Ighalli wrote
I was already thinking somewhat along the lines of Ernomouse, except for his protection idea. I was thinking of giving all of the gods an effect when (powerful?) enemies are nearby (adjacent?) and another effect for when you're relatively safe. Ernomouse, were you thinking of giving the player the choice of which type of prayer to ask for, or let the game try to determine what's suitable?
My idea for Mellis was to make him function kind of like a store when you pray. You choose something from your pack to sell to him and then you choose something to buy from him (skipping either or both).
I was also thinking of redoing the system so that some or all of the gods grant you spells as in most RPGs when you pray to them. The spells they give you would improve with your relationship and wisdom. Mellis could grant a midas touch effect to transform something into silver / gold if it's under some weight limit. He could also grant a spell to sell an item to him from your inventory, or give you a temporary boost to charisma. Legifer could give you the explosion effect as a spell, and you could later cast it on demand. Limit the total number of spells granted and balance how often a given god will give you a new casting of them, as balance dictates.
I was thinking of the player chooses from those three but it's a good idea to let the god decide what kind of help you actually get. The more chaotic the god, the less reliable he should be in complying with the prayer. =P After all you CAN choose what escapes your mouth - unless we decide there is a "Lord's prayer" kind of set prayer which is the only one that reaches the god you're praying to... Which I find unfitting in a pantheon.
As for gods getting overwhelmed of all the noise, well, I don't think a god would either experience time as we do, or have to deal with that shit alone. Why do you think they all have angels? Do you get overwhelmed by all the noise you hear outdoors, and yet you're still aware of them and react to those that are important? A god is by definition superior to a man, so you shouldn't compare the two too closely. =P
Spells might be nice, but if we make the gods too powerful with all this fancy stuff it'll shift the balance greatly until you practically must be religious to win. Communism is a key theme in IVAN, and atheism is a key theme in communism. Maybe we should give believers some drawbacks to conteract the powers gained?