[BTS] Civ Leader 'Barbarian' appears as Firaxis man

[DomusUlixes]

I have been playing this game for 14 years, I have never encountered this. Can anyone elaborate?

 

[Bibor]

That’s Sid Meier, an easter egg it usually doesn’t appear. Perhaps it’s a game mod?

 

[Lennier]

In standard Civ IV, you can't communicate with the barbarian leader, but it's programmed as Sid Meier.

 

[lindsay40k]

It sometimes happens when a colony is granted independence. I’m not certain what causes it, or if it’s intended to happen. I do know that Barbarians are functionally a civ with the Sid Meier leaderhead which has no traits, with diplomacy and GP generation usually disabled, and special unit spawning & research rules. Occasionally, he gets picked to run a colony. I *think* the mechanism that causes it is:

- play with unrestricted leaders
- a given player gives a colony independence, with a preset leader based on their own faction (ie, most European Civs will found the United States)
- subsequent colonies founded by the same player will have a leader selected by lottery, and Sid has a ticket same as everyone else
- also if a given player’s default colonial Governor is already present, I believe they’ll go random
- I’m probably misunderstanding something, but you get the idea

 

[Wondercrush89]

It's supposed to be a joke, my buddies call him "Bob the Barbarian". It really doesn't have any significance other than silliness and shenanigans.

 

[civfanchambers]

Don't know about the barbarian thing with this, but I do know that this leader head for Sid was made for the tutorial in civ4 vanilla. That's where this comes from.

 

[6K Man]

Firaxis Man would be a great superhero.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Firaxis Man would be a great superhero.

Nah. He'd leave everything half finished.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

Can I edit the XML to play as the barbarian civ? I want to practice using a leader with no traits.

 

[Plains-Cow]

Can I edit the XML to play as the barbarian civ? I want to practice using a leader with no traits.

What's the idea behind practicing with a trait-less leader?

 

[lymond]

What's the idea behind practicing with a trait-less leader?

Basically learning not to rely on traits much at all so one focuses on more important concepts and mechanics. Toku is oft recommended as an option since his traits are about worthless anyway. Washington is another guy I recommend as his traits IMO are balanced and more passive.

edit: this goes for the uniques too, as sid does not have any. Toku and Wash have rather late-era uniques that may not even come into play.