How I would do "religion" in FF

[MeowBeep]

Instead think of it as a festival mechanic that gives your whole community a year long buff, but requires them all to gather for a feast. This remains ambiguous as to what is being worshipped, and introduces an interesting mechanic, which are the stated design goals of the devs.

You could basically use the farming UI. So a three year cycle, but instead of crops you once per year pick a seasonal festival and place it anywhere in that season.

Whole village stops and gathers for the celebration, which will attempt to consume large quantities of gathered particular resources to determine buff size. The religious workers gather these goods.

I think a subtle advantage of this mechanic is emphasizing the seasonal rythmn of the game, a sort of yearly reset point. It will be best watching everyone stream back to work fully fed. You could even use the spare resources from having everyone do nothing in the same place to go through and optimize job assignments for everyone, or something.

Possible ideas for the seasons.

Winter: Consumes firewood to prepare. Eat meat and preserves. Buffs 1-25% preservation and 1-25% resistance to disease.

Autumn: Consumes wood to prepare. Eat veges and bread. Buffs 1-25% extra output for processed wood items.

Summer: Consumes iron to prepare. Eat fruit and beer. Buffs 1-25% extra output for processed metal items.

Spring: Consumes stone to prepare. Eat berries and cheese. Buffs 1-25% extra output for food and clothes.

[medea_fleecestealer]

Welcome to the forum.

@Zantai

A popular request is churches. You may have already read some of our thoughts (and prayers) on this one, but ultimately the initial implementation of spiritual buildings has come down to development time. If we do spiritual buildings, we think they should come with some sort of mechanic, and not just be a barebones entertainment or desirability option.

There is also a question of what form these buildings should take. For some, the answer is obviously a church. Maybe some sort of quaint, wooden church as seen in most of the small New England towns. But wait, is the game set in the Colonial period, should it be a big medieval cathedral instead? What about a Norse temple? Maybe it’s not set in a real time period at all?

Where the game is set is something we’ve largely left for the player to decide. Players should have the freedom, while crafting their own charming town out of the wilderness and watching their people get mauled by bears, to imagine the details of the setting as they see fit.

So when it comes to religion, we’re not sure that a church is necessarily the obvious answer. It could be interesting and allow for more creative player agency, to explore a system where you get to choose deities who could confer different favors upon your town. Or who knows, maybe when the friendly traveling merchant, Scorv Egdenor the Butcher was in town, he’s secretly whispered to those willing to listen about the glorious return of RAVAGER!

Whatever we do for this category of buildings though, we’ll want to make sure it’s another fun and engaging mechanic that adds a meaningful layer to the gameplay, rather than rushing something in just to say we have it in the game.

[MeowBeep]

Hi, thank you. Yes that was what I interpreted to mean the devs design goals were ambiguous religion and interesting mechanics. All religions have festivals that mark the passing of the calendar, so it seems like the ideal way to have a religious building in the game without committing to any particular religion.

[OlPioneer]

@MeowBeep

Hi, thank you. Yes that was what I interpreted to mean the devs design goals were ambiguous religion and interesting mechanics. All religions have festivals that mark the passing of the calendar, so it seems like the ideal way to have a religious building in the game without committing to any particular religion.

I could live with that. How about buffs for happiness, too, from the festival?

[system]

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