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A Link to the Index: https://www.reddit.com/AlchemistCodeGL/comments/adzjua/the_alchemists_index/ Welcome to the 119th Alchemist's Toolbox review! Today we're heading to Lost Blue to take a look at one of Thunder's strongest magic users. So without further ado, here's the next unit for review: Drei! Drei is Veda Templar #3. Let's see what he can do as a unit, shall we? Personal Investment: I've got Drei at MLB with all his jobs mastered (both JEs mastered, unique job enhanced). I'm currently waiting on more of his shards for Enlightenment, but even at his comparatively lower investment level he still puts in a hefty amount of work. Element: Basic: Drei is a Thunder unit, which means he's strong against Water and weak against Wind. Compared to a hypothetical Light or Dark unit with the same stats and jobs, he would be better defensively and worse offensively. Competition:
Florid Mortician: Since this is Drei's unique job, he faces no competition here.
Ninja/Ninja [Black Tortoise]: Comparing to other Ninjas, Drei competes with Laevateinn, Lucido, Magnus, and Yuri. He beats Laevateinn in bulk and horizontal mobility while losing to her in speed and damage; beats Lucido in everything except speed; beats Magnus in bulk and horizontal mobility while losing to him in damage and speed; and loses to Yuri in everything except horizontal mobility. Factoring in Gates 1-5 of Enlightenment, Drei now beats Laevateinn in vertical mobility in exchange for an even larger damage loss; he now loses to Lucido in damage; his comparison to Magnus remains the same; and he now beats Yuri in magic bulk.
Magic MeisteMagic Meister [Serenade]: Comparing to other Magic Meisters, Drei competes with Lucia and Rebecca. Drei beats Lucia in speed and mobility while losing to her in damage and bulk; and beats Rebecca in damage, speed, mobility, and physical bulk while losing to her in magic bulk. Factoring in Gates 1-5 of Enlightenment, Drei now beats Rebecca outright.
Leader Skill: +30% HP, +50% MAtk, and +40% MAtk Debuff Res for Thunder units. A great Leader Skill for Thunder magic teams. Jobs: Drei's 3 jobs are Florid Mortician, Ninja, and Magic Meister, with the Black Tortoise JE for Ninja and the Serenade JE for Magic Meister. Florid Mortician is a magic usedisruptor hybrid job. It has: Main Skillset
A teleport + single-target Thunder damage skill that boosts the user's agility (this skill deals magic category Slash type damage).
An AoE Healing Potency debuff that also inflicts Disable Heal.
An AoE 5-hit Thunder damage skill that deals bonus damage if the user is afflicted with a status (this skill deals magic category Slash type damage).
A teleport + single-target Thunder damage skill that deals bonus damage if the target is affected by a PAtk or MAtk debuff (this skill deals magic category Slash type damage).
Sub Skillset
A single-target Thunder damage skill that lowers the target's PAtk/MAtk and moves the target up to 4 grid squares towards the user (this skill deals magic category Magic type damage).
A single-target Thunder damage skill that lowers the target's agility and moves the target up to 4 grid squares towards the user (this skill deals magic category Magic type damage).
A teleport + Berserk self-infliction skill that boosts the user's PAtk/MAtk by 150% while afflicted with Berserk.
Its reactive is a Slash damage self-buff that also self-inflicts Disable Heal and can activate against skills, and its passives boost MAtk/Move, boost the damage of [Weeping Petals] Multilift while giving it a random hit chance, and boost the Slash damage buff potency of [Deceptive] Revoke while lowering its activation chance respectively. Ninja is a disruptor job. It has: Main Skillset
An evasion self-buff.
A self-based AoE skill that inflicts Blindness.
A weak melee damage skill that inflicts Sleep.
A weak melee damage skill that inflicts Poison.
A weak melee damage skill that inflicts Paralysis.
A weak melee damage skill that inflicts Bind.
A weak melee damage skill that inflicts Stop.
Sub Skillset
A single-target damage skill (this skill does physical Missile damage).
A single-target Fire damage skill (this skill deals physical typeless damage).
A single-target Water damage skill (this skill deals physical typeless damage).
Its reactive is a chance to Poison attackers, and its passive boosts Move and Jump. Ninja [Black Tortoise] does the following:
Adds 1 Move to the base job.
Adds a Move buff to Utsusemi.
Turns Tranquilizing Blade into a teleport + weak single-target damage skill that inflicts Sleep.
Slightly increases the damage of Shuriken while making it deal typeless damage and increasing its jewel cost by 1.
Magic Meister is an MAtk-using physical damage-dealer job. It has: Main Skillset
A self-heal that also casts Quicken on the user.
An AoE skill that places panels which deal damage when stood on.
A self-based AoE damage skill that ignores a portion of the targets' PDef and deals bonus damage to Machine type enemies.
An AoE damage skill that ignores a portion of the targets' PDef.
A single-target 4-hit Light damage skill that ignores a portion of the target's PDef (and unlike the rest of the job's skills, this skill has a cast time).
Sub Skillset
An AoE skill that places panels which boost the PDef/MDef of allies that stand on them.
An MAtk/Dex self-buff.
A single-target PAtk/Dex debuff.
A single-target damage skill that ignores a portion of the target's PDef and deals bonus damage to Airborne type enemies.
Its reactive is a chance to reduce physical damage taken, and its passives boost HP/Dark Res and boost MAtk/Dex/agility with every KO respectively. Magic Meister [Serenade] does the following:
Adds an AoE skill that dispels the targets' buffs to the main skillset.
Boosts the range of Weakness and makes it an AoE.
Boosts the damage and number of uses of Quarter Raid and gives it a permanent Missile Res debuff.
Boosts the potency of Pain Control.
Babel War Art: Drei's Babel War Art brings the PAtk/MAtk boost of [Exaltation] Ace from +150% to +300%. Simple, yet extremely effective in the right scenarios. Stats: Drei's stats support a fairly fast, slightly squishy unit with good damage. All stats are at the usual benchmark (level 75, all jobs mastered, main job enhanced), and only Drei's unique job will be shown since it's so far above his other options. Table Key: NP = No Passive; EE = [Embodying] Eldest
Stat
Florid Mortician
HP
2008
MAtk (NP)
716
MAtk (EE)
906
Agility
132
Enlightenment: Drei currently has 5 Gates of Enlightenment.
His Gate 1 boosts HP, PAtk, MAtk, and agility while leveling, and boosts HP, PDef, MDef, and Luck when maxed.
His Gate 2 boosts PDef, MDef, Crit, and hitrate while leveling, and upgrades Ninja Stealth to +1 Move, +1 Jump, +10% agility, and 10% lower jewel costs (previous effect of +1 Move and +1 Jump) when maxed.
His Gate 3 boosts HP, Dex, agility, and evasion while leveling, and upgrades his Leader Skill to +30% HP, +30% MAtk, +20% All damage, and +40% MAtk Debuff Res when maxed.
His Gate 4 boosts HP, PDef, MDef, and hitrate while leveling, and boosts HP, PDef, MDef, Luck, damage against Greed type enemies, and damage against Sloth type enemies when maxed.
His Gate 5 boosts HP, PDef, MDef, agility, and Crit while leveling, and boosts the range and number of uses of [Wild Thunder] Shuffle while also adding agility debuffs as a trigger for its bonus damage; boosts the range and number of uses of Aperience while also causing it to temporarily prevent buffs from affecting the targets; and boosts the damage of Illusive Lure-Blade while also reducing its jewel cost and adding an agility/All defense debuff while the target is afflicted with Sleep when maxed.
Recommended Enlightenment: Drei's Enlightenment is a somewhat unusual one since maxing Gates 1 and 4 don't provide any important stats except HP (plus agility from the final level of Gate 1). As such, while 5/5/5/5/5 (with Gate 3 being optional to max) is still his best overall setup, 4/5/5/4/5 can grant very similar performance with less spent resources. Enlightenment Stats: Drei's Enlightenment helps patch up his bulk and speed a bit while providing a moderate boost to his already good damage. All stats assume level 95 with an Enlightenment setup of 5/5/5/5/5. All other assumptions are the same as the regular stats section. Table Key Additions: SS = Scintillating Shearer
Passive 2: Ninja Stealth {Scintillating Shearer} Note: Drei's other passives are largely niche picks for certain scenarios.
Drei's general build. Unique main and sub, reactive is a choice between damage + better kit synergy and survivability, and Drei's best general passive setup is [Embodying] Eldest + Ninja Stealth/Scintillating Shearer due to the more reliable benefits they provide. Basic strategy is to hit enemies hard with magic and use your self-Berserk when you're out of big damage skills. My Recommended Build: Drei will almost always use his unique job, though Magic Meister and Ninja both have some niche applications. Gear Recommendations: Armor and Accessories: Any HP or agility boosting gear; Trick Deck (HP + Thunder damage against Water enemies boost); Jailing Chains (agility, All damage, Drei's VCR); Screaming Bullet (basically budget version of Drei's VCR, farmable during PotK collab) Weapon: Golden Jade Tarot (best standalone stats, agility, HP); Reverse Card (Slash damage, Drei's weapon, strong Weapon Ability) Memento Recommendations: Drei's best Memento is his own: Prune, Harvest, Bloom. This Memento boosts his agility; HP; Slash damage; MAtk Debuff Res; MAtk; Paralysis Res; and hitrate, with a jewel cost reduction and an additional agility boost at MLB. Its Vision Ability is a single-target Thunder damage skill that inflicts Rage. Since Drei is a Veda Templar, he also gets some good benefits from Nine Lives (MAtk), A Night of Drinking Lifeblood (agility + HP), and My Ray of Sunshine (HP). If you don't have any of those, then go for the biggest HP, MAtk, or agility boost that you can get, prioritizing Veda Templar and Lost Blue Group Skills. Rune Recommendations: Sorcery Runes are Drei's best Rune type, hands down (though Charge Forth runes are the only one that's 100% useless for him on his unique job). For primary stats, Dex/Crit/HP/MAtk/MDef or Luck/agility is your best bet. As for secondary stats:
Envy: Slash damage is the main one, though Magic type damage could be nice if you want Drei's damage + debuff skills to have a little more oomph.
Sloth: Any of these work depending on your needs.
Lust: Any of these can work, though Charm Res, Delay Res, and Rage Res stand out.
Gluttony: Max Jewels and Critical Rate are the 2 best options here.
Wrath: MAtk Debuff Res gets some diminishing returns here assuming you have Drei's Leader Skill up, so Agility Debuff Res is a good option for those scenarios.
Greed: Any of these can work except Bind Res (because Drei has a crazy high innate Bind Res), though Petrify Res, Death Sentence Res, and Stop Res stand out.
Futureproofness: Drei's only update down the line compared to JP is Gate 6 of Enlightenment. Overall Asessment: Drei is a great unit. If you need a new magic user, he can be an excellent addition to your toolbox. And that's the review! As always, feedback is greatly appreciated! Make sure to let me know which of the following units you want me to review next: Cassius, Eros, Hozuki, Longinus, Rahu, Sakura Or choose one of the revisit options below! Annerose, Edgar, Flamel, Sieba
Etina vs Reborn: A review of the two most popular Interlude Servers
Hi all, I see these two servers coming up in almost every thread, there's some passionate fans on both sides of the fence and I though I'd throw in my 2 cents. I recently played on both servers to get a feel for them and wanted to try to offer a fairly objective view of their pros and cons. I am going to cover 7 topics: Overall Features, Donation Options, RMT/Bot Prevention, Population/Community, Network/Client Stability, Geodata, and Future Updates.
L2J Classic converted into Interlude, and additional Custom Enhancements
L2J Interlude
Overall, the biggest difference that sticks out to me and will effect the game the most is the Adena-Item parity difference. Obviously, with the higher rates on Etina, players will acquire items, AA, and gear much faster, but theoretically they should also be acquiring Adena at the same speed. This will help ensure prices don't get too inflated as the Adena:Item ratio is 1:1. On Reborn, the Adena:Item ratio is 1.5:1 which creates an inflationary economy. It's always better to hold onto your items and carry as little Adena as possible because your items will be worth more 2 months from now then they are now. You can see this clearly by looking at Giran Market and seeing some ridiculously absurd prices for C and B grade gear. Etina's Buff Store system is also an interesting concept. It allows Buffers to set up a shop, much like Dwarven Craft. Where a player can buy a buff by clicking on it, and then you as the buffer can buff them. Once this exchange occurs, the server automatically sends the agreed upon adena from the Buffed Player to the Buffer. Essentially this allows a way for players to sell buffs with no one worrying about scammers. Other than that, the next biggest difference is the User-Interface and small feature tweaks. I'd advise you to check out both servers and see which UI you like better. Reborn gives you a more retail-like experience, whereas Etina has some quality-of-life changes and some adjustments to make parts of the game easier. It really comes down to personal preference.
Donation Options
Feature
Etina
Reborn
Vendors
Paypal, Skrill
Stripe
Premium
6 EUmonth
5 EULifetime
First Class Change
3 EUR
3 EUR
Second Class Change
8 EUR
9 EUR
Name Change
5 EUR
5 EUR
Clan Name Change
5 EUR
5 EUR
Cosmetics
3 EUR to 16 EUR
3 EUR to 14 EUR
Overall, you could argue Etina is more P2W due to there being no free way to get Premium. However, the bonus for Premium is much smaller, and 3x versus 3.45x is not too noticeable.
