Only 1 Religion allowed in a game? (Not a Bug)

[Kougar7]

This has to be a bug... only one Civ was allowed to found a religion in my game. No more great prophets are available.

The Great People screen says only one Great Prophet was ever recruited. The religion screen shows 1 of 4 religions founded.

Small map, ~5 Civs

 

[Browd]

it does seem odd that the first Great Prophet wasn't recruited until the 1600s, but he was a Renaissance Era GP. No more Great Prophets can be earned once you hit the Industrial Era (last Great Prophets are in the Renaissance Era), so that's likely the problem.

 

[Kougar7]

This game started in the Renaissance Era (for the achievement). I was going to complete five achievements with this one game. The Colossal head next to a temple achievement also didn't fire, but they were divided by a river so I don't know on that one.

That makes no sense. What is the point of stopping Religion development by era when Civ VI was clearly designed to be played with multiple era starts? Starting units and development changes by each different era start. Even the narrator intro changes by the era start.

Thank you for the explanation though, I do appreciate it.

 

[Browd]

If you had prioritized building a couple of holy sites right away, you would have had a religion before you left the Renaissance. If you start in the Industrial Era, religion is disabled altogether, so ....

 

[Kougar7]

It was the first thing I built in my capitol, and the first wildcard I selected was +2 prophet. I was roughly 60% done on a great prophet last I'd looked at the screen (all other AI were 20-40% but some were gaining crazy fast). Building a holy site first in my second city would not have been enough on its own.

Guess I'll try again and avoid industrial era science. But for a game that intended alternate era starts this is something that needs to be adjusted for game balance.

Edit: As I recall V changed the number of allowed religions based on number of Civs. If nothing else that seems more balanced than cutting it off by era... what are games started in the industrial era supposed to do without anyone able to build a religion at all?

 

[Browd]

You want to keep being able to buy a Great Prophet into, e.g., the Modern Era? I would disagree. Not everything should be equally available or useful regardless of what era you start in. Different eras starts should present a different game flavor and require different strategies, not just shorten the game.

 

[Kougar7]

So I restarted from the earliest autosave I had with my Civ in the Renaissance era. Apparently it doesn't matter what era my own Civ is in, as long as one of the AI makes it to industrial nobody else in the game can gain prophets.

This effectively means in ALL renaissance era start games, the first person with a prophet wins by default. Even if the AI is too dumb to take advantage of a free religious victory (as Scythia is in my autosave) humans certainly will.

Different eras starts should present a different game flavor and require different strategies, not just shorten the game.

I would agree. But why does that necessitate games that start in industrial and later eras (which is most of them) have religion removed entirely?

 

[Sun Tzu Wu]

Try to purchase the Great Person Points needed to complete your Great Prophet as soon as you have either enough Gold or enough Faith.

I agree that it makes no sense to disable the Great Prophet GP based on another Civ reaching the Industrial Age. It should be the player reaching the Industrial Age that disables it as that is something the player can easily predict or delay.

I also agree that the Religious Victory should not be disabled for Industrial Age or later Era, since there have been real Great Prophets in all of those Eras. Besides Civ VI isn't a history simulator. I really feel cheated by Religious Victory not being available in Industrial and later Eras. It may not strictly speaking be a bug, but it is a definite design flaw.

 

[Swordfishtromobone]

I don't see a reason to disable the creation of religions after some particular point - after all, Scientology was founded in the 1950s, and Wikka likewise is a recent religion (though relying on at least perceived pagan origins).

I'd say that after the information age, it's probably more difficult for a completely new religion to start, but not impossible.