Barbarians at the Gate

[Raliuven]

While playing the Anarchy game I noticed that fewer and fewer barbarian camps are generating each turn. They were very common in the early game and I sometimes had two per turn to plunder. By the Industrial Age I could count on about one camp appearing every turn somewhere on the map.

The map is huge, continients. The other settings are random so I can't be sure what they are - it looks to be warm, wet? Barb setting is unknown. There were 16 civs to begin. Now there are only 6 and they are pretty much client states. I am 5CC so there is a lot of the map 'open'.

Does someone know what determines the rate that Barb camps appear (aside from the barbarian setting)? In the game it seems like their appearance has been decreasing as the game goes on. Is this a factor of the 1) tech age; 2) turn count; 3) number of civilizations remaining; 4) other?

I would have thought with so much of the map wide open that there would be more barb camps appearing. But it actually seems like there are less.

Thanks in advance!

[CommandoBob]

Barb camps won't spawn within line of sight of your border or of any unit you have. They spawn in the gray and black tiles.

So, if a lot of the map stays 'lit up' that reduces where they can spawn from.

[Raliuven]

Sure, but in the Anarchy game there is a LOT of dark area. And after a certain point the 'civilized' areas have been shrinking due to some crazy Carthaginians. It would stand to reason that there would be even more Barb camps but instead there actually fewer?!?

The other thing I was thinking about was the amount of roads and rails that have been laid. Will a barb camp spawn on an improved tile? I though so, but the more I think about it the more it seems to me that they are appearing on the unimproved tiles. Something I'll have to watch for. In a normal game it would go unnoticed because you usually don't leave behind a lot of improved but unsettled land. Hmmm.

[cain3456]

What is this anarchy game you speak of?

[Cyc]

Originally Posted by Raliuven

The other thing I was thinking about was the amount of roads and rails that have been laid. Will a barb camp spawn on an improved tile? I though so, but the more I think about it the more it seems to me that they are appearing on the unimproved tiles. Something I'll have to watch for. In a normal game it would go unnoticed because you usually don't leave behind a lot of improved but unsettled land. Hmmm.

Not sure about your quantity question, but I'm pretty sure I've seen a barb camp spawn on a road during a C3C game.

[CommandoBob]

Originally Posted by cain3456

What is this anarchy game you speak of?

I am your slave! , in the Civ3 Stories and Tales subforum, is the specific one he is referring to. BaneFire started the thread but had troubles loading C3C. After it was idle a month Raliuven took it upon himself to continue. He has done an excellent job, both in the playing and the writing of the story.

An Anarchy game is where one person plays the game but has various conditions imposed upon the game by non-players. Almost anything can be ordered. Unit names, city names, city build orders, tech research order, etc. Obvious game killer orders like 'disband all units' are not allowed. Generally, only the player who issued an order can revoke it, unless it contradicts the ground rules.

How well the game goes depends on the outside players. They can make it just about impossible to win.

[Lord Emsworth]

Originally Posted by Raliuven

While playing the Anarchy game I noticed that fewer and fewer barbarian camps are generating each turn. They were very common in the early game and I sometimes had two per turn to plunder. By the Industrial Age I could count on about one camp appearing every turn somewhere on the map.

The map is huge, continients. The other settings are random so I can't be sure what they are - it looks to be warm, wet? Barb setting is unknown. There were 16 civs to begin. Now there are only 6 and they are pretty much client states. I am 5CC so there is a lot of the map 'open'.

Does someone know what determines the rate that Barb camps appear (aside from the barbarian setting)? In the game it seems like their appearance has been decreasing as the game goes on. Is this a factor of the 1) tech age; 2) turn count; 3) number of civilizations remaining; 4) other?

I would have thought with so much of the map wide open that there would be more barb camps appearing. But it actually seems like there are less.

Thanks in advance!

It could be that this is similar to volcanoes. Which, if I am not mistaken, have their chance to erupt calculated based on in-game years, and not turns. That would fall under "4) other".

[Raliuven]

That makes sense. For a while it seemd the golden rule was one barb camp per turn. As soon as I moved into the 1950-2050 sprint that fell apart. Now I am luck to see a camp every other turn.

I know I've had them spawn on a road because in a recent 'clean up' Hannibal's knight attacked onto a hill and could still walk away after the battle and rail to his hill/fort location. But it seems to me that more often then not the attack has been into a completely unimproved tile. Of course I don't know how the computer woudl be able to make that distinction, so maybe it is just my imagination!

[timerover51]

I like to play with a lot of Barbarians, and I find that they spawn most frequently when the aggression level is set to Raging. However, they seem not to spawn as frequently on areas that have been explored and then for some reason go gray. I have not run thorough tests on though in debug mode, but that is the sense that I get.

By the way, to make the Barbarians more of a challenge, right now I am using the Gallic Swordsman, the Cossack, and the Privateer for the units, each with a 2 hit point bonus to compensate for all of them being Conscript.