Going to echo the above. Way too easy to spread your religion everywhere - the AI seems to largely ignore the religion game.

I get the feeling that the items that scale with territory get a little better on a larger map with a single continent, but their scaling seems pretty bad compared to the population effects. 

I'd honestly like to see some more unique choices though. As it is right now, religion boils down to adding some extra numbers to your existing numbers. It doesn't really do much to alter gameplay. I'd like to see some more unique choices, say things that give you extra effects from luxuries, bonuses in cities over or under a certain population, effects in cities that have been conquered, that sort of thing. Some choices that are going to affect how you make decisions throughout the game, rather than just adding extra production, stab, gold, etc.

Religion in its current state is really boring, it's just another way to get + for your FIDS, it's doesn't feel like something special and meaningful that defines your culture. I like how you construct your religion step by step, but I really dislike dull options in it.

So this is harsh, but there is nothing about this religion system that I like. The tenets are entirely generic and feel a lot more mechanical than the civics. There is no interaction between civics and tenets. Its very difficult to read the mapmode; lots of text and numbers, but I don't really know what's going on (similar to the culture mapmpode). There is also nothing you can do in that mapmode, apparently. Religous crisis CB unlock automatically and have no relation to tenets. And worst of all - You can't build your holy site a couple of turns after you unlock it - seriously?

I'd really like to see the religious civics merge into the tenets and make them something more complex than a simple income bonus, and also affect your country's ideological parameters (as well as those of other countries!). Also, holy wars should be locked behind a tenet/civic.

As with many of the other mechanics, there's a bit of a UI issue where you're not provided all of the info, and much of what is provided is hidden somewhat.  The biggest thing is: how much faith am I generating, and what effect does that have.  Hidden information is who else is following my religion and how many and just what other religions exist.  the option to switch away from the initial polytheism or shamanism is also not called out.

Anyway UI confusion aside,  I'm not sure what, the religion system even adds.  First up faith:  aside from my assuming having more boosts religious spread it doesn't seem to have any sort of use.  I can't spend it, it doesn't unlock anything or provide an direct buffs that I can tell.  And whether or not I am converting populations of other empires to my religion, upgrading the religion is based on the total number of followers, so you can't really push for upgrading it outside just pushing your growth rate, and that caps out.

As for the religion itself, as I mentioned it's pretty closely tied to grown which is already part of the victory condition, and the bonuses from the tenants give you fairly generic yield bonuses that can help the other aspects tied to earning fame, but religion itself is not part of the victory condition.  There are no era stars for having a certain number of followers or cites for your religion, and I didn't see any deeds related to converting other populations.  All in all, it basically just seems to be another way to provide some passive buffs, and there's not much interaction besides build holy sites, occasionally pick new buffs.  There's not much actual gameplay beyond letting the counter tick.  CIvics at least there's some stuff there where the bonuses are varied and aren't JUST more yields, and there's the balancing act between picking civics and event choices that provide good bonuses, and shifting your ideology toward or away from the bonuses you want.

There's also a bit of confusion for me with regards to holy sites.  Every time you upgrade your religion, you get +1 to maximum number of holy sites, but sometimes I can't build another.  I am not sure if that's because another empire has adopted my religion and their holy sites are being counted, or if it's counting the holy site wonders against the limit.  Either way, it's a bit opaque and surprising when it happens, and if it IS counting other empires' holy sites, that's kind of detrimental since there's districts you can build that gain bonuses from being next to holy sites, and holy sites on their own being able to be placed anywhere open up building opportunities away from the city center.

Also the initial choice of religious tenants is ever more bare than the generic FIMS options of the upgrades.  Two choices between faith or influence on holy sites, no other bonuses.  When you upgrade you can choose a new named religion (Zoroastrianism, Christianity, etc.), but those don't appear to have any effect beyond changing the model of any new holy sites.  it would be nice to have more choices at the start and have more options for starter bonuses, and the later choice to change the religion should have an effect as well to change the bonuses

Sadly, I concur with many of these comments. I was hoping the religion system would be a little more than just get some faith-producing Quarters/Wonders and then.... wait? As it stands it feels almost like that South Park Meme:

1. Create Religion 

2. Build Holy Site 

3. ... 

4. Profit? 

As it stands, it is entirely unclear/opaque what the value of 1 faith vs. 2 faith vs. 5 faith is. How much faith is enough before you should stop worrying about it? How does Faith lead to Followers? Followers is the important metric, but the mechanism for getting from Faith to Followers is unclear. Is it stepwise (like Food -> Population) or is it linear (Like Science -> Technology progress)? Similarly, the Religion lense of the map doesn't have all that much information that feels useful/obvious at first glance. 

