In a recent playthrough where me and all the AIs reached the contemporary era, one of the AIs picked contemporary India as their last culture and then enacted the state secularism option for the irreligion civic. This was very shocking to me as there is some consensus that the Indians are a somwehat weak culture if compared to others and their strongest feature is their unique district, that gives faith per population. This district is very powerful as there is almost no counterplay to it since other buildings or ceremonies don't even come close to its faith output, that's why I was surprised when the AI chose the state secularism civic. This civic choice basically made the AI unable to benefit from the strongest mechanic of the new culture it had chosen, and seemed a very poor decision. I don't know if the AI takes into account its current and past cultures when deciding which civics to enact, but I believe it might be worth looking into it, because in that case it left the AI in a considerably weaker position.

On this topic, maybe the AI can gain certain priorities with each cultural affinity type? (e.g aesthete cultures will prioritize influence generation and attempting to sway sphere's of influence?) This may already be in the game. Certainly though, the ai doing what it did in this case was strange

Just be glad they took Secularism, in my game they took Atheism and there was no escape from it, the religion after religion fell in mere turns.

DNLH wrote:

Just be glad they took Secularism, in my game they took Atheism and there was no escape from it, the religion after religion fell in mere turns.

The counter is to take isolationism for that. I believe it stops influence and faith build up in your territories. 

DNLH wrote:

Just be glad they took Secularism, in my game they took Atheism and there was no escape from it, the religion after religion fell in mere turns.

'Atheism' needs a debuff.

Ideally, the endgame civics for that tree should be 3 (In my mind): 1) Some kind of theocracy on one end of the spectrum, 2) Secularism in teh middle, and 3) Atheism. Each with their corrosponding bonuses and debuffs, with Secularism being a middle ground between the two-with the buffs being not as good and the defuffs not as bad.

Also, Religion also needs more looking at & improving.

USSER wrote:

DNLH wrote:

Just be glad they took Secularism, in my game they took Atheism and there was no escape from it, the religion after religion fell in mere turns.

'Atheism' needs a debuff.

Ideally, the endgame civics for that tree should be 3 (In my mind): 1) Some kind of theocracy on one end of the spectrum, 2) Secularism in teh middle, and 3) Atheism. Each with their corrosponding bonuses and debuffs, with Secularism being a middle ground between the two-with the buffs being not as good and the defuffs not as bad.

Also, Religion also needs more looking at & improving.

Well you can basically make a theocracy with your civic choices and going traditional. I don't think theocracy should be part of the irreligion civic as if you don't want them, don't choose them. You don't need every civic. But I do agree that athiesm is extremely powerful and only a faith based nation can counter it. So if you go full faith build you should be able to counter the effects of athiesm. That is what should be tested. But if you haven't been taking faith based cultures or focusing on faith 100% then I think athiesm should win out. What really sucks is that other cultures will always choose this civic and disavow their own religion for athiesm as the AI chooses every civic it seems. I feel they should be more picky in what they want. Though I do agree a faith based culture shouldn't take this civic at all.