Harder non-raging barbarians

[Ramesses]

Is there any way I can get barbarians to ignore the "stay outside culture barriers until X number of cities on continent" rule WITHOUT turning on Raging Barbarians? I want barbarians to start coming in as they begin to spawn without having them arrive in ridiculously overwhelming numbers.

 

[Ramesses]

Let me rephrase: is there some option you can change in the XML to change how many cities are needed before Barbarians can enter your territory?

 

[Cybah]

no, you would need to modify the dll/source files.

 

[Ramesses]

no, you would need to modify the dll/source files.

You know what, you're wrong. I actually found a way to do it without anyone's help.

Great job, guys. You really came through.

 

[Cybah]

Well, would you tell us the way then?

 

[davidlallen]

Please share the method you found so that others may use it as well.

 

[Ramesses]

All right, all right.

Well, the first thing I do is add a new difficulty to the list. I just copy and paste any difficulty ("Noble", preferably) in the Handicaps XML and rename it to something else, like "Custom". Then what I do is adjust the barbarian spawn values in this new difficulty (although I could be wrong). Now I think Raging Barbarians merely doubles the number of barbarians on the map as well as turning off the culture barrier. So I double the unowned tile:barbarian ratio to halve the number of barbarians that normally appear, and then switch Raging Barbs on. This doubles (again, correct me if I'm wrong) the halved amount, resulting in the normal amount of barbarians, but they can now enter your territory as soon as they spawn.

I'm still tweaking it, though.

 

[davidlallen]

(removed incorrect post)

 

[Ramesses]

Confession: I haven't gotten it to work yet.

I don't know why, but barbs aren't showing up at all on my maps (unless I WB them in; then they behave as expected). Maybe I have the unowned land:barbarians ratio set too high, and the animals are actually killing them all or something. I'll lower the ratio substantially and see what I get.

EDIT: Good news! It works. Now I just need to fine tune it so that the raging barbs are at about normal barb activity. I'll give the XML when it's ready. Just be aware that I'm playing games under very customized settings, so your mileage may vary.

 

[Ramesses]

As promised, here is the altered Civ4HandicapInfo XML. It's in .doc form, but it should appear in XML format. Save it to your \Assets\XML\GameInfo folder as an XML file. You shouldn't need to create a backup, the only change is an added custom difficulty option; everything else is intact.

Remember to turn on Raging Barbs for best results. Again, your mileage may vary with these settings. You may want to copy and paste some of the settings from other difficulties if it's too easy or hard, but leave anything with "Barbarian" in it alone.