Everybody turns Orthodox

[drpolgi]

In my current Byzantium game (latest patch) all my allies and rivals went Orthodox in the 1690s. I didn't force them, they just changed religion somehow. England, France, Poland, Spain all went Orthodox. Is there a reason for this?

Edit: It must be a bug, even the Pope is Orthodox.

https://imgur.com/a/jzJelv0

 

[Saat98]

It's the best religion in the game, dude. The AI has finally learned to be gamey and use the best tools the game has to offer.

 

[Junuxx]

Weird. How did the League War turn out / What's the HRE's official religion? Religious peace?

 

[grommile]

If you have Purple Phoenix active, then completing the "Convert Rome" mission invites all Catholic countries who know you exist to either (a) become Orthodox and lose one stability and 30 prestige or (b) lose three stability.

The AI usually accepts (unless their attitude towards you is Rival, Outraged, or Hostile, in which case they are guaranteed not to).

There is no exclusion for the Pope on this one, which is perfectly reasonable since normally the Papal States wouldn't exist at that point.

If that's not it (and the fact that your actual Rivals flipped suggests it isn't), I'm confused

 

[Nwaij]

If you have Purple Phoenix active, then completing the "Convert Rome" mission invites all Catholic countries who know you exist to either (a) become Orthodox and lose one stability and 30 prestige or (b) lose three stability.

The AI usually accepts (unless their attitude towards you is Rival, Outraged, or Hostile, in which case they are guaranteed not to).

There is no exclusion for the Pope on this one, which is perfectly reasonable since normally the Papal States wouldn't exist at that point.

If that's not it (and the fact that your actual Rivals flipped suggests it isn't), I'm confused

What really annoys me about this event is that for some reason, HRE still DEMANDS a catholic emperor, even before reformation, despite catholicism being replaced by orthodoxism everywhere. Bug? Oversight? Who knows, but it is annoying!

 

[grotaclas]

If you have Purple Phoenix active, then completing the "Convert Rome" mission invites all Catholic countries who know you exist to either (a) become Orthodox and lose one stability and 30 prestige or (b) lose three stability.

It is actually the mission Rome Reclaimed! which fires the event The Patriarchate of Constantinople Heals The Schism. I looked at the AI chances in the event and I think they are coded incorrectly. The option which converts them to Orthodox has:

        ai_chance = {
            factor = 10
            modifier = {
                factor = 0
                ai_attitude = {
                    who = BYZ
                    attitude = attitude_rivalry
                }
                ai_attitude = {
                    who = BYZ
                    attitude = attitude_hostile
                }
                ai_attitude = {
                    who = BYZ
                    attitude = attitude_outraged
                }
            }
        }

If I understand that correctly, it means that only AIs which have a rivalry and hostile and outraged attitude at the same time would be prevented form choosing that option. But that is of course impossible.
The other option only has ai_chance = { factor = 1 }, so the AI is 10 times more likely to choose the option to convert to Orthodox

 

[drpolgi]

There is no HRE since the mid 1500s.

I have played 5k+ hours but never seen this event. Usually 1630-1650 is the end of the campaign for me.

There is always time to learn something new. Thank you guys!

 

[grotaclas]

I have played 5k+ hours but never seen this event.

That's not unusual, because that event was added in 1.31 and I don't think that the AI would be able to trigger it. And triggering the event it is a hidden effect in the mission, so you won't really notice it as a player. I think it would be better if there would be a tooltip describing that this is an effect of the mission

 

[raikaria]

It's the best religion in the game, dude. The AI has finally learned to be gamey and use the best tools the game has to offer.

It isn't after the Sikh rework; especially when you combine it's great baseline bonuses with unique government reforms and Guru bonuses, and the fact the religion gives you free mana.

 

[petertju]

It seems we found a new way to switch the Pope's religion, this will get highest priority to fix now.

 

[Orkonkel]

It isn't after the Sikh rework; especially when you combine it's great baseline bonuses with unique government reforms and Guru bonuses, and the fact the religion gives you free mana.

Patch after patch, extra mana has become exponentially more abundant; we now get +50 admin if a +stability event hits and already max stab (which is always as a catholic nation with enough papal influence generation; we now get +5 advisors as the max (as well as regularly getting advisors at half cost); we now get +1 mana from estates; we now get administrative efficiency to reduce coring costs to a fraction of what they used to be; we now harvest mana through events when sending conquistadors to the New World; we now gets monuments that reduces mana usage (tech cost reduction, leader recruitment cost, and so on); we now max out innovativeness for -10% power costs; we can now disinherit the 0-0-0 Enrique el Idioto's of the world, etc, etc, etc.

In my latest game, I am still teching up ahead of time even while doing 100-150%+ overextension peace deals just because I get way more mana than I can use. So really, the extra mana from a religion isn't exciting me like it would have in the past. Mana simply is no longer scarce enough to inhibit your progress.

Truly, a religion giving extra mana isn't particularly notesworthy when a) you can instead get AE reduction/BRoT in Orthodox (the biggest bottleneck in single player, until you're big enough that militaristic bonuses don't even matter at all), and b) you can instead get better combat in bonuses in other religions (what multiplayer is all about). Also, any Christian denomination can play the game of thrones -- especially in the latest patch -- which will give you fairly respectable PUs in most playthroughs.

Sikh is a pretty meme religion all things granted imo, particularly since most of its good bonuses come online in the mid- to endgame, and it's always the early game that's really the most challenging.