Men fearful of the unknown, people eager of feeling special or of in need of power/control, people in need of justification for good actions in this life that don't benefit him instead of just being selfish... Fantasy by all means.

Ups double post

Yes.

In Civilization 4.

Edit: I think Fall from Heaven 2 is a better example of a religion-mechanic, even though it is marred by similar issues as those that exists in the main Civ4. Religion has tangible benefits and is an integral part of any overreaching tactic, and it is possible for you to control the spread of religion, either by exporting it in a variety of ways (to serve your purpose) or to clean out opposing religions (Pogroms! Pogroms for all! Come get your pogroms! 50% off on first purchase!) with Inquisitors.

I'd expect Taoism inspiring philosophies and not religions. Being a way of life.

Hoping for some kind of animism too.

At a purely game level - build a temple - please the people.  Build the right temple, please your neighbors a little.  if your neighbors build the wrong temple - you have an excuse to kill all the non believers in a neighboring kingdom.  How can you tell the believers from the non believers?  no idea? - kill them all and let the gods decide

some buildings and skills would also be cool.

 

 

Plato was doing religion then? Religions are control forms based on a supreme authority/entity/power, priests being the arbiters between the divine and the mundane which obviously grants them lots of power in societies where other kind of social structures hasn't been developed yet (except those ones who expand in all the areas of a society so they can have total control of it and perpetuate themselves ad astra).

I'll concede to the second definition but not to the Wikipedia one.

Also, Benjamin Franklin was origin of something that would become the most powerful philosophy. Get his ideals, strip them from religious values and what do you get? Capitalism. Or should we consider Capitalism a religion too? Jedi are considered religion in some State of the USA or so I heard.

Jedi... Hmmm Can we have Cheddar Monks in Elemental?

Your judeo-christian outlook betrays you again; religion doesn't even necessitate the existance of priests, or control mechanisms, they just tend to have them for a variety of reasons. In many older societies, there weren't even a distinction between the chief and the priest, whilst in others the elder(s) acted as spiritual guides and advisors. One example of a theistic society that weren't oppressed by religion that I enjoy bringing up was the ancient norse, where the stories of the gods and the lessons taught often had much more meaning than the divine personas themselves, and all gods were presented as aspects of man.

And yes, Plato did dabble in religious philosophy, even if I doubt that he defined it as such himself. A lot of philosophy blurs the line between the human and the divine, and deals with it. Many philosophers, including Plato, were religious and proponents of a wide range of religions, and used that outlook in their philosophies.

Plato was thus "doing religion" in the sense that his philosophies touched on the religious, but in no way or form did he propagate or create his own religion. He was merely operating within the confines of his own.

Which is fair enough, because the wikipedia article doesn't offer a definition in that excerpt, it merely offers a general outlook on religion that is very inclusive. The definition is the one from the dictionary, which also happens to be the first paragraph of the wikipedia article.

Heh, funny you should mention capitalism, since it is entirely possible to call capitalism a form of religion, depending on your definition of capitalism (which is, I've found, very diverse). Worshipping monetary wealth and economic progress, satisfaction of the own ego held in high regard, the fullfillment of the self, consumerism as the meaning of life and materialism as the sole judge of earthly value - it quickly starts to sound like a religion. Almost like a.. secular religion.

The UK, if I'm not mistaken.

Also, no.

As soon as I mod in the "God-King" civilization option, that is.

  strager, I hope the system you envisage will be capable of representing gods and goddesses.  Much like the Deities and Demigods from DnD.  So not only could you be worshipping a cult figure or a abstract religious principles but you could also have the manifestation of a deity/deities or their representatives evolve in the game. 

  Early religious techs could be something like-

  Founding the religion=receive 2 essence, Prestige.  Random # of followers in faction who take to the new 'faith'                            

  Increase of city size(if religion founded in city) to accomodate temple(s)

  Gain access to priest units

  Medium religious techs-

  Priest can convert through honesty, guile or force.  Converted join your faction.

  Temple Complex(allows for large number of followers, High Priests, Prestige)

  Temple Guards(special units that would have some added benefits for combat, units could be unique to each religion

  High level religious techs-

  Summon representatives for quest, warfare or to ask a question(ala Oracle of Delphi)

  Start a 'holy war' where your population follows their High Priest or GodKing on a 'crusade' against..

  Final tech-

  You ask for devine intervention, the enemy are causing trouble and you get...Zeus who appears before his High Priest and says "Priest, your dedication and enthusiasm brings me here.  You are worthy of my Gifts." humbled but determined Priest looks up as Zeus beckons this mortal to come near.  "Here worthy servant take this Bolt of Lightning.  You may use it against your foes. Show them the Judgement of Zeus!"  For the win.. 

  It would also be nice if we could have multiple mythos in one faction.  You might want a cleric of Poseidon.. a monk from a hand fighting school..and a Paladin of Tyr all in the same faction.

  I hope you can mod stuff like this strager.The 3 DnD mods currently under discussion/development need clerics and priests.  Would like to see other peoples ideas on how a religous techs should look/evolve and their repercussions or benefits.

 

 

 

If I can get the quality of coders I need for this, here is the plan:

 

We will provide several example religions (the ones that will be in the E:EE Mod itself) . The engine itself should be capable of the following:

 

Creating an easy religion that is either present at the start of the game, or discoverable via quest or technology, or spell.

Allowing those religions to interact with one another - for example the emergence of one religion due to anothers existance.

Unique technologies only researchable by

Individual soverigns, champions, units, cities, and NPCs all are given a religon modifier. Champions, NPCs, etc. can convert to other faiths.

Interacting with several other unannounced modules

 

What you choose those relgions to be is up to you. Here are a few examples:

 

If the Lord of the Elements mod wanted to use this system he could simulate the spread of Saurons influence. Special buildings could be built in cities with the modifier. Troops who truley worship sauron get some bonsues. etc. Kyrge could than further modify the code to provide any specific bouses etc. he wanted to give the religion.

If the Dragonlance or Dark Skies mod wanted to use it they should be able to use the same system to build a whole parthanon of gods each providing different bonuses, unique buildings etc.

Another mod might use it to represent philosphies, or whatever they wanted.

A system like this is vital to the mod community. If your interested in helping out please let me know. We need coders especially for this system, although 3D modellers as always are needed to create various building parts to include (for making temples, etc.) plus some other unique stuff for the religions in the actual E:EE Mod itself.

I have a friend, with the last name "Burrone".  He joined the military and entered Jedi as his religion.  In boot camp his instructor ripped him for it.  Kept calling him Obi Wan Burrone and asking him why he sucked at climbing walls and didn't just use the force to fly over them.

Man we live in a screwed up world haha

While it may be silly, from a realism perspective, not to have religion, I can understand that its on the same level (strategically) as other "real" elements that will not be included in the gameplay.

I will not be surprised if we still have divine spells, temples, ect, but simply no competing form of Organized religion. This is sensible for the main launch, although I wonder how much religion is present within the book or lore ... depending on this will depend on the direction religions should take within the mod mods.

Personally I don't mind Religions/ect in games so long as they are overly done and jarringly different. Akin to Alpha Centauri ... and to a lesser extent Fall From Heaven.