RMT, Bot, and Dualbox Prevention
Both servers really excel at preventing Botting, Dual Boxing, and RMT. The GMs on Reborn are known to purchase adena from sellers on MxC and then trace back and ban the sellers and all their prior customers. It makes selling and buying adena/items incredibly difficult. That said, it's not impossible to RMT and those who have connections of know farmers on the down-low could still acquire Adena/Items. Reborn also has a state-of-the-art anti-Bot check in game that prevents most bots from effectively farming. Some might even say it is too strong, as features that were available on official retail are disallowed here. CP Pot Macros are bannable, setting up a clicker on your dwarf to craft SSD is bannable. Yet on retail servers, NCSoft said both of those were legal. Etina is smaller in population so it hasn't attracted too many big time adena/item farmers yet but there definitely are ways to RMT. Like Reborn, the GMs are very active in tracking down sellers and banning their characters and their customers' characters. Etina uses an Enhanced Smart Guard anti-bot system that automatically detects and bans Bots. It's not as strong as Reborn's but is still better than 95% of private servers I've seen.
Population/Community
Reborn is larger than Etina, and it is much older than Etina. On Reborn, there are many level 79+ players geared out; whereas Etina is a newer fresher server. Both servers have players that play 16+ hours a day and will always be farming harder and faster than you. So I wouldn't let geared players deter you. Also in Reborn's favor is a lot of old-school retail players. Many players from the old NCSoft retail servers, and the more recent Skelth server play there. Both servers seem to have a healthy balance of North American, South American, and European players.
Network/Client Stability
Reborn really struggles in this department. It's not uncommon for me to get 3 to 5 critical errors a day. It's not a huge deal if you're in town or just running around, but if you're in the middle of PvP or Exping. That could mean a death for you. Edit: Other Reborn players are saying they get much less frequent crit errors. It is very possible there is some driver or client issue specific to me. Etina has a very strong development team. In short, you get what you pay for, and with Etina having paying customers (6 EUmonth), they are able to allocate resources to improve network stability, squash bugs, and build out new features. The Etina Dev Team is really good. Perhaps the best any Private Server has ever had. Both servers are still susceptible to DDoS attacks from angry RMTers who get banned, but you can't really hold that against them. Even retail servers have been DDoSed before. Both servers have above-average protection, and generally don't have too much down-time or server lag.
Geodata
Etina is using the L2J Classic code base and most likely some really good Geodata pack they bought or designed themselves. I've pulled trains on the server and the monsters have always behaved as expected and with reasonable pathing. Reborn.... What Geodata? I would bet money Reborn is using the basic free Geodata pack that came with the server files they are using. It's bad. Like real bad. For Instance, some of the Abandoned Camp walls are shifted over, so if you pull a train it will look like the monsters are visually running through the walls.
Future Updates
Reborn is currently working on making the client more stable. They want for players to have better FPS in crowded sieges. They are also working on network protection against DDoSes. And still further squashing minor bugs here and there. Etina still has a few minor bugs to work out. Some low-level quests are still giving the L2 Classic Rewards instead of the Interlude rewards. Some UI components are still being upgraded. Down the road, Etina plans to implement custom chronicles/expansions that look very cool and will provide a fresh unique end game experience. You can read about them here
Just finished them not too long ago and i want to give the best advice i can for people who are trying to complete them right now or who will be trying to complete them in the near future. We've had the same missions since at least season 2, with the biggest change to them being that the parry mission combos were lowered from 10 to 5, and ever since season 3 the missions have appeared in the same order, so these tips should work for future seasons just as well as they did last season and this season. Some specifications before the tips start:
Quick respawn+parting utsusemi means exactly that, those two cards make for a good defense and offense when paired toghether.
Any cards where i didn't mention assist codes can have any assist code that you choose to give them
(if you ask a question and i feel like the answer would be best here i'll edit the post and put it here)
So without further ado these are my tips for completing the tier 100 missions. Maximize your S-energy gauge capacity: Generals: You can mainly do this in one of two ways, you can get lucky with drone spawns and routing, but the best way to go around this is to sit at the hot spring in shinobi city. Equipment: Have starting dash equipped so you finish the objective faster, and if possible also get master of change to morph yourself and be unnoticed at the spring; And if you think you'll need them get quick respawn+parting utsusemi to defend the spring if you get defeated. Any weapon will do but if you're having trouble; sabers, noise hammers and healing hammers have wide range attacks that can defend the spring if you need it. Specifics: If you sit at the spring for 25-30 seconds you'll fill your s-energy meter to the maximum. Make sure to morph yourself into a duck to go unnoticed as long as you can. And don't attack anyone that comes into the spring unless you get attacked first, if you're morphed just sit tight until your timer for morphing runs out, and if you're not morphed just blow your bubble quickly or emote to tell the other player to leave you be; if they're nice enough they'll sit in the spring with you until any of you leave, and if they attack you can fight them or run away and search for a drone. Score a K.O in BR, Score an IPPON in BR, Score a K.O in TB and score an IPPON in TB: Generals: The premise with these 4 missions is to get 30 of each, so you can manage to do this through normal gameplay or by playing more aggressively than you normally would. Equipment: Your usual equipment for each should do, and if you feel like you need it you can design a specific set of cards to help you out, Stealing hyena and quick respawn could be good starting points. Specifics: Nothing special about it, just play as normal or go ham to make it go quicker. The worst thing that could happen is getting screwed by matchmaking. Score a K.O: Generals: the deal with this one is getting 10 K.Os in a single match, this is one of the bottlenecks in the missions. It's best to do this in battle royale. If you have someone that can help you out to do this one by all means ask them for help. Equipment: Quick respawn is one of the best ones for this, along with hyena and starting dash. Gum boost impact is also helpful for this mission, parting utsusemi can aslo net you some extra K.Os if you get lucky. As for weapons, you can go with your main, your secondary main if you have one and if all else fails use Mellow ala mode since it excels at neutralizing opponents, 3rd partying and it has one of the two deathbox ninjutsus in the game. Specifics: The best strategy is to play aggressively and steal kills whenever possible, If you're using GBI, pestering your opponent with it is also helpful for this. This mission is not that complicated, it's just hard. I'll go into more detail with asking for help from someone in the 10 consecutive K.O mission, since they both use the same strategy when asking for help. Perform a Parry combo: Generals: This one is mainly done by asking for help from other players by changing your in-game name. You can also achieve it by dumb luck but it's better to ask for help. Equipment: Nothing special here, maybe quick respawn if you get 3rd partied while doing the mission, staring dash to be able to parry right away and sudden burst to have a second chance at doing it if you fail the first time for some reason or another. Any weapon can do it, but boards are discouraged. Specifics:
Change your name to Parry (any directional arrow ↑↓, ←and→ should go together, preferably use ↑)x5 so your name ends up being Parry↑x5, Parry↓x5 or Parry←→x5. you can find symbols at the bottom of the language selector for the keyboard. Make sure to not choose a weapon with an armor parry bonus from the direction you chose; that means, don't use a hammer if the direction you chose was ←→, don't use a yo-yo if the direction you chose was ↓ and don't use a board if the direction you chose was ↑. Using katanas and ↑ is your best option
Try to do this at the start of a match when people's weapons are all the same size so big weapon bonuses don't happen.
When approaching a player to ask them for help make sure to tell them you're friendly by blowing your bubble quickly and/or using stickers. If they decide to help you sit tight until they attack you, then burst and parry in the direction that you chose for your name, lastly when you've done the 5 combos dash out of the parry. I myself like to leave them alone for the rest of the match as a sign of thanks, and maybe they'll do the same for you if they helped you out.
Perform a finishing combo: Generals: This is the biggest bottleneck of all the missions, the same strategies from the 10 K.O mission can apply, but your best bet is to ask someone for help, and I'll be explaining how to do it with help here. This is done in team battles because of the consistent player and drone spawns. In this mission every second counts so don't wast any time. Equipment: in your equipment it's good to have life drain, ninja sense pro+it's third assist code and master of change with all of it's assist codes, i suggest using mellow ala mode for this because of the same reasons i discussed on the 10 K.O mission. The player that's helping you should go with quick respawn Without the health assist code and starting dash with the speed assist code; and for the weapon any yo-yo because those are the weapons with the lowest health values. Specifics: •Arrange a time to queue up for a team battle. Make sure the matchmaking is set to region instead of world so you have more chances to get together, the goal here is that each one of you ends up on opposite teams. •Once you match against eachother you have to go to a place that's near your friend's spawn and not frequented a lot by other players, places that don't spawn any drones and have low visibility compared to the rest of the map are recommended . •My own recommended places for each map are
WNA: on the outside corner near spawn that doesn't spawn any drones
Eagle: Below the spawning platform for each team
Riverdale: On the tunnels below spawn, near a gate for quick escape if needed.
Shinobi and Croissant are the most difficult ones to pull this off. Shinobi is a small map and the least trafficked parts of the map have really high accessibility and visibility. Croissiant has the same problem that most places are open, but with a big map, so the secluded parts that the map does have are far away from spawn and will make your friend lose a lot of time when getting there . The least worst places to do this on those two maps are
Shinobi: on the middle of the bridges at either side of the map, since those are the least frequented parts of the map, do be mindful that they have high visibility so be careful of getting 3rd partied by one of your friend's teammates.
Croissant: at the top of the map on the side nearest to your spawn. Small drones will spawn there after a while so be sure to bust them out before anyone has any reason to go up there.
•The gameplay part of things consists of you going to any of the places that you both chose and your friend being a sitting duck for you to attack them. Ninja sense pro+it's third assist code+the mellow's morph attack will grant you a little damage buff to the first attack dealt after using the special, so be sure to utilize it. Your friend has to use quick respawn until it runs out of uses, after that they have to go to you. In between the time that your friend isn't with you, morph to hide yourself so you can go unbothered for the longest possible time by any of your friend's teammates. Store your ninjutsu, it's a guaranteed deathbox if it hits so use it on the most dire of situations when a teammate from your friend's gets dangerously close to you. That's all the advice I can give with that specific strategy on that specific mission, so if you find a way that makes it better for you and your friend make sure to use it. (boy that was a long one wasn't it) Get 1st place without equipping an S-card: Generals: Not a lot to it, everything's in the name. Preferably do this in team battles. Equipment: No cards. Use you main weapon if you want to, but if you can't do it with it use the SK8 hammer or the Sushi axe. Specifics: It's best to do this in team battles since getting 1st on your team and winning the match counts the mission. If you're going with your main try to play as best as you can, and if that doesn't cut it drone hunt with the SK8 or sushi axe. Get 1st place without crafting a big weapon: Generals: Same as before, not a lot to it except you now have cards. This can be done in any of the two modes. Equipment: Use your normal cards with you main weapon. You can also opt to drone hunt in team battles with the SK8 or sushi axe (Dunno why you would do it, but it's an option. And in the case that you decide to drone hunt for this mission, my recommended cards are quick respawn+the speed assist code, discerning eye+the speed assist code, starting dash+the speed assist code and gum boost impact to throw people away from drones, all other assist codes are up to you.) Specifics: With your main weapon try to play as best as you can, AVOID ALL SK8 hammers and Sushi Axes, their special breaks you weapon and if you have enough energy you'll craft a big weapon, so if you get your weapon broken it's better to get yourself killed and respawn with a small weapon. If you're droning just have good routing and you'll do ok. Remember to ignore the assisted HUD telling you to craft a big weapon, it'll be tempting you to do it and if you're too distracted you can end up crafting a big weapon on accident. RESIST THE TEMPTATION. Gum bind multiple opponents: Generals: again, not a lot to it. It's best to do this in battle royal. Equipment: Stealing hyena+the gum damage assist code is a must on this one, Any weapon with gum grenade work well for this, gum net and gum laser also work well but the quicker AOE effect on grenade is preferable. Specifics: It's best to do this by 3rd partying after two people complete a parry, with a big weapon and with stealing hyena. end the battle without taking damage: Generals: Also self descriptive. Battle royal is ideal. The best map for doing this is Eagle City. Equipment: master of change to hide when needed, Gum boost impact to throw people away from you, utsusemi master to pester anyone that's trying to chase you and ninja sense pro to detect approaching people. As for the weapons; skateboards are the best, since they have really high mobility and the damage buffs from the tricks can make quick work from any opponent that you need to defeat. Morph yo-yos also work, mainly the mellow since it has the deathbox ninjutusu. Specifics: Just run around the map and avoid any and all confrontation, winning here is not a requirement so don't try to get a lot of points, do try to get secluded drones though, it'll help you defend yourself. score an ippon on a bunch of opponents: Generals: you have to get 4 ippons on 4 simultaneous players, as i understand it right now this mission is bugged. Equipment: Aggressive oriented sets are encouraged along with more aggressive weapons. Specifics: Just fight, this mission is bugged right now so the best thing you can do to achieve it is to get 4 ippons without dying. It's also very much possible to do it with a Fujiyama rocket, but the occasions are rare. (I just played a normal match and the mission counted on S2, S3 and S4, so that's why i say to just get 4 consecutive ippons could do it. Also by the accounts of some other people, just getting 4 ippons counts the mission, but I'm not that sure so just try all the options here until it works) score an ippon: Generals: Score 8 ippons one match, this can be done in either mode but battle royal works best, also getting someone to help you get them also works. Equipment: Go with an aggressive set, Stealing hyena is a must, Giant killer and quick respawn+parting utsusemi are recommended. Go with mainly aggressive weapons, but if you trust yourself enough with your main you can go with it (In the chance that you main is an aggressive weapon, you're in luck) Specifics: Go ham on em' Those were my tips for doing the tier 100 chest missions. You're not obligated to follow my tips to the letter, if you feel more comfortable doing something your way, then do it your way, if you feel like you want to tweak something I put here to adjust it better to you needs go ahead, if you feel like you know better than me in any way shape or form you can completely ignore all the advice i put here, it's all optional and it's all up to you. Feel free to add your own tips or questions on the comments.
