How to get a Great Prophet Faster?

[Rustypipe]

Hey,

Usally i play on noble diff settings and It seems to take a very long time for a Great Prophet to spawn even though i usally found the first 2 relgions and sometimes all 3 early relgions if i'm lucky. I also build lots of missionaries and spread each relgions as soon as possible to all my cities but sometimes it seems like the great prophet takes forever to showup. I remeber reading somewhere on how to speed this up but I fogot what it was.

 

[El_Tigre]

Getting a Great Prophet has nothing to do with founding (and spreading) a religion. You need Great Person Points (GPP) in one of your cities, so either you should build a religious wonder (like Stonehenge, 2 GGP), or build a temple and create a priest specialist (3 GGP) in one of your cities. As you only need 100 GPP for your first Great Person, combining both both would generate 5 GPP, meaning that your Prophet would arrive after 20 turns.

BTW, the philosophical civ-trait increases GPPs by 100 %, as does the Pacifism civic.

 

[Pinstar]

I would reccomend going with the temple+specialist. Later in the game, once you have built a holy shrine for any and all religions you have founded, you do NOT want to get more prophets. With priest specialist, you can always make them into another kind of specialsit once you get all the prophets you need.

 

[Big Red One]

The following wonders will all increase the chances of your getting a Great Prophet. The above mentioned Stonehenge at the Mysticism tech is the first you can build. The Oracle at the Priesthood tech is usually the second you can build, and you also get one free tech. Then there are: Angkor Wat at the Philosophy tech, Chichen Itza at the Code of Laws tech, and Spiral Minaret at the Divine Right tech. Put two of these in one city and you will find it speeds it up considerably.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

I would reccomend going with the temple+specialist. Later in the game, once you have built a holy shrine for any and all religions you have founded, you do NOT want to get more prophets. With priest specialist, you can always make them into another kind of specialsit once you get all the prophets you need.

Later on you can always use Great Prophets to help iniate a golden age, though it is nicer to have the other great leaders.

 

[Chieftess]

In Civ4, Great Prophets - or, more correctly, Great People - are spawned by having more specialists. Having more food = more specialists. Food is power in Civ4 in terms of getting Great People, so if you have say, 10 surplus food, then that's quite a few specialists you can use. If you like using Great People, use a philosophical civ (like Arabia - they may very well be the "New Babylon" this game). Philosophical civs give +100% Great Person growth. There's also a few wonders and civis to help you in your cause:

Parthenon - Requires Polytheism, obsolete with Chemistry. (+50% birth rate in all cities, as well as +2 Great Artist points). That's 150% right there with a Philosophical civ.

Heroic Epic - 100% Birth Rate. Requires Barracks. This is a national wonder, so you only get two per city, so plan carefully.

National Epic - 100% Birth Rate. Requires Library. This is a national wonder, so you only get two per city, so plan carefully.

Pacifism - Requires Philosophy. 100% Birth Rate in all cities with the state religion.

Caste System - Unlimited Artist (great for culture bombs), Scientists (great for techs, or academies), and Merchants (great for extra gold).

Let's add that up!

Philosophical (100%) + Parthenon (50%) + Heroic Epic (100%) + National Epic (100%) + Pacifism (100%) = 450% Great Person rate!

Toss in Caste System, and you get unlimited specialists. One specialist will yield not 3, but 13.5 GP points! Do note that the Parthenon goes obsolete with Chemistry, and you can only have 2 national wonders per city, and it might not always be ideal to stay in Pacifism (you might want therocracy for the extra experience points).

If you can make that city your wonder city, most wonders give you +2 great person points. Let's say you have a typical wonder city with the above settings. It's got 4 wonders, and your two epics (it's a city other than your capital, as a palace equals one national wonder), giving you 10 GP points. It's got a lot of food, so you give it 5 scientists (15 GP points). You now have 25 base points. That's now 113 GP points total!!!. This is pretty potent stuff. Along with the culture bomb, and culture being added to city defense, culture is now a true weapon.

 

[Shillen]

Heroic epic isn't +100% great person birth rate. It's +100% military unit production.

I do agree with the rest of your post, though, except it's not overly useful for generating great prophets as the city is usually more likely to spawn other types of great people.

