According to the recent Banhammer podcast interview gods will be present in game but their function hasnt been decided yet. What do you all think they should be able to do?
I personally hope there is a system where we try and gather favor with certain deities in order to gain certain perks. For instance, being favored by a god of fertility makes our farms produce more. Falling our of favor with a different god might make winter last longer, or they might even send a titan after you.
Could you link the interview?
Hey, the interview can be found [urlhttp://www.twonkhammer.com/3851/interview-radiant-entertainment-stonehearth/] here [/url] - itās 37 minutes long.
The god bit starts at 25:15.
The response was essentially that, they have their own lore that theyāre working on etc.
āDoes that mean a god will come and squash you in-game, probably not, we gotta decide, like we said this is the kind of thing we wanna keep adding toā
So Iām not convinced there actually will be Gods, and if there are Iām not sure they would be physical things, but rather have an influence over certain aspects such as farming and weather etc.
Considering ancient civilizations, like egyptians and mesopotamics, several gods would be very nice to have, giving you the possibility of multiple choices of buffs. Like mesopotamics, the city would have a major deity for it (either working on protecting the city or handing bonuses for something), and villagers would be able to hand out crops and/or sacrifices to appease these gods.
One way, in my imagination to balance this would be first creating two types of god āpantheonsā, either politheistic or monotheistic gods. The first would allow the city to choose from a preset quantity of gods one to be its patron god, and handing out to the city what I would call āMajor buffā. Say Sayrna (???), the goddess of harvest. She will hand two abilities, one passive (a straight 15% increase in crops output) and an active (a small rain formation on the crops you are planting), which would require a dedicated temple to herself (say a 10 x 10 square temple, with 5 people working as priests). These people would serve as the link between gods and people, managing sacrifices and crops directed to the gods, which would increase itās ability bar % until it hits 100% and allows you to use your ability.
That would also mean that you would be able to build other temples for other gods as well, but since these arenāt the patron gods protecting your city, their role would be much smaller (For instance, Ronjar, God of Forging (???) would grant only a 5% passive buff to forge production) and would require a separate temple for it as well (much smaller, 4x4 with 1 priest to it. This way, players who prefer to micromanage and give some more direction for their cities could do so via religious means (though religion alone would not save a city from bad management).
Also we must consider the following: As ancient civilization worshipped gods that weāre much more like humans (betraying each other, loving, taking revenge, etc), if you decided to change your patron god, by destroying your patron godās temple, something bad would happen to your city (a years bad crop season for instance). The idea here is to actually have consequences that affect your city in case you decide to play with the deities for your own favour. This should a careful plan and should be though well before changing your patron god.
Examples of politheistic gods:
Zareus - God of Lightning and leader of the Pantheon
Passive: 15% towards magical effects of caster units, being those magics for protecting, attacks or buffs, 5% for being a smaller deity
Active: 1 Bolt of lightning that deals X damage to a target creature (Yes, Iām thinking also against world bosses).
Leaving its patronage: 3 buildings will be struck by lightning at random at your city, causing fires.
Sayrna - Goddess of Harvest and fertility
Passive: 15% bonus towards crop harvesting, 5% for being a smaller deity
Active: A 10x10 rain cloud which accelerates the crop growth by x%.
Leaving its patronage: Bad crops yield for the whole year.
Ronjar, God of World Creation and Forging
Passive: 15% bonus towards material forging (this could be from iron into iron ingots and iron ingots into armor/weapons), 5% for being a smaller deity
Active: Grants the Ronjarās Creativity to one smithy, allowing him to produce top quality armour/weapons for x months. (or days, whatever balances better out).
Leaving its patronage: Heāll summon a mountain in the middle of your city (5x5), which would destroy a few buildings, but it is gatherable (or not, if you like the āgods punishment thingā to be a token of you city).