Some time ago, when asked about a ray katana buff, (if I recall correctly) you mentioned you didn’t want to touch it much until you could do a more sweeping rework of items. Do you have any more news on that? As well, what do you think of proposed changes that Calcium and Talwar have suggested like a charged shot or area damage?
Yes, this is still in our sights! We tackled this to some extent in the Vital Combat update, but we still want to do bigger reviews of item balance as we've mentioned before. We hope this is something we can emphasize in early 2021 once other impactful projects like the Item Forge have settled into the game. And yes, we've seen the videos by Calcium, Talwar, and others as well! Some of the ideas like a charged shot would be pretty ambitious on the technical side, but never say never! We still want to expand on projectile and weapon systems beyond the steps we took with High Tech Terror.
With the new update, EXP is no longer gained from any monster unless the player has hit it. Is this intentional and is this permanent? It's extremely difficult to group up together to help each other level up. It's now better to not cooperate, and make sure you can get damage on each and every enemy lest someone just steamroll the enemy before you can hit them. Major class imbalance between those that are single hit classes vs. long ranged multi hit classes such as Sorcerer. Party Member Level Ups completely invalid. You cannot consistently expect anyone below level 20 to be able to hit the specific monsters on the expected level up exp. I posted this elsewhere and I heard back from countless players giving stories about how they're unable to play with their friends or family or GF/BFs simply because introducing someone to a game with so little incentive to group has forced them to quit. Personally, I am completely unable to convince my little brothers to play with me since it's so counter productive to try and level up together. In my opinion, grouping without needing to party up or be in the same guild together is what truly made the game special. Now that it's better to go solo, it's destroyed that little piece of magic that made it so fun for beginners to play RotMG and team up with strangers, that would eventually become friends.
It is not intentional. This is a quite elusive bug we have been having difficulties to track and correct. Because we are immersed in a team-wide process to launch the upcoming release, we haven’t been able to investigate with as much depth as we would have liked. We know it’s quite disruptive, and it will have the appropriate attention as soon as it’s humanly possible.
What type of potatoes do you use to run the servers
Sweeeeet potatoes 😏
Will you actually focus more on QOL updates like status effect reworks, phase reworks, bug fixes etc, instead of pumping in more new content?
We want for sure dedicate time to polish and improve things that already exist. That being said, what really drives our efforts is our vision for Realm. We have a vision for what we want to achieve in 2021 and a good part of it involves improving on existing systems, but in other cases, moving towards that vision mean new systems.
Will there be any more dungeons planned after Oryx Sanctuary that will either be as hard or maybe even harder? Something that might continue the lore or maybe something so strong not even oryx could handle
n the long term, yes. Endgame content is one of the most time consuming and dev-intensive kinds of projects on the design side, so it's not something we can do super regularly, but the game naturally progresses in that direction over time. While we can't promise anything HARDER than O3 particularly soon, we do still want to create new endgame content consistently.
What are the main focuses for updates right now. Like is it new material or is it more focused on bugs/glitches.
At this VERY moment, we're focused more on content in December with things like reconstructed dungeons, a brand new dungeon, item forge, quickslots, and more. But overall our focus is both, as our team is growing and more capable of tackling both ends of development simultaneously.
Is there going to be any more event bosses?
yes
So I’ve got 2 questions for ya:
Do you guys plan on eventually updating all art in game? Or is it just gonna be the ones that really need it? (ie; epic dungeons, sprite world)
What are your thoughts on adding a second white to the cdepths to put it in line with woodlab and ddocks?
We aren't looking to update every sprite in the game just for the sake of it, but we do want to get the game to a more consistent style over time, particularly in the case of the original lofi assets, many of which even lack basic animations and are completely static. There will not be another white in CDepths at the time we release the reconstructed version of the dungeon. However, Doku has received a buff and we do intend to give the CDepths another white a little later down the line!
What’s the attitude to bots in realm (such as the ones advertising in nexus)?
This will probably come as obvious, but we don't like them any more than you do! We know they're unsightly, and part of our 2021 plan includes taking more legitimate measures against bots, beyond just chat filters but also proactive prevention systems that aren't disruptive to human players.
Why change the removal of negative effects on entire group from the Tome of Purification?
We know this was a controversial change at the time, and it was heavily debated among our internal design team as well, but we ultimately felt this was a necessary balance change despite the precedent the item had set since it was introduced. Having to account this item constantly limited our design choices, often forcing us to lean more than we'd like into other iffy design measures like high damage bursts just to be able to make something challenging/engaging (especially pre-Vital Combat). With the tome as it is now, we feel more comfortable using status effects in moderation and with consideration, instead of just annoying spam.
Will you guys ever implement any new ui looks for exalt? I really like the flash ui and wish i could play with it
UI/UX is an important topic on Exalt for us! We don't plan to make artistic variants like a retro Flash style (which Exalt's UI is already heavily based on, just sharper), but we are developing alternative layout styles which we hope to make available sometime in 2021.
Hire me?
send us your CV!
uhhhhhhhhh Another question. Will there ever be changes to LOD drops? Currently the dungeon has almost no reason to run. It takes about ten to fifteen minutes on average just for a mana pot and the ST is dreadful. Nobody ever does the dungeon but the fights are well designed. If there were better drops people might actually go in them. I would argue that Life should drop and Celestial Blade also needs some tweaking. It's super unconventional as is and the Enforcer is honestly 100x easier to get. The changes to Water Silk Robe made people actually sometimes go in and kill Blue then leave, so if you guys made the other drops better people would actually stick around.
This will probably take place in an aforementioned balancing patch that reassesses a multitude of items throughout the game.
Will there be a fix for the constant vault bug soon? It gets really annoying entering my vault and having to nexus and re enter thanks to it just error-ing every time I try to move an item to or from a vault.
Problems that arised with vault are also very, very elusive to reproduce for us. As we commented, we quite busy at the time with the upcoming release and this problem, which we cannot consistently pinpoint to a cause yet, is eluding us (until we can put our full efforts on it again!). So, we'll investigate it in depth as soon as we wrap up the current release! We cannot give an answer on when or how fixes will happen, though, but we will be on it for sure.
Hey DECA, not too long ago I made a post on a tweak to how Exaltations worked. The TL;DR of it would be "Make exaltations based on the amount of exaltations per weapon type or armor type instead of based on completions. Basically, 24 exaltations of staff classes should be that 5% drop rate bonus instead of 1/5 every stat for every class." I would love to know if you would be willing to consider this idea, partially or fully. If you would like more explanation, I made a full post on it here: https://www.reddit.com/RotMG/comments/jqep7s/a_tweak_to_exaltation_bonus_gains/ Thank you again.
We really appreciate the time and effort put into this deep analysis. We won't say at this point what will be included or not, but definitely it will be helpful to have this on the table when we discuss our approach to further iterations of Exaltations and the overall progression!
Two pretty quick questions: #1: Will the player Pleased ever have his necro death on the legends in-game leaderboard? As someone with a high fame character, dying and then not receiving the fame or credit after my characters death is my worst nightmare. #2: Now I know the testing for Item Exchange is coming out tomorrow, but are there/could there be plans to implement Oryx 3 tops into the exchange pool? (T14Weapons/T7abilities/T15Armors)
1# please contact support for this. 2# For now the item forge is focused specifically on untiered items. We may expand this over time, but top tiered items are not currently planned.
Are you planning on reworking the entire realm-map anytime in the future? Also what is the plan to get rid of all the spambots in nexus? And one final thing, are there any plans to structurize trading? Such as having a trading-server or a marketplace?
Yes, reworking the realm is a huge but important project that we want to take on! As fundamental as it is, many of its systems have aged badly and create a tedious experience for both new and veteran players in different ways. When we ultimately redo and expand this whole system, the map will naturally evolve with it. The spambots and overall disruptive behaviors, we realize, need special measures and an important consideration with modern approaches. So that will be something we'll deal with for sure. Lastly, we have been studying trading and overall the ingame economy for quite some time. We are considering changes and new systems for this. However at this point we for sure don't want to rush this part and take our time ensuring we make the experience better and study well the implications of any changes we introduce. It helps a lot that we now have much better tools that we can start taking advantage of. Things we couldn't do with previous technology. So yeah, it could happen.
Where are the deca offices?
Berlin
Any plans to change the janus/court system? These dungeons feel very inaccessible in their current state because a large group has to choose to do them over oryx
We had hoped to revise this system with the release of High Tech Terror, but since this was a topic of debate, we put it off to have more time to come up with a solution we all felt was right. We still plan to come back to the court system!
is the game going to be again as smooth as it was the week between the fame update and hotfix?
please elaborate on that...
For example lags from trees(shatters, candyland etc.) and also lags from higher amount of people on once place
In the dungeon art contest hosted a few months back, you said that you reserved the rights to use content submitted to it. Does that mean that the dungeons from the dungeon spec/art contest could be part of the game someday?
yep!
Are guild going to get updated?
Oh you can bet we have some Plans™ for this :)
Will the community game "Boss mimic Slurpie" ever make it to the game? It was posted on reddit quite alot of time ago reached alot of likes. Is it possible to write such a code that the pet changes it's apperance based on the boss a player is facing?
Cool idea! We don't support such a custom functionality now though
Do you guys have internships?
we do!
Any plans to rework projectiles that blind or paralyze? I really do feel like a game based on dodging projectiles suffers a lot from having a status effect that forces you to just sit and accept your loss. Blindness, on the other hand, feels like an outdated relic of old Realm, and a lot of people agree that its effect is too punishing since the Unity port, and the effect in general is unappealing to the eye (instant darkness layered over the entire screen with no transition, hp bars disappear, forces some people to play with higher brightness).
We took some smaller steps with the Vital Combat effect by lowering many durations and locations of effects like these throughout the game. Paralyze is something we try to use much more carefully now, and Blind is something we want to rethink overall (and use very little of until then). So overall, yes, we acknowledge the meta is a bit skewed sometimes towards punishing, all-or-nothing situations created to how status effects work, and this is a design problem the other teams didn't want to tackle and dragged on. Definitely we want to take steps to improve this and we believe the most recent content/reconstructions show this new philosophy.
Will u ever introduce the ancient Doom bow or ancient Demon blade?
Likely not. These were experimental items, and at the moment we'd like to figure out a good use (and likely overhaul) of heroic dungeons before considering those items again.
Thank you all for your participation. If you haven't seen your question answered please search for similar ones or wait until our next blog post. Stay safe!
edit a day later: they answered some more on the blog
Is there any plans on developing a console version? Or at least thought about? I feel like it would really open up the community more.
No. The investment (time and money) needed to accomplish this would take us off the path we set to develop and make the game more enjoyable to play. However we should never say never.
Are you planning to readjust the difficulty/frequency of status effects in existing dungeons now that group puri is removed?
We already did this with the release of the Vital Combat update, but we may still review further instances of egregious effects.
Can you guys please think about Latin America players? My very first thinking it’s about gold value, try to adjust with the country currency, second thinking it’s about support, I know a lot of players that had various issues in and out game that they can’t or don’t know how to open a ticket or something because of language troubles, my suggestion would be to add more language options at Deca website atleast.
Oi Gregório. Claro que pensamos nos nossos realmers da América do Sul ;).(Translation: Hi Gregorio, of course we think about our South American realmers). We will take into account your input about localization. Thank you.
What do you plan after reworking all dungeons/ the whole realm?
We have a vision for Realm, and the reworks are a very important part of that. We really want to keep striving for that vision, and for sure, that will also imply new exciting stuff is to come (including brand new systems!)
Will there be any rewards like the veteran of 2017 for older players, especially those with accounts over 7yrs? Maybe a bonus something every year anniversary for the account?
It is being discussed 😉 But there is a very big probability that yes, there will.
[Civ VI] Concept for an update, expansion, gamemode, or mod: Irreligion.
