Great Prophet Creation problems

[dampkring]

I have been playing with Elizabeth recently trying to pump out as many great prophets as possible. I have found though that in most games I am unable to specialize my GPfarms into creating only one kind of specialist. For example, In my game yesterday, I had parthenon, national epic, and pacifism, and had put 2 citizens as priests expecting to add more by joining the city as they were generated, but I ended up creating 5 great merchants and 2 great artists. Never once did I get a priest. In looking at the odds of generating a prophet it seemed it didnt change if I put more citizens as priests, it only added more points per turn.

I've experienced this many times, and am always running into the problem of creating way to many artists. Is this because of buildings I am creating/not creating? How do I more efficiently create only those specialists that I want?

Any information would be much appreciated.

 

[Mordraken]

I'm surprised at your problem, because I generally have the opposite problem - I get about 80% Great Prophets. Perhaps it is because I have so many religious +culture buildings (temples, etc), but even when I put two artists in a town, I typically get a GP 2/3 of the time. I'm beginning to think it is quite random...

 

[TCGTRF]

I have been playing with Elizabeth recently trying to pump out as many great prophets as possible. I have found though that in most games I am unable to specialize my GPfarms into creating only one kind of specialist. For example, In my game yesterday, I had parthenon, national epic, and pacifism, and had put 2 citizens as priests expecting to add more by joining the city as they were generated, but I ended up creating 5 great merchants and 2 great artists. Never once did I get a priest. In looking at the odds of generating a prophet it seemed it didnt change if I put more citizens as priests, it only added more points per turn.

I've experienced this many times, and am always running into the problem of creating way to many artists. Is this because of buildings I am creating/not creating? How do I more efficiently create only those specialists that I want?

Any information would be much appreciated.

You have any other wonders in the City?

Each of the wonders' GPP points are designated as being for a specific kind of GP. Both the Parthenon and the National Epic designate theirs for artists in the city they're in. Over the course of the generation of a GP, the game keeps track of how many of each of the types of GP points are accumulated, then rolls a die versus the percentages to determine which kind you get.

Was it a coastal city with the Great Lighthouse and Colossus, by any chance?

At any time, you can mouse over the GP Point bar in your city screen and see what the probabilities are. Best way to get Prophets is to have Stonehenge for the first one, then founding and building the shrine of a religion in the city.

The Oracle, Chichen Itza and Angkor Wat also greatly raise the chance of getting a Prophet in your GP city.

Generally, unless you've topped out the population of a city for food supply vs health and happiness and/or are running Caste System, your GP make-up is going to be dictated by your wonders in that city.

Tom

 

[rewster1]

You must have had some merchant specialists, or perhaps colossus/great lighthouse.
The probability is based on # of sources of GP points, weighted by the number of turns a source is in use during the creation of the GP.
The parthenon and national epic will add a total of 2 artist sources. That alone gives you a 50% chance of an artist with only 2 preist specialists.

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Any information would be much appreciated.

OK, the basic idea: the rate at which GP are produced depends on the number of GP points a city generates each turn. Specialists are 3 each, World Wonders 2 each, National Wonders 1 each.

But the type of GP is determined by the sources of GP. So if you are running two priests, in a city with an artist world wonder (Parhenon, for example) and an artist national wonder (National Epic), you've got a 50-50 chance between priest and artist.

(there are some discrepencies between what probabilities are displayed, versus what are reported in the relevent strategy articles - but the difference is only significant if you are changing specialists around while building the GP. The basic idea is right).

OK, so first point is to build the Parthenon somewhere else - you can get the benefit without polluting your GP farm more than necessary.

Second point: if the goal is to pump out as many great prophets as possible, it may be faster/easier to do it globally. For example, if you build temples in six cities, and in each city run a priest specialist until that city pops a great prophet, you'll get one every 34 turns or so (possibly missing a turn if some other city kicks out a GP).

The same strategy works for Great Engineers as well - build forges, run engineer specialists, profit!

Of course, this also works with Scientists (Library), Artists (Theater), and Merchants (Market), but your GP farm can generate as many of those specialists as you can feed once you switch to caste system, so running the specialists isn't as big a deal (although there's much to be said for getting a great scientist just as you are about to switch to bureaucracy).