Civilization Start Bias, from the XML

[Mustakrakish]

Really? Arabia starts near a desert?
Well obviously, I mean I'm not surprised, but the first time I rolled Arabia on continets, it was on a coast by a river plains... though there was a fair amount of desert to the south.
The second time I played Arabia on Earth standard and I was placed in the middle of Amazon jungles. I didn't mind spamming trading posts on river jungles that provided 2 food 3 gold 2 science with university though

So should I assume from that experience that starting bias don't apply on Earth maps?

 

[Drago Askani]

Hmm now that I know exactly how it works I think its time to start using the disable start bias option in the Advanced Options during setup.

 

[Jasmo]

Wow, America gets the River? Because the United States of America TOTALLY started on a big river in reality, yeah right! Thats dumb.

Every significant early settlement on the east coast was on a river or at a river mouth. Why? Becuse if you were starting from scratch you had to farm and farming needed fresh water. Makes perfect sense.

 

[eric_]

Two rivers in DC. Sure, the Anacostia is trashed now, but it was hugely important in the early days, containing the Port of Bladensburg (very important during the Revolution) and the Navy Yard.

Of course, DC didn't exist until around 1800. And, it's true that most/all civs in history have relied on rivers to survive.

Still, between the James River (Jamestown settlement) and the Mississippi (westward expansion), I think its apt that America has a river start.

 

[zuraffo]

But there's no reason why the Americans should monopolized river start though.

 

[eric_]

They don't monopolize it, do they? I mean, other civs *can* start on river tiles, it's just that America is more likely to, no?

And, I do think it makes some sense given America's birth via revolution (as opposed to emerging "organically" like many ancient civs) and the importance of rivers and harbors during the Revolution and the War of 1812.

 

[Catastrophe90]

But there's no reason why the Americans should monopolized river start though.

I think its because the US used to have a river-based UA (faster movement along rivers, I think). So it sort of makes sense for a start bias that reflects that UA (just like for England and the Iroquois). The devs probably just left the bias alone even after changing the UA.

 

[bigwinw]

The desert start for Arabia still gives pretty good quality land. I got a lot of gems, fish in my coastal cities, and a nice river with floodplains inland. "Poor" land like desert and tundra are less of an issue in Civ5, especially with the ability to get food from city states.

The key to starting near desert is all the oil. They need this or their UA would be 1/2 worthless.

 

[Danceofmasks]

I dunno about 1/2 worthless ... +1 GTP from trade routes is silly good (assuming you have a lot of cities/puppets) ..
The money from that, and selling excess luxuries (at a discount, why not when you have infinity lux) from the bazaar = financing a powerful military.

Use the military to capture oil.

 

[EscapedGoat]

I dunno about 1/2 worthless ... +1 GTP from trade routes is silly good

No, it really isn't. In a normal game, even ICS'ing, you'll have maybe 30-40 cities before the game is over, so best case it's 30-40 gold + modifiers.. but if you have that many cities you don't have any modifiers so.... it's "average" at best. The Bazaar is good though.

 

[adcliff]

http://sites.google.com/site/worldfactsinc/capital-cities-rivers

 

[juckie]

Can you just add, remove and change civ's from the xml file, and get it to work that way? Or do you need to change something somewhere else as well?

Thanks for the info

 

[jagdtigerciv]

America gets rivers because they add +1 gold. Having +1 gold has synergy with their UA. This is why.

 

[PScirocco]

America gets rivers because they add +1 gold. Having +1 gold has synergy with their UA. This is why.

Indeed, maybe that bias (and maybe only the America bias alone) has more to do with gameplay than with historical accuracy.

Or a mix of both, having a lot of river tiles would not only add +1 gold to most worked tiles, watermill and hydro plant also add a huge amount of food and hammers. Which would help create the industrial giant that is the US in the industrial-modern era. (Don't get too literal on when hydro plants were introduced in real life )

 

[crazedcivplayer]

Apparently most of them have to do with matching with UAs and UBs etc. and less to do with reality. Could anyone tell me where I could find the file from whence this information came? I'd really like to mod it a bit.

 

[joncnunn]

The thing is that the June patch changed start biases; namely America's start bias to rivers was removed.

I kind of admit that particular bias doesn't really matter in my games; when in 4000 BC playing any civ I don't see a river; off to another planet.