Preamble
Introduction One issue I've had for Civ 6 after my near year of playing the game is how it deals with religion, or more precisely, irreligion. There are two religious states a citizen can be in in Civ 6: either adhering to an organised religion, or being 'other', which is implied to be following the game's pantheon beliefs, which are the game's mechanical method of portraying early folk religions. However, this persists into later eras. The problem here being is that by the time of the invention of the computer, the number of religious people in the world had decreased from its peak, while in Civ it continues exponentially, with organised religions continuing to grow and grow as every era progresses! The game does have some methods of depicting the decline of religious influence on modern life- the buildings, policies, and dedications for religion all arrive early in the game, with the religion-dedicated government, Theocracy, appearing midgame. Faith, which is exclusive for religious enterprises early on, eventually gets opened up late game to help benefit cultural and domination victories. Also, the Enlightenment civic halves all religious tourism versus your Civ, which is in the vein of what I recommend, though minor. Due to all this, a religious victory is one of the earliest achieved, and if not secured by the industrial era, is often considered a lost cause. While this is all good in a sense, I feel it is inadequate for historical realism, and most importantly, the player's immersion. There is also the option, of course, to just make a custom religion named 'Atheism' or what have you, but I neither think that does it justice. Justifications Additionally, there are mechanical justifications for introducing irreligion to the game. Religious victories are often compared to domination victories, mechanically, and this comparison is often not flattering, as Religion is considered by many in the community to the domination lite, as to succeed all you really need to do is spam out units to overwhelm your opponent. One method, I find, that adds spice to a domination victory, is the presence of barbarians- early on in the game, often before you encounter hostile civilizations, they give a justification towards building your army, and can be used to trains new units. They keep the player on their toes, even when not at war, though they basically get phased out in the industrial era once Nationalism is researched and corps can be made by the major Civs, which makes historical sense. Also one issue is that, as a victory, it's often very passive- with all other victories it feels like a real choice between which path you pursue, while with religion, once you have a Holy Site or two to provide faith, you can do it as a side-project, rather than being a victory to actively pursue in of itself (Though I am aware you must be more aggressive on higher difficulties). Therefore, introducing a similar feature to a Religious victory would be beneficial. Having a 'barbarian' opponent to religion- that appears late-game rather than early game to differentiate itself- encourages rushing and competing far more aggressively for a religious victory, and a formidable opponent if you do not clinch that victory as early as you'd like. Finally, there comes the issue of combatting religious victories. If you are unable to claim a religion, and are not yourself pursuing a religious victory, it is pretty difficult to combat another Civ's attempt towards a religious victory. You are unable to muster equal opposition, due to the religion limit, there are no espionage missions available to the Holy Site, leaving you with only one option: war! You must destroy your opponent. However, if you are playing a cultural victory, or gods forbid, a diplomatic one, the grievances generated may be disastrous to your own victory! Worse of all, a religious victory is one of the most conducive to tall play, and so if they are close to victory anyway, nothing short of utter destruction can prevent their success. All in all, there should be an alternative, peaceful method of dealing with religion. Additional notes Two notes before I describe my desired mechanics for such an implementation: There is a variety of names that are commonly used for non-religion in common parlance, but for the context of all this, I will consistently use the term 'irreligion'. While 'atheism' is far more common, it specifically refers to the non-belief in a deity figure. Firstly, this does not apply to all 'irreligious' people- many are agnostic or apathetic. Additionally, there are plenty of 'atheistic' religions, such as traditional forms of Buddhism, which do not have a god-head. If a certain playthrough's fictional alternative version of history only includes such religions, it would make little sense for those opposed to define themselves via 'atheism'. 'Irreligion' it will be. Also, this concept will try not to introduce any major mechanical changes- as inspired by the New Frontier pass' gamemodes, I will primarily be merely adapting already-existing mechanics. Now, enough guff, on to the outline- and afterward I will justify my decisions.
Mechanics
Formation 'Irreligion' is mechanically treated as another religion. It may spread via pressure, or via its unique unit. It exists from the beginning within the game as a religion with a unique set of beliefs, though it only spawns into the game as it progresses. I would recommend a derivative of this symbol as it's icon. Once a Civ researches the Enlightenment civic, all cities without a majority religion have their pantheon citizens converted to Irreligious citizens. At this point, the religious pressure of Irreligion versus normal religions is 50%. This increases to 100% with the Mass Media civic, and 200% with the Globalisation civic. Policy Card Once the Enlightenment civic is researched new Wildcard policy, 'State Atheism', becomes available, with the following effects:
State Atheism: May purchase the Apostate unit with faith. May benefit from the 'Global Irreligious Movement' Irreligious founder belief if Civilisation is majority Irreligious.
Beliefs Irreligion has the following unique beliefs.
Follower- Scientific Materialism: Shrines and Temples provide Science equal to their intrinsic Faith output. Worship- Heritage Center: +3 Faith, +2 Culture. Founder- Global Irreligious Movement: +1 Diplomatic Favor for every Irreligious civ. (Applies to Civilisations with the 'State Atheism' policy card in play.) Enhancer- Secular Allegiance: +4 Loyalty in Cities.
Unit Civilizations with the State Atheism policy card in play may purchase the unique Apostate unit in any predominantly Irreligious city with a Holy Site.
Costs 100 faith to purchase (Increases per purchase).
Required infrastructure: Temple
Stats:
Religious Strength: 110
Movement: 4
Charges: 3
Attributes:
Can Engage in (initiate), as well as defend against, Theological Combat.
Can ignore national borders.
Receives any effects when purchased that would be appointed onto an apostle
Abilities:
Spread Religion: Converts Citizens in adjacent city to Irreligion (Pressure = 2.2 * Apostate's current HP) and reduces total Religious Pressure of all religions in the city by 25%.
Remove Religion: Using one charge in your own City Center tiles removes 75% of all religions from that city.
Heal itself and nearby Religious units 40hp.
Rationale
Context Firstly, some context of this outline. I, myself, am Irreligious, but I have tried my best to outline a concept not influenced by my own bias. I've seen other idea floated around the Civ community for a while now, and unfortunately, most come from the self-conceited 'New Athiest' crowd, whose recommendations all came from a place of religious loathing, and were mainly in the ilk of it giving Civs massive science boosts and having big brain scientists go around pwning stupid religious people. And that's just pretty cringe, ngl. Civ is a game about making your own history, and therefore Irreligion should be framed within an honest historical context: and historically religion and science have not always been diametrically opposed. While science and religion rarely synergise (unlike say, religion and culture), which is for the most part accurate, they are cases where they have, such as with the Islamic golden age, mechanically expressed in-game by Saladin of Arabia and his mechanical mesh of religion and science. It is these intersections of gameplay and history, and the organic ludonarrative they present, that I truly admire about this game, and is what inspired me going forth with the decisions I have made. The below paragraphs justify each item individually, but also contain contextual information that, to note, could be included within their respective Civilopedia entry. Formation Making Irreligion mechanically a religion was a difficult choice, An issue with this is the implication that disbelief in religion is as positive as belief, a grounds by which evangelical groups have stood on to conflict with Irreligious people. I.e, many religious groups, especially evangelical Christian ones, in the United States of America contrast a secular understanding of evolution with a belief in intelligent design, a false equivalency designed to justify their belief as equally valid. The two are not equally valid, however, as the latter is dogmatic, while the former is (intended to be) rested upon a scientific method of constant revision and debate. A famous example of this, for satire's sake, is displayed in this scene of the FX show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. However, I decided that it is better for mechanical simplicity that it takes the form of a religion. Additionally, while I encourage rational skepticism within the irreligious community, the honest fact is that most irreligious people are not gnostic atheists but rather agnostics that rather than standing strictly against religion, have stopped participating due to secular society demphasising the importance of religion in everyday life. Therefore, the mechanics of irreligion being similar through passive social pressure, just like religion, is not necessarily inaccurate. Another potentially contentious note is my recommendation of the atomic whirl symbol, as it is usually used by strongly gnostic atheists, which do not by any measure represent the majority of the irreligious population. Well, my answer is quite simple: There are not many better options out there, I'm afraid. Anyone bothered enough to create an irreligious symbol is probably pretty entrenched in their beliefs to justify doing it, and honestly, none of them are that great graphic designers. Most of the symbols are just derivations on the letter 'A' for 'Athiest', which is on the nose and not wholly representative, and the best one outside of that is a grounding electrical symbol, which is pretty partisan. So an atomic whirl (likely without the emphasised 'A' inside- they really can't help putting 'A's in things) is likely the best candidate if any. Another thing I wish to explain is why I chose it to spawn as it is- on one hand, I did not wish to punish those who have tried their best to keep religious homogeny, so Irreligion should not spawn in cities already with a majority religion. This, and folk beliefs did not completely die at the turn of the nineteenth century, and so pantheon citizens should not go either. On the other hand, as the pressure for Irreligion starts weak, it should begin with a good stranglehold- therefore, it gets to claim all cities without a majority religion's pantheon citizens. This also works theme-wise, as those not under hegemonic religious control are likely more willing to renounce religion entirely. The final note for this paragraph is why there is a gradual increase of pressure along the civics tree- this should seem self-evident, as it is because, while Irreligious movements did start to take a concrete form around the enlightenment, it is only relatively recently that they have gained such-widespread appeal. The three civics chosen for the increases were done as follows-
Each is two eras apart from each other
The enlightenment sparked many major irreligious movements, and the civic provides not that much otherwise, only 3 cards. It's mainly a gateway into Industrial era civics.
Mass Media made spreading new ideas far more accessible for vast swathes of the population, including irreligious movements. Also, the civic currently only unlocks 2 wonders and a title, it's not that important.
Globalization, like the previous two, isn't that important, only unlocking a few policy cards. In a historical sense, globalisation has allowed irreligion to spread all over the world, and especially with the internet, has allowed communities to form that can spread irreligion.
Policy Card Mechanics wise, I wanted to introduce an option for players (or AI) to officially adopt Irreligion and spread it as they wish, either for role-play purposes or to fight a religious victory. As one cannot 'found' Irreligion, and it should be accessible by multiple players at once, it made the most sense to introduce it through the policy system- Wildcard, as it did not particularly fit into any of the discreet categories. State Atheism, the card's title, is not a novel concept. The first truly 'state atheist' country was republican France who adopted the ominous sounding 'Cult of Reason' (Until it got transposed with the ominous-sounding monotheistic 'Cult of the Supreme Being', which a historical materialist would probably relate to Robespierre's increasing dictatorial role), as well as many Leninist (and it's derivatives) states such as the USSR and PRC. The main potential for contention here is the use of the term 'Athiest', after earlier stating that the term is better not used. The reason I use it here is that the naming system for policy cards in Civ 6 is a lot more grounded than the more generalized naming of larger structures in the game (such as the 'World Congress' instead or 'UN', or 'Heartbeat of Steam' instead of 'Industrial Revolution', etc) which I believe is to relate them more closely to real historical policy decisions, for realism's sake, at the expense of some immersion. Also, coming up for non-specific sounding names for many policies is too much work when we can just use the ones grounded in our reality. Some examples of this are 'Triangular Trade' (which was exclusive to the economic relations of the Americas, Africa, and Europe), 'Five Year Plan' (Named after the USSR's policy it's based on), 'Medina Quarter' (A specific city area unique to North Africa), 'Gothic Architecture' (Who says the Goths existed in this world?), and the sundry foreign-language cards (Hallyu, Wisselbanken, Levée en Masse, etc). Therefore, using the term 'State Atheism', which is a real-world policy for some states, is valid here, even if 'Atheism' is not applicable for Irreligion as a whole. Beliefs Another issue I struggled with is whether Irreligion, being a counter to religion more than a gnostic belief in anything itself, should have beliefs. Realistically, no, and I admit that. However, to not provide beliefs would render Irreligion a handicap to most Civs, as if they were returning to pantheon levels of yields. Therefore, Irreligion should provide bonuses to actually make it at all appealing, and those bonuses should fulfill two criteria: they should be tempting, though not a replacement for a tailored religion, and they should be versatile, as to be applicable for any victory condition and not to fall into a New Athiest 'science beats religion' approach. One method of achieving the former was via taking inspiration from pre-existing beliefs, and by relating each belief to a unique victory condition. So, one by one:
Follower- Scientistic materialism: This is taken from the existing 'Choral Music' belief, but changed from culture to science. So it's guaranteed balanced. Obviously, this is most useful for a scientific victory. Historically speaking, it is a philosophical tenant that roots a definition of consciousness that is observable and subject to the scientific method. It was, for example, a tentpole of Athiest thought in the USSR, and it is easy to see why, as such a viewpoint encourages material matters to have prominence, and therefore encourages productivity as a beneficial end into itself.
Worship- Heritage Center: This is based on Wat, but inverse to the follower belief, the science bonus is replaced with a culture one. Same as before, it's guaranteed to be balanced. Of course, it's a good building for a culture victory, and if I were to implement it in the game, I recommend basing it off Theatre Square buildings such as the Broadcast Centre- perhaps even with the purple accents? The historical basis came post-design, for I knew I wanted this building to be cultural after deciding the purpose of the other beliefs. The cultural center idea then came about when I considered what the place of a 'Holy Site' would be in an Irreligious state, and I thought about how it's graphically depicted as an idyllic, picturesque little garden, and how such religious sites still attract attention today in secular states in Europe and Asia for their historical significance and contribution to, well, culture. Therefore, building a 'Heritage Center' in such a spot would be a great place to inform the citizens about their Civ's religious history!
