Something should be done with Barbatos

[Yong]

In my last game the poor Khazad was eliminated on Turn 4 or 5 (BTW why is turn number never shown in Event Log?), the attached screenshot should be very self explainatory

I also remembered I had the expereice of restarting a game immediately after seeing Barbatos was right to me starting location.

Personally I think either:
1. A check should be done to ensure Barbatos does not start too close to a player
or:
2. Barbatos should summon something which cannot enter culture boarder

 

[rusty217]

Well if his summons couldn't enter borders then he would be kind of pointless as it would be too easy to avoid him, as it is, he makes an interesting feature..

If he couldn't appear near starting locations that would be good, what about if he could have his own island? Could be interesting....

 

[Scapel_Scythe]

Personally, I think that Barbatos is weak. He gets killed way too easily by the AIs in my games as well as Orthus. However, I do agree that he should not be causing problems on the get-go; he should be cauing problems for the 2nd+ cities. Would be any way to add something into the starting location preferences to avoid the Broken Scpeteur(wrong spelling)? Or perhaps you could give the his summons a new promotion that doesn't allow going into cities because you yourself want the AI to survive but not necessarily make Barbatos a non-factor. Also, any solution is implemented; we could give him his tier 3 summons back so he won't get killed before Orthus arrives at least.

 

[rusty217]

Or what about an update to the AI that would make them have to be a certain distance away from Barbatos to settle a city, and if they aren't then they move away from him...

 

[Scapel_Scythe]

Heh, you could make Barbatos visible to everyone like with the Elohim and then add a function to check for distance from Barbatos and then move away from him if he is within a certain radius.
If that's what your asking for.

 

[reveler]

I usually do a quick twist with my starting settler and, voilá, all my immediate vicinity is visible and thus I never had the problem and I enjoy the free mana source later on.

What is really challenging is Archeron next door for his culture boost.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Barbatos is more annoying in Advanced Start games. You can't move around to find him, and there is only a limit area you are allowed to settle.

I'm starting to think that giving his summons a promotions that makes them unable to enter cultural borders could be good. (I think this require xienwolf's modcomp) Maybe the promotion should also randomly wear off and/or be removed by combat.

 

[SwampCow]

Yeah, regardless of what anyone may or may not think in regards to this guy, it is never good to have a unique feature in a game that can immediately stifle or destroy any civ before the game even starts. AI civs near him almost never get past a cpl cities if they aren't outright destroyed. And if you are unfortunate enough to have him near you, then you need to be really lucky geographically to work around him. Otherwise you are boned.

I like the idea of his own island or, for non-island maps, maybe a valley with three sides walled off so it is a larger area feature, but self contained. Then it can be a race between civs to see who can enter his realm and topple him, much like Acheron.

 

[daladinn]

the idea of locking barbatos out as an option was asked for but never placed in.

we can lock out several others , but i guess he is soo important that he needs to be in game

 

[Wyrmhero]

You can actually destroy Barbatos' lair on turn 0, before he is spawned, if you are quick enough, say with your starting Settler. And if you can't reach him that way, you can run the other way to keep yourself alive.

 

[rusty217]

You can actually destroy Barbatos' lair on turn 0, before he is spawned, if you are quick enough, say with your starting Settler. And if you can't reach him that way, you can run the other way to keep yourself alive.

Maybe the player can, but can the AI do either?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I hadn't thought of that. You lose out on getting the Staff of Souls that way though.

It is not possible in an advanced start game though, since all the units you buy start with no movement left.

 

[smjjames]

If he spawns on an island, that would probably be better for everybody. I saw him spawn on a one tile island off the coast once, so it's possible for him to spawn there, but unlikely.

AFAIK none of his summons can waterwalk.

 

[CMHistory]

Couldn't the Broken Sepulcher be altered to have the same presets for location as a starting Civilization? Basically give Barbatos' location the same flags as an AI civ, thus ensuring he is just as far from everyone else at the start of the game as they are from each other?

Don't know how easily programmable this would be, but both functions are already in the game....

 

[Demus]

Couldn't the Broken Sepulcher be altered to have the same presets for location as a starting Civilization? Basically give Barbatos' location the same flags as an AI civ, thus ensuring he is just as far from everyone else at the start of the game as they are from each other?

Don't know how easily programmable this would be, but both functions are already in the game....

great idea! this would still allow for the barbatos "zone of death", without him actually diminishing civ count.

 

[Blackmantle]

I for one think different here. I find him rather boring since he got nerfed. Time to give summoning back to the Barbarian State. He was rather fun back then.

All the big baddies laid to a chain is rather boring. (Even though Marnox explorable Lairs "fix" that problem. And in force.)


And him diminishing civ count is fine with me as well. Erebus is a dark world after all. Nothing to be found their that whould have a place on a poster a little girls room...
And thats why a master of death and earth magic should really be scary imo.

RIP old summoner lich and Kylorins prime student in the domain of death .
You made players so scared they called to put you on a chain.


I agree on the need to teach the AI to flee the sepulcher though. Him killing civs of seems alright. Them presenting themselves for extinction on a plater seems not.
The barb-friendly Civs allready do nicely by founding cities next to him or even on the place of the Sepulcher. Which is a very nice feature. Can be done by the player as well.

 

[Caradoc]

You could call the island "Barbados" and he could grow Sugar.

 

[smjjames]

You could call the island "Barbados" and he could grow Sugar.

lol




tencharlimit........

 

[reveler]

why would anyone bother to find barbatos on the island? after all, you just get a death mana node?

 

[blargx]

Lets lynch him and beat him up so bad he will never want to come back to Erebrus.

But joking aside I do find him annoying, not so much for me but for AI that die to him so fast. I also think Orthus is too weak, often getting killed before he captures a single city.