Barb uprising doesn't attack nearest city

[jason77024]

Playing Maya, great start (5 seafood in BFC!), early rush vs. England, great.

2250 BC, announcement of the ever-popular barb uprising. I didn't get that "psst, they're really close" warning, so I went about my business.

Right. About 12 turns later, they show up on my front door. Weird, because I knew other civs were fairly close by. Well, that was worth a WTF? look at the map, so I checked it out in WB.

It turns out that barbs don't always go for the nearest city. These barbs spawned on the border with Japan (which did not have the Great Wall), checked out Kyoto, then walked a dozen tiles to come pester me.

So... does 3.17 handle barb uprisings differently? Are the barbs now more discriminating about their targets? Whatever it is, uprisings clearly do not just head for the nearest city.

 

[Civsassin]

Remember that units only have a limited visibility, so even know you could see there were other cities nearby, the barbs couldn't. They wandered randomly until they literally stumbled across your city.

 

[thadian]

Also, the forces of Kyoto might have looked unappealing if the barbs can find a better (less defended) area.

 

[eewallace]

I had the same thing happen in reverse once. They showed up at my border and I got the message that I was likely to bear the brunt of the attack or whatever, then they march right past me and headed for China! And I didn't have the Great Wall, either.

 

[Silver21]

I have noticed the same thing too. Thought I was just lucky that they walked past me.

 

[Ormylar]

What I've noticed about barbarians is that they are programmed not to move into another civilization's territory until a certain point. I remember one time I started off on a peninsula with a little bit of extra space to the end. 6 archers spawned there and I had no units to protect my city at the moment. But they kept moving back and forth, not pillaging or destroying anything. Another example is that a lion moved right next to my unprotected settler. I built a city right beside it, and the lion ran away!

 

[Polobo]

Another example is that a lion moved right next to my unprotected settler. I built a city right beside it, and the lion ran away!

Animals are programmed to avoid cultural boundaries; normal barb units will attack (duh!) but there is some form of time/technology based logic restricting their ability to enter cultural boundaries (what that logic is I do not know).

 

[sydhe]

Animals can't take cities.

 

[Silver21]

Yeah, if it looks like a settler is going to be attacked, building a city will send the animal out. They can't go into culture.

 

[Genv [FP]]

Animals cannot enter cultural borders

 

[Ormylar]

Ok ok! You don't have to keep peppering me! I understand now about the animals.

 

[CoZe]

in case you didn't get it, ANIMALS DON'T STEP INTO CULTURE ! one more time ?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Animals can't enter culture!!!!!!!!!
Animals can't enter culture!!!!!!!!!
Animals can't enter culture!!!!!!!!!
Animals can't enter culture!!!!!!!!!

Oh wait. I actually meant to say something worthwhile, even though it won't be anyway, because it's just complaining.

4 events have led me to turn random events off and be happy doing so:

1. Peak eruption 4+ times in one game, destroying some nice improvements for some of them.
2. Buildings get washed away! Now you don't get promotions despite being committed to a rush! I mean who doesn't like losing by chance?!
3. Slave revolts - horrible idea, impossibly broken in MP and pretty annoying/chancy in SP. Depending on their timing these can ruin a game (or if you're extra lucky win it for you as a target city decides to just...not defend for a turn). I really, really don't like games of chance. I like games where I have more control of the outcome - slave revolts are a step in the wrong direction. I don't want to play monopoly and hope for a six. I want to win or lose based on strategy.
4. BARBARIAN UPRISING!!! The VEDIC ARYANS have come to pillage civilization! PRE 3000 BC!!!!!! EVEN AFTER 3.17!!!!!!!!!!!! I played an earth 18 civ game where I got archery early (you know, barb defense, good units to fogbust, etc). I INSTANTLY queued an archer. Before that archer was finished, the game spawned SIX BARBARIAN ARCHERS in the VEDIC ARYAN UPRISING event. Six. Pre-3k BC. In this game, I didn't even build a worker, just straight warriors ---> archer (would have been archer(s), had it been actually possible). That was not sufficient to instant lose.

Random events take away from the game, not add to it. I don't like winning or losing on unnecessarily added chance. I can play the card game "war" for that or just sit in one place flipping a coin all day if that kind of thing ever happens to tickle my fancy.

Random events? Off. Forever, unless they fix the above nonsense.

 

[batavier]

I haven't been the victim of an uprising yet since installing 3.17. I've still seen some AI's disappear because of it. The number of barbarians seems dependent on map size, you get 4 on normal, 5 on large and 6 on huge maps. This makes no sense, because being on a huge map gives no advantages at this point.

Knowing bronzeworking gives you a defense most of the time against 4 archers, even if you only can make warriors. After whipping my city back to size 1 to make warriors or archers, I probably restart anyway.

 

[Katorok]

Lol! In my current game, there was a barbarian uprising right after I built the great wall... So they just went to attack my neighbor instead XD!

 

[Julian Delphiki]

By-pass happened in 3.13 as well.

 

[Polobo]

@TheMeInTeam: I agree with #4 because, in those cases, no matter what you are bound to lose (or win easily if AI's get destroyed). The other 3, however, I feel add nicely to the game since, like in RL, some events are out of ones control and will affect the course of a civilizations development. I too find them annoying when I am the target but a good part of strategy is responding to unforeseen complications and adapting. Slave revolts especially I like since they balance an otherwise (over?)powered civic. It is quite conceivable that slaves, seeing an approaching force and unhappy about being slaves, would do whatever is in their power to assist the attacker and hopefully escape in the confusion or win their freedom for helping.

Too each their own though.

 

[warpus]

It seems to me like the barbarian event in question comes pre-packaged with a destination city already in mind.

Let me rephrase: I don't think they wander aimlessly until they reach a city - I think they have a destination in mind.

 

[Julian Delphiki]

'You're most likely to take worst of their fury' message only appears now and then. It's especially nice if i bagged the GW in that game. Otherwise it .. sucks.

 

[jason77024]

Thanks for the comments - here is the screenshot of the barbs inside Japanese territory. I think this is one turn after they spawned (my auto-save is set for every other turn).

So maybe Thadian is right, because they not only saw another civ, they entered its space. But if that's the case, the barbs aren't really lemmings (as per the unit tag), are they?

Btw, Toku had the archer plus a warrior on that hill.


Oh, and I like all the random events - even when they bite me...