Founder- Global Irreligious Movement: Now, this was tricky, because no-one 'founds' Irreligion, it just comes about naturally. Therefore, having a traditional 'founder' belief seemed to make little sense. However, I considered that in the past, many state atheist countries such as the USSR, Cuba, and PRC, have allied, in part (a small one, of course) to spread atheism. Therefore, providing the bonus to those that adopt the State Atheism policy made the most sense, and making it diplomatic-victory followed that. Many of the founder beliefs are based around increasing yields, usually via either each city or a certain number of followers of the respective religion. The issue here was that the diplomatic-based yield, diplomatic favor, is intended to be a lot rarer than other yields. So, rather than tying it to one of the previous options, I decided to tie it to each Civ that was majority Irreligious, to prevent it from being overpowered. The name is one that I created, as there is no set name for such a concept in real life. An alternative was to use the term 'foundation' rather than 'movement', as countries such as Australia have 'Athiest Foundations', but I went with the one that to me suggested global, rather than more national, cooperation. One note is that, as this victory condition does not exist in old game versions, an alternative would have to be devised to make this outline back-compatible. Something that contributes to the more flexible yields, such as food, production, gold, or amenities would probably be the best bet- perhaps you receive +1 global amenity per Irreligious Civ?
Enhancer- Secular Allegiance: This was difficult to settle on as the enhancer belief is, practically speaking, the 'wildcard' of the belief options, and so there's not set preset to base it on like the others. I did, however, decide that this should be domination-focused, as there are no improvable yields directly linked to domination that another belief type could buff. When planning, I considered what is often the functional purpose of adopting secularism or state atheism within a society- it is often to ensure the loyalty of a populace. Take the PRC. There's a variety of religious traditions that have found themselves directly in opposition to the Chinese state. Christianity, especially the Catholic church, has positioned itself in opposition to China's form of 'Communism', which could potentially lead to insurrection, and Vajrayana Buddhists who swear loyalty to the Dalai Lama, and therefore are disloyal to the state that colonized the Dalai Lama's theocratic claims. Therefore, institutionalizing secularism encourages further loyalty to the state. A parallel mechanic can be seen in the United States of America, where many people have replaced- or at least have superseded- the position of the 'flag' and Jesus in their hearts. Therefore, a buff to loyalty would make sense for the enhancer belief, particularly because loyalty is a mechanic that penalizes conquest, and so having a buff in that regard buffs aspirations of domination. The particular number, +4, was settled on as the inherent debuff of occupying a city is -5, and so a +4 increase would negate it to -1, which while not insignificant (especially because conquered cities, already within enemy territory, have penalized loyalty by citizen pressure) is greatly muted. A final note here is the name- I was unable to pin down a particular name for this kind of thing, so I cobbled together one myself that I thought fit. Similarly to the previous belief, it is reliant on a mechanic introduced by a DLC, and so will need a vanilla alternative- for this, I believe that units from an Irreligious Civ should have a slight combat advantage over units from a Religious Civ, justified by their loyalty giving them a more ordered force, a la Discipline, National Identity, or Their Finest Hour.
Unit This was honestly the hardest part to design. For one thing, as previously discussed, the religion system in Civ 6 is not conducive to an accurate representation of Irreligion at the best of times, and at no time worse than when it comes to implementing a unit- for one, the idea of little disciples going around spreading religion is incredibly generally inaccurate in the first place, as such evangelizing has only been practiced in specific historical situations, and almost exclusively by Abrahamic religions, especially Christianity, and especially Protestant denominations. Historically, religion is primarily spread by osmosis via trade and conquest, or via state decrees. It's far more organic than Civ 6 depicts, as these methods have a far more resigned position. This is especially problematic with Irreligion, as if anyone is going to renounce religion intentionally, it is most likely to escape dogma- they don't need a weirdo in a white robe to knock on their door and tell them what to do, even if it is to renounce God. However, I understand that the developers believed this method is more engaging (for one, a more realistic Religious victory would be awfully similar to a Cultural one), and so I must play with the hand I am given. I must design for Irreligious unit(s). The first issue was naming. For as previously discussed, it is unlike atheists to come round knocking on folk's doors professing the word of un-God. I attempted to look for historical examples, but each one did not fit. I could use Jacobin, the staunchly atheist renaissance political movement, or more specifically, the Hébertists faction, though this sounded far too niche, and undersells the breadth of the movement. The current unit roster has problems with specificity too- knights are a global unit, and closer to home, gurus exist- so perhaps the specificity would be justified, perhaps for the guru replacement? But I decided against it. Similarly, I also considered Stalin's 'League of Militant Atheists', though they suffered from being verbose, sounding aggressive, being awfully specific, and not having a concise membership term. What would they be called, a 'Militant'? I also considered 'philosophers', though I felt that undersold the breadth of philosophy, and clarifying them as 'secular philosophers' or 'humanist' was a mouthful. Intellectual? Same problem. The only name I could settle on was 'Apostate'. This term, often used in sociology, is used to refer to anyone who has actively renounced religion, as opposed to those who have never been involved or have syncretic, secular beliefs such as with much of Asia. Many countries, primarily Muslim-majority, have laws that forbid apostasy, often with capital punishment. I felt that this worked. It was universal enough, directly was involved with 'renouncing' religion, and most of all, sounded kind of like 'apostle'. However, it is only one word, and at this time, I was looking for alternatives to all the religious units. But should I? I had decided at this point that the apostle replacement should not receive the promotions, as they were very religious-themed, so what really defined the difference between what would be the replacements for missionaries and apostles, sans the combat difference? Additionally, if they were not able to receive promotions, the units should have some kind of inherent bonus so that they could succeed, at the point of the game they are introduced, against the already established religions. Therefore, I posited: I should collapse all the units into one. They would have the price of missionaries, the combat strength of apostles, the ability to heal like gurus, and the ability to remove religions like an inquisitor. This versatility, of course, comes with the downside that they are hardly able to gain the number of spreads or buffs an apostle can, and each of their abilities drains from the same charge pool. This satisfied me, and when I finished this outline, I decided to write up my ideas, send them to a friend, and then post them to Civ. Which transitions neatly into my-
Conclusion
Why did I write all this? The answer is, as you can probably expect if you got to the end of this from my writing style, manifold! Researching and designing this outline was engaging for me, for one, and I had fun doing it, even though I know well enough these posts are a dime a dozen here and nothing will likely come of it. It was also a good stretch of my essay-writing muscles, which have gotten somewhat rusty during this quarantine. But most of all, I believe passionately that my outline would be a great addition to the game and make it far more immersive, realistic, and engaging, as well as fill in some mechanical holes. In terms of making any of this come to fruition, I am all loose threads. I don't know if there's any reasonable method on sending this to Firaxis- if they even were to consider ideas put forth by me, a layman player- though of course that would be the ultimate ambition, if unrealistic. I'd be very willing to mod it however, if I had the competence, which I do not. I have tried my hand modding Civ, and have released one other mod previously- Periphery- but, while successful, it was very difficult, and took a lot of time, for what at most amounts to just a couple of language file edits. This issue is especially accentuated by the fact that I own the Epic, not Steam, copy of the game and so do not have access to the Software Development Kit, which puts implementing models, such as would be required for the Heritage Center and Apostate, out of the question. As far as I am aware, most Civ 6 modders exclusively tackle personal projects, so there's little chance of collaborating with any of them, but if anyone out there' willing, or knows someone else who is, I'd be overjoyed to participate, and as you'd likely be doing the heavy lifting code-wise, I'd be happy to delegate any credit (social, or monetary via donations or whatever ilk a mod maker may make a profit from) onto you in return to seeing my concept brought to life. But as it is, I'm happily resigned to this outline to stand on its own, here on Reddit.
TL;DR
Adding Irreligion to the game would add realism
Adding Irreligion would add more variety to, and add peaceful methods to counteract, a religious victory
Irreligion citizens could spawn in the game and exert more pressure as the civic tree progresses
A Civ could adopt State Atheism via a policy card to spread Irreligion and reap greater benefits
Irreligion could have unique beliefs that benefit a variety of victory conditions
State Atheists could have access to a unique unit, the Apostate, who can spread Irreligion in replacement of religious units
I have extensive reasoning for each of my decisions
And I would be overjoyed at the opportunity to collaborate to bring this concept to fruition, as am wholly unable to achieve this myself!
PWW Update #3: The Armory It's the middle of February, and I think for a lot of us, it's incredible how much has happened this past month and a bit. Feels like it should be June already, huh? Well, it's still snowy up here in Canada, perfect weather to start up the factories for the Winter War. But before we start the tour, let's get some bookkeeping out of the way. Last spring, we held a series of Dev Streams to show off our new tech in a tabletop setting, then stopped abruptly when technical and scheduling difficulties got in the way. So are these Dev Streams coming back? Yes and no. While we have given significant focus to Tabletop Simulator to show off our tech, PWW is primarily a MechWarrior 5 project. Tabletop is having just as much care devoted to it, but at the end of the day, this is Mech 5. In light of that, Dev Streams will return when PWW assets are ready to be shown off in Mech 5. Anything we do in tabletop at this point will be more community focused, providing you the tools to play with our tech yourselves (and joining you when we can!). So what Dev Streams are waiting on is actually demoing in-game assets. When? Well, MagnumGB Has for the most part wrapped up work on MercTech 2.0 and it's piping hot out of the oven, which means we can finally start tearing it apart in-house to make our own customizations. So to answer the question, I’ll use a phrase that you may have heard before here in PWW: "Sooner than you might think, but not that soon". We love you, MagnumGB. THE ARMORY Alright, now let's open the armory doors and begin our tour. Imagine for a moment you're walking into a massive warehouse built like a show floor that has each and every single piece of weaponry we've made dolled up on shiny white marble turntables and bright showcase lights. Welcome to WinterCon 3240. Let’s take a walk, shall we? Off in the distance is the main exhibit: big, powerful and sleek looking weapons that put RISC tech to shame. But those deserve a proper buildup. So we'll start close to the door and walk around the various booths making up Synth Technology. Know who would use Synth technology? A Synth. ...Wait, wrong universe. Sorry Paladin Danse, but we have better Power Armor in the form of Elementals. For the uninitiated, Synth Technology is, broadly speaking, all weapons and equipment that you are already familiar with, both Inner Sphere and Clan based. Meaning that the Synth ER Large Laser is the same Clan ER Large Laser you've been playing with across all BattleTech Media. (From -Spectre: The name of the tech base comes from the Hegelian dialectic theory in philosophy, where the tension between a thesis and antithesis is resolved by means of a synthesis. Think of IS tech as the thesis and Clan tech as the antithesis: both had positive elements that the other didn’t have, so over the course of trade and innovation, that disparity was resolved in a synthesis of the two, hence the name Synth tech). So is there anything Synth that is different or new? You bet! It's been 90-ish years since ilClan, so of course there was some technological growth here and there. The primary purpose for this tech base dev-wise is that by the time 3240 comes around, the OG Inner Sphere tech is for the most part extremely outdated and obsolete. Why? Well, Clan trade is a big reason; we all know Clan Diamond Shark/Sea Fox loves money and would be directly competing with the Lyran Commonwealth and others for profits. With this dynamic and others during this time frame, Clan Tech would be more widely available in this time period than in any other. But Clan tech is not all that is left. Roughly speaking, Synth Tech is what everyone knows as Inner Sphere and Clan Technology lumped into one category. -Spectre is the curator for SynthTech here, so why don’t we hear a little bit from him about how IS tech was preserved and how Clan Tech has changed. So what are some Inner Sphere things that have stayed? Pick out a few. -Melee weapons While the Inner Sphere was not the only group to develop melee weapons (I’m looking at you, Jade Falcons), they are largely considered to be IS-specific equipment. Continuing the trend we already see budding in the Jihad and Dark Age, melee weapons have spread to most militaries and have become an accepted part of standard military doctrine. However, as technology advanced and tech bases began to merge, melee weapons fell out of the spotlight for technological development, and have carried over into SynthTech exactly as they were during the IlClan era. -MRMs The closest Clan scientists have come to developing a medium range missile launcher is the ATM firing standard munitions, but this fills an entirely different niche than the raw missile firepower philosophy of the MRM. So as technology developed and merged, the same design methods used to create the MRM were applied to Clan LRMs, creating an updated, Clan-spec MRM for SynthTech. -Standard Lasers While the Clans initially elected to forsake standard lasers in favor of their ER counterparts, considering their fast and furious fighting formula, the long campaigns forced upon them by war in the Inner Sphere proved to them the need for cooler versions of these weapons for situations where raw firepower is more valuable than longer ranges. While the standard line of lasers has been upgraded to compete with Clan ER lasers, they retain the niche that they held within the IS tech base. Alright, so there is some IS stuff getting updated to Clan spec, what about some Clan weapons that have seen some upgrades? -Heavy Lasers Originally, heavy lasers carried a very similar tradeoff to that of MRMs over LRMs—potentially more damage for the same weight at a closer range and less chance to hit. However, the lowered accuracy was antithetical to the general direction of technological development, and the improved heavy laser was developed, which solved the loss of accuracy at the price of increased volatility, with the lasers exploding when struck by weapons fire. As this developmental direction continued to maintain prominence, and volatile equipment became more and more commonplace, improved heavy lasers became the standard for heavy lasers, with the originals lost to time as merely an extended prototype stage. -ER Pulse Lasers During the Dark Age, ER pulse lasers were experimental weapons that were just kind of lackluster. They didn’t have the full range of their ER laser counterparts, nor did they have the full accuracy boost of their pulse laser counterparts, while having the full weight of pulse lasers, more heat than ER lasers, and taking up more space