Odd question - decrease freq of barbarians

[johnc214]

I like the challenge of barbarians and all, but I've found them appearing at excessive rates. I may be the only one who wants to do this, but is there a way to scale them back? I want to deal with some, but 3 or 10 new barb units a turn is ridiculous. Any way to do this? I don't want to turn them off, just scale back to a reasonable level.

[Blake]

Avoid playing settings with excessive land.

If you play games with the default settings the barbs should come in pretty reasonable numbers. Only highlands and Oasis might have significant barb problems.

But if you make a huge map with 4 civs then all bets are off .

[Jaybe]

Barbs are created based on the number of "Unowned" tiles (i.e., not under anyone's line of sight), and are specified in HandicapInfo.XML. Ranges from 150 (Settler difficulty) to 25 at Diety.

Increasing the number of civs will result in less barbs (by decreasing the Unowned tiles), decreasing number of civs will cause more.

Another way to reduce the barbs' focus on you is to edit the "iAIBarbarianBonus" in the above-mentioned file at the difficulty level(s) you play, making it equal to "iBarbarianBonus" at those levels. This would cause the barbs to give equal opportunity to both you and the AI, and not focus on you because you are the easier target.

[NFIH]

Originally posted by Jaybe


Another way to reduce the barbs' focus on you is to edit the "iAIBarbarianBonus" in the above-mentioned file at the difficulty level(s) you play, making it equal to "iBarbarianBonus" at those levels. This would cause the barbs to give equal opportunity to both you and the AI, and not focus on you because you are the easier target.

What exactly do the numbers mean? For example, if "iBarbarianBonus" is at -40, that seems to mean they have a negative 40% chance of attacking you. Is that right?

[Fosse]

I understand that barbarian spawn rate has nothing to do with unowned tiles, as stated above, but rather with currently unrevealed tiles.

That is, if any civ, human or AI, can currently see a tile then no barbarians may spawn there.

Or is it the case that the percentage of unowned land governs the rates at which they will spawn in any unrevealed tile?

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by NFIH
What exactly do the numbers mean? For example, if "iBarbarianBonus" is at -40, that seems to mean they have a negative 40% chance of attacking you. Is that right?

No, my understanding is that "-40" is the combat handicap you have over them, so at Settler difficulty barbs will attack you and the AI equally (since iBarbarianBonus & iAIBarbarianBonus are both -40).

What I have done is saved a HandicapInfo.XML in my CustomSettings folder with iBarbarianBonus & iAIBarbarianBonus both at zero for the difficulties I play at. Gives the barbs a 'minor civ' quality, your units get proper experience (if they survive) because the combat is tougher, and barbs don't focus on YOUR civ.

[Urban Ranger]

The number of barbarians also depends on the speed of the game. The higher the speed, the lower the number.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Blake
Only highlands and Oasis might have significant barb problems.

Also Pangea and Inland Sea.

[Prussia]

You might also have allowed the barbarians to grow, as sometimes they have their own personalities and will actually settle down, make cities, and begin an empire, at which point they will start making more advanced units like Horse Archers and swordsmen.

But they are still pretty easy to deal with until you get to Emperor. But then... Oh boy....