@DanQuayle Thanks for pointing out Barbarian_ClansMode_Events.csv, had a look there as well, and it's now pretty clear how the points counter works (may include minor math and spoilers if you prefer the, uh, "mystery")
- The threshold for conversion does scale with pace. In quick, camps turn to city states at 80 points (standard is 120).
- The food value around the camp is tracked, but has
no discernible influence. Hard to say why, it would make a lot of sense it it had. All camps will take the exact same amount of turns to conversion unless interacted with.
- At an increment chance of "0" (which means 100% for testing, keep in mind it's 50% at default) each camp ticks up by one point per turn until the count reaches 8 (this is on quick pace). It then accelerates to two points per turn until it reaches 22, then it starts to increment by three etc. (There's probably some sort of exponential formular for this) A lower increment chance ( = higher values for
BARBARIAN_CLANS_CIV_CONVERSION_INCREMENT_CHANCE
) of course means that the game throws a dice every turn before, well, incrementing.
So the count is actually accelerating the higher it goes. Now the kicker: If you buy a unit from a camp, the count goes up by five points times the increment value - let's say the camp has 24 points, it would increment by three per turn, so if you buy a unit the camp adds 5x3 = 15 points.
The "too much math" version:
- The rise to conversion is actually exponential.
- Given the default 50% incrementing chance, buying a unit gives 10 turns of progress.
- Can confirm the AI can interact with the barbs, they just prefer not to (at least on Immortal/Deity, despite the occasional bribe).