to that link as a "mission." (We might also want a cleric to be able to prevent the establishment of a mission or eliminate a mission already established.)

I read your reply to my thoughts on funding. I think that regardless of the mechanism we choose for giving money to a religion, we also need to have a mechanism for determining how much money the religion needs. I would propose that the religion's monetary needs be a function of (1) the number of believers, (2) the number of clerics and missions that the religion supports, (3) whether the religion also has a holy city to support, and (4) whether the religion is currently on a jihad or crusade.

The effect of a mission would be different from a trade route, in that the closer the mission, the larger the level of evangelism. To limit the use of clerics, I would also restrict each city to sending three missions and receiving three missions. (Should we make a special rule that a holy city could send six missions and receive none?)

This concept plays into my most recent idea for religious improvements. As in Civ2, a temple or cathedral would increase the happiness level in a city (or perhaps productivity or some other stat). I propose that, in addition, if there is a mission from a religion in that city, the citizens of that religion get an added happiness or productivity boost. If one religion is the established church, citizens of other religions would not get the happiness/productivity boost from their church's mission. If one religion is the exclusive religion, citizens of other religions would suffer a happiness/productivity penalty. I think this is an elegant way of having religion-specific happiness effects without requiring a religious building for each church.

[CormacMacArt]

I know that you have not gotten to this part of your outline, but for the sake of adding more fuel to the fire, here are some old ideas resurrected. Oh, by the way its PERSECUTION not prosecution.(E for U - oops!, Thanks M@ni@c!)

A suggestion made by several people (including myself) at the Apolyton forum is that AI player religions crop up randomly over time. A civ gets to set its attitude towards that religion, which depending on the % of cities (a city is not devided up between religions) that converts to said religion helps determine the city's happiness. The religions will have their own qualities:

Outlook on war
Militant
Neutral
Pacifistic

Evangelizm

Evangelstic
Normal
Non-Evangelstic(like Judiasm)

Tolerance (also a measure of conviction)

Open (all religions are different flavors of the same ice cream)
Tolerant (your wrong, but I won't kill you for it)
Intolerant (DIE!!)

What these religions are called in the rules.txt is irrelavent because we can all edit it, but I would favor the use of dead religions. Theocracies would be possible with the advent of the first religion, which I favor the idea that for a limited time a monarchy would be able to create a state religion with the king as god.

I am not sure how you have defined clerics, but I would also propose "missionaries" whos stats reflect their religions. Therefore a militant religion will be able to produce out of its cities fanatics with the capabilty of terrorism for use in a holy war.

<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by CormacMacArt (edited August 16, 1999).]</font>

[will I]

Here's my contribution to the Grand Scheme:

III. Effects of religion

A. Generation of happiness

1. Using current system.
a. Each time a new religion enters a city, the least happy citizen is the first to convert. The first convert takes one upward step in happiness, that is, from unhappy to content or from content to happy. This effect continues indefinitely, so that each religion present in a city adds step to the base happiness level of the city.
b. When one religion obtains a majority in a city, the least happy adherent of that religion gets a step upward in happiness.

2. Under alternate systems. Several people have proposed systems under which happiness becomes a percentage factor for each city that affects the productivity, and is not an attribute of the citizens. Under such systems, the conversion of one citizen to a new religion would increase the overall happiness/productivity percentage. When one religion attained majority status in a city, one of that religion's citizens would gain a step in happiness.

3. Age of Faith. The effects of religion would be greater during the Age of Faith, which would last either from 0-1500 AD, or from the discovery of religion to the discovery of electronics. When one religion attained majority status in a city, two of that religion's citizens would gain a step in happiness. When all of a city's citizens belonged to the same religion, one citizen would gain a step in happiness.

B. Effect of government on religion: Each civ will have the option of taking several specific actions with regard to religion:

1. Toleration. Under this system, the benefits associated with religion are unchanged from those laid out in section A.

2. Establish a state church. Under this system, the state picks one church as its official religion, but does not disfavor other religions.

a. The state agrees to pay all expenses of the established church, which takes the form of a tithe out of annual income. (See below for quantity of tithe.)
b. In return, the church supports the government's program, which results in one unhappy citizen becoming content for every four believers in each city. If a different happiness/productivity system is adopted, proclamation of a state religion increases a city (or civilization) happiness/productivity level by a factor of 25 percent times the proportion of citizens who belong to the state religion.
c. The established church's conversion factor increases by 10 percent for all conversion activities within the borders of that civ.
d. Any positive effects that other religions have on happiness are eliminated.
e. Deestablishing the church. A civ may deestablish a church at any time. However, deestablishment shall result in a period of civil disorder for two turns.

3. Persecution. Under this system, belonging to the persecuted religion is illegal. A government may persecute one or all religions.
a. A persecuted religion's conversion factor is reduced by 25 percent for all conversion activities within the borders of the persecuting civ.
b. The civ's overall research output declines by 25 percent.
c. In each city that contains members of the persecuted religion, 1.5 content citizens become unhappy for each member of the persecuted religion, reflecting the unhappiness of the persecutees and their friends. (Under a revised happiness/productivity system, persecution results in a decrease in a city or civitlization happiness/productivity level by 25 percent times the proportion of citizens who are subject to persecution.) The city's the research output decreases by 25 percent to reflect the effect of intolerance.
d. Persecution has no positive effect other than those that result from the increase in the number of adherents to the state religion.
e. If a civ that persecutes a religion, its reputation with any civ that has chosen that religion as its state religion will worsen.

