The Culture Ratings that require an increase in the Coverage Index for religion are shown in the following table (but remember that there are other requirements apart from religion coverage):
Culture Rating | Required Coverage Index for Religion |
5 | 1% |
15 | 20% |
30 | 40% |
45 | 60% |
65 | 80% |
90 | 100% |
Each god's mood is based on the Coverage Index, but is adjusted in a few ways.
The first adjustment is based on the number of months since the last festival to this god. This number is reported by the Overseer of Temples. The Overseer seems to you cheat you out of a month since as soon as you hold a festival, he says it has been one month since the last festival. Still, fair or not, we will use his number. Note that at the start of a mission, the game assumes a festival has just been held for all the gods, and the "months since last festival" number will be one for each of them. Also note the effect of lavish and grand festivals is the same as that of a common festival. To make the adjustment, subtract one percent from the Coverage Index for each month since the last festival, but don't subtract more than 40%, then add 12%. If the result at this point is less than 0%, change it to 0%, if it is more than 100%, change it to 100%.
For example, a local god in a city of 1000 has one shrine (a shrine to a local god acomodates 300 people). The Coverage Index is 300/1000 = 30%. If it has been 1 month since the last festival, we subtract 1% and then add 12% making 41%. If it has been 50 months since the last festival, we subtract 40% (you never subtract more than 40%) and add 12% making 2%.
I call the percentage we have at this point the "target mood" of the god. It represents how the god should feel about you, but a god's feelings take time to change. A god's mood can normally change by one percentage point each "workday" (a workday is a sixteenth of a month). So each workday, if the current mood is different from the target mood, the current mood will move one percentage point towards the target mood.
If you have a low population, the Coverage Index swings widely with each new shrine and each increase in population. To mask this, the game forces the mood to stay at Apathetic until the population reaches 400, then the mood can go up one level (to Amiable) or down one (to Displeased). For each increase of 50 in population, the game allows the mood to swing by one more level until with a population of 600, the restrictions are lifted and your gods mood can be anywhere from Benevolent to Enraged.
The god's mood also changes after a blessing, but I'll cover that later. The following table shows the descriptions of the various moods and the assoociated target mood percentage. The "Minimum population" column shows how the limit on mood for low populations works. The last two columns show the Coverage Index required for those target moods in two extreme cases: one month and 40 months after a festival to that god. Notice that you can't get a mood better than Congenial if it's been 40 months since the last festival (in fact 38 months is the limit).
Target mood | Minimum population | Required Coverage Index |
Description | Percent | 1 month since festival | 40 months since festival |
Benevolent | 100% | 600 | 89% | - |
Approving | 90% | 550 | 79% | - |
Sympathetic | 80% | 500 | 69% | - |
Congenial | 70% | 450 | 59% | 98% |
Amiable | 60% | 400 | 49% | 88% |
Apathetic | 50% | - | 39% | 78% |
Displeased | 40% | 400 | 29% | 68% |
Resentful | 30% | 450 | 19% | 58% |
Angry | 20% | 500 | 9% | 48% |
Furious | 10% | 550 | 0% | 38% |
Enraged | 0% | 600 | - | 28% |
Ankhs and lightening bolts start to accumulate next to the Overseer's description of the gods mood if the mood is Congenial or better (for ankhs) or Resentful or worse (for lightening bolts). There is no set rate or pattern to this accumulation. It seems that if the mood is in the right range, there is a chance on each new workday of an ankh or bolt being awarded. It seems reasonable to assume that the chance is greater when the mood is more extreme, but I haven't been able to confirm this. The average rate seems to be one ankh or bolt every one or two months.
The most ankhs or bolts you can accultulate is five. If you have ankhs and the mood drops below Congenial, you will keep them as long as the mood stays at least at Apathetic. If the mood drops below Apathethic, any ankhs you have are wiped out. Similarly, you keep any bolts you have accumulated until the mood rises above Apathetic.
Blessings and curses appear to depend on mood and accumulated ankhs and bolts. It appears that the current mood must be Sympathetic or better to get a blessing or Angry or worse to get a curse. It possible that they can occur when the mood is not in this range, but I have run for several years with five ankhs at Congenial without getting a blessing and with five bolts at Resentful without getting a curse. As long as you have the right mood and some ankhs or bolts, there seems to be a chance each month that you will get a blessing or a curse. (blessings and curses always happen at the start of a month). It seems reasonable that the chance of a blessing is greater if you have more ankhs or if the mood is better (and similarly for curses). I can't confirm that having a mood better than Sympathetic increases the chance of a blassing, but my tests do seem to show that having more ankhs increases the chance.
The awarding of blessings/curses and ankh/bolts seems to be "pseudo-random", which is my way of saying that it's not random (computers have a hard time producing random behaviour) but the rules are too obscure for me to work out. For a while my tests seemed to suggest that you needed at least three ankhs for a small blessing and more for a big blessing, but then a got a couple of small blessing with only one ankh. The most I can conclude from the tests is that the more ankhs you have, the greater the chance of a blessing, and the greater the chance that any blessing will be the big blessing rather than the small one.
A blessing wipes out all accumulated ankhs and drops the god's current mood by 12% for a small blessing or 30% for a big blessing. Similarly, a curse wipes out accululated bolts and increases the current mood by 12% or 30%. The current mood will then start to move at 1% per workday back towards the target mood.
What about Lavish and Grand Festivals? Good question! They don't appear to increase mood any more or any faster than a Common Festival. They don't appear to have an effect on how quickly ankhs are accumulated. And festivals themselves don't appear to cause blessings, they just increase mood which can result in blessings. Perhaps there are some circumstances didn't occur in my tests in which the bigger festivals have a greater effect. Maybe festivals have an effect on City Sentiment, and perhaps the bigger festivals have a greater effect. For myself, I plan to stick with Common Festivals.
Does all of this suggest a good strategy? Well, I don't think there is a magic winning strategy.
One way to increase the chances of a big blessing would be to hold the mood at Congenial until you have five ankhs, then increase the mood to at least Sympathetic and wait for a blessing. Of course, holding the mood at a particular level is easier said than done since you are working on a moving target with the months since the last festival changing, population probably changing and the lag between current mood and target mood to contend with.
A different approach is to keep the Coverage Index for each known god at about 60%. Once the effect of the start-of-mission festival goes away, the gods' mood will drop to Resentful and you will soon get five lightening bolts, but you will not be cursed. If you don't like your people to complain all the time, increase the Coverage Index to 80% and let the mood settle at Apathetic. This strategy saves the money you might have spent on additional Shrines and Temples. You won't be blessed and you won't be cursed, so if you like the game to be less unpredictable, this might suit you. Note that you still need a Coverage Index of 80% to get a Culture Rating of 65 and a Coverage Index of 100% to get a Culture Rating of 90.
Happy city building!
Nero Would