How is founding city determined

[Bocelli]

When your civ discovers a religion, how does it pick the founding city?

 

[Ralph-x]

I am pretty sure its always the last city you founded.

 

[King Jason]

I am pretty sure its always the last city you founded.

maybe, but there've been several times where I've had 3 or more cities, and it picked the 2nd city I ever built.

...infact, it's always picked the 2nd city for me, unless of course I only had the starting city, which is never the case since I usually found christianity or confucianism so I have quite a few cities by that point.

I think it's exactly as firaxis claimed it was - random.

 

[zyphyr]

I was figuring that the method was : whichever city the game was cycling through when your research total hit the requirement for the tech.

Of course, that would be effectively indistinguishable from random...

 

[Pvblivs]

Of course, that would be effectively indistinguishable from random...

At least the city pumping out the most research has the greatest chance of becoming a holy one.

So - to prove it - one could for the last turn before discovery of the technology lower the research rate to zero and discover it in the city of choice through specialists.
Though it might seem very unlikely that anybody is capable of using specialists to discover polytheism. But theology could be an example where it works ...

I'd be very curious if somebody likes to test this and how the results are ^^ Jerusalem "the chosen" holy!

 

[azurefx]

AFAIK, it's random. Holy cities came up several times pre-release, and it was said they were chosen randomly. Whether that's changed, I don't know.

 

[HounddogLGS]

From what I've seen, a city can only found one religion too. Anyone seen anything different??

 

[Askora]

From what I've seen, a city can only found one religion too. Anyone seen anything different??

Yes, I've founded two religions in one city before. It seems to always try to found religion in a city that has none, first.

 

[NinjaCool]

I had 2 cities and founded 2 religions which both was founded in my starting city so it happens sometimes.

 

[baboon]

From what I've seen, a city can only found one religion too. Anyone seen anything different??

No, it's possible. Yesterday I could have finished Judaism while I just had one city and already had founded Hinduism. I decided to switch research to avoid it.

 

[mrjepson]

I also notice that if I have a sity with no religion it will get the founding but if all my cities have religion (which they usually do as I'm fanatical about spreading my stae religion) then its random.

 

[ToadFaerie]

First priority is a city that is not already a holy city. This is the only one I can confirm with every game I've played so far.

Next, I think the city with the least number of founded religions is choosen. So if I have 2 cities, Athens and Sparta, and Athens has Hindu and Judaism while Sparta has Christianity, and I discover Confucius, then Sparta will get it. I am not certain of this, I haven't played enough games to confirm.

After that it's random. Say I have 5 cities that aren't holy cities, the game will select one at random. If all my cities are holy cities, and each only has 1 religion founded in it, then it's random for the next religion.

 

[Ephor]

Also, I've found quite often that a city that has no religion yet is more likely to be picked to found a new religion.

 

[Khaim]

No, it's possible. Yesterday I could have finished Judaism while I just had one city and already had founded Hinduism. I decided to switch research to avoid it.

Why would you do that? Get all the religions you can before the AIs do.

 

[Garand]

The chosen city is totally random, for better or for worse. In my first civ game, some backwater town that I had just settled maybe 5 turns before was made the Christian Holy City. That made it tough on me because it was taking forever to get missionaries out into the world spreading the Word.

In my current game, I founded Hinduism and my capital was made the Holy City. When I founded Christianity, I had 3 or 4 cities, but fortunately my second best city was chosen as the holy city, which was a major boon.

I kind of like that it's random.

 

[Hunter Noventa]

I founded four religions in one city before, even when I had otehr cities. That was pretty funky...Hinduism, Judaism Christianity and Islam all in the same city...

 

[Arkanin]

I'm not sure if it's random or not, but it's definitely something weird enough that I have yet to find a distinguishable pattern. It doesn't exclude cities that are already holy cities from becoming holy cities, by the way.

 

[walkerjks]

It doesn't feel quite random to me. Based on my start strategy, my 1st religion has always founded in my 1st city (which is the only city I have at that point) and the 2nd religion has always founded in my 2nd city (but I only have 2 cities at that point).

The third religion is where I begin to see a difference, but the conditions of my civ at the time I get a 3rd religion tends to vary greatly. The 3rd religion usually has gone into my 3rd or 4th city, but occasionally has gone into my 1st or 2nd city bypassing my later cities.

If I had to guess, I would say the city with the least number of religions is picked for the founding city. I suspect that in the games where the 3rd religion went into my 1st or 2nd city that I had aggresively spread my religions to all my newer cities already.

Just a guess though. I'll start paying more attention.