Question about 'Starting Bias'

It is my understanding that Starting Bias is supposed to match civs with terrain in the game which closely approximates the real civ's actual terrain. If so, is it working properly in BNW? I am starting a game as Shaka and expect to be put in terrain of mostly plains (to resemble the savannahs of Africa). Yet, after 15 restarts, I have yet to see a starting position remotely close to what I expect. I've been put down in or near: tundra, desert, jungle, hilly forest; but not plains.

ps: I do not have 'Disable Starting Bias' checked in the set-up options.

stancollins said:

It is my understanding that Starting Bias is supposed to match civs with terrain in the game which closely approximates the real civ's actual terrain. If so, is it working properly in BNW? I am starting a game as Shaka and expect to be put in terrain of mostly plains (to resemble the savannahs of Africa). Yet, after 15 restarts, I have yet to see a starting position remotely close to what I expect. I've been put down in or near: tundra, desert, jungle, hilly forest; but not plains.

ps: I do not have 'Disable Starting Bias' checked in the set-up options.

Click to expand...

It might have been broken in one the most recent patches. I started a game as England and started about as far inland as could be on the map. Previously, every game as England has started me on the coast.

stancollins said:

It is my understanding that Starting Bias is supposed to match civs with terrain in the game which closely approximates the real civ's actual terrain. If so, is it working properly in BNW? I am starting a game as Shaka and expect to be put in terrain of mostly plains (to resemble the savannahs of Africa). Yet, after 15 restarts, I have yet to see a starting position remotely close to what I expect. I've been put down in or near: tundra, desert, jungle, hilly forest; but not plains.

ps: I do not have 'Disable Starting Bias' checked in the set-up options.

Click to expand...

Start Bias does not have to do with a civ's historical start. It has to do with specific coded biases that certain civs have been given by the developers, that may or may not have anything to do with the civs historic territory.

Not all civilizations have a start bias. Most start bias are there to give terrain/a location suitable for a civ's strengths.
Examples: those with a naval UU/UA should start on the coast (one exception is Netherlands that has a grasslands bias), Aztecs start near jungle for their jaguars abilities, Arabia starts near desert for more likely oil and the oases being boosted by bazaar...
Sweden having a tundra bias doesn't make sense from a gameplay perspective though.

I don't think that every civ has a starting bias. So some civs will be placed anywhere on the map.
-Black212 You beat me to it by 2 minutes, didn't noticed till I posted

I think only some civs have a start bias, not all. And the bias may be stronger for some civs than others. Also, a start bias only increases the chance that the civ starts in a certain location, it does not guarantee it. Russia usually starts in the tundra or forests, but there is a chance Russia can start in the jungle or desert.

The only starting bias the Zulu have is Avoid jungle.

stancollins said:

It is my understanding that Starting Bias is supposed to match civs with terrain in the game which closely approximates the real civ's actual terrain.

Click to expand...

Not quite. Starting bias is a feature implemented to make sure some civs with terrain-dependent uniques have a good chance of using them. It just so happens that these uniques often work best in the Civ's "actual terrain," so you get to see something of geographic accuracy for certain civs.

For instance, Poland and the Mongols, both of which use a lot of mounted units and have bonuses to mounted units, get a plains start bias because plains are mostly flat tiles that can have horses. The Inca have a hills start bias because their UA and UB rely heavily on having hills. Civs with a naval UU have a coastal start bias. (Netherlands excepted)

As stated above, the Zulu have a bias to avoid jungle tiles. Presumably, this is so they have a better chance at early production for an Impi rush and have flatter terrain with which to take advantage of their three-movement units.

Not all civs have a starting bias. I'm pretty sure Shaka doesn't because the Zulu civ doesn't depend on terrain. Other civs, like Morocco or Inca, heavily depend on terrain.

Thanks for all the good feedback, y'all. It's all news to me.

Uncle_Joe said:

It might have been broken in one the most recent patches. I started a game as England and started about as far inland as could be on the map. Previously, every game as England has started me on the coast.

Click to expand...

England has a starting bias of coast. Are you sure you didn't have "disable start bias" checked?

Starting bias doesn't work 100% of the time, but you shouldn't be THAT far inland even when it fails to find you coast (because other start biases took your priority).

Then again, nothing as aggravating as when you play a naval civ and the coast turns out to be a ten tiles lake