Barbarians that loot and leave

[PsiCorps]

Hi all
Just been through all 18 pages of the ModComp thread and couldn't find anything that does what I am wanting to do.

If a city has no defenders, rather than a barbarian unit capturing or razing the city I am looking for the Barb to loot food, production and gold. The unit will then depart or vanish as it has what it came for.

There was a ModComp where the Barb unit ransomed the city back to you but this isn't what I want.

So, is there a ModComp that does this and I just didn't see it or are there some Python/XML changes that can be easily made to get the effect I am after?

I should point out that this is specifically for the B5 Mod and is to enable the raiders to enter a star system, raid a planet for resources and escape if there are no defenders.

 

[Nightinggale]

I really like this idea.

I'm thinking something like hooking into the DLL city capturing code and if that code is entered by raiders (they would be raiders, if they just loot and don't capture, right? ), it will call some other function to plunder instead of actually capturing the city. The unit will then have to be made aware that it should go away, which might be as simple as giving the AI some "goto city" command, but if the barbarians have no cities at the time, then what? Also if you manage to kill the raider before he gets away, should you be able to capture some of the loot you just lost?

Somehow I don't think this will be that hard to code. However it might only be possible to do in the DLL and it's a matter of finding the right place to code this. I don't mind investigating the code and make a more detailed plan for this, but that is only if it is ok that it is a DLL solution. Also it could be interesting to wait a little bit to see if anybody else have any other ideas.

 

[platyping]

Isn't the BTS gunship a unit that can plunder but not capture cities?

 

[vincentz]

I thought about this 2 days ago

Though instead of barbs only, I wanted a Capture/Pillage/Raze mechanic

Capture = Milita (partisans) would spawn near city and city, while in anarchy, would have chance of revolting back to owner (same mechanic as culture swap). This would make player need to keep some units in city (the AI does this, but human players (myself at least) have a tendency to just push forward. This would prevent a blitz war)

Pillage = Some population lost, attacker gets gold (from treasury and dispanded buildings) and the pillaged owner (defender) keeps the city, but city is in anarchy (normal capture anarchy lenght) and cannot be repillaged as long as is in anarchy. (AI would consider this when city is far away or economy cannot bear more cities due to maintenance etc). This would be default Barb action.

Raze = same as before, BUT population escapes to nearest friendly (allied or team) city, and militia (partisans) would spawn near city.

 

[Lib.Spi't]

I think the gunship can attack a city and kill the defenders, but cannot capture it.

It doesn't however 'take stuff' when the city is defenceless, it just can take no further action against the city.

 

[PsiCorps]

Thank you all for your thoughts.

My initial thoughts were that the raider would move on to the city tile, loot whatever it was set to collect in loot and then vanish, no opportunity to recover what was looted.

However, there are some other idea's i've had for the B5 mod which, if they can be made to work, would have a bearing on what happens after the raider has looted.

Option 1. Switched back on the ability for raiders to capture cities, there would then be a very good chance the barbs would have a captured city for the raider with it's looted cargo to return to. This may cause problems with any code written for them to loot instead of capture so isn't my ideal option.

Option 2. In addition to the normal Barbarian spawns each turn, there would be a chance of one or both of the following. Raider Carriers spawn which can move around the map accepting the loot from the raiders and/or a raider base (starbase) spawns that the raiders can return to and offload their ill gotten gains.

The option of both Raider Carriers and Raider Bases spawning would provide a much more potent threat to both Player Civs and AI Civs. Which may in turn force the AI to build more ships than it currently does to combat the threat.

I have found a ModComp by TheLopez that allows for Barbs to Spawn with a Crew, shouldn't be difficult to modify this to a Carrier with Fighters/Bombers aboard instead of a crew allowing me to do some of the above.

It's just the looting of resources from unoccupied cities that needs to be solved for now.

 

[Nightinggale]

I'm thinking something like hooking into the DLL city capturing code and if that code is entered by raiders, it will call some other function to plunder instead of actually capturing the city.

Instead of just redirecting, it can be modified to possibly redirect. That way the barbarians can do both. It can then be a fun task to set up parameters for randomly choosing what it does, something like range to other cities (owner and barbarian), units within visible range and stuff like that.

 

[PsiCorps]

Instead of just redirecting, it can be modified to possibly redirect. That way the barbarians can do both. It can then be a fun task to set up parameters for randomly choosing what it does, something like range to other cities (owner and barbarian), units within visible range and stuff like that.

I like the sound of that, would certainly add a random element to the barbs, their behaviour is very predictable in solo games. Never played Multiplayer so couldn't comment on their behaviour there.