Unwanted Great Prophets being auto-purchased

[Smokeybear]

Quite frequently, even though I have specifically set the faith purchasing to 'remind me later', instead, it will auto-purchase a @#$% GP even though I don't want or need one. This is after I've already founded and upgraded my religion, and am only trying to save up faith for future purchases that have nothing to do with GP's. Anyone else seeing this happen? It really screws you up when what you're really trying to do is save up to buy faith buildings or great artists, or the like.

 

[Harv72b]

I'm going to take a shot in the dark & guess that this only happens up until you enter the Industrial Era.

Up until that point, great prophets are randomly spawned after you reach the minimum faith requirement (200, 300, 500, 800 on Standard speed). The only way to avoid this occurring is to spend the faith on something else...having an inquisitor or two handy is never a bad thing.

 

[Syntax Error]

Get to Industrial ASAP to solve the problem.

 

[draaibaar]

Happens to me too. Does anyone ever settle a Great Prophet on a tile? Don't see the purpose of it.

 

[Smokeybear]

I'm going to take a shot in the dark & guess that this only happens up until you enter the Industrial Era.

Up until that point, great prophets are randomly spawned after you reach the minimum faith requirement (200, 300, 500, 800 on Standard speed). The only way to avoid this occurring is to spend the faith on something else...having an inquisitor or two handy is never a bad thing.

Lovely. Another randomly stupid game effect that hurts more than it helps. Good to know it's all about a cutoff point, anyway. I already have all my inquisitors made, for my small cultural civ. I spose this is the dev's way of preventing you from saving up a whole lot of faith to use later on great person purchases? Can't figure any other reasonable explanation for the mechanic.

 

[Mesix]

Happens to me too. Does anyone ever settle a Great Prophet on a tile? Don't see the purpose of it.

The shrine tile improvement is pretty good when you use the Piety policy tree.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Happens to me too. Does anyone ever settle a Great Prophet on a tile? Don't see the purpose of it.

With the piety finisher you get +6 faith, +3 culture, +3 gold. That's actually a very decent allround tile (and you can use them to quickly connect strategic ressources if needed ). Korea adds another +2 science, so for them GP spam is actually a viable strategy. And freedom + a few holy sites will easily add up to another GP or two during the late game.

What I find really annoying is the fact that prophets spawn at random. I recently waited 4 rounds without success for my prophet to spawn - and accidentially finished the HS during that time, so I actually lost ~100 faith.

 

[PhilBowles]

Quite frequently, even though I have specifically set the faith purchasing to 'remind me later', instead, it will auto-purchase a @#$% GP even though I don't want or need one. This is after I've already founded and upgraded my religion, and am only trying to save up faith for future purchases that have nothing to do with GP's. Anyone else seeing this happen? It really screws you up when what you're really trying to do is save up to buy faith buildings or great artists, or the like.

I haven't seen it because I never use any kind of automation, but I can suggest a solution:

Play Sweden.

 

[Tachii]

Sweden with Messiah is pretty fun. Works even better with Djenne. 5 uses, 25% stronger, convert 4 cities, save the last use for 90 influence, my goodness.

 

[draaibaar]

With the piety finisher you get +6 faith, +3 culture, +3 gold. That's actually a very decent allround tile (and you can use them to quickly connect strategic ressources if needed ). Korea adds another +2 science, so for them GP spam is actually a viable strategy. And freedom + a few holy sites will easily add up to another GP or two during the late game.[....](

This prophet cost you 500 or 800 or 1200 faith, then you put it on a tile and have to work it (put a citizen on it from another job) to get this faith back. I just don't understand it. 3 culture and 3 gold isn't much either. What does a pagoda cost and deliver?

 

[Harv72b]

Lovely. Another randomly stupid game effect that hurts more than it helps. Good to know it's all about a cutoff point, anyway. I already have all my inquisitors made, for my small cultural civ. I spose this is the dev's way of preventing you from saving up a whole lot of faith to use later on great person purchases? Can't figure any other reasonable explanation for the mechanic.

It is annoying at times, but I've learned to work with it. I'll almost always choose at least one building when I found my religion, and if I end up spawning additional GPs once I've enhanced it then I can either settle them for Holy Shrines or send them across the map to convert city states & AI civs who didn't found their own religion. Alternately you can always choose the Holy Warriors belief.

The good news is that no matter how many great prophets you spawn, the first great person you buy with faith after reaching the Industrial Era will still cost 1000 (on standard speed). Except if you buy another great prophet, obviously.

 

[Harv72b]

This prophet cost you 500 or 800 or 1200 faith, then you put it on a tile and have to work it (put a citizen on it from another job) to get this faith back. I just don't understand it. 3 culture and 3 gold isn't much either. What does a pagoda cost and deliver?

It's a 6 3 3 tile that doubles in each category after closing the Freedom tree as well, plus of course whatever that tile produces without an improvement. It's a pretty strong option in culture games.

A Pagoda costs the same as a missionary & grants 2 2 2 . The difference is that you're limited to one Pagoda per city, while you can have as many Holy Sites as you produce great prophets for. Plus of course you'll often run out of religious buildings to buy before hitting the Industrial Era in culture games.

 

[Monthar]

Actually completing Freedom does not double the culture and gold that Piety's completion adds, it only doubles the faith of the basic Holy Site. Just as completing Freedom only doubles the basic science output of an academy not the bonus output from Korea's UA, Scientific Theory or Atomic Theory.

Yes, I did test out completing both Piety and Freedom hoping the culture and gold from a Holy Site would double, but was disappointed to find only the faith doubled.

 

[Kwami]

I haven't seen it because I never use any kind of automation, but I can suggest a solution:

Play Sweden.

This has nothing to do with automation. Until you hit the Industrial Era, your Faith will automatically purchase Great Prophets when it hits certain thresholds (give or take a little randomness) and there's no way to stop if unless you spend that Faith on something else (e.g. Missionaries) to prevent it from reaching those thresholds.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

I'll often settle a prophet on a tile as I tend to play Korea. As has been pointed out, you can only build so many pagodas or monastries. For me, I cannot see what else to do with a GP. The style I play I can't see a great benefit from converting every city in the world to my faith.

 

[Gali]

I really hate this effect. Its a tax on people who want faith for late game Gps and need to store it up. I pop the shrine just to earn back some of the wasted faith. Add in the random will I get a GP this turn or waste more faith for 3 more turns and GP generation is really annoying.

 

[Monthar]

That's why I try to beeline for Industrial era once I've bought all the faith bought buildings, if I have any in that game.