One thing that has always irked me is the seemingly unified front that Materialists and Spiritualists have with themselves. These xenos are really all getting along because they are spiritualistic, even though their deities might be completely different or even at odds with each other? Then taking the materialistic spectrum into things where scientists are not having rather brutal debates and conflicts due to opposing viewpoints in their ideologies?
I would propose adding a new mechanic to make this dichotomy of Spiritualist and Materialist more diverse and interesting.
Spiritualists would get access to religions, where on empire creation you can create your own religion which grants various buffs and potential negatives. Things that can help better round out your species potentially or bring out greater potential in your species. For example, if your religion preaches fertility it could be represented in pop growth and crop growth. Likewise if it preaches valor and bravery, you might get bonuses for your army as well as a small bonus to ship damage or the like. Religions would add their own dichotomy similar to ethics. You could have some religions that embrace robotics and see a thinking machine as potentially being another spiritual being rather than a toaster getting too full of themselves. Just look at Warhammer 40k with the Adeptus Mechanicus, you could have Tech-priests via religious creation.
Ideologies are the Materialistic version of religions, whereas Spiritualists focus on divinity, materialists focus more on the here and now and how best to go about dealing with the here and now. For example, some materialists might actually be wary of venturing into robot/ai tech for fear of an uprising, you want an example of this look at Elon Musk or even Stephen hawking, both very intelligent and I dare say materialistic men of science who shared a distrust of Ai. Ideologies instead of preaching virtues, would have focuses instead, like agricultural focus, or military focus. Which scientific branch or way of thinking is the best. This would even allow Ideologies that don't outright dismiss spiritualistic views, and in fact could lead to Ideologies that could explore and research Psionics and Psionic theory, understanding it less from a Divine gift point of view, but rather as a new, complex form of science. Think of it similar to Biotics from Mass Effect where they are essentially psionic implants and the like!
Of course these religions and ideologies would have ways of spreading their influence to other empires, especially when agreements are formed and there are ways to keep your beliefs in control. Essentially it could boil down to adding another 'Factions' screen where you can suppress, support, or embrace a new religion or ideology at will!
Rational ideologies can expand into spiritualistic empires, potentially creating more materialistic believes as a result, likewise religions might spread into materalistic empires causing rational minds to once again believe in old deities.
This would add an additional layer of flavor to materialists and spiritualists, allow more complex interactions between these two ethics and adds a new mechanic that can even evolve over time. Ideologies and religions potentially splitting off into sub-sects, or even reforming and adding even more benefits to them. New ascension perks could be added that let you reform and change these beliefs, adding more to them, and even getting bonuses for having a variety of belief systems.
This would also even play into Authoritarian - Egalitarian, and Xenophile - Xenophobe ethics. Where Authoritarians would most likely want a singular belief system and get benefits to maintaining that, while egalitarians benefit from the plethora of new ideas and beliefs. Xenophobes would better repress and reject new ideologies and religions, where as xenophiles are more likely to accept and spread them.
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Now some of you might ask, why create effectively a renamed religious system for Materialists? Why not just make religions for spiritualists and call it a day? Again, I come down to the unified front issue. Most materialists end up becoming buddy buddy with other materialists from the get-go, but this isn't typically the case in the real world. Scientists have differing views on what should or shouldn't be done. What is 'ethical' and what is not. While we have other ethics to go off of, there are more morality based ethics that could be played with by using an ideological/religious system.
Religions have different ways they perform their... well.. religious practices, likewise there are differing ways scientists approach scientific problems and the scientific community clashes just as much as religious communities. Scientists, materialists, are not all a united front that all believe the exact same things, likewise with the spiritualists. Just because you believe in gods, doesn't necessarily mean you're going to ally with this xeno that also believes in gods because your gods might hate their gods, and vice versa, or they could be buddy buddy even!
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Anyway, I think this would add an extra layer of complexity to the game and add mechanics which would have long-term effects, being a constant throughout Early-Late game. I also like the roleplayability implications and the customization you can further go into when shaping your species. I'd even say empires without Spiritualist or Materialist would get to effectively create a religion or ideology as well, they just wouldn't get the benefits as if they had one of those two ethics.
A lot of my inspiration for this idea came from the Rimworl - Ideologies DLC, which features a lot of inter-ideological interactivity and I think having that sort of thing would benefit Stellaris.
