Great People That Could Use Some Help

[bengalryan9]

Which great people strike you as needing buffs? They are certainly not all balanced with one another and some of them are pretty bad. Who do you always pass on?

The one that always comes to my mind is Leonardo da Vinci. A whopping +1 culture to all my workshops? No thanks.

 

[Leucarum]

Hildegard von Bingen: Culture is more useful for science than faith, so often a science heavy game won't have a particularly good use for her for quite some time.. .Yet she comes relatively early. She was a composer too so why not let her also target a theater square?

 

[Chefofrats]

Mendeleyev, Turing - by the time I usually can recruit them, I have long had the eurekas they give. Their effect should be changed to something more meaningful.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

All great scientist that give eurkas since you can get eurkas from other sources. Also it feels pretty much like copy-paste and make these great people have no character.

 

[Arithmion]

A lot of the merchants feel pretty identical to each other. 500 gold and a trade route, or something similar. I'd love something a little more flavorful, not just "I wonder when I'll get my next trade rou- I mean my next Great Merchant. Maybe a merchant that gives you insight into other Civs' treasuries?

 

[The Highwayman]

Culture bomb when finishing an IZ? My IZs are already built by this point and that's just a terrible ability anyways.
The Scientist that gives 20 free GP points across the board. Really....I'd rather have this than Einstein?
Leo doesn't definitely doesn't live up to the legend, but he can act like a pseudo GS with the modern era eureka at least. His effects can be doubled via the Mausoleum so I can get around 6 culture from the 3 workshops I built. Woo hoo! How about workshops provides culture equal to the adjacency of your IZs? That's more like it.

 

[UWHabs]

All great scientist that give eurkas since you can get eurkas from other sources. Also it feels pretty much like copy-paste and make these great people have no character.

I always go back and forth on that. Like, all the scientists that are just "3 eurekas from these eras" are just bland, but on the flipside, firtually all the ones that give a specific eureka are just useless (especially since the ones they picked are like Computers or Mathematics, which are pretty easy eurekas to get otherwise).

I'd love to see a total revamp of the scientist line to make them as unique as the generals or admirals, although obviously that would need a fair bit of balancing.

The other great person that desperately needs a change is the guy who gives a culture bomb to industrial zones. It comes so late that I honestly can't tell you one time I've found that useful. Maybe if that ability came from a medieval engineer, it might lead to some tempting changes in style, but by the modern era, pretty much all my industrial zones have been planted.

 

[kryat]

It’s always bothered me that there’s two great people that give the eureka for computers. I don’t even notice research time on most late game techs. I agree with some other sentiments here. They should be more unique in general.

There is the one scientist that grants bonus healing. I guess that might be strong in the right context, but it’s always felt a little disappointing on my route to a science victory.

I don’t mind the wonder building ones though. They’re always useful.

 

[ezzlar]

Like already mentioned, Mimar Sinan, since the culture bomb effect he gives to your IZ are useless since they are already built.

The Great Merchants that give you X00 gold. If you have enough GPP to get them you probably already have a good source of income from commercial hubs.

Getting the boost for Computers is easy enough without great persons.

 

[bengalryan9]

I don’t mind the wonder building ones though. They’re always useful.

I wouldn't mind a couple more of those TBH. Maybe they can even get away with hiding one in the great merchant line (as in, "this is a man who funded some amazing buildings") or the great general line (as in, "this is a man who had his armies build great structures").

 

[The Highwayman]

The wonder builders are very good, especially with Mausoleum. They feel as good as some of the other engineers feel bad.

 

[OmegaDestroyer]

Worthless Great scientists:

Alan Turing Modern Triggers the Eureka moment for Computers and one random technology from the Modern Era.
Alfred Nobel Modern Triggers one random Eureka for one random technology from the Modern or Atomic era. Applies 20 free Great People points towards recruiting all current and future Great People.
Erwin Schrödinger Atomic Triggers the Eureka moment for three random technologies from the Atomic or Information era.
Abdus Salam Information Triggers the Eureka moment for all technologies from the Information era.

Their benefits either come too late, often irrelevant by the time you get them (Turning/Schrodinger/Salam) or too weak (Nobel).

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

I've mentioned this before but I wish all of the Great Prophets were different and had an extra charge based on something they did in their life, not just for founding a religion.

The one that always comes to my mind is Leonardo da Vinci. A whopping +1 culture to all my workshops? No thanks.

I wish that he could create at least the Mona Lisa, Vitruvian Man. and the Last Supper great works of art in addition to his other bonus, even though he's considered a Great Engineer.

 

[Harasar]

I've mentioned this before but I wish all of the Great Prophets were different and had an extra charge based on something they did in their life, not just for founding a religion.

Agree. If each Great Prophet was different and gave some great additional benefits, then it would have been more interesting to try and get one you need the most in the current game instead of just slowly accumulating points to get anyone if any.

 

[Aurelesk]

Agree. If each Great Prophet was different and gave some great additional benefits, then it would have been more interesting to try and get one you need the most in the current game instead of just slowly accumulating points to get anyone if any.

This also means that you could get more than 1 Prophet per game. So a player could do a Pingoracle for Prophet, get/buy all of them and prevents every other player to get one and create a religion. So, the game needs a new way to create a Religion. Since you can't buy a Missionnary, a Apostle or a Guru if you do not have a religion yet (religious units need to follow a religion), then you need to either create a new religious religionless unit specific for creating a religion, or transform a religious unit into a religionless that is able to create one. The Guru could fill this role: it would become a religionless unit, that can still heal adjacent religious unit but also be expanded into creating a religion.


I am starting to think each Great People should have 2 different abilities: a specific one (like actually) and a generic one, like

• General: +5 CS and +1 Movement in 2-tiles radius for land unit from [EraN] and [EraN+1].
• Admiral: +5 CS and +1 Movement in 2-tiles radius for sea unit from [EraN] and [EraN+1].
• Engineer: +X Production toward Wonders. X depending of the era.
• Merchant: +1 Trade Route.
• Prophet: -
• Scientist: 2 Eurekas.
• Writer: 2 Inspirations
• Artist: Create a Statue as a tile improvement, increasing Culture and Appeal.
• Musician: Create a Rock Band.

If the specific ability do not suit you, you could at least use the generic ability.