Religion Ideas - Let's Think Outside The Box!

Khronus

Just tired and throwing out random ideas.

Each religion leads you through a quest chain that explores the lore and ultimately ends with you becoming a devout follower and giving you a special perk for following each specific religion. These perks will not alter your class in any way thus making balance easier but each one can give "something" beneficial. Maybe religion specific emotes (praise the sun anyone? )

They can award you the "pray" ability which gives you a buff specific to your chosen religion. Forcing people down a path for a dps/tank/heal buff would be horrible. Instead we could get a size increase or decrease (not hit boxes but just cosmetic), floating, hovering on a cloud, Halo on our head....stuff like that would be awesome. Something evil can give me horns.....please!

Specific religion paths could give us religious currency "faith" (I totally did not steal this from Civilization at all) that allows us to buy from a set of buffs that all religions offer. Each religion can offer different ways to accumulate faith based on the type of religion it is. The list of buffs being available to all religions would be balanced.

Based on your choice, you will eventually have a follower of your own that you can summon at will to be used for whatever purpose. Some religions can summon something that repairs, sells, Turns the area into a party. Those summons appearance would be different based on religion choice. Potential item mule that has very limited space but can be sent back as a safety storage?

What would you all like to see from the various religions in game? If my ideas suck, please tell me lol.

Vyraka

I'll admit that I'm stealing this idea from another game, but it would be nice if the Gods could grant us "favors from death". It doesn't keep you from dying, but instead negates some of the harsher parts of death penalties.

You would have to do a task first in order to receive one. The more favors you have, the more difficult the tasks. And I definitely think there needs to be a limit (10-15) to how many you can have. Perhaps the more you have alters your appearance slightly in segments of 3.

Merek

MMO's should use deities for more than bosses or lore pieces, it's silly that it's all they turn out to be used for. I've seen games that allow you to pray to a deity and receive benefits if your piety was high enough. However, the piety earned was a resource not a permanent ability/stat. So you couldn't get to a point where you could die without consequences, which I'd prefer. I don't think religion should give you a permanent unlockable cosmetic such as a "halo" or "flying cloud", that'd be a bit on the nose. I would also expect their to be a divide within the community based on your religion, which would create more conflict and that's always welcome.

Yokai Theater

1: Each religion already has their own quest and you can rise in rank of the religion you choose kind of like how the social organisations work
2: Each religion already gives buffs for prying to an alter of your chosen god and these buffs are different based on which god you pick, you can even turn your freehold into a church/alter to your chosen god the same way you would turn it into a tavern
3: You will also get religious augments that can be applied to your skills the same way your secondary class augments can be applied to your skills

this is all already planned to be in the game in some way shape or form

Khronus

@Yokai Theater These are great and I will be excited for anything they end up giving us. Just trying to stir up some conversation and maybe some additional insight for the IS team.

@Merek I agree that these religions should be more than just bosses and lore. I am usually pretty turned off from religion in movies/shows/games because it's always cookie cutter (and true) that people hide behind religion to push an agenda, murder, steal wealth/land.

@Vyraka It would be interesting to see that in addition to what they have in store for us. I don't like the idea of being forced to do quests in order to min/max my death negates but I think there is something there that would be fun.

CROW3

I’d love for the religions to also have a narrative arc. What would happen if as you invest more and more time into your chosen religion, you discovered it was corrupting from the inside out, funneling it’s profits to a set of unlockable encounters? What about religious conflict? New deities emerging? What if the pantheon starts showing up and influencing node progression or destruction?

One of the more abstract questions I have: do the gods worshipped by these religions actually exist (in the context of the game)?

Yokai Theater

@CROW3 yes the gods/goddesses worshiped by these religions actually exist in the world, it is the main story of the world and there are a set number of deities in the world 7 gods/goddesses that won the war of creation and whent on to make the races that filled the world of Verra then you have 3 gods/goddesses that lost the war and were banished to the void = the original 10 gods/goddesses. (there is the 1st race known as the Ancients that tried to gain god like power but you can not worship them)

A religion corrupting from the inside out I don't see happening given that
1: the world is just now developing, it's not like the people running the show have been doing it for a long time.
2: the players are a rise up in the ranks of the religion they choose.
3: these gods/goddesses are real in the world and will speak with you threw the story and prayer

as for religious conflict maybe for RP but not in the game, that makes a faction system that Intrepid dose not want

CROW3

Thanks! Very helpful.

Hurf Derfman

Dunno, but I think that the super power of a tier six religious node should be the ability to declare religious war.

The mayor would have check boxes that determine which religions are flagged against his. This would include "no religion".

This war would have an upkeep cost in currency that increases over time and the more check boxes ticked the steeper the cost.

While the war is active any followers of the mayor's religion gain 30% religious xp gain. This way new converts could level a bit faster. Swords to ploughshares.

