Tech boosts from Barbarian Clans

[Minou]

I've been wondering about this for a long time. It seems like I randomly get free tech boosts from clearing Barbarian Outposts (playing with Barbarian Clans mode on) in some games and none in others. The most advanced tech I have scored so far is Machinery and I think it was on T54. Three turns later I cleared another outpost and got a second tech boost (Masonry). I feel like I have gotten Ancient Era boosts like Irrigation reasonably often but Machinery was certainly a surprise.

For anyone who has experienced this I would love to gather some data points. What's the most advanced boost you have gained? What is the earliest/latest turn you got a boost? The most in one game?

I get the impression that you have a higher chance of getting these early and I am not sure if this is because the chance scales down over time or that there is a higher chance of getting early techs (which goes away once they are completed).

 

[blackbutterfly]

I've been wondering about this for a long time. It seems like I randomly get free tech boosts from clearing Barbarian Outposts (playing with Barbarian Clans mode on) in some games and none in others. The most advanced tech I have scored so far is Machinery and I think it was on T54. Three turns later I cleared another outpost and got a second tech boost (Masonry). I feel like I have gotten Ancient Era boosts like Irrigation reasonably often but Machinery was certainly a surprise.

Redditers say apparently everyone BUT Gilgamesh are getting the boosts from clearing barb clans:
Sounds like a bug to me

https://www.reddit.com/r/civ6/comments/npj5i0

 

[Minou]

I don't think it is a bug giving the Gilgamesh ability to other Civs, since I have only ever gotten tech boosts but never other tribal village rewards like gold/faith/relics. Curious whether there is a cutoff (in which case you should try and clear camps ASAP for the chance of boosts) and whether anything influences the odds. Intuitively, I would think that the odds increase if you have relatively few techs completed or lag behind other Civs, but in the game where I got Machinery I was well ahead of all AIs (playing as Babylon this is very easy at T50).

 

[Noble Zarkon]

It seems like I randomly get free tech boosts from clearing Barbarian Outposts (playing with Barbarian Clans mode on) in some games and none in others.

I've only ever seen this with Barbarian Clans mode, one of the main reasons I don't play with it on now.

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

I've only ever seen this with Barbarian Clans mode, one of the main reasons I don't play with it on now.

I honestly dont think it changes that much.
Last game I got like 2 boosts out of clearing camps, and they were boosts that I would have gotten myself anyway in that game.
What does help the player a lot though is not clearing them, but to farm barbarian camps by raiding them repeatedly for gold and using that gold to buy discounted barbarian units in the ancient era in order to sustain a rush.

 

[Deadly Dog]

I use this mode a lot and you don't always get a boost. But early on the chance seems high and the tech boost is most often Astrology or Irrigation, which I find incredibly useful. Otherwise I don't think the chance of getting a boost in later eras is very high.

What makes me laugh about Clans mode is how you can buy a cheap resource-dependant unit from them and get era score for being the "first" in the world to use that resource.

 

[Kwami]

What does help the player a lot though is not clearing them, but to farm barbarian camps by raiding them repeatedly for gold and using that gold to buy discounted barbarian units in the ancient era in order to sustain a rush.

And all of the extra city states that spawn throughout the game, which are often easy to control and anyway combine to provide way more than the normal amount of bonuses to buildings.

 

[Minou]

Lately I have been playing games with all of the special modes on, to add some spice to the game. It can be kind of crazy in good or bad ways. Sometimes you get a good hero out on T20 and pair them with an Eagle Warrior hired from a barbarian clan. Other times your whole capital gets decimated by a blizzard and the city you just conquered gets eaten by the resurrected Zombie corpses of all the AI Scouts and Warriors you killed to conquer it.

 

[Infixo]

There is nothing in game files that would explain this behavior i.e. it is coded in the engine. We will never know if it is by design or by mistake. It just is and we cannot change it.