Tone down the barbarians?

[poorrabbit]

Does anyone have any plans to mod the barbarians? Right now the only options are "regular", off, and raging. I sometimes like to play with minimal competition (2-3 opponent civs, few city-states) on a large map. But, what happens is, the barbarians end up filling all the space in between.

So, I'd like to tone them down a bit, but not turn them off completely.

 

[Zadox]

If you are into editing XML files go here (or wherever you installed the game):

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\sid meier's civilization v\Assets\Gameplay\XML\GameInfo

And edit CIV5GameSpeeds.xml

I changed the <BarbPercent> from 100 to 75 for a Standard game and they don't pop up as often.

Edited to add:

You can also spread out the spawns by editing CIV5Worlds.xml and changing <FogTilesPerBarbarianCamp>

 

[Lands]

I changed the <BarbPercent> from 100 to 75 for a Standard game and they don't pop up as often.

I've been trying to figure out exactly what way this function affects Barbarian spawn rate.

I did some tests. I began two games using the same startup variables, except for the BarbPercent value which I tested at both 1 and 900. For the purposes of scouting I modified the training time so that I could produce one unit per turn. I was playing on a Standard map with city-states disabled and only one AI; I don't know if this adversely affected anything but I figured other civilizations spawning in random proximity might affect the numbers.

In the game where the value was set to 1, I found six barbarian camps in the first ten turns. When I set it to 900, I found five. Obviously this isn't an exact science but I'm even more confused than I was before. I also did testing with it at 300, 500, and 700 just to satisfy my curiosity but have nothing to show for it.

I noticed the default number increases as you chose longer game speeds. I'm not sure if this is to make barbarians spawn less to compensate for being able to build less military units per turn, or make them spawn more to give you more micro-managing to do since you have more turns with which to use your units.

I never really bothered to do any modding in Civ IV so I don't have any prior experience with this variable. I'm assuming you're right in that decreasing the number makes them spawn less, I'm just trying to figure out exactly how it works.

 

[Shiggs713]

well sir you would need to change this if you want to change how it acts on the game start;

<Row Name="BARBARIAN_CAMP_FIRST_TURN_PERCENT_OF_TARGET_TO_ADD">
			<Value>33</Value>
</Row>

and some of these wouldn't hurt either;

		<Row Name="BARBARIAN_CAMP_ODDS_OF_NEW_CAMP_SPAWNING">
			<Value>2</Value>
		</Row>
		<Row Name="BARBARIAN_CAMP_MINIMUM_DISTANCE_CAPITAL">
			<Value>4</Value>
		</Row>
		<Row Name="BARBARIAN_CAMP_MINIMUM_DISTANCE_ANOTHER_CAMP">
			<Value>7</Value>
		</Row>

they're all in GlobalDefines.xml

 

[Lands]

Thanks much, obviously I was missing a whole lot

 

[Shiggs713]

no problem, welcome to the forums

 

[Louis XXIV]

		<Row Name="BARBARIAN_CAMP_ODDS_OF_NEW_CAMP_SPAWNING">
			<Value>2</Value>

Is a low number good or bad?

 

[Shiggs713]

i would say low is low.

in all seriousness, lower will yield less camps. 2% might appear to be very very low, but on a big unexplored map, it checks that 2% on every hex with fog of war

 

[Louis XXIV]

OK, I wasn't sure that 2 was 2%

 

[poorrabbit]

Wow, thanks for all the info. Now all I have to do is figure out how to make a mod out of it for other people

 

[Zadox]

I've been trying to figure out exactly what way this function affects Barbarian spawn rate.

I did some tests. I began two games using the same startup variables, except for the BarbPercent value which I tested at both 1 and 900. For the purposes of scouting I modified the training time so that I could produce one unit per turn. I was playing on a Standard map with city-states disabled and only one AI; I don't know if this adversely affected anything but I figured other civilizations spawning in random proximity might affect the numbers.

In the game where the value was set to 1, I found six barbarian camps in the first ten turns. When I set it to 900, I found five. Obviously this isn't an exact science but I'm even more confused than I was before. I also did testing with it at 300, 500, and 700 just to satisfy my curiosity but have nothing to show for it.

I noticed the default number increases as you chose longer game speeds. I'm not sure if this is to make barbarians spawn less to compensate for being able to build less military units per turn, or make them spawn more to give you more micro-managing to do since you have more turns with which to use your units.

I never really bothered to do any modding in Civ IV so I don't have any prior experience with this variable. I'm assuming you're right in that decreasing the number makes them spawn less, I'm just trying to figure out exactly how it works.

Interesting. I made the changes as mentioned in my post and definitely noticed a difference in spawn rates and distances. I even did this on a running game (saved it, exited, made the changes, reloaded it).