Do we know the starting bias of each Civ?

[Keejus]

EDIT: We do indeed know them all. Most biases are simply a "region" bias, where a region is a defined area on the map that is dominated by the listed terrain type. To have a region bias simply means you will start near the terrain your bias desires. For example, on an Earth map with a cold Scandinavia, all of Europe could be considered one "Tundra" region, which would mean that Russia with its tundra bias, is equally likely to start in Spain as it is in Sweden. River and coast biases are self-explanatory, and a non-region bias merely means the civilization will spawn in any region other than the aforementioned.

America: Rivers? (Patch notes say this was removed, but it still shows up in the xml)
Arabia: Desert (not oil, but the desert tends to have plenty of it)
Aztec: Jungle
Denmark: Coast
Egypt: Not Jungle or Forest (IE, they'll start in any region that isn't jungle/forest)
England: Coast
Inca: Hills
India: Grass
Iroquois: Forest
Mongolia: Plains (where horses are most common)
Ottomans: Coast
Polynesia: Coast
Russia: Tundra
Siam: Not Jungle
Songhai: Not Tundra
Spain: Coast

Other civs: Do not have any bias. Getting iron with Rome comes down to luck, alas

 

[Pouakai]

When I played on an earth map as Monte I spawned halfway between the great lakes of NA and the Jungles of the RL Aztec homeland

 

[Solver]

Monty does have a Jungle bias, Catherine has a Tundra bias.

 

[Pouakai]

I think Arabia has a desert bias and Ottoman an ocean bias? Polynesia definately has an ocean bias.

 

[Doctor Phibes]

There's a strong forest bias for Hiawatha, who I've been playing lately. (It's only fair, he would be a dead duck in a desert.) Tends to be towards the edge of the tundra, so Cathy nearly always pops up as an (annoying) neighbour.

 

[Keejus]

Monty does have a Jungle bias

I know, but I mean like, is it just "spawn within x tiles of a jungle tile", or is it "somewhere with access to fresh water and also jungle", and in that case, how strong is his preference for either? There's clearly more going on than "there's tundra here and there; russia, go there".

I spawned in Spain as Russia when I played them, nowhere near any tundra (the nearest was in Finland/Sweden on a Huge map), so there's also clearly more going on here.

 

[Doctor Phibes]

I know, but I mean like, is it just "spawn within x tiles of a jungle tile", or is it "somewhere with access to fresh water and also jungle", and in that case, how strong is his preference for either? There's clearly more going on than "there's tundra here and there; russia, go there".

I spawned in Spain as Russia when I played them, nowhere near any tundra (the nearest was in Finland/Sweden on a Huge map), so there's also clearly more going on here.

I think it's a bias, not absolute, there seems to be a random factor. But in any case, taking Russia, their UA means that they can deploy it almost anywhere, as long as there are strategic resources. But the Iroquois need forest, and England needs the sea.

Almost worth going through the list to see who can use any kind of terrain and who is more specialised. It shouldn't matter where you put the Egyptians either, I'd say, though they do seem to turn up on the edge of desert...

 

[Solver]

Yeah, the biases are just that, biases. The map is divided into regions by the map generator... a jungle bias means the civ is likely to start in a jungle region. That may not happen for some other reason though. And I believe the biases just indicate what terrain region is preferred, nothing as strong as "within x tiles of a lake", etc.

 

[Pouakai]

I heard something about Washington having a River bias, based on an early development version of their UA.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

Keejus, Jaroth's spreadsheet wasn't enough to deduct any such bias for specific Civs attributes, or what?
Flavors for TileImprovement & plenty more hints on what they are focusing on.

 

[Doctor Phibes]

Keejus, Jaroth's spreadsheet wasn't enough to deduct any such bias for specific Civs attributes, or what?
Flavors for TileImprovement & plenty more hints on what they are focusing on.

Great spreadsheet in general. But I don't see it helps with the OP's question much except to tell us that England and Polynesia are biased towards water tiles, which is the one thing we already knew...

 

[Zyxpsilon]

If production or growth is their focus - should they go for Mines or Farms?
duh-

As for any of their starting bias i recon, it's more of a totally random factor with a clear splash of specific setting options (by map & resources) thrown in.
Ref; AssignStartingPlots.lua... search in the block of text.

 

[Solver]

It's in the Civ5Civilizations.xml file, actually. A quick look shows that Arabia prefers Desert, Aztecs prefer Jungle, India prefers Grassland, Iroquois prefer Forest and Russia prefers tundra. Also, some civs avoid some terrains. Egypt avoids Jungle and Forest, Siam avoids Forest, Songhai avoids Tundra.

Note once again that these mean where a civ is likely (or unlikely) to start, but does not guarantee anything.

 

[Keejus]

Ah, I see. Thanks!

I was kinda hoping for a complex algorithm or something, though. Ah well

 

[Doctor Phibes]

It's in the Civ5Civilizations.xml file, actually. A quick look shows that Arabia prefers Desert, Aztecs prefer Jungle, India prefers Grassland, Iroquois prefer Forest and Russia prefers tundra. Also, some civs avoid some terrains. Egypt avoids Jungle and Forest, Siam avoids Forest, Songhai avoids Tundra.