Moreover, I would love the Tenents system to be more than just "Gain X resource per follower", as it feels like just a tacked-on system. Maybe something like "Territories following this religion provide +X yield to Y Terrain type, but -A yield to B Terrain type" (where X is larger than A, making it a more interesting/strategic choice). This could allow people to make, say, settling cities in the very North/South of maps more viable. 

For example, A Tenent labelled, say, "Ice Goddess" or "Snow God" could make all cold terrain types provide +3 food, but all rivers would get -1 food. Or  A Tenant labelled "God of the Open Sea" which would mean that ocean tiles become workable, and provide +2 food and gold... but coast gets -1 food. This would make the tenants not only feel engaging, but also diversify possible play styles, and encourage people to actually grab the territories with more extreme terrain, and not make them feel as if they are a burden that still needs to be taken to reach expansionist stars.

Dudette92 wrote:

For example, A Tenent labelled, say, "Ice Goddess" or "Snow God" could make all cold terrain types provide +3 food, but all rivers would get -1 food. Or  A Tenant labelled "God of the Open Sea" which would mean that ocean tiles become workable, and provide +2 food and gold... but coast gets -1 food. This would make the tenants not only feel engaging, but also diversify possible play styles, and encourage people to actually grab the territories with more extreme terrain, and not make them feel as if they are a burden that still needs to be taken to reach expansionist stars.

I love your Tenent Idea for the ecnomic side, as your people will specialize in an terrain type, but will be worse in others. This buffs tall civs more then wide civs. As an religion it is horrible as it can be pushed upon you. 

Religion suffers from being mechanically powerful, with the right tenants, but it's also quite boring. First of all Faith as the main religious resource is fine, generate faith to gain more followers that's fine. The problem is a lack of information and options, we can check follower count and the amount of faith cities produce, but there's no information on conversion rate or even what a breakdown of what is producing faith in a city, like FIMS get. The tenants themselves are unbalanced but potentially very strong, making religion a worthwhile path to go for, those being the increase in x per population rather than territory. If you go wide and build a city per territory, the amount of citizens you receive skyrockets, making these tenants supremely powerful in comparison to the territory based ones which need to be much stronger. There's also the issue of the rewards all being 1-1 with each other which is not the case, 1 food is not the same as 1 production but that's another case.

Religion also suffers from holy sites being the main form of interactivity, there's not much thought to be had aside from where to place them initially, and also any faith producing structures. If religion borrowed a bit from civics and had its own set of choice events that'd already be a great start, but as of right now it's simply have more faith, get big bonuses. An administrative system or some form of internal management of your religion, and in some cases another person's religion would go a long way.

Religious combat is also very dull, with the only available action being inquisitions that you have to unlock, or wasting a 4th level tenant to make your religion more capable at converting others. There should be some more active measures for this system, even a producible priest unit would be a huge increase to the complexity of religious warfare by allowing targeted conversions of specific areas, thus having their faith producing buildings work against them, as just one example. The fact emblematic units get bonuses related to religion but you can't use any particular target conversion or acceptance of another religion is a wasted opportunity.

Overall religion is very powerful mechanically due to the bonuses it gives, but is very binary and dull to play with due to its simplicity and lack of feedback.

Lompeluiten wrote:

Dudette92 wrote:

For example, A Tenent labelled, say, "Ice Goddess" or "Snow God" could make all cold terrain types provide +3 food, but all rivers would get -1 food. Or  A Tenant labelled "God of the Open Sea" which would mean that ocean tiles become workable, and provide +2 food and gold... but coast gets -1 food. This would make the tenants not only feel engaging, but also diversify possible play styles, and encourage people to actually grab the territories with more extreme terrain, and not make them feel as if they are a burden that still needs to be taken to reach expansionist stars.

I love your Tenent Idea for the ecnomic side, as your people will specialize in an terrain type, but will be worse in others. This buffs tall civs more then wide civs. As an religion it is horrible as it can be pushed upon you. 

I think having a tenet benefit one type of terrain/district/specialist, etc.is really good... but it should not give a penalty (for the above mentioned reason)

There definitely needs to be more information on what is happening AND, something to do besides building Holy sites/religious districts [there is some of that with the later Heresies and Purges and such....but being able to focus on it seems like a good idea as well]