[Vote] (3-04) Proposal: Revert barbarian snow tile spawn change

[1slayerpikmin1]

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VP Congress: Session 3, Proposal 4
Prior to Recursive's authoritarian decision in the recent barbarian changes, barbarians were not able to spawn in snow tiles. To Recursive, this appeared as some sort of bug, some silly mistake, but I was able to see the actual weight of this feature and thus weight of this undemocratic decision. Regardless of any and especially of the proposer's opinion on this feature, it is important to the dignity of this Congress to hold a vote on its perpetuation.

Moderator Action: Not sure if this is a joke or serious (can't tell from the tone), but please do not single people out (anyone, not just me) with divisive rhetoric. You're welcome to propose the change. - Recursive

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Image source: Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia!​

Change:
Re-disable the possibility for barbarian encampments to appear in snow tiles.

Reasoning:
Snow tiles as is in-game are definitively meant to represent a snowy tile. As tundra already exists in-game, snow tiles are meant for the far reaches of cold environments. Cold areas beyond tundra defined by persistent snow are glaciers, and such areas are referred to as the ice cap climate or EF under the Köppen climate classification, seen as the dark grey color covering Antarctica and much of Greenland in the figure.
The light grey areas nearby to the EF areas is the tundra climate, known as ET. The tundra climate can be seen not only in the poles, but also in high altitude mountainous areas, such as the Himalayas. The EF climate is also found in these areas, but in smaller scattered points too small to be seen on the map. These are already represented in Vox Populi as the snowy peaks of some mountain tiles.

In Vox Populi, tundra tiles also allow forests as features, which is in direct opposition to the definition of tundra as being treeless. It is clear that the in-game forested tundra tiles instead represents much of the wide taiga belts nearby to real tundra and not actual forested tundra. Taiga is not a climate type, but climates containing taiga in the Köppen climate classification are colored by various climates which border but not are ET (such as the large teal areas).
So genuine ET tundra climate is represented in-game with non-forested tundra tiles, taiga is represented with forested tundra tiles, and the EF ice cap climate is represented with snow tiles.

The ice cap climate is well-known for having completely lacked human habitation until very recently, though, their habitation is still merely through artificially propped up research bases (represented in-game by the scientific benefits appearing on snow tiles in later eras), and definitely no widespread pirates.
One exception to this may be the Inuit and other similar peoples, but none of them live in the ice cap climate, only near it, and certainly the vast interiors of these ice sheets have always been completely and utterly devoid of their presence.

As large empty lands typically lacking units, forever unsettled snow tiles will remain, for the entire game, the single largest barbarian threat next to scattered low value marginal lands such as deserts and small islands lacking in resources. Marginal land is a great example of places where modern "barbarians" and pirates operate, but ice caps on the other hand, are places that are well-known for specifically having been for all of human history devoid of habitation. There are no coordinated snow pirate attacks on Antarctic research bases and Roald Amundsen did not encounter with his team a uncontacted hostile encampment of barbarians upon reaching the South Pole.

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Heartbreaking: Photo taken by Amundsen and co. of the teams last moments after arrival at the South Pole and immediately prior to their encounter with the ancient uncontacted tribe of five brute three archer.​

 

[Delvemor]

In my current game I got a starting position not too far away from a relatively large snowy area and I never had to use that many units to keep the barbarians in check. Patrolling the snow on top of the tundra is now a necessity if you are their only potential target. On the other hand that's a lot of gold and it would have been very good maybe even OP if I went Authority.

 

[pineappledan]

Feel the wrath of the skraelings.

 

[Recursive]

While that photo is hilarious, allowing them to spawn on Snow serves two purposes in terms of balancing:

1) It widens the number of available tiles (particularly on the Ice Age map) that Barbarian encampments can spawn from, decreasing the chance that they'll spawn next to players.

2) By extension of 1), it increases the number of Barbarian encampments spawned on turn 2.

Reverting this change would affect spawn rates and placements, making Barbarians a larger threat to most civs.

 

[N.Core]

Sponsored by me, even though I kinda don't like the proposal.

 

[KlHannibal2]

While that photo is hilarious, allowing them to spawn on Snow serves two purposes in terms of balancing:

1) It widens the number of available tiles (particularly on the Ice Age map) that Barbarian encampments can spawn from, decreasing the chance that they'll spawn next to players.

2) By extension of 1), it increases the number of Barbarian encampments spawned on turn 2.

Reverting this change would affect spawn rates and placements, making Barbarians a larger threat to most civs.

I like your "authoritarian" change also for another reason: as more land is claimed by borders, barbs get less frequent later in the game. This gives them ample space to spawn throughout the whole game. Not realistic, but fun and more balanced IMO.

 

[stii]

I kind of assume that barb camps aren't meant to be literal. They reflect a thing that causes issues outside of other players.

Like in real life pirates didn't stop existing because people settled everywhere.

 

[Recursive]

Proposal sponsored by N.Core.

 

[pineappledan]

I’ll note that this proposal is just to make barbarians not spawn in snow, but isn’t going to reduce the spawn rate by an amount equivalent to the number of snow tiles in a game. The result will be barbarians spawning faster everywhere else.