Note once again that these mean where a civ is likely (or unlikely) to start, but does not guarantee anything.

Thanks, should have thought to look in the xml, I blame this head cold.

 

[magnus333]

Here is the full list:

<!-- NOTE TO MODDERS: Each Civ can belong to only one of the four Start Bias categories, listed below. -->
	<!-- If a Civ has entries in any of the four following tables, any entries in later tables will end up being ignored. -->
	<!-- So... Coastal bias trumps River bias trumps Region Priority trumps Region Avoid. -->
	<!-- The best practice is to pick only one of the four types (or none), for each civilization. -->
	<Civilization_Start_Along_Ocean>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_ENGLAND</CivilizationType>
			<StartAlongOcean>true</StartAlongOcean>
		</Row>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_OTTOMAN</CivilizationType>
			<StartAlongOcean>true</StartAlongOcean>
		</Row>
	</Civilization_Start_Along_Ocean>
	<Civilization_Start_Along_River>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_AMERICA</CivilizationType>
			<StartAlongRiver>true</StartAlongRiver>
		</Row>
	</Civilization_Start_Along_River>
	<!-- NOTE TO MODDERS: Both single and multiple entries for Region Priority (per Civ) are supported! -->
	<!-- If a Civ has one Priority, then on maps without a region of that type, fallback methods apply. -->
	<!-- The fallback methods will match the given civ with a region that has the most tiles of the priority terrain type. -->
	<!-- For instance, if Russia is set for Tundra priority but a map has no Tundra regions, they will look for a region that has some tundra. -->
	<!-- If a Civ is given multiple priorities, fallbacks are not used: the bias isn't applied when a map has none of those region types. -->
	<Civilization_Start_Region_Priority>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_ARABIA</CivilizationType>
			<RegionType>REGION_DESERT</RegionType>
		</Row>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_AZTEC</CivilizationType>
			<RegionType>REGION_JUNGLE</RegionType>
		</Row>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_INDIA</CivilizationType>
			<RegionType>REGION_GRASS</RegionType>
		</Row>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_IROQUOIS</CivilizationType>
			<RegionType>REGION_FOREST</RegionType>
		</Row>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_RUSSIA</CivilizationType>
			<RegionType>REGION_TUNDRA</RegionType>
		</Row>
	</Civilization_Start_Region_Priority>
	<!-- NOTE TO MODDERS: Both single and multiple entries for Region Avoid (per Civ) are supported! -->
	<!-- Region Avoid only kicks in for Civs that do not have a Coast, River or Priority need. -->
	<!-- If a civ cannot avoid being placed in types it tries to avoid, the Avoid has to be ignored. -->
	<Civilization_Start_Region_Avoid>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_EGYPT</CivilizationType>
			<RegionType>REGION_JUNGLE</RegionType>
		</Row>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_EGYPT</CivilizationType>
			<RegionType>REGION_FOREST</RegionType>
		</Row>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_SIAM</CivilizationType>
			<RegionType>REGION_FOREST</RegionType>
		</Row>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_SONGHAI</CivilizationType>
			<RegionType>REGION_TUNDRA</RegionType>
		</Row>
	</Civilization_Start_Region_Avoid>

Mongolia:

	<Civilization_Start_Region_Priority>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_MONGOL</CivilizationType>
			<RegionType>REGION_PLAINS</RegionType>
		</Row>
	</Civilization_Start_Region_Priority>

Spain and Inca:

	<Civilization_Start_Along_Ocean>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_SPAIN</CivilizationType>
			<StartAlongOcean>true</StartAlongOcean>
		</Row>
	</Civilization_Start_Along_Ocean>
	<Civilization_Start_Region_Priority>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_INCA</CivilizationType>
			<RegionType>REGION_HILLS</RegionType>
		</Row>
	</Civilization_Start_Region_Priority>

Polynesia:

	<Civilization_Start_Along_Ocean>
		<Row>
			<CivilizationType>CIVILIZATION_POLYNESIA</CivilizationType>
			<StartAlongOcean>true</StartAlongOcean>
		</Row>
	</Civilization_Start_Along_Ocean>

Babylon doesn't have any.

 

[Zyxpsilon]

It's in the Civ5Civilizations.xml file, actually.

Gee, how could i have missed that other file too?
But - wait, there's even *MORE* modifiers present in some *.xml lines.
Want the whole rest of the highly complex Ʃ equation?

 

[Doctor Phibes]

Gee, how could i have missed that other file too?
But - wait, there's even *MORE* modifiers present in some *.xml lines.
Want the whole rest of the highly complex Ʃ equation?

Well, you're doing our homework for us, but go on then...

 

[NukeAJS]

Arabia definitely has an oil bias. Not sure if this is due to desert tiles, or if it's more likely for oil to pop on their oil tiles. I kinda suspect it's both.

 

[magnus333]

Oil only spawns in desert, tundra and ocean. In the default map scripts anyway.