than either. As innovation continued, ER pulse lasers were perfected, regaining the full accuracy of standard pulse lasers while retaining their extended range, though they also retain their increased heat and bulk. This categorical improvement was achieved by applying the same technology pioneered in heavy lasers, improving accuracy at the cost of a more volatile weapon. -LBX Autocannons As the Clans developed their technological identity during their initial exile, standard autocannons and all of their various special munitions were abandoned in favor of the simpler versatility of the LBX autocannon, in similar fashion to their focus on ER lasers. However, the Great Houses had no desire to give up the versatility of the standard autocannon, creating different niches for the standard and LBX autocannons. As technologies mingled, the entrenched role of special munitions in the Inner Sphere continued to clash with the more streamlined dichotomy between UAC and LBX, until finally LBX autocannons were modified to support all of the various special munitions of the standard autocannon, finally allowing standard autocannons to pass into obsolescence. And finally, what are some new things coming for the Inner Sphere? -Omni Missile Launchers ATMs and MMLs are often compared, because they fill very similar niches, and are the only two missile launchers in existence capable of firing multiple missile types with different range brackets. However, the two work on inherently different principles, and the MML is still limited as to what exactly it can fire. As the Great Houses and Spheroid Clans encountered each other’s products, these two launchers were directly synthesized into the Omni Missile Launcher, or OML -Impulse Particle Projection Cannon Though the MechWarrior games would lead you to believe otherwise, the PPC in-universe is not an on-demand ball of destruction. Upon pressing the trigger, the PPC takes a moment to accelerate the particles it will be firing, before releasing them in a stream (not a ball!) towards the target. This creates a measure of inherent inaccuracy within the weapon (most weapons in BT have some form of inherent inaccuracy in their basic function, so that this inaccuracy is considered standard accuracy), as well as allowing the stream more opportunity to dissipate at longer ranges. The impulse PPC uses a modification of capacitor technology to alleviate these drawbacks, using beefier materials to allow it to maintain a charge at all times, so it is ready to fire instantly in a single bolt, increasing both accuracy and effective range, at the cost of continual heat generation, volatility, decreased responsiveness at closer ranges, and greater weight and bulk. -Extended special ballistics selection As the Cold War gave rise to a military renaissance, it was inevitable that attention would be cast on the various new developments in the ballistics department. RACs had stopped development with the 2 and 5 classes, and the light and heavy gauss rifles were new technologies that were still finding their niches, The size selections of several different types of ballistics have been expanded, and an entirely new class has been added: the Autocannon 15. Enjoy :) So what do some of these things do now? Well the simple side of things, is most of these either got replaced by Clan Weaponry, or saw development based off Clan Weaponry to improve itself, tackling Range, Heat, Weight and Size to a mild degree. As for the new, well we can talk about these a little bit more. Impulse PPC's are arguably the neatest weapon for Synth Technology. Omni Missile Launchers or OML's are pretty much what they're called. They are missile launchers that can fire off any missile ammo you have on your mech. ATMs? It can shoot those. SRM Inferno? Yup. What about your Streak LRM Ammo? It won't track, but yeah you can do that too! You can also see the in-universe design philosophy behind the weapon as well. Heavy Pulse Lasers are a neat idea for Synth Tech. If Heavy Lasers existed normally, well, why not Pulse types? So for some increased heat, you get increased damage. Pulses are already hot, so you might need to equip more heatsinks than you think while running any decent number of these. QUANTITY & QUALITY Alright, let's move to the shiny stuff in the back of the show floor now. As we walk over to the booth, every weapon on display is familiar looking, but gives off this aura of power and perfection, like each one was created to meet only the highest specifications. But you look around and see them -everywhere-. You know the phrase quality over quantity? Well, what if I told you that Evolved Technology can do both? The industries behind Clan Ash Leopard have the benefits that most nations and Clans in the Inner Sphere only dream about: uncontested resources in great concentrated quantities. Put bluntly, they have the raw materials and then some to make whatever they wanted and still have leftovers. Another difference here is instead of applying that level of materiel affluence just to Military uses, Clan Ash Leopard also made great strides in their civilian infrastructure and industries, effectively raising their quality of life to near-Utopian levels (but hey, that’s what the Romans would have said about us today, and we’re still complaining). So life is pretty good over in their homespace. As for specifics on that, well, you gotta wait. The novella our wonderful co-writer Lunatiel has dubbed "Autumn Shadow" delves into the origins of Clan Ash Leopard, so you'll get your details there. Continuing on, though, we have quantity and quality... but what do they -do-? Let's first look at a brief design history and philosophy (out-of-universe) of Evolved Tech. When I first started this project, I just wanted my faction to be powerful, and have the resources to sustain losses without slowing down. Early concepts of the unnamed Tech Base were sitting roughly around a 25% performance increase in terms of damage. Not only that, but I went HARD with making this stuff Over Powered as *BLEEP*. Minimal heat, all the range, light and small enough to at least mount the biggest and heaviest weapon on a 20T Light mech. Yeah, a version of that Evolved Tech still exists in deep storage. No, it will never see the light of day. When Spectre came on board about 4-6 months after I conceptualized PWW, he really reigned in what is Battletech and what isn't Battletech. My weapons were more akin to standard Sci-Fi than Battletech was. So they got nerfed. They got NERFED. As I look at the TRO for Evolved Weapons this very day, I'm happier with them now than with the uber-powerful godlike weapons I created. They feel grounded, but still powerful, and they retain the feel of "Battletech Weaponry". It was about 3 months of solid work to re-figure the weapons and finally give the first name we had for this techset, which was "Clan Evolved". It felt appropriate at the time, given that each weapon started from a Clan version, and it... well... evolved. As time went on, seeing the weapon tag [CE] started to grind on me a bit. As the project developed and Clan Ash Leopard's motivations came into sharp focus, their philosophy, as well as their tech, became clearly so “post-Clan” that it felt wrong to connect it so strongly to Clan technology, despite their origins and claim to Clanship. So it changed to a simple [E] for Evolved. There might be a Dev Diary or two in the future that goes into why that was such an important change, and bring in the in-universe reasoning for it as well, but that would be directly spoiling Luna's plans for Autumn Shadow. Now a quick design philosophy. We've painted Clan Ash Leopard as this strange new culture with strange new habits and beliefs. While that is rigidly true, their preferred behaviour in combat has not changed; they still like to take quick and decisive victories, BUT (and this is the kicker), they are more than happy to sit and wait, stalk their prey and when the moment comes where they can exploit a weakness for victory, you are not even going to have time to eject from your mech. And if you think it's over after ejection, nope. You'll find you were stalked by a -pack- of Ash Leopards, and they're gonna hunt you, find you, and hurt you all while doing it in force, and before you know it there’s an entire galaxy blitzkrieging your position. Less is More. Clan Ash Leopard still abhors waste, but they have the means to be a little looser with it. One weapon in particular is very telling of their wartime philosophy as well, and we'll get to that in a short second. But if you look at the Evolved Armory, a few things are accomplished; 1st was the rough 15-25% damage increase on weapons that were -capable- of it. Second was to tackle the largest drawback of each weapon type. The third and final design rule was range increase. So let's pretend Clan Ash Leopard has some "patch notes" on display and lets go over what those 3 design rules did to each weapon type; Energy, Missile and Ballistic. Then I'll talk about my favorite weapon ever. Energy: -Damage: Got its straight 15-25% damage increase where it was able to. In-universe, Evolved Capacitors are larger and transfer energy more efficiently. -Drawback tackled: Heat. Evolved Energy Weapons from that more efficient system will run cooler. -Range: I don't really know what to say here other than Small Lasers can reach out and touch you for 6 damage at 8 hexes (240m). Missile: -Damage: Not directly changed, however most missiles receive an effective damage bonus from behaviour changes, which leads to the next point. -Drawback Tackled: Since Clan Launchers are already as light as they can go, the only improvement was fiddling with accuracy. Non-streak launchers now have inherent Artemis VI, improving accuracy and tracking for cluster hits. So, Missiles basically got just half a ton heavier to shoot further, cooler, and more actual hits with missiles. Pretty good trade-off. -Range: Same as before, you can shoot pretty far now. SRMs can fire out to 360m, and LRMs have a more "long range" feel to them maxing out at 810m. Ballistic: -Damage: Similar damage buff coming from the capacity of ammo bins. Clan Ash Leopard has accomplished adding 25% more ammo into the bin through more efficient building of the bin and ammo itself. AC2 Ammo was 45 traditionally, CAL can pack in 56 AC2 shots per ton. -Drawback Tackled: Size and weight. Ballistics have always been thicc and heavy, but Ash Leopard has got their ballistics to a 'curvy' state and my, my, they are beautiful to use. Not only that, but they're slightly cooler to shoot as well. -Range: Same deal still. UAC20's can slap you with a brick out at 450m now. There's more to talk about there, but a lot of it numbers and logic. If you're really interested in that level of detail and behind-the-scenes development, let us know. We might do some Dev Diary things in the future. But now I wanna talk about my favorite weapon, and the one that has drawn a lot of eyes for those that have seen the PWW Tech Repository. The ER Gauss Rifle, AKA; Nightstalker's Bow. This weapon was THE first concept of an Evolved weapon I came up with. The intended purpose and primary function of the NS Bow is to kill MechWarriors in their mechs, regardless of movement. Yes, I know, it sounds as broken as my hopes and dreams these days, but let me just remind you of a nightmare first. Those of you that played Halo 2 on legendary, what is the one specific thing that made that venture most difficult? The -ONE- thing that above all else; forced you to never blindly run around corners ever again? Yep, you got it. Jackal Snipers. A more... fightable version of that enemy type will exist in PWW, but the concept is the same. A weapon that will cockpit MechWarriors out even if they are in a full sprint in a Locust, or cliff diving in a Highlander, feathering jump jets all the way down. You're at risk. Anytime. Anywhere. Now you're probably wondering why we're subjecting you to this potential torture. It's true, I want to have an enemy on the field just to mess with you, the player, but in a way that only happens if -you- messed up. Let's talk about the mechanics of this weapon befitting an assassin of old. The Nightstalker's Bow is a massive Gauss Weapon at 14 Tons, 8 Crits, with a special projectile made for it designed to pierce armor and keep going. See, this weapon can shoot FAR. How far? How about 50 Hexes? That's 1500m. Yeah... very far. The weapon while designed to aim for the head, can just as easily be turned on a limb and cause a Crit due to its armor-piercing nature. It will do 15 damage to -something- regardless if you want it to or not. Now it seems powerful, and it is, but here are the balancing measures. First of all, the power needed to fire this weapon is immense, and as a result actually creates an appreciable amount of heat, where traditionally, gauss weapons are very cool. However, in-universe, the weapon isn't getting hot, the capacitors are. Next, to reign this weapon in, the highly advanced targeting system that allows it to headshot so consistently needs time to actually calculate that shot. In tabletop, you have to spend a turn gathering targeting info on a declared target before firing. In-game, the more predictably you move (like a straight line, or if you're jump-jetting down a cliff at a consistent speed), the more likely you're gonna get a up-close look at that shiny new projectile. And to make sure it's capable of shots like this, the weapon mount isn't designed to adjust quickly, so using it in close range will be nearly impossible. Do you see military snipers using rifles like an R700 against targets within range a pistol or other sidearm is more effective? Nope, and this is very much the same case here. It has a minimum range of 10 Hexes, or 300m. It's pretty significant and tailors the design of the weapon right to its intended use. When we tested the weapon, our test group had an average just higher than 1 headshot per game. This is a very good position for it. I wanted a headshot weapon, and Spectre's care and knowledge of Battletech brought it into a comfortable existence. It's a fantastic and crippling weapon, but it's only perfect when the rest of the mech carrying said weapon can support it where the weapon can't operate. Get in close, you're safe. Out there across the field, much different story that ends in pain for the target. The Nightstalker's Bow is the Magnum Opus of Clan Ash Leopard, and the very use of that weapon they are well aware of the gravity that comes with making and using it. It's also the only weapon we've gone over that was designed, tweaked and perfected over the course of 4 months. When you have a weapon like this, that does what it does, you have to be so careful because as you can tell, it teeters on the line of broken and balanced. We're very pleased with where it ended up, our test group loved it and didn't have problems with it, and therefore, we're sure you'll hate to be blown out of your mech in the middle of a 108km/h sprint. But will you get to use such an awesome weapon? It would be a crime not to. But good luck salvaging it. Seriously. Good luck. TALK SHOW GIVEAWAY Well that's all we have for this update. There's tons more to talk about in terms of weapons, and we will, but part of the fun in Battletech is figuring out what everything does yourself. I know I enjoyed exploring Clan Technology when I was a kid, and I hope tinkering with Evolved Technology will be enjoyable and fun for you all as well. But as stated, while Evolved Technology on paper is better than anything else, we didn't want to bring back the "Brainless" choice of mounting Clan Tech on everything because there were no drawbacks. Here, we wanted to make sure everything had a place, use, and a reason or situation to use it over something that is objectively better. As said above, Evolved is all about a "Less is more" mentality. Evolved Weapons hit harder, yes, but they're heavier on average and more space consuming, whereas you could mount more weapons from the Synth base and get similar results, but in a different way where more weapons can be afforded, which is usually a question of heat. RPG players can recognize this as "burst damage" vs "sustained damage". That's basically EvoTech vs SynthTech right there, boiled down to its simplest form. There will be situations that warrant burst damage over sustained; even playstyle will determine what you use. -THAT- right there is how we designed it. Reasons to take or not take everything, regardless of stats. It already works in table top and you better believe we will make it work in Mech 5. We can't wait to see what everyone does. Recapping; -Dev Streams return with Mech5 implementation -MagnumGB being the G.O.A.T -Synth Tech design philosophy and history -Impulse PPC being a terribly wonderful thing -Evolved Tech design philosophy and history -Nightstalker's Bow being a Jackal Sniper -Closing thoughts But wait, we're not quite done. Nope, there was one last promise to keep and so it shall be. With update #3 (was meant to be 2, but hey... ilClan) we promised a special sumthin-sumthin to come along with the armory. Well... it's ready and just in time. Not only that, but we have something even cooler to come with it. And even a reason to use all of it. We have the