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No.

 

Simply because the primary faiths of the time were Catholic (Spain & France) and Protestant (England) while both of these are Christian faiths, the differences between the two caused wars between these powers during the established time of Naval Action, prior to it, and even now in the present. I see lines that would divide players rather than bring them together.

 

Now, I think what you should consider isn't faith, but superstition (i.e. Having a woman on board a ship is bad luck, tearing a page out of a bible is bad luck, the black spot, ghosts, etc. Black cats, voodoo, that sort of thing. Not real, but would have a real effect on the morale of crew for example. PLEASE do not have the funky supernatural stuff like in PotBS)

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As long as religions aren't a major factor in gameplay, I don't mind them being integrated, but to make them influence ship/crew performance? Plz no.

Make them like independent minor factions that can provide assignments/quests. They might also have small missions/abbeys  on the world map that could provide certain special trade goods (incense, etc. or something like that).

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Faith and religion played a huge role in the society and the fabric of life in 18 century. Do you think faith and religion have place in Naval action? If yes in what form?

 

What about a reputation system where different faiths are judged by the factions giving a bonus (or negative impact) on your trading/dealings in that region. So if you are a Muslim recruiting sailors (and slaves for your oarsmen mwuaha) from turkey you might get a discount, or if you are a catholic priest buying olives from italy you get them cheaper also.

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Do you think faith and religion have place in Naval action? If yes in what form?

 

I think a game set in the 18th /19th century without religion of any sort would be a major oversight.

 

I agree that it should not be a game changing factor, but I can see finding lost artifacts, natives and their gods and religions, traditions such as the blessing of the fleet (fishing industry), perhaps the effect that a religious figure such as a minister or priest aboard might have on the crew. And, more importantly, it was a major influencer of nations, as well as individuals. I think it has a place in the game albeit not a major one. 

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If you model a town, then sure you should add the church... in the correct style.(ask if you need help with sources on danish Churches)

But I have a hard time imagining a realistic and historical way for religion to play a role with out you being forced to judge a number of different religions.

(catholic Spain, strange England with its mix, the dutch with their Calvinism, Danes with their version of Protestantism, another for the Swedes and Orthodox Russia... and Muslim Ottomans)

 

Sure it can be done, Europa Universalis do it ok.. but I do think there are other things you should focus on for the foreseeable future.

 

Sure a mission to transport a cleric from town A to B... But taking 10 missions from the Templar's or Inquisition would not make much sense.

(The Knights on Malta a bit more if the Mediterranean was added one day)

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Yes, religion played a huge factor in society at the time, however, I don't see any real need to try to implement it here.  As Mr. Aagaard has suggested, period and regionally specific buildings would be great, but having a parson on board doesn't really do much for the morale of your highly superstitious sailors.  You may as well implement fear of a ghost at the bowsprit while you're at it.

 

I just don't think it adds anything to gameplay.

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As long as religions aren't a major factor in gameplay, I don't mind them being integrated, but to make them influence ship/crew performance? Plz no.

Make them like independent minor factions that can provide assignments/quests. They might also have small missions/abbeys  on the world map that could provide certain special trade goods (incense, etc. or something like that).

 

I agree with that. As in - religion is in game as a proxy for whatever we needed anyway, but doesn't stand out on it's own. Give them some little silly quests, maybe lock quantity of trade to reputation with them as a faction, do not allow faith to become anything dividing or hot. This way you keep the feel of the period without stepping on a land... uhm... seamine ^^'

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No.

 

Simply because the primary faiths of the time were Catholic (Spain & France) and Protestant (England) while both of these are Christian faiths, the differences between the two caused wars between these powers during the established time of Naval Action, prior to it, and even now in the present. I see lines that would divide players rather than bring them together.

 

Now, I think what you should consider isn't faith, but superstition (i.e. Having a woman on board a ship is bad luck, tearing a page out of a bible is bad luck, the black spot, ghosts, etc. Black cats, voodoo, that sort of thing. Not real, but would have a real effect on the morale of crew for example. PLEASE do not have the funky supernatural stuff like in PotBS)

You missed the med and a lot of Muslim factions like Turkey that will be in game.

I think we have to keep it real though and ask what role religion ever played in battle during this era. It all seems to cancel itself out and cannot possibly have an effect on battle.

 

But it would be nice to have funeral ceremonies and such. The Sunday mass perhaps stopping a crew from fighting on a sunday?

 

The most I would probably like to see though is his most catholic majesty and such unless you are going to make an RTS out of this or crew mechanics that allow for an irish rebellion ;)

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No..

I mean I would love it for realisms sake. But it is not going to be a social enough game for it to be implimented.

Besides the religions did mix enough for it not to be a thing. Look at all the Irish in the British Navy for instance.

 

It is rumoured that in this period some 30% of the RN were Irish, thats not including French, Italians and other Catholic nations sailors who fought on board British ships.... so does that mean 30% of your ships crew get the the Catholic faith bonus and the other 70% dont?

 

I agree faith played an important role onboard the Spanish fleet, they are 'were' a staunch Catholic Nation... however religion onboard lets say the Republican French Navy or that of the Royal Navy in the late 18th Century was purely ceremonial, as both fleets swore more allegiance to King/Emperor and Country!

 

For me its a nice touch but it shouldn't have any game mechanics associated with it.

