"[Religion] has been founded in city X!" NO! NOT THAT CITY!

[hyn]

With my favorite civ (Elizabeth), founding a religion comes in late and by the time I found Christianity (or other late religions) I have around 3,4 cities.
The game of course picks at random where the religion is founded.

I have a serious problem with this; I really should be able to pick my founding city. Because with a shrine that city becomes a wealth specialized city; I have to build the Wall St. national wonder for the tremendous +100% bonus to wealth. But if my religion is founded in my military city for example, I'm screwed because I want West Point and Heroic Epic there. 2 max national wonders per city. No room for Wall St.

So what I end up doing is spend an hour or more reloading the damn saves and try to alter the random seed. This is simply an unneccesary waste of time, and I don't consider it cheating. Please give me the option to choose the founding city.

This has made me hate playing ANY civs without Mysticism as starting tech.

 

[Mrdie]

I fully agree. It can sometimes get seriously annoying when it is in a bad city.

 

[Jazz_Newton]

So you want to play God as well as emperor now huh?

Religion is meant to be an 'inspired' event. Governments never got to choose where Christ, or Mohammad (sp), or Confucious were born... they just had to react once these movements started overtaking their cities.

Do you think it makes good economic sense to have the Dalai Lama nestled away in the Tibetan mountains? More importantly, do you think anyone who follows the teaching cares?

 

[Pragmatic]

So what I end up doing is spend an hour or more reloading the damn saves and try to alter the random seed. This is simply an unneccesary waste of time, and I don't consider it cheating. Please give me the option to choose the founding city.

This has made me hate playing ANY civs without Mysticism as starting tech.

Play 'God.'

Open World Builder. Choose City Edit. Click on top and bottom icons for the religion in question: the top icon means the religion is in the city; the bottom icon means that's the religion's Holy City (and it will remove Holy City status from the other city).

It's much less frustrating than reloading from saves--especially since the random generation tends to target underdeveloped cities.

 

[hyn]

So you want to play God as well as emperor now huh?

Religion is meant to be an 'inspired' event. Governments never got to choose where Christ, or Mohammad (sp), or Confucious were born... they just had to react once these movements started overtaking their cities.

Do you think it makes good economic sense to have the Dalai Lama nestled away in the Tibetan mountains? More importantly, do you think anyone who follows the teaching cares?

I agree that religion is "inspired" and no one chooses where it originates, but if the game wants to make sense historically, it should at least make it so that founding it in any city will have no impact gameplay-wise. Because this is a game and not a history lesson.

Allowing the player to choose the founding city is certainly easier for the developer however. Just an extra pop-up window.

 

[hyn]

Play 'God.'

Open World Builder. Choose City Edit. Click on top and bottom icons for the religion in question: the top icon means the religion is in the city; the bottom icon means that's the religion's Holy City (and it will remove Holy City status from the other city).

It's much less frustrating than reloading from saves--especially since the random generation tends to target underdeveloped cities.

Thanks for the tip.. I never tried World Builder. As long as this doesn't screw up my game save.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

In one game, I discovered Divine Right and founded Islam. The game picks a small city on the edge of my empire, which I didn't have a unit fortified in it to protect against Barbarians yet, as I was about to send it from the closest city. The barbarians capture the city and raze it, destroying the Muslim Holy City. I would have loved to have been able to pick the Holy City that time.

 

[Subtestube]

I personally like the random aspect. I would suggest this be added as a mod rather than an essential game feature. At most, it should be optional that one be able to choose holy cities.

 

[ASayre8]

I personally think that the size and age of a city should give more weight to that city being randomly chosen for the Religion.

 

[onedreamer]

I personally think that the size and age of a city should give more weight to that city being randomly chosen for the Religion.

why ? A "messjah" can be born in a metropolis as well as in a small village.

 

[Rince]

[...] I didn't have a unit fortified in it to protect against Barbarians yet.

Well, that's your fault then!

Rince

 

[jeremiahrounds]

is it random? its funny you mention the bad city cause the one time i founded islam it was on the edge of the empire at my worst city. Maybe for each religion it matches a criteria on the list of your cities. For example the hypothesis is islam gets founded on the city most distant from your capital. I guess a world builder could be used to test it hmmm. Ill go see if i can figure it out. Could be something weighted like the palace jump script from civ3.

 

[Jonny211]

One annoying thing I found last night, I captured the Malinese Holy City for Confucionism and then promptly razed it as it was only size 3 or something. If I'd known it was a Holy City I might've kept it. I know you can look in the Religion window and see where the holy cities are but I was spending most of my time moving my knights about.

Jon

 

[Mazruk]

I'm pretty sure you can see holy cities from the normal game view, just look for the asterisk next to the religious symbol above the city name...

 

[Bast]

You should NOT have the option to choose where a religion is founded. Did Muslims have a choice as to where their religion would be found or where their holy city would be? It's random.

This is the best way, although it can be annoying.

 

[MayanKing]

You guys DO realize Christ wasn't born in Rome right? I mean, sure the Jews and Islamics recognize Jerusalem for what it is, but not every religion does. Lighten up. I agree being able to choose our holy cities would make more sense.

 

[karadoc]

I prefer it random.

 

[tinribs]

Is it truly random?

IME everytime I've discovered a new religion the game has selected the youngest/most recently founded city as that religion's "home". This (IMHO) actually makes a bit of sense as new stuff is less likely to take hold in a "bustling metropolis" than a village with four cottages and a pig farm.

It doesn't help though when you've got a large Civ and the last city founded is miles away from the rest of the nation. Although to go against that - most religions are founded in the early part of the game when there are probably not too many cities in your Civ in the first place...

Tinribs

 

[Halberd]

Well, it's not truly random anyway - the civs that found Buddhism and Hinduism have the automatic advantage in that it'll always happen in their capital or their 2nd city, due to where the religions are on the tech tree.

It's just another aspect of a flawed game concept, unfortunately.

 

[Zakharov]

From what I have seen, I think religions are founded in a way that is partly random and partly scripted. The method for the choosing the holy city seems to be:

1) Choose a random city that has no religions present.
2) If none then choose a city with one religion.
3) If still none then choose a city with two religions.
4) etc.

This would explain why Hinduism and Buddhism are founded in the capital, as it is probably your only city at the time. Islam would be founded in a small border city, as it is likely to be new with no religions present.