First of all, thanks for the great work. You guys have really done well extending FFH - love all of the content!
Don't know if this is a bug or not..my family and I spent the last week trying to play co-op MP RIFE several times. We've done this for years in FFH, FF, BTS as well as Civ V. Usually we do well, but we ran into real problems with walls of barbarians (for the most part) in the ~3 games we played, to the point we really were bogging down and decided to start over (thus the 3 games)...we thought we really needed to just learn more about the civs we were playing. But by the third time, I had to wonder if it was a bug, or a feature
Specifics - MP co-op, as mentioned. Huge map, 12 total players (9 AIs). The three of us were playing Hamstalfar, Mekaran Order and Mechanos. The last game made it to turn 197.
In all of the games, it seemed like the open areas that weren't controlled by civs really were exploding with barbarians after 100-150 turns. But in this last game I had a situation which was quite the opposite (it seems) of this comment:
AI Problems
Barbarians, Scorpion Clan Goblins especially, seem to have some problems. They will attack anything that moves beside them, but rarely will they move deliberately at cities. Orcs from the "Savage" clan do not seem to have this problem.
Over the course of several turns, starting about 190, I had a constant parade of scorpion clan goblins come down a passage between some mountains and coast. Stacks ranging from 3-8 in size, one new one appearing (at the furthest range of my viewing on the map) each turn, heading directly towards one of my cities. 7-8 turns in a row. Overwhelmed both towers I had manned (no surprise) along the passage, and I ended up with more than 30 of them pouring into my territory.
I don't *think* that they were coming from Acheron (I think he was in the other direction) but haven't investigated that. There was a new barbarian city in that area that had cropped up after I had lost my most distant tower...but I think it appeared after the "parade" started.
Is the high volume of barbarians after the first 100-150 turns expected? Is such a huge army something that makes any sense? I've never seen the barbarians with such a force in any version of civ. Is this an artifact, perhaps, of playing in MP? I know some comments have been made about MP not working well..
Thanks again. I know you guys are moving on, but may have one last patch in the works. We are trying to decide whether or not playing RIFE MP co-op is a lost cause for us or not. Either way, though, great work on the modmod, again