I founded hinduism in the 3600BC and it is now 1500A.D. and I have yet to receive a great prophet with which to build a holy shrine which sucks because alot of the world is hindu and that is lost revenue!
Whats sup wit dat? :mad:

You have to build wonders in order to get the GPP (Great People Points) required to receive a great person. Even then, the type of great person relies on the type of wonder you built. If you built a religious wonder (such as the Oracle) you'll get points for a great prophet. If you build a wonder that's a feat of engineering (such as the Pyramids) you'll get points for a great engineer.

Three things:

1) Have wonders that promote Great Prophets. These will automatically generate Great People Points and will give you an edge to get a prophet (assuming you don't have other wonders that encourge other kinds of Great People)

2) Make Priest specialists. Get a city that has tons of extra food (flood plain cities or cities with fish/clams are great). Assign as many priests as you can afford without starvation.

3) Convert to the Caste System civic. This will allow you to have unlimited specialists, in your case Priests, in your city. Otherwise, you'll be stuck at one or two priests.

Also, try to build wonders that increase your GPP points (like Stonehenge) or use Civics that encourage that (Pacifism)

Three things:
3) Convert to the Caste System civic. This will allow you to have unlimited specialists, in your case Priests, in your city.

The Caste System doesn't allow you to have unlimited Priests, only Scientists, Merchants and Artists. Engineers aren't allowed either, nor are Spies.

The Caste System doesn't allow you to have unlimited Priests, only Scientists, Merchants and Artists. Engineers aren't allowed either, nor are Spies.

Right, I was just thinking of a general GP farm city.

Obelisks (priest specialists), Moai, Oracle and Stonehenge are the best ways to get early prophets, especially in your newer (read: not corrupted with other GPP's) cities. (On the other hand, your production city should be fine this early in the game.) Since they are usually your first GP (if you build the above), they come very fast.

I founded hinduism in the 3600BC and it is now 1500A.D. and I have yet to receive a great prophet with which to build a holy shrine which sucks because alot of the world is hindu and that is lost revenue!
Whats sup wit dat? :mad:

(1) Build religious wonders or (2) Assign a priest specialist in a city where you have a temple or something else that allows it. (3) Make sure you aren't building some other kind of specialist which will come first.

Since it's 1500 AD I think that most of the religious wonders are already built. Also, wonders are a nice way to get your first or second great person, but later in the game you should rely on specialists (although the wonder points are a nice addition). As said before, take your best food producing city, spam farms in its cross if you haven't already done so. Best choose a city with more than one religion. Build your hindu temple and mandir and their counterparts if you can choose a city with more than one religion. With your 2 hindu buildings and let's say the 2 buildings of your additional religion you can settle 6 priests which should get you a priest in an acceptable time frame.
(Madrassa, obelisk, pacifism, forum, etc might also help you, but that would be too specific since I don't know your game situation and civ)
BTW, if you build wonders in your great people farm, it might be a nice addition of points, but it takes away the possibility to get exactly the great person you want.

I usually avoid the early religion and get Taoism at Philosophy. There, I can build Angkor Wat which enables 3 priest specialists. Add a temple, for 1 more priest and also have Moai Statues there, too. Make sure your city has enough food for all the specialists. It's OK, if you have other wonders there, like Pyramids and Great Library. You still have a 60% chance for a prophet in that case.

I founded hinduism in the 3600BC and it is now 1500A.D. and I have yet to receive a great prophet with which to build a holy shrine which sucks because alot of the world is hindu and that is lost revenue!
Whats sup wit dat? :mad:
The easiest advice is to set the advisor of a big city to prioritize great people points (the middle icon in the lower row).

Having built a wonder (or two) that generates Great Prophet points specifically helps a great deal. Two examples would be the Oracle or the Moai Statues...

Open up the city screen. In the lower right corner you will see if your city generates any GPP. If no city does, you will never get any Great Persons (not to speak of any Great Prophets).

If it does, and you're a fair way to reaching the necessary number of points, you will also be able to see the probabilities of what exact kind of GP he will be... If your city has both the Oracle and the Great Wall, for instance, then you should find that there is a chance of the Great Person not becoming a Great Prophet, but a Great Spy (as the Great Wall generates Great Spy GPPs).

...and this is what players mean by "not polluting the GP pool": if you desperatedly need a Great Prophet, better not generate any GPP that doesn't lead to that kind of Great Person in that city!

I agree that avoiding building the great wall will help alot with generating a prophet. I've had games where I literally had nothing but great spies the whole game.

But some of it is truly random. I had a city that had more than 80% chance of producing a great prophet but instead it popped two artists and an engineer!

A true civ player avoids Great Prophet garbage. The real power is in Scientists! Just look at them beakers! :drool:

A true civ player avoids Great Prophet garbage. The real power is in Scientists! Just look at them beakers! :drool:

Great scientists are nice, but particularly early in the game, a settled great prophet gives you a nice boost to production from hammers and an excellent 5 GP per turn. They are way better than spies or artists!

I founded hinduism in the 3600BC and it is now 1500A.D. and I have yet to receive a great prophet with which to build a holy shrine which sucks because alot of the world is hindu and that is lost revenue!
Whats sup wit dat? :mad:

Great people points...
-mentioned before, in one city, build Wonders that give great prophet points, like oracle and stonehenge...
-(also mentioned before) work priest specialists, available when you build a temple in the GPP city that's going to fill the bar before any other city.
-try not to mix great prophet points with other great person points or you will only have a certain percentage chance of getting a great prophet. You might get a great scientist instead, then you will have to wait for the GP bar to fill up again (and have another percentage chance of getting a great prophet).

A downside is that once you set a city up to generate lots of great prophet points from wonders, you will probably keep getting great prophets from that city when you want great merchants or great engineers later in the game... not that prophets aren't useful, but you can't found a corporation with a great prophet! ;)

Once you get GP basics down, it's not too bad though.

Great scientists are nice, but particularly early in the game, a settled great prophet gives you a nice boost to production from hammers and an excellent 5 GP per turn. They are way better than spies or artists!

And don't forget how much money you can get with a shrine if you found an early religion. If you are lucky, you can make lots of money throughout the game because of it. Building Wall Street and Oxford University in a city with a shrine can be awesome.

Build Stonehenge or The Oracle (or both) and you're guaranteed to get at least one Prophet, usually two or more. Two are perfect if you want to found a religion: Just lightbulb the tech with the first prophet (CoL or Theology) and the second Prophet is for the Shrine.

Build Stonehenge or The Oracle (or both) and you're guaranteed to get at least one Prophet, usually two or more. Two are perfect if you want to found a religion: Just lightbulb the tech with the first prophet (CoL or Theology) and the second Prophet is for the Shrine.

If I found an early religion in my capital my first wonder there is Oracle and I always get the Great Prophet.

I never found an early religion. On Monarch and above it's not possible without neglecting other, imho more important techs, and even if you research straight to Polytheism, Meditation or Monotheism, most of the time an AI will be first because of their bonuses.

GP Wonders, priests, caste system.

I usually just ignore religion for the most part in this game.

But some of it is truly random. I had a city that had more than 80% chance of producing a great prophet but instead it popped two artists and an engineer!

I was generating entirely Prophet points from having Stonehenge, and two turns before getting my first great person - a guaranteed Prophet (useless in my situation) - I finished the Great Wall. Against all odds, a Spy was born, hurray! Probably my favourite early great person, settling him (before the late game spy sex change operation) for +3:science: and a huge +12:espionage: is fantastic.