Barbarian camps random rewards (aka less monotonus barb camps)

[rylasasin]

During my first prince run (which turned out to be an epic fail), an idea came to me concerning barbarian camps.

Instead of just receiving gold every time you raid a barb camp, there's a small chance that you'll also get a bonus similar to what you'd get if you find ruins:

"You found some looted artifacts from a nearby ruin" <= Culture bonus
"You free some slaves. In gratitude for liberating them, they move to one of your cities" <= +1 population
"You found a crudely drawn map of the surrounding area" <Map reveal similar to ruins.
"You find a crudely drawn map leading to treasure" <reveals a ruin. If none are close by, one is randomly generated.
"You happen across a large stash of gold from the bandits last raid" <More gold
"you discover some broken artifacts taken from some ruins. shipping them back to your capital has resulted in a scientific breakthrough!" <Science
"You discover a single captive, a prophet who has forseen your arrival" <= Faith
"You discover an emissary from (nation or city state you are not at war with)" <= Small boost to relations if nation, small influence bonus if a city state

however, these only have a 25% chance of popping up. OR they always happen but the rewards are much less significant than what you'd find at ruins (but still better than than the measly 30-some gold you get now.)

Essentially, it gives you a real motivation to hunt/raid barbarian camps instead of just turning them off.

 

[Harv72b]

I could see this maybe being a possibility if ruins were done away with entirely, but as is it just seems like overkill.

The motivations for clearing barb camps are promoting your early units, gaining culture (with Honor tree), clearing the way for settlement/tile improvement, and building up money early.

Pro tip: especially on the easier levels, play a game as Songhai & see how quickly barbarian-hunting nets you enough money to buy settlers, libraries, or what have you.