:. Make national religion more meaningful

Government type has effects besides the happiness bonus, so why not religion? Shouldn't you be able to weigh positive and negative effects rather than just guessing until you answer correctly?

NOTE: I'm not very experienced, so a lot of these numbers are probably going to need tweaking.
ALSO NOTE: There have been several complaints about the offensive nature of many of the effects listed here (particularly Islam's increased soldier count), so I have edited it such that most of the effects have nothing to do with the religion they are connected to, so anything offensive still remaining is as unintentional as possible.

Here are my ideas...

Baha'i Faith:
Happiness +1
Population -2%
[Your citizens are happier, but there are less of them]

Buddhism:
Happiness -1
Population +2%
[Your have more citizens, but they are less happy]

Christianity:
Improvement cost -2%
Infrastructure cost +4%
Land cost +4%
National wonder cost -1%
Nuke cost -2%
Soldier cost +4%
Tank cost +3%
Technology cost -5%
[Big things are cheaper, small things are more expensive]

Confucianism:
Improvement cost +5%
Infrastructure cost -1%
Land cost -1%
National wonder cost +5%
Nuke cost +5%
Soldier cost -1%
Tank cost -1%
Technology cost +5%
[Small things are cheaper, big things are more expensive]

Hinduism:
Infrastructure cost -3%
Infrastructure upkeep cost +4%
[Infrastructure is cheaper, but maintaining it is more expensive]

Islam:
Infrastructure cost +3%
Infrastructure upkeep cost -4%
[Maintaining infrastructure is cheaper, but buying more is more expensive]

Jainism:
Cruise missile upkeep cost -1%
Income -$0.01 per citizen.
Infrastructure upkeep cost -1%
Nuke upkeep cost -1%
Soldier upkeep cost -1%
Tank upkeep cost -1%
[Bills are decreased, but so are taxes]

Judaism:
Land cost +3%
Natural growth +5%
Negates all effects of the Pigs resource, but doubles them for trading partners giving Pigs, and triples them for trading partners receiving Pigs (an indicator would be required to show the altered status of the resource.)
[Land grows more, but buying it directly is more expensive; Pigs change from a resource to a bargaining chip]

Mixed:
Mixed shouldn't have any effects besides the happiness bonus, but if it has to do something, it should be a combination of all the other variable changes.

None:
Decreases the effects of bonus resources by 25%.
Increases the effects of normal resources by 5%.
[Normal resources are better, bonus resources are worse]

Norse:
Cruise missile upkeep cost +1%
Income +$0.01 per citizen.
Infrastructure upkeep cost +1%
Nuke upkeep cost +1%
Soldier upkeep cost +1%
Tank upkeep cost +1%
[Taxes are increased, but so are bills]

Shinto:
Population -2%, +1 for every 2 weeks Shinto has ever been the nation's religion up to 5.

Sikhism:
Happiness -2, +1 for every 2 weeks Sikhism has ever been the nation's religion up to 5.

Taoism:
Land -5%, +1 for each week Taoism has ever been the nation's religion up to 10.

Voodoo:
Infrastructure upkeep cost +2%, -1 for every 2 weeks Voodoo has ever been the nation's religion up to 5.

This post has been edited by Muffinator on Aug 2 2007, 08:08 PM

That sounds like a great idea, but some of the stuff like the -12% shouldn't be so high. Since it is only religion it should be down to about an 8% or so. I think it all sounds good though. It would take some research for a few of the religions; however, I'd say it's all worth it.

It's been discussed before and I believe the consensus was that religion is just to problematic of a topic to add bonuses or negatives too. Too easy to offend...

Hinduism could be like Judaism but with cattle.

Islam gets a soldier bonus.
Isn't that a bit racist?
Are you saying all muslims are militant?

no to the suggestion as is.

the only way i could imagine is, to give a nation a 0.5 happyness bonus when trading with a nation with the same religion. ppl understand each others religious feelings and demands better, and can therefore adapt better to each others needs, increasing the profit from the trading a bit.

Just what I thought. The problem is people are so easily offended that Admin would get endless complaints about how racist he is.

I do have an idea for religions though.

Buddhism. When in times of peace (No wars) you get a little bonus. Like +2 happiness.

Norse. When in time of war you get +2 happiness but -2% Population.

Confucianism. Increases your Literacy Rate by 3% and doubles the effects of scholars.

Voodoo. Decreases the Population Happiness of a nation you're at war with by 2.

None. -2 Happiness but +6 income.

Can't think of anything for the others. Just try to be as inoffensive as you can. Religion is a heavy subject.

I like it, but they only for this to work with our offending anyone who places the game is to have like only positive gain.
EX:
Islam: Gives you more soliders
Christianity: +5 population happiness

No the islam part of your post would offend. Just give Islam.

-5% on the price of tech. That'll do. Also Christianity is way overpowered.

That, IMO, is a much better suggestion.

I tried thinking of things that would work in the direction the OP was suggesting, to fill in the gaps... things like -5% on infra upkeep costs for Confucianism, reducing the Peace Mode happiness penalties for Baha'i, etc.

But I think (DAC)Syzygy is right... it's just going to end up insulting or hurting the feelings of some folk. Especially if we start going for penalties for certain religions. I think it would take all of Admin's wisdom to balance it out without creating an outcry from someone.

I also think that (DAC)Syzygy idea is good. However things like infra cost reduction would not really offend anyone.

I see what you are trying to do. Unfortunately, it comes off as stereotypical, and you have not done enough research for this to be a meaningful suggestion.

I'M SO OFFENDED.

It's not a bad idea because it's offensive. But it's still a bad idea.

Sorry if it came off that way; perhaps my subconscious was steering my ideas that way...
It's just that I was using this (the first suggestion I after have ever suggested) as a facet for little things that I thought would be interesting; you get more soldiers but at the same time the upkeep cost is increased, so you have to spend more money on the product you're receiving; soldiers are the only thing this applies to, aside from other military purchases.

Though the thing about Pigs in Judaism was derived from it. :lol:


From what I understand, there seems to be a general consensus that religion doing something is a good idea but can't be implemented because it will inevitably offend people.

I know how to rectify this! :)
With the exception of Judaism's Pigs effects (I doubt anyone's going to be offended by a reference to kosher) all effects of religions should be completely random and disconnected. That way, every religion can do something unique without offending anyone (unless random selection winds up with things like Islam still having soldier related effects, but this would be rectified at the sight of a single complaint.)
I will begin editing the first post this way.

The benefits (if any) to be added to religions need to be kept small since this is often dictated by random population desires, rather than actually controlled by the player...

I agree with this post. This topic has been made multiple times before and most people agreed adding effects to religion is unfair and just doesn't work.

maybe not that meaningful... but have some kind of +,- nothing too extreme...

Devently add some kind of +. I have an idea for none by the way.

How about if you if your citizens worked a little harder if they have no religion but say get a -1 happiness penalty.

You guys are just made because your religions suck. :awesome:

See your avatar to know what I think about that post of yours.