How to improve religions in Civ 6
#How to improve religions in Civ 6
#Greater Variety of Religions ##More Great Prophets With the current religion system, great prophets are limited to only the very early game, then cease to be a factor altogether. This leads to a scramble at the beginning, and usually losing out to the A.I. on higher difficulties. Great prophets should continue to be earned even after all the religions are founded, and could be used to initiate schisms or act as an uber apostle. City states could even be involved getting great prophets to create their own religions. ##Major Religions The largest and most influential organized religions, including all the current religions would exist as major religions.
These would come in four different types; expansionist, insular, neutral, and contracting (see attributes section).
Religious victory would only be possible when using a major or custom religion ##Minor Religions & Heresies Less prominent religions would exist as minor religions and heresies. Barbarians and city states would initiate these religions.
Any city state managing to get a great prophet would be able to found a minor religion. Minor religions could include: Druze, Yazidi, Mormon, Jain, Baha'i, Mithraism, Manitou, and Vodun. You wouldn’t be able to win a game using these religions unless you created a custom major religion using one as a template.
Major religions would have an associated heresy or minor religion that would be propagated when barbarians kill religious units, or when converted by barbarian missionaries*. Religions with historical heresies would face that heresy, such as Arianism (Christianity), Catharism (Catholicism), Khawarij (Islam), Alawites (Shia Islam), Mazdakism (Zoroastrianism), etc. Religions without a history of heresy, such as Taoism would face a more generic heresy (Gnosticism, Iconoclasm, etc.) or just a minor religion in place of a heresy.
New age religions such as Neo-Paganism, Rastafari, Scientology, and Raëlism could appear as late game heresies.
*Barbarian missionaries would have military escorts and a reduced/eliminated religion loss when killed by military units to prevent easy elimination by military means. The Cathars persevered through numerous massacres and were only eliminated through a sustained crusade and inquisition, so there is a precedent for heretic resilience against military attack.
#Attributes for Religions Several types of religions with different attributes would allow for differing playstyles depending on what group was chosen.
| Type | Religion | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Expansionist | Christianity (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant) Islam (Sunni, Shia, Sufi) Buddhism (Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana) | Very strong units and spread but prone to fracture into sects and heresy. |
| Insular | Judaism Sikhism Shintoism | Strong spread within your country, but very weak outside of it. Very stable. |
| Neutral | Confucianism Taoism Tengriism | Moderate spread and stability. |
| Contracting | Zoroastrianism Hinduism Manichaeism | Strong spread in the early game, but transitions to insular as the game progresses. |
##Expansionist Expansionist religions would be the go to for religious victory, with powerful, cheap units, and strong passive spread. However, it would be limited by being vulnerable to schisms. If the religion became dominant in a foreign country, that civilization could initiate a schism with a great prophet, converting their cities following that religion to the new sect and altering one of the beliefs. A second schism could occur if one of the sects continued to become dominant in another country. Expansionist religions would include some of the most prominent religions and their major sects such as Christianity (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant), Buddhism (Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana), and Islam (Sunni, Shia, Sufi*).
*Sufi isn’t really a separate sect in the same way the others but it’s probably a better fit than a second schism into something like Ibadi which predates Sunni and Shia.
##Insular
Insular religions would be for those who want to preserve their own religion with minimal effort, but not expand for a religious victory. This would be the default for religions like Sikhism, Judaism, and Shintoism, which haven’t spread far beyond one country/ethnicity. Within your borders, religious units would have combat bonuses and passive spread would be very strong. Outside your borders there would be combat penalties, and passive pressure would be less. This would allow you to defend from being overwhelmed by other religions but would make religious victory very difficult. Religious units would also be expensive so A.I. choosing an insular religion would be less likely and less effective at spamming you with religious units.
##Neutral
Neutral religions would be capable on all fronts but wouldn’t excel at anything. These would function most similarly to how religions currently work. This would include the philosophical religions of Taoism and Confucianism, and additionally Tengrism.
##Contracting
Contracting religions would include the religions that were once prominent over large areas but now are extinct or restricted to one region. This group would include Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and Manicheism*. These religions would be as powerful as the expansionist religions in the early game, but as time progressed they would become more neutral and finally insular in the late game. These religions wouldn’t have to contend with schisms, but they would decline in strength as the game progressed, making religious victory more difficult later on.
*[Manicheism] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeism) was a rival to early Christianity that was once widespread across central and east Asia
#Improved Religious Units ##Enhanced Combat Combat could be improved by introducing new attacking methods beyond the current melee. Apostles and missionaries could expend conversion charges to perform ranged attacks. Inquisitors and gurus could expend a charge to perform an area of effect attack that pushes back enemy units to tiles further away. ##Promotions Religious units should gain experience from religions combat that can be used for promotions. The only promotion that would be available to non-apostles would be a promotion that restores conversion charges. ##Passive Abilities Passive abilities could include increased religious pressure in cities with a religious unit stationed there. Missionaries could also perform missions when stationed in cities similarly to spies. These could include missions to spread the religion, perform political objectives, or humanitarian missions like providing food and housing.
#More Customizability More and better icons would go a long way for making customs religions. Right now all that exists are some strange animal/astrological symbols and some strangely chosen icons for the current religions (Orthodox Christianity is represented by an ornamented cross instead of a Chi Rho or Russian Orthodox cross, and Catholicism is represented by a Celtic cross). Symbols relevant to more religions like Thor’s hammer, an Init sun, Coptic cross, and a totem or dreamcatcher would be a lot more relevant for making custom religions.
When creating custom religions, one would be able to pick what attributes the religion possessed (expansionist, insular, neutral, or contracting). There could be limits to how many religions could be picked of each type to retain some variety.
Posted Aug 1, 2018, 12:18 PM UTC · edited