Passing on Great People

[Minou]

In my current game I am producing 11 Great Scientist points paper turn. I was at 146/155 to get Al-Zahrawi, but I passed on him because England had 136/155 and I wanted to make sure I did not lose out on Omar Khayyam, whom I really wanted for certain boosts. So, when the Great Person indicator lit up, I clicked "Pass". Al-Zahrawi was instantly gone (taken by England) and now Hildegard of Bingen is available but I only have 126/155. I should be able to scoop her up and get Omar with a project.

However, I have two questions:

1. Shouldn't England have to wait until their turn to recruit? I could have sworn in the past the screen would show "Cannot recruit" for Al-Zahrawi until I passed the turn and one of the AIs took him.

2. I also could have sworn that before, if you passed on a Great Person you kept all your points for the next one. So I would have expected to be at 157/155 (or 157/120, since I think the cost previously decreased when you passed on a Great Person). I seem to have lost 31 GS points here (20 already accumulated plus the 11 I should have earned between turns).

Has the Great Person system changed since the patch?

 

[jddods]

No changes I'm aware off. I often pass on GP, so the AI grabbing the leader immediately and a reduction in your points are both what I've experienced before & after patch.

 

[Arithmion]

In my current game I am producing 11 Great Scientist points paper turn. I was at 146/155 to get Al-Zahrawi, but I passed on him because England had 136/155 and I wanted to make sure I did not lose out on Omar Khayyam, whom I really wanted for certain boosts. So, when the Great Person indicator lit up, I clicked "Pass". Al-Zahrawi was instantly gone (taken by England) and now Hildegard of Bingen is available but I only have 126/155. I should be able to scoop her up and get Omar with a project.

However, I have two questions:

1. Shouldn't England have to wait until their turn to recruit? I could have sworn in the past the screen would show "Cannot recruit" for Al-Zahrawi until I passed the turn and one of the AIs took him.

2. I also could have sworn that before, if you passed on a Great Person you kept all your points for the next one. So I would have expected to be at 157/155 (or 157/120, since I think the cost previously decreased when you passed on a Great Person). I seem to have lost 31 GS points here (20 already accumulated plus the 11 I should have earned between turns).

Has the Great Person system changed since the patch?

May I ask, why on Earth did you want Hildegard? Also, does the amount of points given to you afterwards have something to do with a percentage refund towards the next GP? If not, my only other idea is that you lose 2 turns worth of GP points when you pass (for whatever reason) and that you are shown to have lost those as 20 points rather than 22 (11 GPP per turn x 2 turns) because of some rounding shenanigans.

 

[Aurelesk]

Has the Great Person system changed since the patch?

1. You can't pass a Great People that was already passed. You are recruiting it instantly when you have enough point, even if it is not your turn. I wasn't aware of this until recently, some maybe this is a change from the last patch.

2. When you pass a Great People, 20% of the cost points are sacrificed. You were at 157 points (146+11). 155 (cost points) × 80% = 124 points. The remaining 2 (157-155) are added, so 126 (124+2). That is why you were at 126/155 for the following, and not 157/155.

When you pass a Great People, the price of that Great People is also reduced by 20%. England ends up to only need 124 points to recruit it. Since you can't refuse a Great People that was already passed, England suddenly could have it (136/124 instead of 136/155) and instantly got it during your turn. If I am right, England should be at 12/155 for Hildegard of Bingen.

 

[Galvatron]

In my current game I am producing 11 Great Scientist points paper turn. I was at 146/155 to get Al-Zahrawi, but I passed on him because England had 136/155 and I wanted to make sure I did not lose out on Omar Khayyam, whom I really wanted for certain boosts. So, when the Great Person indicator lit up, I clicked "Pass". Al-Zahrawi was instantly gone (taken by England) and now Hildegard of Bingen is available but I only have 126/155. I should be able to scoop her up and get Omar with a project.

However, I have two questions:

1. Shouldn't England have to wait until their turn to recruit? I could have sworn in the past the screen would show "Cannot recruit" for Al-Zahrawi until I passed the turn and one of the AIs took him.

2. I also could have sworn that before, if you passed on a Great Person you kept all your points for the next one. So I would have expected to be at 157/155 (or 157/120, since I think the cost previously decreased when you passed on a Great Person). I seem to have lost 31 GS points here (20 already accumulated plus the 11 I should have earned between turns).

Has the Great Person system changed since the patch?

Those are both the way it's always been

 

[Minou]

Thanks Aurelesk this explains it! I don't think I have ever "automatically" gotten a GP (i.e. without actively selecting them) but this may be because the AI tends not to Pass and I don't play MP.

To be clear I did not want Hildegard. My goal was to get Omar, but I knew if I took Al-Zahrawi England would get the next GS (randomly either Hildegard or Omar). I ended up getting Hildegard and then running a project to get Omar too so it all worked out OK in the end.

 

[nzcamel]

That seems weird to me that the player 2nd in line must take the GP. Isn't that the kind of thing that leads to people overly micromanaging to avoid someone they don't want?

I've never seen it myself.