I recall reading somewhere long ago that raging barbarians spawn more barbarians at the era age change (and I remember seeing this effect also) in comparison to the setting on restless or roaming. My interest here lies in using barbarian en-campments for gold (with trading from AIs also!). Does the higher the setting also increase the frequency at which they spawn? Or do roaming, restless, and raging all have the same spawn frequency of barbarians and only differ in the size of the hordes for any unviewed areas at era changes/how much they spawn units from those encampments otherwise?
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Barbarian Encampement Frequency
- Thread starter Spoonwood
- Start date
tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
AFAIK, Barb-camps can only spawn on tiles which have been explored by someone, but which are not currently in visual range of any Civ (i.e. >1 tile from a border, and >1 tile from any off/def unit on flat land, or >2 tiles from any unit on high ground).
So the spawn-frequency for new camps would seem to be a function primarily of map Size (more land-tiles = more potential spawn-points), combined with map Age (younger = larger continuous tracts of Hills/Mountains) and/or Humidity (more Forests/Jungles), which would tend to increase the number of potentially non-visible tiles per unit at game-start (due to the more limited visibility within those regions), vs. difficulty level (higher diff. = more AI units running around, faster AI expansion), which would tend to reduce that number of non-visible tiles more quickly over time.
And for mods where fewer terrain-types are available for Settlement, and/or Cultural-expansion is slower, and/or the map-size(s) are already Huge+ (= enough tiles to reach the 512 city-limit before all land-tiles are within someone's borders), barb-camps would presumably also tend to spawn in greater numbers throughout the game.
So the spawn-frequency for new camps would seem to be a function primarily of map Size (more land-tiles = more potential spawn-points), combined with map Age (younger = larger continuous tracts of Hills/Mountains) and/or Humidity (more Forests/Jungles), which would tend to increase the number of potentially non-visible tiles per unit at game-start (due to the more limited visibility within those regions), vs. difficulty level (higher diff. = more AI units running around, faster AI expansion), which would tend to reduce that number of non-visible tiles more quickly over time.
And for mods where fewer terrain-types are available for Settlement, and/or Cultural-expansion is slower, and/or the map-size(s) are already Huge+ (= enough tiles to reach the 512 city-limit before all land-tiles are within someone's borders), barb-camps would presumably also tend to spawn in greater numbers throughout the game.
I don't think forests and jungles change visibility for units. Of course if we're talking forests or jungles instead of hills or mountains, then yes visibility of units changes. But, it doesn't change if comparing forest tiles to grassland tiles.
I have no idea if wetter settings can affect the number of hills and mountains on a map.
Another factor here would consist of food availability in cities (unless it means too little production). Flatter maps have more food in despotism I think, since an irrigated grassland wines tile getting used has three food, while a hill with wines has only two food. And wheats and cows only appear on flatland tiles. And grassland wheats and cows end up better food wise than plains wheats and cows.
tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
IIRC, if a unit is on a Hill/Mountain, it can only see 1 tile across adjacent Forest/Jungle, instead of 2 tiles across non-vegetated tiles. Could well be wrong about that, though?
In real-world terms it should (more rain + snow = more erosion!), but I don't think the Civ3 map-generator takes that into account. I think the (relative?) number of Hill- and Mountain-tiles is only a function — if anything — of World Age (younger = more Mountains*, fewer Hills?).
AFAIK, World Humidity affects only the (total) number of vegetated tiles, with the relative proportions of the vegetated tile-types modulated by the World Temperature (Cooler = more Forest, Warmer = more Jungle**).
Spoiler * :
Spoiler ** :
Sounds reasonable.
Which, to get back On Topic
would imply that a drier (=less veg) older (=flatter) world might allow faster (AI) growth — and consequently a lower total number of barb-camps spawning over the course of a game?
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Does being explored by someone really matter?
What does matter is that a town is nearby. So on unexplored uninhabited islands no barbarian camps can spawn, but on an unexplored tile near a town they can spawn. They can spawn only if a sufficient amount of towns in total have been founded, thus at Sid this will happen earlier. Also it stops much earlier as AI covers territory. Lower difficulty settings are clearly preferable for barbfarming.
Camps can only spawn if the number of camps is below a certain number. I am not certain about the details. Wild guess: Depending on the barbarian setting there can be up to 2, 4 or 6 camps from spawning. If the total is below that number, then a new camp can spawn. There however is no frequency or chance involved. When conditions for a camp spawning are met, then during the interturn a camp will spawn. If you clear a camp and remove your units from sight, then a camp will spawn again and again every turn in the same place.