Tech Repository for PWW where people can look at 99% of the tech suite we have. It's enough information for people to use to create things for themselves. But it's just not... easy. You have to do your own math to see what you can fit on a mech and play havoc with a pencil and eraser. Well, as a gift from the far-future Clan Ash Leopard, they're giving away to everyone in today's audience their very own, pristine and shiny Evolved MechLab. No, this isn't a joke. Last year, the illustrious SniperTeamTango gave me some guidance in using Google Sheets and using code there to go nuts and I basically created a fully functional MechLab in a spreadsheet. Not only that, but we included a Battle Value Calculator to use as well (with attached documentation) so you can create a PWW mech from beginning to end and have it field ready in minutes. It's a Clan Ash Leopard Evolved Mechlab! It's even 16 times the detail... But that's not all... again. The EML (Evolved MechLab) and BV Calculator is great to use, but let's provide some incentive and stir up some creativity and excitement among you all. That mech you built and customized perfectly? You treasure it more than anything else, and use it everywhere? You re-made it in Mech 4 back in the day, maybe remade it in Mechwarrior Online? A Table Top staple of your army? We want to see it. Not only do we want to see it, we want to see it in PWW. In-game. In-universe. As part of our canon. We're not just stopping there, we also want your homebrew faction/unit/merc company. Your pilots, commanders, lieutenants, generals, Tai-Sa's, Kommandants, ALL OF IT. We want to see it, we want you to be part of this project. While I know we're gonna get flooded with submissions and at least -I- personally intend to include as many of them as I can get Spectre to approve, there's gonna be some absolutely brilliant ones that just -fit- with a faction so well, we want to add them more prominently. Since PGI's era, the term "hero mechs" has been tossed around. Well... not everyone is a hero, and not every mech is worthy of being a hero. Instead, we're shifting that term to be more appropriately accurate to what that term is meant to convey. Someone and their mech are so well known and 'iconic', they're legends in Battletech. Hey... Legends... They're called Legendary Mechs. Your homebrew you've been sitting on for years, or months, or hey, could be days... the one you're so proud of and love to use? It can become a Legendary Mech/MechWarrior in our canon. But maybe you're messing around in your brand-new Evo MechLab, and make a new Synth Mech, Clan Mech, or even an Evolved Mech. Submit it. Let's see it. If it fits well with the faction, maybe it becomes official. But maybe you're just doing a Synth refit, or an Evolved refit of an existing mech, maybe making a new variant or config for your favorite Warhammer, we'd love to see it and maybe add it to our ever-growing library of mech variants and configs. We'll have more specifics when this "event" begins closer to the date, but for now you have the Mechlab and BV Calculator. We'll give you a head start. Come to the PWW Discord Server to claim yours now I NEED A WEAPON Alright, I gotta get back to preparing a lot of writing, and dealing with crippling anxiety about how big this project is. Don't worry, we'll get this done, just some days my own mental health freaks me out, thinking we may have bitten off more than we can chew. But then I look at Discord and see all the passionate people interested and working on this project. We're doing this for you. All of you. We don't want to disappoint, nor do we want to be sitting on this for years to come. No, we're hoping Chapter 1 is less than a year away. I struggle to write more thoughts on how awesome this project is, and how much it stresses me out, and considering this day and age, I feel talking about mental health is extremely important, and being open with it. We all have a bad habit of bottling it up, shoving it away and telling ourselves "Everything will be fine". Well, sometimes it’s not. I can't speak for everyone else, but I have you guys to lean on. This entire project is not about me, the staff, or really even BattleTech. It's about you guys that are supporting this as far as you have. I appreciate everyone being here and being the spine I need to push through this project. It's harder some days than others. But you all make me more determined than ever to put this project out and take the world by storm. You all are my weapon against the negative thoughts I have while working at this, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. If you don't have your own weapon, reach out to us. We're all in this weird universe together. Thank you. "This one time, my CO ordered me to take point. We got ambushed, and I exclaimed ‘Well that's just awesome!’ To which my CO replied ‘No, that's a Mauler.’" Stay Safe, & Take some time your health this week Madcat529, -Spectre & PWW Team
Concept for an update, expansion, gamemode, or mod: Irreligion.
Preamble
Introduction One issue I've had for Civ 6 after my near year of playing the game is how it deals with religion, or more precisely, irreligion. There are two religious states a citizen can be in in Civ 6: either adhering to an organised religion, or being 'other', which is implied to be following the game's pantheon beliefs, which are the game's mechanical method of portraying early folk religions. However, this persists into later eras. The problem here being is that by the time of the invention of the computer, the number of religious people in the world had decreased from its peak, while in Civ it continues exponentially, with organised religions continuing to grow and grow as every era progresses! The game does have some methods of depicting the decline of religious influence on modern life- the buildings, policies, and dedications for religion all arrive early in the game, with the religion-dedicated government, Theocracy, appearing midgame. Faith, which is exclusive for religious enterprises early on, eventually gets opened up late game to help benefit cultural and domination victories. Also, the Enlightenment civic halves all religious tourism versus your Civ, which is in the vein of what I recommend, though minor. Due to all this, a religious victory is one of the earliest achieved, and if not secured by the industrial era, is often considered a lost cause. While this is all good in a sense, I feel it is inadequate for historical realism, and most importantly, the player's immersion. There is also the option, of course, to just make a custom religion named 'Atheism' or what have you, but I neither think that does it justice. Justifications Additionally, there are mechanical justifications for introducing irreligion to the game. Religious victories are often compared to domination victories, mechanically, and this comparison is often not flattering, as Religion is considered by many in the community to the domination lite, as to succeed all you really need to do is spam out units to overwhelm your opponent. One method, I find, that adds spice to a domination victory, is the presence of barbarians- early on in the game, often before you encounter hostile civilizations, they give a justification towards building your army, and can be used to trains new units. They keep the player on their toes, even when not at war, though they basically get phased out in the industrial era once Nationalism is researched and corps can be made by the major Civs, which makes historical sense. Also one issue is that, as a victory, it's often very passive- with all other victories it feels like a real choice between which path you pursue, while with religion, once you have a Holy Site or two to provide faith, you can do it as a side-project, rather than being a victory to actively pursue in of itself (Though I am aware you must be more aggressive on higher difficulties). Therefore, introducing a similar feature to a Religious victory would be beneficial. Having a 'barbarian' opponent to religion- that appears late-game rather than early game to differentiate itself- encourages rushing and competing far more aggressively for a religious victory, and a formidable opponent if you do not clinch that victory as early as you'd like. Finally, there comes the issue of combatting religious victories. If you are unable to claim a religion, and are not yourself pursuing a religious victory, it is pretty difficult to combat another Civ's attempt towards a religious victory. You are unable to muster equal opposition, due to the religion limit, there are no espionage missions available to the Holy Site, leaving you with only one option: war! You must destroy your opponent. However, if you are playing a cultural victory, or gods forbid, a diplomatic one, the grievances generated may be disastrous to your own victory! Worse of all, a religious victory is one of the most conducive to tall play, and so if they are close to victory anyway, nothing short of utter destruction can prevent their success. All in all, there should be an alternative, peaceful method of dealing with religion. Additional notes Two notes before I describe my desired mechanics for such an implementation: There is a variety of names that are commonly used for non-religion in common parlance, but for the context of all this, I will consistently use the term 'irreligion'. While 'atheism' is far more common, it specifically refers to the non-belief in a deity figure. Firstly, this does not apply to all 'irreligious' people- many are agnostic or apathetic. Additionally, there are plenty of 'atheistic' religions, such as traditional forms of Buddhism, which do not have a god-head. If a certain playthrough's fictional alternative version of history only includes such religions, it would make little sense for those opposed to define themselves via 'atheism'. 'Irreligion' it will be. Also, this concept will try not to introduce any major mechanical changes- as inspired by the New Frontier pass' gamemodes, I will primarily be merely adapting already-existing mechanics. Now, enough guff, on to the outline- and afterward I will justify my decisions.
Mechanics
Formation 'Irreligion' is mechanically treated as another religion. It may spread via pressure, or via its unique unit. It exists from the beginning within the game as a religion with a unique set of beliefs, though it only spawns into the game as it progresses. I would recommend a derivative of this symbol as it's icon. Once a Civ researches the Enlightenment civic, all cities without a majority religion have their pantheon citizens converted to Irreligious citizens. At this point, the religious pressure of Irreligion versus normal religions is 50%. This increases to 100% with the Mass Media civic, and 200% with the Globalisation civic. Policy Card Once the Enlightenment civic is researched new Wildcard policy, 'State Atheism', becomes available, with the following effects:
State Atheism: May purchase the Apostate unit with faith. May benefit from the 'Global Irreligious Movement' Irreligious founder belief if Civilisation is majority Irreligious.
Beliefs Irreligion has the following unique beliefs.
Follower- Scientific Materialism: Shrines and Temples provide Science equal to their intrinsic Faith output. Worship- Heritage Center: +3 Faith, +2 Culture. Founder- Global Irreligious Movement: +1 Diplomatic Favor for every Irreligious civ. (Applies to Civilisations with the 'State Atheism' policy card in play.) Enhancer- Secular Allegiance: +4 Loyalty in Cities.
Unit Civilizations with the State Atheism policy card in play may purchase the unique Apostate unit in any predominantly Irreligious city with a Holy Site.
Costs 100 faith to purchase (Increases per purchase).
Required infrastructure: Temple
Stats:
Religious Strength: 110
Movement: 4
Charges: 3
Attributes:
Can Engage in (initiate), as well as defend against, Theological Combat.
Can ignore national borders.
Receives any effects when purchased that would be appointed onto an apostle
Abilities:
Spread Religion: Converts Citizens in adjacent city to Irreligion (Pressure = 2.2 * Apostate's current HP) and reduces total Religious Pressure of all religions in the city by 25%.
Remove Religion: Using one charge in your own City Center tiles removes 75% of all religions from that city.
Heal itself and nearby Religious units 40hp.
Rationale
Context Firstly, some context of this outline. I, myself, am Irreligious, but I have tried my best to outline a concept not influenced by my own bias. I've seen other idea floated around the Civ community for a while now, and unfortunately, most come from the self-conceited 'New Athiest' crowd, whose recommendations all came from a place of religious loathing, and were mainly in the ilk of it giving Civs massive science boosts and having big brain scientists go around pwning stupid religious people. And that's just pretty cringe, ngl. Civ is a game about making your own history, and therefore Irreligion should be framed within an honest historical context: and historically religion and science have not always been diametrically opposed. While science and religion rarely synergise (unlike say, religion and culture), which is for the most part accurate, they are cases where they have, such as with the Islamic golden age, mechanically expressed in-game by Saladin of Arabia and his mechanical mesh of religion and science. It is these intersections of gameplay and history, and the organic ludonarrative they present, that I truly admire about this game, and is what inspired me going forth with the decisions I have made. The below paragraphs justify each item individually, but also contain contextual information that, to note, could be included within their respective Civilopedia entry. Formation Making Irreligion mechanically a religion was a difficult choice, An issue with this is the implication that disbelief in religion is as positive as belief, a grounds by which evangelical groups have stood on to conflict with Irreligious people. I.e, many religious groups, especially evangelical Christian ones, in the United States of America contrast a secular understanding of evolution with a belief in intelligent design, a false equivalency designed to justify their belief as equally valid. The two are not equally valid, however, as the latter is dogmatic, while the former is (intended to be) rested upon a scientific method of constant revision and debate. A famous example of this, for satire's sake, is displayed in this scene of the FX show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. However, I decided that it is better for mechanical simplicity that it takes the form of a religion. Additionally, while I encourage rational skepticism within the irreligious community, the honest fact is that most irreligious people are not gnostic atheists but rather agnostics that rather than standing strictly against religion, have stopped participating due to secular society demphasising the importance of religion in everyday life. Therefore, the mechanics of irreligion being similar through passive social pressure, just like religion, is not necessarily inaccurate. Another potentially contentious note is my recommendation of the atomic whirl symbol, as it is usually used by strongly gnostic atheists, which do not by any measure represent the majority of the irreligious population. Well, my answer is quite simple: There are not many better options out there, I'm afraid. Anyone bothered enough to create an irreligious symbol is probably pretty entrenched in their beliefs to justify doing it, and honestly, none of them are that great graphic designers. Most of the symbols are just derivations on the letter 'A' for 'Athiest', which is on the nose and not wholly representative, and the best one outside of that is a grounding electrical symbol, which is pretty partisan. So an atomic whirl (likely without the emphasised 'A' inside- they really can't help putting 'A's in things) is likely the best candidate if any. Another thing I wish to explain is why I chose it to spawn as it is- on one hand, I did not wish to punish those who have tried their best to keep religious homogeny, so Irreligion should not spawn in cities already with a majority religion. This, and folk beliefs did not completely die at the turn of the nineteenth century, and so pantheon citizens should not go either. On the other hand, as the pressure for Irreligion starts weak, it should begin with a good stranglehold- therefore, it gets to claim all cities without a majority religion's pantheon citizens. This also works theme-wise, as those not under hegemonic religious control are likely more willing to renounce religion entirely. The final note for this paragraph is why there is a gradual increase of pressure along the civics tree- this should seem self-evident, as it is because, while Irreligious movements did start to take a concrete form around the enlightenment, it is only relatively recently that they have gained such-widespread appeal. The three civics chosen for the increases were done as follows-
Each is two eras apart from each other
The enlightenment sparked many major irreligious movements, and the civic provides not that much otherwise, only 3 cards. It's mainly a gateway into Industrial era civics.
