Great people questions

[nodeusexmachina]

Hello

To get right to the point. How do i make a city a "farm for producing great people?" This expression has been used several times on this site,however, i can't seem to find an informative guide on how to accomplish this. I believe it is referring to putting your great people into a specific city and then selcting them in the city scree correct? If that is so what makes one city better than another for producing great people? For example if i set a lot of artists "on" in my city with already high culture production will i get more artist?

some help would be great

 

[Willem]

Just find a location that has lots of food potential and create as many specialists as you can. You generally don't use just one type though, it's best to have a variety of all of them.

 

[Darkshadows]

You should try get Parthenon and national epic in your GP farm aswell.

 

[CoZe]

you can put parthenon anywhere. It doesn't have to be in the GP farm.

 

[Willem]

You definitely want the National Epic there though. And the National Park is a good one to have too, if you have a few stands of Forests in the area. Which you should have just to get a bit of production there.

 

[Supr49er]

Yeah a city with the NE (national Epic) and NP (National Park), farms, rivers and forests makes an awesome GP farm.

 

[FriendoftheDork]

The problems in my games is that I build wonders... and that means no way to control what GP is coming. For instance my GP farm was also my main production city with IW and NE, and tons of production (currently 90 base with mining inc). Lots of food allowed alot of specialists as well, but what good does it do if even running 4 engineers I still get as good or better chance of getting my 4th or 5th Prophet?

I suppose I could have another city be a gp farm, but that means even with NE it can produce GP slower than my wonder city... Oh how I wish you could decide how the total gpp was spent on (requiring minimum of the right kind though).

 

[bestbrian]

The problems in my games is that I build wonders... and that means no way to control what GP is coming. For instance my GP farm was also my main production city with IW and NE, and tons of production (currently 90 base with mining inc). Lots of food allowed alot of specialists as well, but what good does it do if even running 4 engineers I still get as good or better chance of getting my 4th or 5th Prophet?

I suppose I could have another city be a gp farm, but that means even with NE it can produce GP slower than my wonder city... Oh how I wish you could decide how the total gpp was spent on (requiring minimum of the right kind though).

Specialize your GP cities. Current game (which, admittedly, was an awesome start) my first city had awesome production capability and was going to get the GE wonders (Mids, HS, etc) and the GW (got lucky). Second city, also awesome production, became my GP / GM city (SH, GLH, COL, etc). Later on, I had another city that had very good production that I could use to build the GA wonders without corrupting my other cities' GP pool. I also established a GS city that built the GS wonders, ran Scientists, and got the NE. It didn't get Oxford, because by then I had another city that was producing even more science and with more food for specialists. And, I had several cities that specialized in unit production. Thus, I've been able to emphasize GS production and not taint my GP pool for when I want to prioritize production of a specific GP type.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Specialize your GP cities. Current game (which, admittedly, was an awesome start) my first city had awesome production capability and was going to get the GE wonders (Mids, HS, etc) and the GW (got lucky). Second city, also awesome production, became my GP / GM city (SH, GLH, COL, etc). Later on, I had another city that had very good production that I could use to build the GA wonders without corrupting my other cities' GP pool. I also established a GS city that built the GS wonders, ran Scientists, and got the NE. It didn't get Oxford, because by then I had another city that was producing even more science and with more food for specialists. And, I had several cities that specialized in unit production. Thus, I've been able to emphasize GS production and not taint my GP pool for when I want to prioritize production of a specific GP type.

Lemon stands (well sits, really) in awe as she realizes that:
A. She never thought of doing this and always wondered why the results of a GP farm were like a lottery.
B. She so completely focuses on getting a GS or GE she messes up her GP farm by building too many wrong wonders in it.
C. She's been playing for almost a year and hasn't figured it out on her own.
And finally:
D. She just checked the cookies she was baking and realized she forgot to set the timer, got busy on CFC, and burned them.

But hey, I learned something.

 

[bestbrian]

Lemon stands (well sits, really) in awe as she realizes that:
A. She never thought of doing this and always wondered why the results of a GP farm were like a lottery.
B. She so completely focuses on getting a GS or GE she messes up her GP farm by building too many wrong wonders in it.
C. She's been playing for almost a year and hasn't figured it out on her own.
And finally:
D. She just checked the cookies she was baking and realized she forgot to set the timer, got busy on CFC, and burned them.

But hey, I learned something.

Yeah, you learned not to forget to set the timer when baking cookies.

Poor, poor, cookies.

 

[Willem]

I suppose I could have another city be a gp farm, but that means even with NE it can produce GP slower than my wonder city... Oh how I wish you could decide how the total gpp was spent on (requiring minimum of the right kind though).

Not a chance. Most Wonders only give you 2 GP points. Just having a Library alone allows you to have 2 Scientists, each of which gives 3 GP towards a Great Scientist. If you also build a Forge, Market, Temple etc. there's no way a Wonder city can produce as many GPs, especially if you have the NE there. You can also specialize your Wonders. Only build Engineer Wonders in your production cities, Merchant ones in your Economic cities etc. You don't have cram all your Wonders into one city, in fact that's a bad practise. You'll never be able to build anything else with that city because all your production will be constantly tied up.

