Pressure level - religion

Hello,
I have noticed there is certain amount of "pressure level" which stands next to the religion sign when you mouse over it on the city. Does anyone know how it is determined?

I suppose that if there are two religions in the city, the religion with higher pressure level will dominate the weaker religion in time. Still I couldn't figure out how it is determined.

AFAIK:
+6 for each city of that religion within 10 tiles, and extra for holy cities.

It appears (this is just guesswork on my part) that it takes 100 "points" to convert a citizen, so if I have +12 net pressure it will take 9 turns to convert a population point to that religion.

IMO its +4 (with with bonus 5 or 6 (with printing press or what tech).

I have no idea about this either. My 3rd forward-staging city has 13 of my own followers and 1 of enemy's followers. I'm next to 3 of their cities and my city has +0 pressure for my religion and +16 pressure for theirs

I had to bring a great prophet to convert that one blasphemer to my side. (He alone was giving me +16 pressure ;__; ). For some reason, my missionaire and that other guy has no effect in removing that religion from my city. Only my great prophet worked.

IMO its +4 (with with bonus 5 or 6 (with printing press or what tech).

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Thanks, I hadn't noticed that.

My 3rd forward-staging city has 13 of my own followers and 1 of enemy's followers. I'm next to 3 of their cities and my city has +0 pressure for my religion and +16 pressure for theirs

I had to bring a great prophet to convert that one blasphemer to my side. (He alone was giving me +16 pressure ;__; ). For some reason, my missionaire and that other guy has no effect in removing that religion from my city. Only my great prophet worked.

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As I understand it: other than holy cities, cities don't boost themselves. The religious pressure for your city is coming from the other three enemy cities, not the 1 follower within the city.
Missionaries can only increase the presence of their own religion; other religious presence can only be removed by great prophets, inquisitors, or the religious pressure mechanic.

And my understanding is that even eliminating the enemy presence from your city isn't going to keep it out; as long as it is within range of those 3 enemy cities, they are going to continue to exert pressure and eventually your city will take on their religion again.
You would be better off to use your great prophet to convert *their* cities rather than your own.

I'm not certain about any of this though, I've seen a few oddities, where pressure didn't seem to be working how I thought. It also feels like distance, faith production or population should make a difference, but as far as I can tell it doesn't except for the 10 tile limit.

The pressure is based on game speed. In Marathon it's +2 per city, in epic +4, in standard +6 and quick is +9. Can see it in the GameSpeeds.xml as:

<ReligiousPressureAdjacentCity>9</ReligiousPressureAdjacentCity>

The number on city mouseover in incoming pressure. Holy Cities get a +10 or +12 self-boost in Marathon to avoid easy conversion (but this doesn't affect outgoing pressure, they still only apply +2 on neighboring cities).

So that explains why my cities always have very low religious pressure... I don't cram cities together XD

So in my current game, the English in the south founded Christianity, they enhanced it with the extra range enhancer, but I'm pretty sure they never spread it with a missionary (too busy fighting for survival).
But their holy city has +72 pressure, all the cities surrounding have +60, +48, and cities a long way further north with only two or three followers have at least +20.
Whereas my religion and AI-founded Islam has +20 max for the holy city, making it awfully hard to compete

Is this some ridiculously powerful belief they've chosen? Or some boost for AI civs at this level (immortal) or just that civ? Or just a bug?

I think it's quite more complex than that; I saw coastal cities with +120 pressure in standard speed, so no it's not just +6/city within 10 tiles

Thibaulthc said:

I think it's quite more complex than that; I saw coastal cities with +120 pressure in standard speed, so no it's not just +6/city within 10 tiles

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Maybe #/follower in a city within ten tiles?

I always try to figure it out and can't with any success. I usually think I understand it, and then see some city with no pressure or way more pressure than I'd expect them to have. So it's still a bit of a mystery to me.

@compwiz: yes, I think it's a formula which include the number of followers AND the number of converted cities

@ahriman: once again, more complex: I think the conversion speed depends of the atheist population: in a virgin city (no followers), first ones will get converted quite fast; but in a 13 city, with 6 Buddhists and 6 Islamists, it will last very long before u get the 7th follower! also depends on the other religion pressure of course.

It has something to do with the number of cities having it as it's main religion.

So converting 3-4 cities close together in foreign lands will really boost the pressure and allow it to expand out. I had my entire continent covered and the middle cities had 100-120 pressure on them.

i am sure it somehow connected to trade routes as well... being carthage and founding far island cities works and gets own pressure from hc capital

good point with the

I'm confused about what to do with a Great Prophet and a Missionary outside of my territory. I don't seem to have any options for them. Do they do me any good just sitting in or near other Civs or City States?

It's much better to use the Prophets to convert foreign cities and Inquisitors to purge other players' religions from your own.

Thibaulthc said:

I think it's quite more complex than that; I saw coastal cities with +120 pressure in standard speed, so no it's not just +6/city within 10 tiles

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I'll look more carefully next time I'm playing, but so far in every case that I've seen the simple +6/city (standard speed) formula works. Keep in mind that can be boosted to +10/city with Religious Texts + printing press, and if the founding civ is Byzantium they could have both RT and Itinerant Preachers (expanding the radius to 13 tiles).

The number of points needed to convert a citizen is something I'd never even thought about, so no idea how complex/simple that formula is.

So the amount of followers don't help with the pressure at all? One can better have one follower in a lot of cities than a lot of followers in a few cities? To spread the religion best?

anandus said:

So the amount of followers don't help with the pressure at all? One can better have one follower in a lot of cities than a lot of followers in a few cities? To spread the religion best?

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Yes and no. In the early game, having 1 follower in a city means quite a bit (most cities have fewer than 6 people, and many won't have a dominant religion yet); but in the late game with 1 follower in every city, while your pressure will be very high it will still take eons to convert enough citizens to become the dominant religion in each one...and most of the belief bonuses only apply when that religion is the majority in a city.

The best way I've found of doing it (and this is on Prince, so it may not work as well on higher levels) is to look at the map as you've uncovered it and decide what you'd like your sphere of influence to be; usually this will be the continent you started on. Then, once you've founded your religion and saved up enough FPs, buy a missionary and send him as far out as possible in two directions to create a sort of triangle which encompasses that area. This can be tricky because you'll still have roving barbarians to worry about and your missionary takes damage if it ends a turn inside another civ's borders, but it's worth doing as it gives your religion three jumping-off points instead of just the one; if necessary you can just spread it to city states & get the same effect. Then save up your FPs for the second great prophet, enhance your religion to include Religious Texts or Itinerant Preachers (depending on map size, amount of water, etc), and watch it grow.