Every Religion Should Be Viable

[ahyangyi]

Buddhist isn't strong, but it's unique enough to play.

And animist and totemist are not religions. They are blanket terms for lots of superficially similar belief systems. They are indeed in a sad state, but I wish they fix them in a proper content-rich DLC instead of in a random patch "buffing" them but without giving them interesting stuff.

And, the damage caused by a too strong animist in game would be much larger than a too weak one.

 

[Tacticus101]

Totemist and Animist are effectively filler religions, they both cover mostly uncolonised areas and have had large swathes replaced with religions like Fetishist as areas are expanded in newer patches. Both are what a lot of religions were on the release of Eu4, before they were expanded in later DLC, with just a modifier, some decisions and no unique decisions. They have just been left behind as new changes are made.

That said, given the recent expansions of different religions like Orthodox and Islam, Paradox seems to want to have every religion with fun and unique mechanics. The thing is, most of the major areas that were Animist have already been covered (Fetishist, Tengri, Nahuatl, Mayan, Inti), whats left is some tribes in south America and a couple of scattered OPMs. Totemist has a little more to it, and might get something eventually, but given now weak the area is and how little it is played it seems a long way off.

 

[ahyangyi]

Totemist and Animist are effectively filler religions, they both cover mostly uncolonised areas and have had large swathes replaced with religions like Fetishist as areas are expanded in newer patches. Both are what a lot of religions were on the release of Eu4, before they were expanded in later DLC, with just a modifier, some decisions and no unique decisions. They have just been left behind as new changes are made.

That said, given the recent expansions of different religions like Orthodox and Islam, Paradox seems to want to have every religion with fun and unique mechanics. The thing is, most of the major areas that were Animist have already been covered (Fetishist, Tengri, Nahuatl, Mayan, Inti), whats left is some tribes in south America and a couple of scattered OPMs. Totemist has a little more to it, and might get something eventually, but given now weak the area is and how little it is played it seems a long way off.

Yeah. You are right. The remaining belief systems (they are not even necessary religions per se, but we also have Confucianism) are probably too small to cover with any kind of detailed mechanism.

 

[Zaddy]

To clarify, I'm alright with Animism not having the converting power of Abrahamic faiths or Buddhism, but I just want something to make it somewhat interesting and make it not a total false choice. Give it a boost to heathen tolerance like Fetishist and give them syncretic faith mechanics would be fine with me. I'm not asking for Animists to get Conquest of Jerusalem, just something.

 

[PoulsenB]

Animists and fetishists are not organised religions like Islam or the Christians, so it makes sense that they should be "weaker" than structured religions. I agree that they should have something unique and/or fun to them, but buffing them to the same level as Catholics etc. wouldn't be beneficial to the game.

 

[estile606]

There is an advantage to religions that dont stay on the map very well, like Sikhism for example: it is a near certainty that you will be the only nation of that religion after awhile, so if you go for deus vult, you never have to worry about making claims on same religion neighbors...

 

[TheAtreides84]

Would seems quite fitting to let Totemist countries chose the totem animal of your ruler...

 

[Sfan]

I am against a buff of Animist, it is already far too swag because it is the starting religion of the two best tags of the game.

 

[ecrurudesby]

I honestly don't understand why so many players are arguing against having mechanics for these two religions. They have been adding new religious mechanics in almost every DLC (including mechanics for Fetishist which in my understanding was in kind of similiar situations than Animist and Totemist) why should they not add flavor for these last two religions? I don't think tuning Animist and Totemist would be particularly labor intensive compared to anything else.

I will not actually argue against religious mechanics for regions that lack them, because I understand that they comprise a significant portion of land in 1444, there are presumably many players who would enjoy them, and it is a perfectly fair suggestion. But I will admit to not caring about some religions and countries, and hoping that the developers spend their time on other things that I consider more important or more interesting.

 

[darth254]

ehh, I feel like "viable" and "optimal" get interchanged way too liberally at times.

 

[zukodark]

Well currently there is a lot of variance in the power of religions...

Muslim: 4 sets of bonuses and 2 instants from 5 unique mechanics (piety, piety buttons, muslims schools, invite scholar and propogate religion). + DotF and great decisions.
Christian: Great base bonuses and your choice of additional effects. + DotF and great decisions.
Hindu: Great base bonuses and your choice of additional effects as well as great decisions.
Tengri: Good base bonuses and your choice of a secondary set.
Totemist: Some bad base bonuses.

We're at the point where I'd rather have some additional mechanics to already good/decent religions to bring them up to the standard of Muslim. Though I wish there were negative effects in religion mechanics and in general. I guess that is a bit off-topic though.