4. Multiple civs with the same state church.
a. A civ may establish a religion as its state church even if another civ has already made that religion its state church. In such cases, the religion will not take any action against either of the civs, and will remain neutral in any conflict between them.
b. Any civ that has established a church may call for a Church Council. Each civ with citizens who belong to the religion shall have a base number of votes equal to the number of citizens who are members of the religion, regardless of whether it is a state religion. A civ that has made the religion its state church shall have extra votes. The church hierarchy shall also have extra votes, which will be cast in favor of the civ that has the best reputation with that religion. The Church Council may expel a civ from the religion with the support of 75 percent of the votes. It may also name a Defender of the Faith with 75 percent of the votes.
c. A civ that is expelled from a religion may adopt any other extant religion as its state religion without penalty. 75 percent of the citizens of the old church will convert to the new church, while 25 percent will remain faithful to the old church. In any civ voting for expulsion, 25 percent of the members of the old religion will convert to the new religion. The remainder will stay faithful.
d. A civ that loses an election for defender of the faith may declare a Schism. It will then become a separate religion or, if there is no open religion spot, merge with any one of the established religions. The penalties will be the same as in the case of an expulsion.

C. Religious improvements.

1. Types. The types of religious improvements remain the same as in Civ1/2 and may be built by any civ that has obtained the necessary technologies. If the current system is maintained, the effects shall be the same.

2. Effect of missions. In addition, a mission in a city with a religious improvement will increase the happiness level of the believers. Under the traditional system, in a city with a temple, the least happy citizen will get a one-step boost in happiness for each religion that is hosting a mission and has more than three believers. (Hosting a mission means that the religion has sent a cleric to that city and established a mission.) In a city with a cathedral, each religion that is hosting a mission and has more than three believers will result in a one-step boost in the happiness of the least happy citizen. For each religion that has a mission and six believers, the two least happy citizens will both have a one-step boost in happiness. Under an alternate system, temples and cathedrals will result in an increase in the happiness/productivity levels of the city in which they are located.

3. Effect of state religion. Proclamation of a state religion will double the effect of temples and cathedrals for citizens who adhere to the state religion and eliminate the effect of temples and cathedrals for all other religions.

<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by will (edited August 13, 1999).]</font>
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by will (edited August 16, 1999).]</font>
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by will (edited August 16, 1999).]</font>
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by will (edited August 17, 1999).]</font>

[will I]

Raingoon:

On the Holy City issue: I don't think that our ideas of Holy Cities are incompatible. I can see your point that it makes sense that when a religion hits the big time, there be some change in its status to represent its greater presence as a global player and a location for it to conduct business. However, it would also make sense that before that time, certain cities associated with the religion's history be considered especially sacred, and that these cities would also have a role in the spread of the religion. Think, for example, of the fact that while Rome is the Holy City of Catholicism, Guadalupe and Compostela are in some ways equally important as centers of devotion. Geneva played a similar role in the spread of Calvinism.

Perhaps before a holy city is proclaimed, the city where the religion began can be considered the Central Shrine, and have some effect on conversion.

On an unrelated topic, we should probably consider whether a religious victory is possible. Although our world has never had one, there has been religious uniformity over territories that are included in particular scenarios, like the Mediterranean World.

[raingoon]

Will

Re "holy cities", that works for me generally. There could be some sort of "pilgrim" rule -- like, "Turywenzo born, worshippers make pilgrimage to Orleans" and for the next 20 turns either the prophet rule is in effect for Orleans, or the city itself can have a further reaching radius, or both.

This makes me think it would be simpler not to have the prophet appear as a unit on the map moving around, but go back to the idea of him/her being a citizen temporarily converted but staying inside the city, and increase the reach of that city for 20 turns.

Victory Condition -- yes, world domination has been discussed, and suggested that it should be very hard to accomplish but is still very possible.

Some first reactions to your Effects of Religion section...

1.a. Each time a new religion enters a city, the least happy citizen is the first to convert.

I would sub-title(1) just "Happiness" (and for the sake of simplicity, leave out the alternative models -- people can substitute and still see how it would work.

But question -- how can we know who is the least happy citizen? Think I need to understand that before commenting further here.

3. Age of Faith. The effects of religion would be greater during the Age of Faith, which would last either from 0-1500 AD, or from the discovery of religion to the discovery of electronics.

A good idea... I like the discovery of religion to electronics better than the years. Although does it make sense that the discovery of religion can come AFTER a prophet appears? Perhaps a prophet cannot come before 1000 BC AND not before the discovery of religion.

When one religion attained majority status in a city, two of that religion's citizens would gain a step in happiness. During that period, a city that had a majority of its citizens belonging to the same religion would have one citizen gain a step in happiness.