Mass Media made spreading new ideas far more accessible for vast swathes of the population, including irreligious movements. Also, the civic currently only unlocks 2 wonders and a title, it's not that important.
Globalization, like the previous two, isn't that important, only unlocking a few policy cards. In a historical sense, globalisation has allowed irreligion to spread all over the world, and especially with the internet, has allowed communities to form that can spread irreligion.
Policy Card Mechanics wise, I wanted to introduce an option for players (or AI) to officially adopt Irreligion and spread it as they wish, either for role-play purposes or to fight a religious victory. As one cannot 'found' Irreligion, and it should be accessible by multiple players at once, it made the most sense to introduce it through the policy system- Wildcard, as it did not particularly fit into any of the discreet categories. State Atheism, the card's title, is not a novel concept. The first truly 'state atheist' country was republican France who adopted the ominous sounding 'Cult of Reason' (Until it got transposed with the ominous-sounding monotheistic 'Cult of the Supreme Being', which a historical materialist would probably relate to Robespierre's increasing dictatorial role), as well as many Leninist (and it's derivatives) states such as the USSR and PRC. The main potential for contention here is the use of the term 'Athiest', after earlier stating that the term is better not used. The reason I use it here is that the naming system for policy cards in Civ 6 is a lot more grounded than the more generalized naming of larger structures in the game (such as the 'World Congress' instead or 'UN', or 'Heartbeat of Steam' instead of 'Industrial Revolution', etc) which I believe is to relate them more closely to real historical policy decisions, for realism's sake, at the expense of some immersion. Also, coming up for non-specific sounding names for many policies is too much work when we can just use the ones grounded in our reality. Some examples of this are 'Triangular Trade' (which was exclusive to the economic relations of the Americas, Africa, and Europe), 'Five Year Plan' (Named after the USSR's policy it's based on), 'Medina Quarter' (A specific city area unique to North Africa), 'Gothic Architecture' (Who says the Goths existed in this world?), and the sundry foreign-language cards (Hallyu, Wisselbanken, Levée en Masse, etc). Therefore, using the term 'State Atheism', which is a real-world policy for some states, is valid here, even if 'Atheism' is not applicable for Irreligion as a whole. Beliefs Another issue I struggled with is whether Irreligion, being a counter to religion more than a gnostic belief in anything itself, should have beliefs. Realistically, no, and I admit that. However, to not provide beliefs would render Irreligion a handicap to most Civs, as if they were returning to pantheon levels of yields. Therefore, Irreligion should provide bonuses to actually make it at all appealing, and those bonuses should fulfill two criteria: they should be tempting, though not a replacement for a tailored religion, and they should be versatile, as to be applicable for any victory condition and not to fall into a New Athiest 'science beats religion' approach. One method of achieving the former was via taking inspiration from pre-existing beliefs, and by relating each belief to a unique victory condition. So, one by one:
Follower- Scientistic materialism: This is taken from the existing 'Choral Music' belief, but changed from culture to science. So it's guaranteed balanced. Obviously, this is most useful for a scientific victory. Historically speaking, it is a philosophical tenant that roots a definition of consciousness that is observable and subject to the scientific method. It was, for example, a tentpole of Athiest thought in the USSR, and it is easy to see why, as such a viewpoint encourages material matters to have prominence, and therefore encourages productivity as a beneficial end into itself.
Worship- Heritage Center: This is based on Wat, but inverse to the follower belief, the science bonus is replaced with a culture one. Same as before, it's guaranteed to be balanced. Of course, it's a good building for a culture victory, and if I were to implement it in the game, I recommend basing it off Theatre Square buildings such as the Broadcast Centre- perhaps even with the purple accents? The historical basis came post-design, for I knew I wanted this building to be cultural after deciding the purpose of the other beliefs. The cultural center idea then came about when I considered what the place of a 'Holy Site' would be in an Irreligious state, and I thought about how it's graphically depicted as an idyllic, picturesque little garden, and how such religious sites still attract attention today in secular states in Europe and Asia for their historical significance and contribution to, well, culture. Therefore, building a 'Heritage Center' in such a spot would be a great place to inform the citizens about their Civ's religious history!
Founder- Global Irreligious Movement: Now, this was tricky, because no-one 'founds' Irreligion, it just comes about naturally. Therefore, having a traditional 'founder' belief seemed to make little sense. However, I considered that in the past, many state atheist countries such as the USSR, Cuba, and PRC, have allied, in part (a small one, of course) to spread atheism. Therefore, providing the bonus to those that adopt the State Atheism policy made the most sense, and making it diplomatic-victory followed that. Many of the founder beliefs are based around increasing yields, usually via either each city or a certain number of followers of the respective religion. The issue here was that the diplomatic-based yield, diplomatic favor, is intended to be a lot rarer than other yields. So, rather than tying it to one of the previous options, I decided to tie it to each Civ that was majority Irreligious, to prevent it from being overpowered. The name is one that I created, as there is no set name for such a concept in real life. An alternative was to use the term 'foundation' rather than 'movement', as countries such as Australia have 'Athiest Foundations', but I went with the one that to me suggested global, rather than more national, cooperation. One note is that, as this victory condition does not exist in old game versions, an alternative would have to be devised to make this outline back-compatible. Something that contributes to the more flexible yields, such as food, production, gold, or amenities would probably be the best bet- perhaps you receive +1 global amenity per Irreligious Civ?
Enhancer- Secular Allegiance: This was difficult to settle on as the enhancer belief is, practically speaking, the 'wildcard' of the belief options, and so there's not set preset to base it on like the others. I did, however, decide that this should be domination-focused, as there are no improvable yields directly linked to domination that another belief type could buff. When planning, I considered what is often the functional purpose of adopting secularism or state atheism within a society- it is often to ensure the loyalty of a populace. Take the PRC. There's a variety of religious traditions that have found themselves directly in opposition to the Chinese state. Christianity, especially the Catholic church, has positioned itself in opposition to China's form of 'Communism', which could potentially lead to insurrection, and Vajrayana Buddhists who swear loyalty to the Dalai Lama, and therefore are disloyal to the state that colonized the Dalai Lama's theocratic claims. Therefore, institutionalizing secularism encourages further loyalty to the state. A parallel mechanic can be seen in the United States of America, where many people have replaced- or at least have superseded- the position of the 'flag' and Jesus in their hearts. Therefore, a buff to loyalty would make sense for the enhancer belief, particularly because loyalty is a mechanic that penalizes conquest, and so having a buff in that regard buffs aspirations of domination. The particular number, +4, was settled on as the inherent debuff of occupying a city is -5, and so a +4 increase would negate it to -1, which while not insignificant (especially because conquered cities, already within enemy territory, have penalized loyalty by citizen pressure) is greatly muted. A final note here is the name- I was unable to pin down a particular name for this kind of thing, so I cobbled together one myself that I thought fit. Similarly to the previous belief, it is reliant on a mechanic introduced by a DLC, and so will need a vanilla alternative- for this, I believe that units from an Irreligious Civ should have a slight combat advantage over units from a Religious Civ, justified by their loyalty giving them a more ordered force, a la Discipline, National Identity, or Their Finest Hour.
Unit This was honestly the hardest part to design. For one thing, as previously discussed, the religion system in Civ 6 is not conducive to an accurate representation of Irreligion at the best of times, and at no time worse than when it comes to implementing a unit- for one, the idea of little disciples going around spreading religion is incredibly generally inaccurate in the first place, as such evangelizing has only been practiced in specific historical situations, and almost exclusively by Abrahamic religions, especially Christianity, and especially Protestant denominations. Historically, religion is primarily spread by osmosis via trade and conquest, or via state decrees. It's far more organic than Civ 6 depicts, as these methods have a far more resigned position. This is especially problematic with Irreligion, as if anyone is going to renounce religion intentionally, it is most likely to escape dogma- they don't need a weirdo in a white robe to knock on their door and tell them what to do, even if it is to renounce God. However, I understand that the developers believed this method is more engaging (for one, a more realistic Religious victory would be awfully similar to a Cultural one), and so I must play with the hand I am given. I must design for Irreligious unit(s). The first issue was naming. For as previously discussed, it is unlike atheists to come round knocking on folk's doors professing the word of un-God. I attempted to look for historical examples, but each one did not fit. I could use Jacobin, the staunchly atheist renaissance political movement, or more specifically, the Hébertists faction, though this sounded far too niche, and undersells the breadth of the movement. The current unit roster has problems with specificity too- knights are a global unit, and closer to home, gurus exist- so perhaps the specificity would be justified, perhaps for the guru replacement? But I decided against it. Similarly, I also considered Stalin's 'League of Militant Atheists', though they suffered from being verbose, sounding aggressive, being awfully specific, and not having a concise membership term. What would they be called, a 'Militant'? I also considered 'philosophers', though I felt that undersold the breadth of philosophy, and clarifying them as 'secular philosophers' or 'humanist' was a mouthful. Intellectual? Same problem. The only name I could settle on was 'Apostate'. This term, often used in sociology, is used to refer to anyone who has actively renounced religion, as opposed to those who have never been involved or have syncretic, secular beliefs such as with much of Asia. Many countries, primarily Muslim-majority, have laws that forbid apostasy, often with capital punishment. I felt that this worked. It was universal enough, directly was involved with 'renouncing' religion, and most of all, sounded kind of like 'apostle'. However, it is only one word, and at this time, I was looking for alternatives to all the religious units. But should I? I had decided at this point that the apostle replacement should not receive the promotions, as they were very religious-themed, so what really defined the difference between what would be the replacements for missionaries and apostles, sans the combat difference? Additionally, if they were not able to receive promotions, the units should have some kind of inherent bonus so that they could succeed, at the point of the game they are introduced, against the already established religions. Therefore, I posited: I should collapse all the units into one. They would have the price of missionaries, the combat strength of apostles, the ability to heal like gurus, and the ability to remove religions like an inquisitor. This versatility, of course, comes with the downside that they are hardly able to gain the number of spreads or buffs an apostle can, and each of their abilities drains from the same charge pool. This satisfied me, and when I finished this outline, I decided to write up my ideas, send them to a friend, and then post them to Civ. Which transitions neatly into my-
Conclusion
Why did I write all this? The answer is, as you can probably expect if you got to the end of this from my writing style, manifold! Researching and designing this outline was engaging for me, for one, and I had fun doing it, even though I know well enough these posts are a dime a dozen here and nothing will likely come of it. It was also a good stretch of my essay-writing muscles, which have gotten somewhat rusty during this quarantine. But most of all, I believe passionately that my outline would be a great addition to the game and make it far more immersive, realistic, and engaging, as well as fill in some mechanical holes. In terms of making any of this come to fruition, I am all loose threads. I don't know if there's any reasonable method on sending this to Firaxis- if they even were to consider ideas put forth by me, a layman player- though of course that would be the ultimate ambition, if unrealistic. I'd be very willing to mod it however, if I had the competence, which I do not. I have tried my hand modding Civ, and have released one other mod previously- Periphery- but, while successful, it was very difficult, and took a lot of time, for what at most amounts to just a couple of language file edits. This issue is especially accentuated by the fact that I own the Epic, not Steam, copy of the game and so do not have access to the Software Development Kit, which puts implementing models, such as would be required for the Heritage Center and Apostate, out of the question. As far as I am aware, most Civ 6 modders exclusively tackle personal projects, so there's little chance of collaborating with any of them, but if anyone out there' willing, or knows someone else who is, I'd be overjoyed to participate, and as you'd likely be doing the heavy lifting code-wise, I'd be happy to delegate any credit (social, or monetary via donations or whatever ilk a mod maker may make a profit from) onto you in return to seeing my concept brought to life. But as it is, I'm happily resigned to this outline to stand on its own, here on Reddit.
TL;DR
Adding Irreligion to the game would add realism
Adding Irreligion would add more variety to, and add peaceful methods to counteract, a religious victory
Irreligion citizens could spawn in the game and exert more pressure as the civic tree progresses
A Civ could adopt State Atheism via a policy card to spread Irreligion and reap greater benefits
Irreligion could have unique beliefs that benefit a variety of victory conditions
State Atheists could have access to a unique unit, the Apostate, who can spread Irreligion in replacement of religious units
I have extensive reasoning for each of my decisions
And I would be overjoyed at the opportunity to collaborate to bring this concept to fruition, as am wholly unable to achieve this myself!
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