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We shouldn't ignore an aspect of the game that could influence the crew of ships and well being of troops and citizens, even fame of a town and prosperity. I would prefer it not to have too huge effect on the game itself but some effects would be welcome.

 

Some simple suggestions

 

Ships.

Man of faith on board.

Sailors were a very superstitious lot and having a 'man of god' on board would somewhat alay those superstitions and fears (thus improve their general morale)

 

Towns.

Places of worship.

Having sufficient places of worship at a town and the correct number of men of faith to run them could have various effects.

Morale of locals means a greater production of local product.

More likely to produce willing and more able recruits.

More impressive the places of worship the greater fame of a town drawing better trade and prosperity, growth.

 

Religion by Nation ?

A sticky subject and depends on a lot of information we do not currently have about end game.

You could align each Nation to a main religion. (eg, Papists were not supposed to hold commissions in the British Navy)

You could take over a town of a religion not aligned with your own Nation and have to make the decision to introduce different places of worship to gain "Town" benefits, by converting enough population to your faith.

 

I would not want to see 'Magic' although praying on superstition and fears if appropriate would be acceptible

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I would say no to faith having any effect on game play, though missions & storylines loosely influenced by it would be fine.
 

Now, I think what you should consider isn't faith, but superstition (i.e. Having a woman on board a ship is bad luck, tearing a page out of a bible is bad luck, the black spot, ghosts, etc. Black cats, voodoo, that sort of thing. Not real, but would have a real effect on the morale of crew for example. PLEASE do not have the funky supernatural stuff like in PotBS)

I think superstition should effect crew morale and your captains reputation however.

If a captain is succsesful and takes lots of prizes (as well as sets captives free rather than slaughtering or selling them off as slaves), a 'lucky' captain  will see their crew morale and captain reputation increased. This would make it easier to recruit and would make NPC's more likely to strike their colours than fight or run. It would give an indicator to other players as to their fate if they were to strike to this captain too, once they know who it is they're facing.

A captain that often founders takes fewer prizes (as well as sinks ships, kills enemy and would rather watch his men die and drown before they surrender) would see adverse effects on reputation and morale.

 

I also think ships that have been taken often or often needed repairs, that had seen better days (remember that a ship could never be made 'as good as new' again, especially if it had taken a good beating in battle or heavy weather) should also act upon crew morale. Perhaps if an in game inventory system is able to, keeping 'lucky' or 'unlucky' artifacts adds to this also.

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If religion/faith/superstition were to be included in game, I think they should affect gameplay somewhat. I like what many others have suggested about buffs to the crew, but I understand peoples reservation about those benefits. My suggestion would be to limit any potential benefits of religion to non PvP related activities, like traveling, trading and exploring. That way religion plays a part in the game, as Is probably historically accurate, but the players won't suffer from any benefits It gives.

 

Otherwise, I don't think religion should be added If no benefits were to come with it, but as others suggested, simply add appropriate churches to the cityscapes in each nation.

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It's not something that i would like to see in game having any impact on my crews morals and such depending if I have a man of faith on board or not, I mean it's not something like keeping the crew well fed, or sailors not touching a solid ground for long periods of time and having some "relaxing times" on a port or getting a small ration of rum after a tough fight sailing in the middle of nowhere.

Any kind of mystic aspect is irrelevant for the gameplay on ships imo, the only thing i can think about is for the exploration aspect of the game, if i recall correctly somewhere it was said that on some small islands to discover there will be locals that we could use to help build some small ports etc, then there yes maybe introducing some missionaries who will have to convert the population will have an effect on them efficiency, could be a positive or negative effect tho, we all know that converting populations to religions often wasn't really a peaceful thing and many fought against this and many missionaries had them life's ended prematurely by locals.

So yeah this could have some small mechanics giving a positive or negative boost on the new discovered ground locals, but if this gives anything better like i don't know some aura boost to one Nation depending of how much lands are under them beliefs domination this will quickly turn a certain part of the game into a explore and convert in mass, not something that i would like to see.

 

Missionaries could help keep some new lands more peaceful and under a certain domination but outside this i don't want to see mystic things added having a real impact on the game-play or any kind or relevancy on the main lands and ports and certainly not something like impacting even just a bit crews moral, would not like to have a priest on board giving any kind of moral boost to my ship crew, i don't want to see any mystical aspect like this, if i have a missionary on board in case of exploration to help with locals ( or make things worse with some of them depending the situations ) he will have a role once on the new lands only, i don't want him to interact in any way with my crew by having a positive or negative effect, he will just be a passenger having no role at all while on the seas.

Some big ports could be under some Nations and beliefs domination in game but religion meaning nothing at all in game from a gameplay aspect beside maybe colonization or new lands locals and i strongly insist on negative or positive aspects they could introduce depending the locals and some various other aspects over the time ( probably hard to implement but if some diseases, natural catastrophes, starvation etc appears months after missionaries introduction and population conversion they could rebel against religion and the discovering people too etc but this will be too much work to introduce in game probably ) 

 

Overall this it's not something i really want to see implemented and certainly not having any impact of any sort on my ships crews.

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Waste of time and dancing on the edge of magic. Many navies and crews were not monofaith at the time anyways. All these supposed bonuses for crew should come with a negative for the crew that don't practice that faith, making it a wash. Some crews did not like having men of faith on board at all. Very religious captains could be deeply unpopular.

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