Why does Babylon have a coastal start bias?

Keirador

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. . . seriously, why? Babylon ain't on the coast, Babylonia was not really a seafaring power. Just. . . what?
 
Why does Korea have a coastal start bias?
 
The simple answer is...it doesn't?

Indeed. Digging through the xml shows that Babylon has no start bias at all. That being said, there is nothing preventing babylon from starting on the coast if the game thinks a good starting position is on the coast, same goes for river starts.

OP probably rolled a bunch of coastal starts as babylon and doesn't understand how probability works.
 
Indeed. Digging through the xml shows that Babylon has no start bias at all. That being said, there is nothing preventing babylon from starting on the coast if the game thinks a good starting position is on the coast, same goes for river starts.


OP probably rolled a bunch of coastal starts as babylon and doesn't understand how probability works.

I was going off the wikia: http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Babylonian_(Civ5)

Babylon's one of my favorite Civs, and I've played it at least a dozen times, and rerolled for a new start like an average of 3 times each, it's never been anything but Coastal. . . UNLESS I disable start biases. Then I very rarely get coasts. If I'm a huge outlier, it seems like a weird coincidence that the usually-fairly-accurate wikia also has Babylon as a coast bias.
 
The XML doesn't lie. They don't have a coastal start bias. You are probably just noticing it because you thought it was true, but really, good start locations are usually on the coast, regardless of civ.
 
That being said, there is nothing preventing babylon from starting on the coast if the game thinks a good starting position is on the coast, same goes for river starts.

Yup; while there are several civs that have Coastal start bias (so many that they created a super-duper coastal start bias for Venice) Babylon is NOT one of them.

And there's no civ that has a river bias. (When Vanilla was first released, America used to have a river start bias; but a very early patch removed it. I did find that the code behind the river bias is still there. Note that it is mutually exclusive with ocean bias.)
 
I was going off the wikia: http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Babylonian_(Civ5) (...)
If I'm a huge outlier, it seems like a weird coincidence that the usually-fairly-accurate wikia also has Babylon as a coast bias.

You know how a Wiki usually works, right? Random people make articles without getting paid anything - this simply looks like a copy and paste error to me. And in smaller Wikis there aren't many people to correct each other or notice mistakes fast enough.

Looked at a few more civs... several have Coast Start Bias according to that Wikia who really do not have it. Also some say coast while others have the icon for coast. Inconsistency and plenty of mistakes ;)

PS: Not sure if America ever had the River start bias and got it stripped later or if it is and always was in the XML as an example (it is still written in there, but marked as to be ignored by the game).
 
PS: Not sure if America ever had the River start bias and got it stripped later or if it is and always was in the XML as an example (it is still written in there, but marked as to be ignored by the game).

Almost sure that they had a river start bias in vanilla, and had it set to 'ignore' by one of the patches in G&K. I remember in a thread on start bias and how relatively few civs actually have one (at least at that time, haven't checked BNW XML) that someone brought up this same issue, to which several folks replied that for whatever reason, the change occurred in G&K.
 
When Vanilla was first released, America used to have a river start bias; but a very early patch removed it.

On a side note, if this was true, why was it removed?
Just curious.

Regards, 4N4
 
Because rivers were imba back when they gave every tile with next to them +1g ;)

And the is no real reason why the Americans should have it (compared to like for e.g. India or Egypt (can't think of any more which are related/associated with a river/rivers very much)).
 
America had river bias because allegedly minutemen(?) had roadlike movement speed along rivers. this was before release, so pehaps someone from fist beta can confirm.
 
On a side note, if this was true, why was it removed?
Just curious.

Regards, 4N4

Any game play reason would be that river starts are powerful.

But there was also a realism attack; namely that every single big city founded by every country prior to 1700 AD has been founded along a river, ocean, or lake.
 
You may end up on the coast if you have no bias because all the opponents who have a bias took the other spots.
 
This file says that only two civs that have true ocean bias: England and Ottomans.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\Assets\Gameplay\XML\Civilizations\CIV5Civilizations.xml

I am no programmer, was just browsing XML folder randomly after reading this thread. I am curious if that's true, or maybe some more info is hiding somewhere else? I thought Carthage, Spain and Venice also get coastal bias, but it seems they have no terrain priority.
 
This file says that only two civs that have true ocean bias: England and Ottomans.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\Assets\Gameplay\XML\Civilizations\CIV5Civilizations.xml

I am no programmer, was just browsing XML folder randomly after reading this thread. I am curious if that's true, or maybe some more info is hiding somewhere else? I thought Carthage, Spain and Venice also get coastal bias, but it seems they have no terrain priority.

You need to look at the XML in the expansion and DLC folders to see start biases for expansion and DLC civs.

For instance, in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\Assets\DLC\Expansion\Gameplay\XML\Civilizations\CIV5Civilizations_Expansion.xml, you can see that Carthage and Spain do indeed have an ocean start bias. Venice would be in Expansion2.

(Actually, Indonesia, Korea, Byzantium, Portugal, and Venice are all listed with ocean biases in the BNW XML!)

(Spain is listed in DLC_02, so she gets one even without G&K or BNW installed. Polynesia gets an ocean bias from DLC_03. Denmark also gets one, according to the DLC_04 XML. Korea actually doesn't get an ocean bias in DLC_05, but I think the BNW XML overwrites that if you're playing with BNW enabled.)
 
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