Number of barb camps should drop after Medieval era

[Art Morte]

I think barbarians are great early on in the game (and I don't get people who turn them off).

But after about the mid-point in a game, they become only a nuisance that no longer pose any real danger. From Industrial era on, it starts to feel increasingly stupid having to clear barb camps on the outskirts of the "civilized" world. It also doesn't make much sense that in the later eras there are constantly barbarians popping up. Doesn't reflect reality.

Basically, barbarian camps add nothing to the game in the later eras and I think the number of their camps should begin to drop after Medieval era and become extinct by Information era.


As a side note, why isn't there an icon on the right-hand side among other notices that you could click when a new camp spawns and it would take you there? Now there is only the sound - so you are made aware of new camps - but you have to find them yourself. Stupid and annoying.

 

[Sostratus]

Barbarians are great in the early game- it forces players to adapt and not use the same build order every game.
I do, however, think that as the game goes on, unsettled regions of the world should still have their inhabitants- but they should be a little more rewarding/enticing as the units they bring to bear get more advanced. Coastal encampments near players could become pirate coves that focus on high seas trade plundering. Some spots could become their own enclaves, creating something analogous to our encampment district that is more of a base they defend. Aggressive horde-invaders that target nearby CS/player cities. Areas far from the control of major civs could spawn their own settlements after a while- Free Cities under no protection but their own, yet trade targets and having a semblance of diplomacy. These types of things could come about after the early phase of the game, and in exchange offer much more substantive rewards than 50 gold.

When civilization was young, the untamed unknown surrounded them. Now, however, we don't see divisions of mechanized infantry invading from siberia and the amazon rainforest.
At the very least, they could give major civs larger and larger bonuses against barbs. After all, more and more disciplined armies will make quick work of 'savages' in open combat.

And, barbs should stop getting state of the art tech eventually. I think they need to do a little Civ5 style "barbarian unique units" so they can have groups of musket wielding outlaws, as opposed to organized troops of riflemen. That said, they need to radically rethink horsemen encampments. It's just too high variance of a threat turn 1, especially considering that spearmen are terrible. At least cut down the radius from 6 tiles to 1-3.

 

[dunkleosteus]

Barbarians are used to represent every non-civilization. I think that's sort of the theme of the game, where settled, urban people are the "good guys" and nomadic people or hunter-gatherers are the "bad guys".

That's my interpretation of the early game, at least. I think the barbarians begin as the people that didn't adopt agriculture and settle down. Now we're expanding our territory, chopping down forests and tilling the earth that used to support their way of life. They are understandably ticked off.

Later, barbarians come to represent any people that forgo the rule of a state. This could mean terrorists, bandits, pirates, or revolutionaries.

I think that the pirate or bandit type barbarians should spawn near civs. Their technology level should be a few techs behind the civs they spawn "from" (implying these people came from those civilizations). Barbarians on uninhabited islands should not advance very much throughout the game.

Some instances where this was irritating: I had a game where china ran away with tech. China was on another continent and as I was developing field cannons, barbarian AT crews swamped my city.

How does that even happen? How do barbarians get ahold of weapons that even I don't have? Was China supplying them with weapons? Was this a secret attempt to sabotage me? (No, it wasn't).

Another time, I discovered an uninhabited continent. I was the first one there (no city states even) and I arrived to find barbarian musketmen. No clue how they managed to develop firearms by themselves, but apparently they did.

I think city states and barbarians should not develop technology based on the average tech of the world, they should develop tech based on the civs they've met. The farther they are behind civs they know, the faster they advance. If I arrive in the "new" world, I should find stone age people, or classical era. Not city states on par with me.