Barbarians! Where?! I'm not telling...

[MisterBill]

I can't be the only one who's aggravated by the 'barbarian' sound effect cuing during the AI turns, but no @#$! indication of WHERE the activity is happening. Is it a unit sighted? A new camp? Is it across the continent, or up my keyster? Who knows?

Seriously. I've already asked about reviewing the event log (no you can't, apparently). So is there any @#$! way to figure out WHAT barbarians, WHERE, aside from just scrolling around the map every time you hear the sound effect?

 

[Sumorex]

Manually searching the map is the only way I know of finding new encampments. Feels like it falls in a weird space between complete secrecy (can only see what you can SEE) and forcing the map to center on a new encampment.... which is admittedly aggravating on larger maps.

The game allows lenses on the map. Might be helpful if there was a way to apply that to highlight encampments.

 

[techgiz1]

Use the CQUI mod. It has a lens that will highlight Barb encampments.

 

[VTMatt]

You are not alone!!

Personally, I usually scan my border areas or fogged zones in my empire for them, and then assume they're far enough not to be an immediate threat if I don't see it.

Do we know if the noise indicator goes off for any barb camp in explored territory, or only within some range of a friendly unit/city?

 

[Sumorex]

Use the CQUI mod. It has a lens that will highlight Barb encampments.

I completely missed that lens when I looked! Thanks

 

[MisterBill]

Use the CQUI mod. It has a lens that will highlight Barb encampments.

Thanks, I didn't know about that. I have a general feeling that, in their desire to slim and streamline the interface, they've left things out that are really pretty important.

 

[soundwaveuk]

I quite like that I don't know where the camps are, even though dealing with Barbs in later eras does get quite monotonous. That's just my personal preference though, obviously.

I think they might have intended it to be this way too. So that there is a chance you won't find the Barbs until a unit is spotted near your lands.

 

[Rosty K]

I play with no sound. Simple and elegant solution to every sound problem

I just look around for new barbarian camps around me once in a few turns.

 

[Magil]

I quite like that I don't know where the camps are, even though dealing with Barbs in later eras does get quite monotonous. That's just my personal preference though, obviously.

I think they might have intended it to be this way too. So that there is a chance you won't find the Barbs until a unit is spotted near your lands.

The problem is you actually can see the camp if you actively look for it. It appears in the fog of war. The game is just making it harder for you to find it for some reason (this is never a good thing in a strategy game).

 

[MisterBill]

I quite like that I don't know where the camps are, even though dealing with Barbs in later eras does get quite monotonous. That's just my personal preference though, obviously.

I think they might have intended it to be this way too. So that there is a chance you won't find the Barbs until a unit is spotted near your lands.

If we're going to be all 'fog of war' about it, I shouldn't get the sound effect unless a unit, city or ally of mine sees something. But even then, If I'm going to get the sound effect, the game should tell me WHERE. Just annoying, is all.

 

[Jaybe]

I can't be the only one who's aggravated by the 'barbarian' sound effect cuing during the AI turns, but no @#$! indication of WHERE the activity is happening. Is it a unit sighted? A new camp? Is it across the continent, or up my keyster? Who knows?

Seriously. I've already asked about reviewing the event log (no you can't, apparently). So is there any @#$! way to figure out WHAT barbarians, WHERE, aside from just scrolling around the map every time you hear the sound effect?

Would you prefer to have the screen zoom/focus on where the camp is every time one is created, or have NO indication when a camp is created?

Neither? I thought so. The indicator as implemented is a good compromise, though a written notification (especially if you could scroll through a log of them) would be better.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

If I hear the sound, I just check the proximity of my cities. If the camp didn't spawn there, it's not going to cause me much trouble.

Exception: Spawning on a coast of a region where I have seafaring trade routes. Still pretty easy to scan for.

 

[MisterBill]

Would you prefer to have the screen zoom/focus on where the camp is every time one is created, or have NO indication when a camp is created?

Neither? I thought so. The indicator as implemented is a good compromise, though a written notification (especially if you could scroll through a log of them) would be better.

You thought wrong. Either of those would be an improvement over this 'compromise', which is the worst of both worlds. In fact, with preference toggle for fog of war, you could offer them both, and let people play it how they like.

 

[Magil]

Would you prefer to have the screen zoom/focus on where the camp is every time one is created, or have NO indication when a camp is created?

Neither? I thought so. The indicator as implemented is a good compromise, though a written notification (especially if you could scroll through a log of them) would be better.

The "compromise" would be a simple notification icon on the right, where the other notifications are stored. Clicking on the notification should bring me to the barbarian camp in question, much as in clicking notifications there has various effects. I am pretty sure you could do this in Civ V. A simple "A barbarian camp has appeared" notification at the start of the turn that I could click on for the duration of that turn to bring me to the camp would be perfectly acceptable. Simple, not intrusive, effective.

 

[LethalLeigh]

Also when you get a quest to clear a camp with in 5 tiles of a city state it should clear the FoW to show you where it is. Or when it spawns

 

[soundwaveuk]

Also when you get a quest to clear a camp with in 5 tiles of a city state it should clear the FoW to show you where it is. Or when it spawns

I bet the Romans would have loved to have had their FoW lifted against the Celts and Germans too.

 

[agonistes]

The "compromise" would be a simple notification icon on the right, where the other notifications are stored. Clicking on the notification should bring me to the barbarian camp in question, much as in clicking notifications there has various effects. I am pretty sure you could do this in Civ V. A simple "A barbarian camp has appeared" notification at the start of the turn that I could click on for the duration of that turn to bring me to the camp would be perfectly acceptable. Simple, not intrusive, effective.

Dear god, please no, no more notifications. I have a hard enough time as is getting my cursor to activate these things, I don't like ending a turn with any non-war non-peace notices up, and its a right pain to delete them all.

On a big map, you're going to get multiple camp spawns every turn.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Item #412 on UI improvements this game needs. It's like they spent so much time on "unstacking" the cities and new graphics that they forgot the rest of the game. Computer programmers never want to do the boring-but-necessary work. Trying to get the IT guys at my last job to make a [goshdarned] database was like pulling teeth. They only wanted to do the sexy, front-end stuff.

 

[Magil]

Dear god, please no, no more notifications. I have a hard enough time as is getting my cursor to activate these things, I don't like ending a turn with any non-war non-peace notices up, and its a right pain to delete them all.

On a big map, you're going to get multiple camp spawns every turn.

It's better than no notification, I'm afraid. The fact that some of them don't go away when you right-click them is a wholly separate issue.

In any case, the UI already groups multiple notifications into one icon, so it's not like you'd get a huge scrollbar because of it.

 

[agonistes]

It's better than no notification, I'm afraid. The fact that some of them don't go away when you right-click them is a wholly separate issue.

In any case, the UI already groups multiple notifications into one icon, so it's not like you'd get a huge scrollbar because of it.

It doesn't group the icons into one icon. It stacks them. 7 population warnings, 8 housing warnings, and 16 city-state peace/war notifictions is a nut. I really don't want another 20 barb camp notifications on top of that.

I concede the horn is kinda of cool, or some may think it so.

If you were forced to camera track to a camp, any camp, or, even worse, every camp, that would be a nightmare.

I vote just use the horn, with an option to turn it off.

They shouldn't be showing you where the camps are anyways. Track those suckers down. Kids want everything done for them these days. Maybe have camps appearing in the mist be an option as well? (What is the cleared fog of war but still in the map fog area called, by the general populous?)