If you found an early religion you really want to build the temple and hire a priest specialist. If your civ isn't philosophical then it will take 34 turns to get a great prophet, 17 turns if philosophical. You can also build stonehenge but in my experience it isn't really worth it unless you have stone available and can connect it quickly.

 

[Puppeteer]

Later in the game, once you have built a holy shrine for any and all religions you have founded, you do NOT want to get more prophets.

Agreed, but if you accidentally get one like I did, I found adding him to a city as a super specialist can be desirable. He doesn't eat food or add an angry citizen, so aside from losing the GP it's free hammers and gold every turn.

 

[Islandia]

The absolute fastest way I have found to spawn a great prophet is to build stonehenge before you found your second city. On noble difficulty this should not set you back very much and it is +2 great prophet points per turn (+4 if you are philosophical). Of course the first great prophet I get always goes towards being a super specialist because 5 gold per turn when you are making 12 or 13 is a godsend

 

[Chieftess]

Heroic epic isn't +100% great person birth rate. It's +100% military unit production.

I do agree with the rest of your post, though, except it's not overly useful for generating great prophets as the city is usually more likely to spawn other types of great people.

If you found an early religion you really want to build the temple and hire a priest specialist. If your civ isn't philosophical then it will take 34 turns to get a great prophet, 17 turns if philosophical. You can also build stonehenge but in my experience it isn't really worth it unless you have stone available and can connect it quickly.

Now I see. I misread it.

 

[CiverDan]

I disagree about Great Prophets after all the shrines are built being useless. Those extra shields in that Floodplain city can be very useful if your trying to max it out on food.

Other than the culture Bomb function, Great artists are weak. Mechants are able to add food to a city (the ONLY way to add additional food into a city that isnt in the radius). Great for futher Maxing GPP or keeping that production powerhouse going. Engineers can rush/partially rush wonders. Scientists are great for academies and for making that science city.

 

[MSTK]

What determins what kind of Great Person you get when your bar fills up, anyway?

 

[darkromeo]

Specific Wonders

 

[Arkalius]

Each source of great person points (GPP) actually generates points specific to the type of great person. For example, artist specialists generate 3 great artist points each, the stonehenge generates 2 great prophet points, etc etc. All of these points go into the same pool, but the game keeps track of how many of each type is in the pool. The chance of getting a certain type of great person is basically equal to the percentage of the total GPP that are of that type. So if all you're generating is great prophet points, then you're 100% to get a great prophet. If you have the stonehenge and also an engineer specialist, then you're generating 2 great prophet points and 3 great engineer points each turn for a total of 5. Assuming you need 100 points to get a great person and there are no changes to this tally by the time you generate a great person, there will be 60 great engineer points and 40 great prophet points when you hit 100, so that means you have a 60% chance of getting a great engineer and a 40% chance of getting a great prophet.

 

[MSTK]

So, Arkalius, all of the GPP for the Great Prophet (the 40) are lost forever afterwards?

 

[Arkalius]

Yeah, the 100 GPP get used up and the count starts over, whether you get a great prophet or great engineer. I'm fairly certain anyway that the percentages will end up being reset for the next one...

 

[homegrown]

The easiest way to get a great prophet fast...

1. Play a philosophical leader for the 100% birth rate.
2. Get either Stonehenge, Oracle, or both.

100/((2+2)*2) = 13 - 25 turns later... Great Prophet

3. Build Parthenon

200/((2+2+2)*2.5 = another 13 turns later... 2nd GP w/ 3:2 odds of it being a Prophet.

 

[stoicfaux]

Another thing to note:

Each city has its own pool of GPP. When a city hits 100 for the first GP, then every city's threshold is increased to 200. No city loses it's pool of GPP until it actually buys a GP. So cities that are slow to accumulate GPP will probably never get a chance to buy a GP until much, much later.

Ex: CityOne has 90 GPP and is building 11 GPP/turn, and CityTwo has 45 GPP and is building 5 GPP/a turn. Next turn a GP will be created in CityOne. CityOne will now have 1 out of 200 GPP, CityTwo will have 50 out of 200 GPP.

Therefore if you want more GPs, it's better to create a specialized GPP producing city.

 

[Grotius]

Also, the Mercantalism gives you one free specialist per city, right? That means you can start growing a great person in each and every city you own, if you have that civic.