Firaxis did it again!!

[Callonia]

They gave AI another utter and stupid cheat.

I blocked this Brute and persian settler in my current game in progression....

Spoiler :

Brute refused to capture the persian settler for 3 turns until persian settler got bored and went away after I barely managed to beat Persia to furs hex with my settler which is escorted while persian settler's unescorted. This really explains alot why AI is able to expand despite never escorting their settlers, why escort when they're safe from capture while human players have to build a military unit to escort their settler with -.-

Dang it i wanted to get myself an free worker out of the persia's settler via brute capture -.-

 

[argblarg3]

Not necessarily a cheat. I have had my workers/settlers ignored by barbarians before. It doesn't happen too often though, and I'm not exactly sure what causes it.

 

[I_qua_I]

This is not a cheat. I've noticed this too. Barbarians seem coded now to ignore civilian units a lot of the time (they didn't capture my worker when they could have.) Their focus now seems to be on fighting and plundering (a welcome change if you ask me as it now demands you confront them head on and stops YOU from pulling any cheesy cheats (i.e. letting it capture a civilian unit to then take it for yourself without any penalty . )

I have seen a barb take a city-state worker though not an actual civ's unit yet.

 

[FeiLing]

Barbarians have always (since G&Ks at the very least?) been ignoring AI civs completely when a unit from the player is nearby. Taking an unprotected AI settler or attackng your warrior/scout? Yeah... I hate it too.

 

[Dai]

Even when they've got nothing better to do, barbarians seem to now sometimes randomly leave civilian units alone. I still would keep my settlers and workers out of range, but they don't always take them now.

 

[zzodr]

Also, I've had Barbarians completely ignore siege units landing on islands.
My Catapults and Trebuchets - never been attacked by Barbs.

 

[dexters]

Not a cheat. And a good change IMHO. Previous Civ games had deliberate 'dumb' barbarian behavior and developers went so far as to say it was intentional. Civ5's been a little frustrating with barbs bee-lining for workers and settlers even if they're nowhere near line of sight. It makes early expansion frustrating for less experienced/casual players and probably crippled the AI more than human players.

It's IMHO done intentionally to prevent early game frustration when maybe your settler moves 1 hex ahead in error or as a risky move and an unseen barb in fog of war beelines and captures it right away. Giving the human player no chance to respond.

The slowness to capture gives players and AI a chance to move crucial early game units out of the way.

 

[Callonia]

Damn, didn't know that.

Thank u all.

However this has unfortunate side effect, this allowed persia to found a town of Herat deep in barbarian territory -.- It got there safely without escort pfft.