Replace Spiritualist Edict cost reduction with something useful

[MathyM]

I'm sure this has been suggested amidst discussions before, but I just want to formalize a request.

Spiritualist is a VERY underpowered ethic at the present time, and nothing short of a Unity/Traditions revamp will save it, but a step in the right direction would be replacing this bonus with something actually relevant.

The top candidate that comes to my mind is Consumer Goods usage reduction. It makes sense, they are less attached to things material, they can find peace and happiness in their own mind and through others, they have less need for mundane objects of tangible entertainment.

I have some ideas for Traditions revamp as well, I feel they should work more like National Focus in HoI4, but that's an entirely different topic, and a much more complex change, that I simply don't foresee arriving this year.

 

[Peter34]

I think giving Spiritualists more Edicts to choose from would be good.

Also, Spiritualists are directly cut off from the POP Growth bonanza that is early game Robots, so it makes more sense to give them some sort of POP Growth bonus than to give it to the Xenophobes.

Religious people also tend to seem content to me, whereas Materialist atheists like me are ambitious and eager to achieve change. So a Happiness bonus to Spiritualist would also make sense (this can also compensate for giving them fewer Consumer Goods, since they won't need it).

Also in general, I miss the old Consecrate Planet. It was a very long-lasting Edict that you'd use on colonized planets, and its working were transparent and non-random. The new one just... doesn't appeal to me at all.

 

[MathyM]

I think giving Spiritualists more Edicts to choose from would be good.

Yes, Veneration of Saints kinda sucks.

Also, Spiritualists are directly cut off from the POP Growth bonanza that is early game Robots, so it makes more sense to give them some sort of POP Growth bonus than to give it to the Xenophobes.

Not really cut. I do make robots when I play as a spiritualist, but I keep them as workers.

Religious people also tend to seem content to me, whereas Materialist atheists like me are ambitious and eager to achieve change. So a Happiness bonus to Spiritualist would also make sense (this can also compensate for giving them fewer Consumer Goods, since they won't need it).

Maybe more amenities production, or less amenities usage, or higher stability (but maybe this would go to waste, since I can easily stay about 95% stability as an authoritarian spiritualist, but not so much as an egalitarian spiritualist, sadly).

Also in general, I miss the old Consecrate Planet. It was a very long-lasting Edict that you'd use on colonized planets, and its working were transparent and non-random. The new one just... doesn't appeal to me at all.

Yes, the new one is something bland that you use as soon as you get it and then it's gone. Also, its Unity boost sucks, since Unity in general is a wasted resource.

 

[HFY]

Also, Spiritualists are directly cut off from the POP Growth bonanza that is early game Robots, so it makes more sense to give them some sort of POP Growth bonus than to give it to the Xenophobes.

Xenophobes need the bonus because they can't incorporate aliens happily.

IMHO the elegant solution to "no robots" would be to let Gene Clinics build pops, at the same rate as Assembly Plants, since those come online at roughly the same time.

 

[zZander56]

Just have Spiritualist boost edict capacity.

 

[MathyM]

Just have Spiritualist boost edict capacity.

While that'd certainly be good, I don't think it'd be enough to make them viable. They need better edicts (like Authoritarians have Information Quarantine), they need reduced upkeep of something, and Unity definitely needs a revamp (not just for spiritualist, every bonus in the tree is quite underwhelming compared to tech you unlock in the same time).

 

[GOLANX]

While that'd certainly be good, I don't think it'd be enough to make them viable. They need better edicts (like Authoritarians have Information Quarantine), they need reduced upkeep of something, and Unity definitely needs a revamp (not just for spiritualist, every bonus in the tree is quite underwhelming compared to tech you unlock in the same time).

Many edicts did just get a good buff subsidies are actually worth running now. I'm also not saying spiritualist couldn't use better edicts, a few additional tricks would be nice. Reduced upkeep sounds a lot like Ascetism, which isn't a part of every religion and isn't practiced widely in any of the popular ones, I'd like to see it in some future religion system as a way to help define a religion, but shouldn't be part of the base spiritualist modifiers.

Traditions need a work up this is the biggest thing holding spiritualist back, that and unity is too easy to get for non spiritualist. If Traditions get a work up it would be a big buff to spiritualist on its own, kinda like how Materialist are good because technology is soo important.