As for figuring out what's coming up, with a mixed GP farm that can indeed be a bit difficult but you can alter the odds just by adding/removing certain specialists. Say you want a Scientist next, just make sure you have more of those running than anything else. It's not a gaurentee but it helps. If you also have a "pure" GP city like bestbrian suggests, that also increases your odds of getting the GP you want. Again with Scientist, if you see that your science GP city is fairly close to popping one, remove a specialist or two from your main GP farm and let the science GP city pop it's GP first. There's all sorts of ways you can control the outcomes.

 

[FriendoftheDork]

I try, oh how I try... I just can't resist building certain wonders, and since there is often one or two cities with much greater production than the rest most of them goes into one city.

I tried to specialize somewhat by at least considering each wonder's GPPs, and try to build most of each kind in different cities. For instance after building Pyramids in London I tried to avoid GP points..I captured Paris which turned out to be a superb city in production and food, and since it also became a Shine and I needed more prophets for my other shrines. But becoming the capitol, getting bureaucracy, and being the best canditate for Iron Works I tried getting an engineer there instead (running 4 eng. and nothing else. Despite this I produced one Merchant and one Prophet before finally getting the engineer for my first corporation.

 

[6K Man]

I guess I'm the odd one out - I tried making cities that specialized in a particular kind of GP (Scientists and Merchants, usually) and having another production-strong city build most of the non GS- and GM-generating wonders. I could never get this to work - it seems almost inevitable that one city will be producing more GPP than another (due to having more food, or more wonders) and as a result, a lot of GPP are eventually wasted in cities that, after producing only one GP, will never catch up to the top city (or top 2 cities) in GPP production and produce another GP.

So now, I tend to try to cram virtually all wonders and the NE into a food and production strong (and commerce-poor) city, and run a lot of specialists there as well. With Caste System, you can at least improve your odds of getting a particular GP, and if all else fails, you beeline for Economics, or Physics, or whatever, to get the GP you need.

(btw - I am nodding )

 

[FriendoftheDork]

I guess I'm the odd one out - I tried making cities that specialized in a particular kind of GP (Scientists and Merchants, usually) and having another production-strong city build most of the non GS- and GM-generating wonders. I could never get this to work - it seems almost inevitable that one city will be producing more GPP than another (due to having more food, or more wonders) and as a result, a lot of GPP are eventually wasted in cities that, after producing only one GP, will never catch up to the top city (or top 2 cities) in GPP production and produce another GP.

So now, I tend to try to cram virtually all wonders and the NE into a food and production strong (and commerce-poor) city, and run a lot of specialists there as well. With Caste System, you can at least improve your odds of getting a particular GP, and if all else fails, you beeline for Economics, or Physics, or whatever, to get the GP you need.

(btw - I am nodding )

The problem is getting those Great Engineers! Only early pyramids and the forge gives some chance, and in such a wonder city you propose those GPPs drown in the rest. Scientists and Merchants are of course much easier, CS or not, and I always gets tons of GPs because of the number of wonders and priests available.

In my current game (1504 marathon) I have totally produced:
8 GP
5GG (well not exactly a GP but..)
4 GS
3 GM
3 GS
3 GE (one through an event I believe, auto settle)
1 GA

As you can see Prophets about, probably because of my choise of wonders and the fact that I built Ankor Vat. However i never really needed more than 2 for my best shrines, although settled in my gold city they're not half bad. This is from a commerce economy btw (cottage and coast).

 

[Supr49er]

Great Wonders and National Wonders

Great Prophet: Ankor Wat; Chichen Itza; Oracle; Shwedagon Paya; Spiral Minaret; Stonehenge; Apostolic Palace; Moai Statues

Great Artist: Broadway; Hollywood; Mausoleum of Maussollos; Notre Dame; Parthenon; Rock 'n' Roll; Sistine Chapel; Statue of Zeus; Taj Mahal; Globe Theater; Hermitage; Heroic Epic; Mount Rushmore; National Epic

Great Merchant: Colossus; Eiffel Tower; Great Lighthouse; Statue of Liberty; Temple of Artemis; Versailles; United Nations; Wall Street

Great Engineer: Cristo Redentor; Hagia Sofia; Hanging Gardens; Pyramids; Three Gorges Dam; Iron Works

Great Scientist: Great Library; University of Sankore; Space Elevator; National Park; Oxford University; Red Cross

Great Spy: Great Wall; The Kremlin; Pentagon; Forbidden Palace; West Point

 

[Supr49er]

Welcome to the Forums nodeusexmachina.

 

[nNemethon]

Nice list Supr49er, thumbs up.
I never got around to making something like this that I can plan to so I'm stealing yours and printing it as I type.
(Well, I would be if the printer wasn't out on one cartridge which has now disabled all function except software-force scan. I can't even send a fax as all it wants to do is HAVE IT'S DAMN CYAN CARTRIDE REPLACED! Ahhhh that's better now it's out. )

 

[Drix]

If you do have a big GP farm that produces random specialists, you can always move them to your specialist cities. Eg-scientists in city with Oxford University. Merchants with Corp HQ, Wall Street ect.