Thank you for reading! If you do not like this idea, please explain why down below, likewise if you do like the idea, tell me what you like about it and what more could be expanded upon. Honestly, this is a rough concept idea, but something that could go far with making your empires feel more like... well.. your empire, your people.
I would propose adding a new mechanic to make this dichotomy of Spiritualist and Materialist more diverse and interesting.
Spiritualists would get access to religions, where on empire creation you can create your own religion which grants various buffs and potential negatives. Things that can help better round out your species potentially or bring out greater potential in your species. For example, if your religion preaches fertility it could be represented in pop growth and crop growth. Likewise if it preaches valor and bravery, you might get bonuses for your army as well as a small bonus to ship damage or the like. Religions would add their own dichotomy similar to ethics. You could have some religions that embrace robotics and see a thinking machine as potentially being another spiritual being rather than a toaster getting too full of themselves. Just look at Warhammer 40k with the Adeptus Mechanicus, you could have Tech-priests via religious creation.
Ideologies are the Materialistic version of religions, whereas Spiritualists focus on divinity, materialists focus more on the here and now and how best to go about dealing with the here and now. For example, some materialists might actually be wary of venturing into robot/ai tech for fear of an uprising, you want an example of this look at Elon Musk or even Stephen hawking, both very intelligent and I dare say materialistic men of science who shared a distrust of Ai. Ideologies instead of preaching virtues, would have focuses instead, like agricultural focus, or military focus. Which scientific branch or way of thinking is the best. This would even allow Ideologies that don't outright dismiss spiritualistic views, and in fact could lead to Ideologies that could explore and research Psionics and Psionic theory, understanding it less from a Divine gift point of view, but rather as a new, complex form of science. Think of it similar to Biotics from Mass Effect where they are essentially psionic implants and the like!
Of course these religions and ideologies would have ways of spreading their influence to other empires, especially when agreements are formed and there are ways to keep your beliefs in control. Essentially it could boil down to adding another 'Factions' screen where you can suppress, support, or embrace a new religion or ideology at will!
Rational ideologies can expand into spiritualistic empires, potentially creating more materialistic believes as a result, likewise religions might spread into materalistic empires causing rational minds to once again believe in old deities.
This would add an additional layer of flavor to materialists and spiritualists, allow more complex interactions between these two ethics and adds a new mechanic that can even evolve over time. Ideologies and religions potentially splitting off into sub-sects, or even reforming and adding even more benefits to them. New ascension perks could be added that let you reform and change these beliefs, adding more to them, and even getting bonuses for having a variety of belief systems.
This would also even play into Authoritarian - Egalitarian, and Xenophile - Xenophobe ethics. Where Authoritarians would most likely want a singular belief system and get benefits to maintaining that, while egalitarians benefit from the plethora of new ideas and beliefs. Xenophobes would better repress and reject new ideologies and religions, where as xenophiles are more likely to accept and spread them.
------------------------
Now some of you might ask, why create effectively a renamed religious system for Materialists? Why not just make religions for spiritualists and call it a day? Again, I come down to the unified front issue. Most materialists end up becoming buddy buddy with other materialists from the get-go, but this isn't typically the case in the real world. Scientists have differing views on what should or shouldn't be done. What is 'ethical' and what is not. While we have other ethics to go off of, there are more morality based ethics that could be played with by using an ideological/religious system.
Religions have different ways they perform their... well.. religious practices, likewise there are differing ways scientists approach scientific problems and the scientific community clashes just as much as religious communities. Scientists, materialists, are not all a united front that all believe the exact same things, likewise with the spiritualists. Just because you believe in gods, doesn't necessarily mean you're going to ally with this xeno that also believes in gods because your gods might hate their gods, and vice versa, or they could be buddy buddy even!
--------------------------
Anyway, I think this would add an extra layer of complexity to the game and add mechanics which would have long-term effects, being a constant throughout Early-Late game. I also like the roleplayability implications and the customization you can further go into when shaping your species. I'd even say empires without Spiritualist or Materialist would get to effectively create a religion or ideology as well, they just wouldn't get the benefits as if they had one of those two ethics.
A lot of my inspiration for this idea came from the Rimworl - Ideologies DLC, which features a lot of inter-ideological interactivity and I think having that sort of thing would benefit Stellaris.
Thank you for reading! If you do not like this idea, please explain why down below, likewise if you do like the idea, tell me what you like about it and what more could be expanded upon. Honestly, this is a rough concept idea, but something that could go far with making your empires feel more like... well.. your empire, your people.
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