Is this every turn? Just once? I don't know if I understand "during that period"?

2. Establish a state church. Under this system, the state picks one church as its official religion, but does not disfavor other religions.

I agree with all your bullets here. Just wondering if Mbrazier had anything to add from his earlier posts...

Also -- are these choices exclusive? It seems you're saying one can choose a state religion and also repress at the same time. Which makes sense...

3 a. A persecuted religion's conversion factor is reduced by 10 percent for all conversion activities within the borders of the persecuting civ.

Is 10 percent enough considering the cost of doing this? Since it's affecting the conversion values, not the citizens directly, maybe 25% would be better? It seems repression is a tool to help you have one religion in your civ, which by state religion rules would of course be desirable.

So basically the three things you can do toward religion in the game is encourage its growth (state religion), make it shrink (repression) or "laize faire" (toleration). And the thrust of religion in terms of playing the game is choosing which one will be your state religion and trying to maximize the benefit of that.

4. Deestablishing the church. A civ may deestablish a church at any time. However, deestablishment shall result in a period of civil disorder for two turns.

This refers to state religions, I assume? I.e., "a civ may de-establish their state religion..." In which case, it might be a better sub-point under state religions.

5b. Any civ that has established a church may call for a Church Council.

Regarding church councils, this is a new idea. Will it compete with any "U.N/ planetary type council"? Couldn't this be done better with the "Holy City"(capitol)? Essentially, if you want to get another civ to de-establish their state religion, you could negotiate with that religion to get them to decree that. Possessing that Holy City AND running a state religion would give you a diplomatic edge in this, obviously.

2. Effect of missions.

Glad to see this getting clarified...

Good stuff here. Let's see what others are saying. I've already incorporated the changes made to section I. I'll get the rest of II up this weekend.

[Maniac]

Will :

Tell me if I get this completely wrong.

Introduction

"a. Each time a new religion enters a city, the least happy citizen is the first to convert. The first convert takes one upward step in happiness, that is, from unhappy to content or from content to happy. This effect continues indefinitely, so that each religion present in a city adds step to the base happiness level of the city."

So if I get this right, every different relgion makes one unhappy person content?
So the more different religions in a city, the happier?
Then I totally loose the point of letting your citizens have the same religion.

"3. Age of Faith. The effects of religion would be greater during the Age of Faith, which would last either from 0-1500 AD, or from the discovery of religion to the discovery of electronics. When one religion attained majority status in a city, two of that religion's citizens would gain a step in happiness. During that period, a city that had a majority of its citizens belonging to the same religion would have one citizen gain a step in happiness. When all of a city's citizens belonged to the same religion, one citizen would gain a step in happiness."

No, there shouldn't be an Age of Faith.
It's not because the Muslims have electronics, that they should believe less.

If you want to simulate the loss of importance of religions, become Religious Freedom (don't have a State Religion) or become Atheism(Religion option please?).

Established

"a. The state agrees to pay all expenses of the established church, which takes the form of a tithe out of annual income. (See below for quantity of tithe.)
"

I know Will you are against my SE Religion Category, but the loss of money by Established Church can simply be represented as -2 Taxes in my SE system.

"b. In return, the church supports the government's program, which results in one unhappy citizen becoming content for every four believers in each city."

No there are already enough unhappiness squelching city improvements in civ.
I suggest one extra Happy citizen per four citizens.
There is a lack of happiness creating things in civ.

Repression

Have you got something against the name Prosecution?
(BTW Cartagia, I checked in the dictionary. It is PROsecution. Perhaps some difference between British and American English?)

"b. The civ's overall research output declines by 25 percent.
"

Can again be represented by my Research SE factor.

"1.5 content citizens become unhappy for each member of the persecuted religion, reflecting the unhappiness of the persecutees and their friends. "

Don't make it too hard.
Just say every prosecuted citizen gets one level lower happiness rate.

So that means that prosecuted citizens that already were unhappy now become very unhappy.
= Revolutionaries.

"d. Persecution has no positive effect other than those that result from the increase in the number of adherents to the state religion.
"

I would give it +2 Police = the manner the government tries to suppress all that prosecuted people.

"The Church Council may expel a civ from the religion with the support of 75 percent of the votes.
"

Give me one example of a religious leader forbidding people to follow his religion.

Now, what is more realistic is an Excommunication option in the council.
Then all the citizens of that religion would become unhappier.

Another option FOR YOU, not the Church Council, could be Schisma and form a new religion.
Then 75% of the old believers should follow you in the newly created religion.
25% you have to convert, prosecute or whatever.

That way Protestantism can be simulated.

Schisma could be nice if the Church becomes too annoying.
Schisma is handy if a large part of your population already has the same religion and you don't want to waste centuries converting them to another State Religion.
Just Schisma and 75% of your old State Religion believers is instantly converted.


You don't seem to have foreign conversion modifiers. Only a positive for your Established State Religion and a negative for the prosecuted religions.
But that is only in your civ.

Has there been a big misunderstanding?
I hope Clerics are not the only way to convert other civ's citizens.