"Good" Barbarians?

[DonQuigleone]

When I was recently playing as the Elohim I was quite enjoying using the Monk unit and it's associated purity counter. Now the monks and the Elohim aroused in my imagination isolated monasteries in far off corners of the world protecting their relics and artifacts, so why not have the possibility of being able to encounter such isolated small communities? Why should all the creatures you encounter out in the wilds be out for your blood? Why can't some be friendly? There might be a few small bands of survivors who are not substantial enough to justify their own civilizations but might be willing to help travelling scouts who pass by, perhaps granting a place to heal and other things. They'd function similiarly to Goblin camps, with their own guards that get spawned, and be friendly to Good and neutral civilizations (and maybe Evil, but not Barbarian civilizations...), and be at war with barbarians and animals. Founding a city near one of these towns might grant you some benefits, like some bonus beginning population or something.

Another subset which could interact specifically with the Elohim could be the aforementioned "monasteries". Perhaps at all the unknown unique Features small monasteries could form spontaneously around them. Initially they'd just be a barrier to Evil Civs trying to use them, but if an Elohim player manages to get a reasonably experienced Monk there, he could join the monastery and "lead" it(or just found one of his own if one doesn't exist or got destroyed previously by barbarians). The monastery will get a buff and gradually get stronger, generate new recruits to protect the region, and the monk will leave the players faction and protect the monastery. The Elohim player will get repayed by getting the unique feature added to the Purity counter, Line of sight at the monastery, and additional benefits if he founds a city near it in future (for instance the monastery on the unique feature might act like a town and grant commerce, or send neophyte monks to help the city if it gets attacked, etc.

Obviously there are already tribal villages, but tribal villages rarely last past the initial 50-100 turns, these settlements would be more of a mid game thing, and not give such clear cut bonuses(and perhaps require some sacrifice). They could operate on a timer (similiar to cemeteries-> necropolises) and gradually get stronger, until they spawn a full city or even a new Civ. A player might have good reasons to help keep them alive and prosperous until such time as he can expand in that direction, at which point he collects a bonus. Or perhaps a village that he helps enough might spawn a free settler for him. The possibilities are boundless!

Anyway this is mostly supposed to be a way to give players more reasons to go outside their borders after of the initial rush of exploration and hut popping. Usually there's little to be gained as the wilderness is a death trap, but if there were some stuff like this, there would be enough possible rewards to coax players to brave the wilds. And I think it would make the world a bit more "alive".

 

[Neomega]

Interesting. Perhaps there can be guardians of places too, like dragon bones, and the tomb of sucellus.

 

[Breez]

my understanding that type of thing will be in Civ5 they will be like sub-civ's that you can ally or go to war with

 

[steampunk1880]

this thread title reminded me of that one time in my Grigori game when the Protectors of Erebus spawned from the Barbarian cities. now for some on topic.

That one unique feature that looks like a goody hut and pops the werewolf event when you step on it could do with some continuing adventures. Perhaps there could be a list of like 30 such "unique named villages" (only half a dozen should appear in one game to keep it a bit random) that pop a quest when you step on it and go dormant for 50-500 turns whereupon you can pop that quest again. It could be a small amount of gold for the 50 turn Unique Named Village or a chance for a major artifact for the 500 turn Unique Named Village. If we're doing this quest style there should be two choices. Only the first is available giving a 50/50 70/20 10/90 chance for a good/bad event (whatever chance the event seems to call for) UNLESS the village happens to be in your territory which opens up the second choice for an (almost) assured bonus.

EX: Brinthir's Crag: Looks like a mine. Resets every 50 turns Basically an independent dwarven settlement. 80/20. Get 50-150 gold/spawn one barbarian dwarven axeman in surrounding tiles. Bonus option for tile ownership: 80/20 Get 50-150 gold/spawn one dwarven axeman under your control on village.

Is it possible for a one time donation of 2000 gold or an artifact to have a Unique Named Village/Mine/Monastery/Whatever spit out a settler or military unit under your control every X amount of turns?

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

you know, this sounds like an excellent idea, neutral units that you can befriend or hire or whatever, like the ones in warcraft3 or age of wonders. me likey.

 

[Jabie]

After a goody hut is popped it could leave a Village behind on the tile. Evil Civs could then raze the village for money. Good civs could plant a city next to the Village and get an immediate boost for a starting city.

 

[esvath]

you know, this sounds like an excellent idea, neutral units that you can befriend or hire or whatever, like the ones in warcraft3 or age of wonders. me likey.

How about creating one improvement (not unique, but low spawn chance)? OnMove python then set to trigger Guild of Nine events (which event is determined by random number). Then you can hire any available unit(s) at any given time.

The main question is, is it possible to trigger events via python? Never done that.

 

[tesb]

How about creating one improvement (not unique, but low spawn chance)? OnMove python then set to trigger Guild of Nine events (which event is determined by random number). Then you can hire any available unit(s) at any given time.

The main question is, is it possible to trigger events via python? Never done that.

this can be done in a much simpler way:

just add a spell that requires this certain improvement (like treetop defense requires forests) and else is a copy of hire mercenary (the ability that is granted by guild of the nine). This way whenever you step on that improvement you can hire mercenaries, you could even change that to hire different units, like a settler or a worker for example.

 

[esvath]

this can be done in a much simpler way:

just add a spell that requires this certain improvement (like treetop defense requires forests) and else is a copy of hire mercenary (the ability that is granted by guild of the nine)

Oooooh... never thought about that!

I think I will tinker my modmod again :sigh:

 

[DonQuigleone]

my understanding that type of thing will be in Civ5 they will be like sub-civ's that you can ally or go to war with

You've pretty much hit the nail on the head. I was somewhat thinking in terms of that.

In fact this sort of thing is often present in other fantasy strategy games too, and the villages in question would be "safe zones" in the wilderness. This also makes the idea of having wilderness hang around for longer much more plausible, and interesting.

And of course I mentioned just one type of neutral village (monks protecting unique features) you could as easily have evil cults at the Broken Sepulchre, or communities of Elves in the forest, Dwarves lurking in the hills, Lizardmen in the jungles etc. etc.

If a particular area of land goes without one of the civs occupying it, I think it would be cool if a village could spawn the civ.

I'm glad you guys found my idea interesting, but unfortunately I'm not very familiar with modding Civ IV, though I'd be interesting in learning, doing something like this would be overly ambitious for me. I just thought I'd put the idea out there.