Barbarians in Civ VI

[UncivilizedGuy]

I'm guessing that barbarians will be no different in Civ VI. But this is a mechanic I'm hoping Firaxis puts some thought into. From a historical perspective barbarians are essentially minor civilizations that made life difficult for and/or resisted major civilizations. I hope they can creatively combine barbarians with minor civs and/or city states. Start the game always at war until trade can be established. Another point is the ethnic models. This is actually one of the only things I liked about Civ Rev where the barbarians randomly appear with a different look.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Fighting barbarians have been mentioned as a way to help your military technology develop.

 

[dexters]

Here's to hoping Barbs get their own cities again.

I almost feel like that omission in Civ5 was due to technical limitations as the game had to handle City-States as well. Though it bugged me why they couldn't have a barbarian city-state faction

 

[Haig]

I have a feeling they will tinker with the barbarians at least a bit, my favorite barbs are in Civ IV with their city-building aspect, but also liked in Civ V how they took civilians as hostage.

 

[UncivilizedGuy]

Here's to hoping Barbs get their own cities again.

I almost feel like that omission in Civ5 was due to technical limitations as the game had to handle City-States as well. Though it bugged me why they couldn't have a barbarian city-state faction

I'm not sure why you would want a barbarian faction. This makes no sense from a historical perspective. What you are calling barbarians were actually other civilizations that were viewed as obstacles by major civilizations.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

They could add some interesting twist to deal with barbarians such as:

Fight them (which will help you develop your military technology)
Trade with them (Could give resources such as food gold and production)
Learn from them (Could help your culture and faith)

Although I dont think the developers will do this and while it may have choices it may just feel one choice is better then the other. Also earlier civilization games have had goody huts who helped your civilization to develop and thet second and third alternative would basically replace goody huts.

 

[dexters]

@Denkt

What if they take inspiration from how BE deals with native aliens. ie: there's an option for Barbarians to become incorporated into your empire over time. They will fight for you. And their camps turn into a city-state or even full fledged city you control.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

I think it would be possible to do that as long as the game can keep track of several different barbarian tribes. However Im unsure if it would be good for the game or not.

 

[ldvhl]

Nobunaga's Ambition did something similar with its Tribal factions.

 

[AriochIV]

Here's to hoping Barbs get their own cities again.

Yeah, I miss that as well.

 

[Gorbles]

I'm not sure why you would want a barbarian faction. This makes no sense from a historical perspective. What you are calling barbarians were actually other civilizations that were viewed as obstacles by major civilizations.

This is a very, very good point.

 

[BttLsht]

Barbarians mechanically function as a bumper for expanding your empire without building an army, now from what I read warfare is something they changed.

Could it be possible that borders simply do nothing and that all units, no matter what civ, can freely pass through them allowing for raiding while also giving you an incentive, like gold, culture, science, and etc to do so.
Essentially the player and AI will replace the Barbarians by simply making the early game a free for all until more advanced form of diplomacy is created and those actions become considered much more barbaric thus generating more warmonger points.

 

[Haig]

Also as someone else wrote, might be cool that in later era they would get name changed to rebels or something, and the barbarian camp graphic changed to some sort of jungle training camp.

 

[Kid R]

4000 BC barbs are good if they're just a different species of animal roaming about, maybe with a club. Later it's neat if they can make crappy little cities and actually build stuff.

I guess in reality it must have been the case that the barbs were sort of satellite settlements to the nearest major civ, maybe founded/led by a major civ leader's exiled sibling or child. Probably absorbing their tech as well to a degree via word of mouth. So maybe that's how it should go, with some kind of affinity with barbs/city states that are close. Maybe major civs should under some circumstances be able to resorb a nearby barb city peacefully...

 

[BttLsht]

Also as someone else wrote, might be cool that in later era they would get name changed to rebels or something, and the barbarian camp graphic changed to some sort of jungle training camp.

Man rebels, forgot about those...

Okay so there is two ways rebels could function, like they currently do, barbarians spawning in your cities, and it could be possible to add another layer of depth by making rebels spawn as a espionage action.

Rebels spawned this way are player controlled yet they don't show their true allegiance, to avoid abusing the turn based system (if rebels move in your territory during Gandhi's turn then you probably know who to nuke) a special turn for unaligned units.

 

[Krajzen]

I'm not sure why you would want a barbarian faction. This makes no sense from a historical perspective. What you are calling barbarians were actually other civilizations that were viewed as obstacles by major civilizations.

That's brilliant point, as Gorbles already said.

Personally I'd get rid of barbarians as understood by civ5 (basically critters ) and instead merged city states and barbarians into Minor Factions divided on few types
*City states
*Nomadic tribes (units travelling across the map with no static settlements or cities, periodically 'settling' in some preferred rich lands)
*War tribes (closest to civ5 barbarians, permanent settlements)
*Pirates (anarchic ports or settlements spawning naval or embarked units pillaging coasts for cash)
*Rebels (conditional enemies of a government)

City states, pirates and rebels would advance with ages and change names to more modern ones, while nomadic and war tribes would advance slowly at best and basically be 'natives'.
Each of those type of minor factions would have few types of diplomacy possible. With pirates it'd be paying them ransom or turning them into corsairs or allying with them, with rebels it'd be negotiations regarding their demands, with war tribes and nomads it'd be negotiations regarding their lands and rights (and possible peaceful integration of them), city states would get civ5 functionality minus bribes and with more active diplomacy (capable of fighting other city states on their own, or allying them).

^^^this entire post is of course just my personal dream impossible to materialize

 

[UncivilizedGuy]

That's brilliant point, as Gorbles already said.

Personally I'd get rid of barbarians as understood by civ5 (basically critters ) and instead merged city states and barbarians into Minor Factions divided on few types
*City states
*Nomadic tribes (units travelling across the map with no static settlements or cities, periodically 'settling' in some preferred rich lands)
*War tribes (closest to civ5 barbarians)
*Pirates
*Rebels

These are great ideas. This is the sort of thing I hope Firaxis incorporates into the game.

 

[Cyon]

Could be a inresting way to represent people that never had maybe settled cities, like the aborigines, San people, inuit, Huns maybe and so on.

They could have their own special units and be appeased by gifts or military might, and if They join you, you would get a UU .

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[UWHabs]

I'd say what should happen is that if a barbarian encampment is not cleared, it can grow into a city-state.

Then you'd have a choice - clear the camp and use the space yourself, or leave it and deal with the periodic raids. At some point they may "civilize", but you don't know if it's 5 turns or 50.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I kinda hope that Barbarians can generate Armies occasionally in the early game, but they are called Hordes.