Quick question on Great Persons

[Urban Ranger]

Is the GPP counter for each city or your whole empire?

If it is for the whole empire, it is more advantageous to concentrate all the GP enhancing wonders and buildings into one single city. Otherwise, it is better to spread them out a bit.

[Metaliturtle]

each city has the thing in the bottom right corner, but the amount you've produced already in your empire determines how high it must get to make your next GP, so it is good to pile all the GP wonders in one city.

[Urban Ranger]

Okay, so it is for the whole empire. Thanks for the clarification.

[Alkis2]

Ok, it's obvious that some cities will never succeed producing a GP but why concentrate in just one? Supposing you have two cities with abundant food (common) why not use both of them? I suspect that the optimum is two cities, three in exceptional cases.

If you arrange it so that the two cities build different kind of wonders (for example, religious in one, scientific in the other) you also have more control about what kind of GP you will get.

[couerdelion]

Originally posted by Alkis2
Ok, it's obvious that some cities will never succeed producing a GP but why concentrate in just one? Supposing you have two cities with abundant food (common) why not use both of them? I suspect that the optimum is two cities, three in exceptional cases.

If you arrange it so that the two cities build different kind of wonders (for example, religious in one, scientific in the other) you also have more control about what kind of GP you will get.

If it is simply a question of converting GPP into GP then the optimal thing would be to have all the GPP in one city. The only problem with this would be that you probably won't be able to feed all the specialists in that one city.

Wonders, with the exception of GL do not produce a lot of GP points so the bulk of these will have to come from specialists. This will often mean that GP points are being selected as an alternative to production.

My only problem in recent games has been to find those sites with high food which seem to be harder to find. I recall one game I had where my capital peaked at 108 GP/turn with three other cities were on 24-30.

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by Alkis2
Ok, it's obvious that some cities will never succeed producing a GP but why concentrate in just one? Supposing you have two cities with abundant food (common) why not use both of them? I suspect that the optimum is two cities, three in exceptional cases.

If you arrange it so that the two cities build different kind of wonders (for example, religious in one, scientific in the other) you also have more control about what kind of GP you will get.

This is a good strategy if you have the luxury to decide which city to build a wonder in and you want to concentrate on GP production. Normally, however, you would want the Great Library in your science city (probably your capital). And at higher levels, you are in a race for the early wonders such as the Oracle - you have to build it wherever it can be built the fastest.

Another fly in the ointment is the the national epic which can only be built in one city and will automatically give you great artist points in that city.

But even if you can't completely control the wonders, your basic idea must be right. Use a high food city to generate GP and influence the type by choice of specialists.

RJM at Sleeper's

[Willem]

Originally posted by rjmatsleepers
And at higher levels, you are in a race for the early wonders such as the Oracle - you have to build it wherever it can be built the fastest.

Or you can not bother with early Wonders. My first target is the Great Library so I can turn my capital into a thriving science center.

Another fly in the ointment is the the national epic which can only be built in one city and will automatically give you great artist points in that city.

There's no reason why you can't have a city with a mix of specialists as a general GP farm along with more specialized cities. Or do what I do and build it in a city along my border that's running Artists. I find they're one of the hardest to generate since Great Scientists and Priests always come the earliest and bump up the cost for ones that come later.

[trev]

Each city has its own counter for GP's, and a mouseover will reveal points/per turn, and accumulated total and total needed for the next GP. The total required for the next GP increases for all cities when a GP is created in one city. This increase in points required for a GP means that the opportunity cost for GP gradually gets too high to place specialists in cities for that purpose and therefore I personally see no point in generating more than about 6 GP's in a game. In the long run you gain a lot more financially by converting farmed terrain to cottages and not using specialists.

[Alkis2]

I think both variations are worthwhile. Let's compare. Suppose you have two grassland tiles.

Variation1: You build two cottages. You have just enough food to support the people working the tiles and you have two cottages.

Variation2: You build two farms. You have enough food to support the people working the tiles and you have +1 specialist.

It's 2 commerce vs one specialist. In X turns the cottages will become hamlets so it will be 4 commerce vs one specialist. But in the meantime the specialist will have created GP points. Later still, the hamlets will become villages so the comparison will be 6 commerce vs one specialist, much better, but by that time the city with the specialist will get you a GP.

In other words it's not that simple. In time the cottages will become towns, very beneficiall, but by that time you will have Biology enabling you to support +2 specialists from those two tiles. OTOH by that time you will have advanced civics that give ++ to towns.

From my experience, I think cottages are in fact better, but not much better. In the GP generator cities I would build farms. That way I would have the benefits of cottages and still I can create GP. That's why I think that specialization is the way to go.

To make it simple, don't try to create GP everywhere. But do use a couple cities to get those darn GP nevertheless.