For those who don't want to participate they could pay the temple a tithe and effectively buy their way out of having to be flagged against friends, guildies ect.

This would be one heck of a disruptor in node wars/alliances and a potent extortion racket.

Kneczhevo

I have always seen "all" your posts as the way AoC is planned. Great ideas.

I always saw Social Organizations as having a standard progression bar, with milestones for buffs, titles, recipes, etc. Bigger the alter or shrine, bigger the reward. More you invest, the more you are blessed. "Convert 100 rats, and I'll make you a Cardinal".

I really doubt there will be religeous wars, that opens up a whole can of worms. And, as mentioned above, that would create factions (what gods do the guards worship?). Just my opinion.

Hurf Derfman

@Kneczhevo Thanks for the compliment. 😁

Yeah, it would create psudo factions, and does add a complex layer to an already complicated flagging system.
A t6 node would (in theory) have most of their out lying region in some sort of vassal state. So if they got that region locked into a specific religion it would be a powerful tool out side of node/guild Wars to deter Invaders. Plus collection of tithes and taxes on religious services could make a religious node very wealthy and ripe for plunder.

BUT this would also mean that religious augments would have to be fundamentally the same but with different aesthetics.
What would be different would be the sort of tasks/quests that each religion would require to gain XP.

Cites would have to be sanctuaries from the war and there would have to be some sort of regional counter measures inherently built into religious nodes that could either suppress or extend the reach of the war. That way the thing wouldn't be global by default, but leaves room for that to be viable.

Pros/Cons

Once every region has a metropolis there's no way the five different kingdoms are all going to get along.

Granted that's a bit speculative and truly depends on how long it takes player's to evolve past waring city-states and form cohesive alliances.

Kneczhevo

On another note.

I don't believe the Gods are at war. They just had a disagreement? /Shrug

And if there are multiple guild halls, in a metro, I expect a few shrines and temples in a metro, as well.

Edit. Damn. Metros are going to be huge!

Hurf Derfman

Oh that's fine. They're just going to have to pay to opt out.

The Gods may not be at war, neither were the Pagan God's of Ancient Greece. How'd that work out for Troy?

This war would be based on the religion of the nodes mayor. Different religions in the same religious node would just make local politics more colorful.

Not sure how the election system works for religious nodes but if it involves some sort of religious xp grind then the top 10-20% should be allowed to vote with modifiers added to the guy with the most grinding done. This could cause upsets and tie breakers.

Plus religious war would have a steep upkeep cost that increases overtime.

This way if the mayor keeps launching pointless crusades he not only runs the risk if bankrupting the node but even if he has a billion point lead on the mayor grind he becomes so unpopular everybody who can vote, unanimously votes against him and he's replaced.

Just because you'd be able to declare war on every religion doesn't mean you should. You could theoretically earn the wrath of the entire world and be responsible for getting your node seiged into dust.

Just like Troy.

Zairos

can there be a religion that believes in if you find a Golden grass leaf if you pick it you level up 10 levels also giving rare sight for rare items for 10 hrs? but it also makes you a target because the grass lasts 10 hrs before it stops glowing if it gets stolen it grants them the same but the life of the grass leaf is the same. if you reach the church temple called "Xeniophol" you are allowed to receive a rare item based on your character choice.

Zairos

can there be a religion that believes in if you find a Golden grass leaf if you pick it you level up 10 levels also giving rare sight for rare items for 10 hrs? but it also makes you a target because the grass lasts 10 hrs before it stops glowing if it gets stolen it grants them the same but the life of the grass leaf is the same. if you reach the church temple called "Xeniophol" you are allowed to receive a rare item based on your character choice.


the gods are sub particles from physics: Antimuon, Upsilon, Pion, Gluon, and Rho

Khronus

@Zairos I want whatever drug you're on. Sounds like a cool idea but I don't like the lvl aspect. It would be cool for a capture the idol kind of thing that spawns at lvl X node or religious city. Grab it, gain buffs and be a target of everyone. Massive battle ensues and whoever can transport that item gets a reward, doable randomly throughout the day or something.

Zairos

@KHRONUS I have bad news man, I don't use drugs. well the Golden grass leaf could be a very rare item to locate you know a few hundred per server. with intervals of 1 month before they re-generate in the game.

Hurf Derfman

Hey maaan, pass me some of that golden grass. It's puff puff pass not, puff puff run off to Xeniophol.

Khronus

Zairos wrote: »

@KHRONUS I have bad news man, I don't use drugs. well the Golden grass leaf could be a very rare item to locate you know a few hundred per server. with intervals of 1 month before they re-generate in the game.

My comment was based on your banner at the bottom of your messages. You're either 100% correct or on something good with that one lol

insomnia

They already said that there will be perks to following god