If you don't like people accumulating masses of favor and then releasing it all, I can understand that.
So that's why you're proposing a cap on favor beyond which it no longer accumulates.
But this is artificial and limits gameplay.
You can discourage excess favor accumulation without a cap.
Just have favor accumulate at a rate of:
base_rate * 50/(50+favor)
generally:
base_rate * N/(N+favor)
With N=50, at a favor of 50, it accumulates 1/2 as fast; at favor 100, it accumulates 1/3 as fast; at favor 200, it accumulates 1/5 as fast. Getting from 100 to 200 takes longer than accumulating 300 favor 100 at a time!
N/(N+X) is in general a very nice solution for declining effects (diminishing returns) & preventing aberrant extremes (without a cap). (Attack/defense worked this way in D2 BTW - one of the few elegant parts of that game.)
Anyhow, with this solution, people will be *discouraged* from accumulating gobs of favor but will still be *allowed* to accumulate gobs of favor if they are willing to live with an increasingly poor accumulation rate for quite a while.
If you like, favor_rate could be base_rate * M/(M+favor_used) * N/(N+current_favor); M > With that formula, you can use god powers more than once or twice; just the intervals at which you could use god powers would grow larger and larger. This would take care of excess miracles very naturally without capping big miracles at one per age or whatever. If M were 100 someone who had already done 2 'big' miracles (100 favor each) would be getting favor at a rate of only 1/3 the rate of someone who had done no miracles. No one can specialize in miracles, then, because the ability to produce them 'wears out' gradually. Thus, miracles can't dominate gameplay. Certain unrepeatable events (like advancing an age (or discovering a god technology?)) could dump a fixed quantity of favor into your stockpile of course. Anyhow, IMO the game should have as few arbitrary caps and limits as possible while still encouraging an interesting style of gameplay. The fickle gods gradually tiring of your pleas after granting you favors seems like a very Mythological style of deity! Please be assured that I take no credit for this mathematical idea; I only hope that you can use the concept to produce a better game. You don't have to explain the math to the player either; just explain that the gods become accustomed to your prayers and weary of your pleas and over time you have to pray more for the same effect/try harder to please them. Matt