Demares, God of War and Violence
Passive: 15% bonus towards combat units, increasing their damage output, 5% for being a smaller deity
Active: Grants Demaresā might to one combat unit, creating an avatar of demares, which would deal extra damage and have extra health, plus more bonus mitigation. Would be usable for only one combat.
Leaving its patronage: Violence would errupt in your city, making some villagers mad with rage, becoming violent and therefore, to be put down by combat units.
Haderon, Lord of the Dead and the Underrealm (would need a cemitery structure)
Passive: 15% increased life span of the living units (considering they eventually die of old age) and 15% extra health to combat units., 5% for being a smaller deity
Active: Allows for Haderonās Embrace: Engulfs one unit and pulls it towards the underrealm, eliminating it completely (unusable on World Bosses). No EXP is awarded this way.
Leaving its Patronage: Your dead rise to take Haderonās revenge upon your city! 5~10 skeletal/zombie warrior appears in your city.
Zitonia, Goddes of Science and Knowledge
Passive: 15% increase in research (considering thereāll be research to be done), 5% for being a smaller deity
Active: Granting the Zitonianās Knowledge, allows one scientist for a double the amount of research grant towards a technology for x months (or days).
Leaving the Pantheon: The city loses some of its scientists to the great zitonian library of olympican research.
As seen in the examples, having only one god patron would give a huge bonus, but trying to have ALL six gods in your city is a little more difficult. The idea here is to make the choice between having an active deity ability or not, which would be the monitheistic approach.
The idea around monotheistic religions in our world is that this monotheistic god resembles WAY much less humans and has achieving some sort of perfect state, which makes it less like humans, and therefore, much more distant to us. Heās perfect in every aspect (Iām an atheist, but Iām explaining this though a historical point of view - See Peter Berger), and being so distant to all humans makes for VERY LITTLE interference in our daily lives (āWe will save ourselvesā).
While the politheistic approach does sound rewarding, the monotheistic approach has its own perks. First of all, since this god is all perfect, ALL aspects of life (Magic, Farming, Crafting, combat, science) gain up a straight 10% bonus from this god. He also doesnāt require more then 1 single temple in your city (which could also vary in size), but as a con, he wouldnāt grant ANY sort of active ability for the player. But if you decided to go for the politheistic approach later on, or, even the atheist approach, nothing bad would happen ("the judgement comes in the afterlife, not here), and more could be saved to the next winter (since no crops nor sacrifices would be needed, just belief).
These are the aspects I think would appeal much more to a city, on a religious point of view. We see older civilizations and become intriged on how they interacted with their gods and how it influenced in their daily lives. If this could be achieved in Stonehearth, a new depth layer could be established and some interesting ideas would come out.
My thoughts on this, and sorry for some bad grammar.
I think Iād prefer to see one unified pantheon/belief system instead of competing belief systems. Some of the gods might be hostile to each other, but no āmy civ believes this god is real and this god is falseā setup. Itās up to you to decide which gods your Civ will focus on pleasing, or if you just hope the gods will leave you aloneā¦
I also hope that if there is a religion mechanic thereās a bit more it than just ābuild temple, deity is happy with youā, though building religious structures obviously is part of it. Quests and other modules should influence this as well; recovering artifacts or making particular choices in response to events could please or anger the gods. Gaining very high favor with particular deities might require some major trade-offs. A deity might hold a particular animal unclear (or very holy) and forbid itās consumption, or might require major level of sacrifices, or commitment to certain social path (no alcohol, no offensive warfare, etc).
Just a couple of random thoughts.
-Will
my take on, and my hope for their implementationā¦
Personally Iām quite against the inclusion of gods, or at least in the way it has been laid out above, which heavily reminds me of Age of Mythology - I think a system like this in SH will detract from the whole experience and just create so many unnecessary issues and conflicts and areas for management.
Especially if the abilities of these Gods start having a physical manifestation such as damage to this creature, damage to this area etc.
