Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Please keep religion optional
I was very glad to hear religion was optional. Having its progression be a side ways step over a huge advantage is what kept me backing this project. IMO having optional content is a big strength of MMOs. Forcing people into holes to go do this things they love is bad game design.
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A certain religion might be popular with the rest of the player base at large. It might behoove your node to adopt their temple and ally with them for support. Every character will be a citizen but maybe a religion might be popular with players across several nodes. If those players are at least neutral to you they might still help you out because they have a temple there that grants them benefits.
The temple itself as it evolves on the node might grant inherent buffs or boons to a node.
I see opportunities in the game to think outside the box with regards to traditional systems.
So traditionally I can see religion working on a level like EQ2 where my fae warden worshiped Tunare. I have a shrine in my house and I've done deity quests and have favor.
But beyond that I can see a sort of Civ-like (as in the Civilization series) strategy behind adoption different religions or allying with various trade groups or other organizations. If developed properly there is a lot of meta this game could take on beyond personal character progression and growth.
Fighting over whose God is greater is probably the single most common reasons for conflict.
Not believing in gods would be like not believing in trees.
You don't have to worship any of the gods. I'm sure we can oppose the gods.
We can even oppose all of the gods.
I'm not saying that you have to be an atheist.Just a religion that believes that belief in self or a supernatural power (like nature, or "the force") brings you more power than belief in another being.
What you describe is an alternative religion. And, while that could include the denial of the Ashes pantheon - that would still be like denying the existence of trees.
If everybody did that, we wouldn't need you!!
Belief in this case is synonymous with faith, not acknowledging existence. Unbelief would be a better term with a slightly different shade to it.
A character that doesn't believe in a deity doesn't have faith in them. That is they don't trust them for the answers and plan forward which is traditionally why deities gain followers. The devout are following the deity and their pantheon as their source of direction.
If anyone has read some of the old DragonLance and Forgotten Realms books for characters that had evidence and interaction with divine agents but didn't believe or have faith in them. In fact their short-comings only reinforced their unbelief.
A non-theistic path should have some advantages, or rather a theistic path should have tradeoffs that a non-theist doesn't have. So if a character pursues religion it should come at the expense of something else they could focus on. A non-theist could use the effort and skills they could have obtained through religion on something else. Religions would need to have benefits and disadvantages just like everything else.
Hopefully those sorts of options and choices will make characters unique and tailored to each player.
I'm saying that the religion could be non-theistic. Just because you worship 1 theistic-religion doesn't mean you deny the existence of God's of other religions in the context of the game.
So a shamanistic religion that believes that their source of supernatural power comes from nature itself rather than a specific supernatural being would an example be a non-theistic religion.
The shaman can acknowledge that there are other religions and even gods around, but the shaman personal belief could be that the nature grants her the most power. I'm not trying to push a belief that God's don't exist in the world of Ashes of Creation so a non-theistic religious person doesn't have to be an atheist.
True, I was just thinking of what Steven mentioned about meaningful pvp. And natural reasons to promote pvp, fighting over resources, religion etc.
Definitely if people aren't able to differentiate between fantasy and reality making religion a source of conflict would be a possible source of displeasure for players which would be less than ideal.
Now a negative trade off for the gods blessing, sure that could be a thing. and the reward for the non-theists is he doesn't get anything advantageous from his non-theist view, but also don't get anything negative from it.