The most influence I would want from a god/gods would be simply in % increases/decreases for certain things. That way the deities would have a subtle, less pronounced impact on gameplay, but still, Iām not on board with the inclusion of Gods - unless itās in the form of some sort of folk religion, or belief in simple things like āThe Motherā, āThe Shadowā. āThe Warriorā, āThe Journeymanā.
Sorry for being so negative about it all!
Edit: Upon further reflection and a bit of soul searching I think that Gods could perhaps function in a similar way to farming - i.e. if you care for it you can put more effort into it, if not you can simply erect an altar and be done or something like that. But I still think it should remain simple and clean - not having 50 different deities with 12 syllable names who shoot lightning from their eyes!
No gods means no clerics 
Most diverse RPG class ever since their spells vary based on their deity. Hereās a question for you, Why would my whole town have to follow X deity?
I also would hope for this direction; if itās required at all thereās some easy āget byā level of investment, and rewards for pushing your town along that path, but no penalties for NOT pushing your town down that path.
-Will
I think it would be interesting if we could create religions around the titans as well, possibly granting their favor in some form. Or maybe I just want to make another Cthulu cult >_<
btw weāre talking about lowercase āgā gods.
Then simply add a politheistic pantheon and make the players choose one, giving % in a single aspect of the game.
Now that you mention it, making an in-game religion centering on nameless archetypal figures might be really cool.
Reduced to that level of simplicity and impersonal-ness, itād be easy to have many different expressions of devotion to them, from activities in their sphere of influence (war for the warrior, farming for the mother, whatever), to family shrines, to schools/temples in their honor.
But despite being impersonal, what if they were embodied? The Trickster strides the world, and wherever he goes fortunes are changed. The Mother walks in grace and beauty; flowers spring up at her feet, crops bloom, birth rates tick upward. The Warrior inspires all who see him, raising their agression and ferocity in battle.
And maybe if your city worships or embodies a particular archetype a lot, that archetype finds your cityā¦ appealing. Pleasant. Not necessarily enough that theyād stay all the time, mind you, but enough that they visit more often than some other spots on the map.
In my mind, I see them as walking silhouettes, tall, graceful models of almost pure black, refusing characterization as normal people.
An interesting way to include gods into the game would be with a āhospitalityā system. In Greek and Norse Mythology, Zeus, Odin, and/or other gods would often times travel as mortals and ask to stay in the houses of strangers. (You see, the Holiday Inn is a fairly recent invention.) If the strangers treated the gods well, they would be rewarded; if not they, things would turn out less-than-well for the strangers. It could be an interesting mechanic to have travelers arrive in towns; perhaps they are the gods looking to reward or punish the town, maybe they are normal travelers or merchants who will help to spread word of your town as a nice or terrible place to live and trade, maybe they are thieves looking to case the joint, or maybe they are shiftless bums looking for a place to crash. (Like that one guy you know. We all know one guy like that.)
I have no idea why Iām imagining Zeus in a dressing gown wearing sandals just laying on a sofa, but I am, and heās majestic.
[quote=āGeoffers747, post:16, topic:636, full:trueā]
I have no idea why Iām imagining Zeus in a dressing gown wearing sandals just laying on a sofa, but I am, and heās majestic.[/quote]
And now I have that image in my head too.
āZeus desires Oreos. Double Stuffed Oreos. And do not contemplate attempting to dupe me with Hydrox cookies, lest thou shall earn my ire! Zeus has spoken!ā
i donāt rly want god in the game. if possible there should be a way to skip gods all together using science an tech to get any buffs u would other wise get from gods even if its harder to do so.i got nothing against god always being a factor but the should be a way to get around some if it.
It would be cool if titans somehow represented gods, or were even physical manifestations of them. Adding religion could be cool, in terms of hte potential perks of the game, but Idkā¦ itās not a particularly attractive aspect of the game. In other words, there are other mechanics Iād be more interested in them fleshing out. I donāt want this to turn into a god game.
Not nessacerily, there could simply be an abstract source of āholyā (or unholy) magic that clerics get their power from, ignoring a god with will and wants perhaps.