DESIGN: Barbarian placement

[Martin Gühmann]

Actual this means units that cannot be build, that aren't land units, that cannot attack, aren't excluded (given by the MP options) and noone can have, because noone has the required advance yet, cannot be used for random appearing Barbs.

That means you never see Barbarian spies, slavers, etc. And they also forgot to implement something for pirates, like in Civ2.

-Martin

[Ekmek]

hmmmm...

that leads to yet another project I'll attempt sea pirates and creating a unit flag such as BarbarianOnly

[Ekmek]

I had another thought. I looked for how UnitBuildList.txt works. Got a little lost, but I think it might be useful to set up a buildlist that is for barbarians only. This way instead of using the player buildlist a modder can control a more preferred list of barbarians...

maybe in here?
C3cmdline.cpp

delete g_theUnitBuildListDB;
		g_theUnitBuildListDB= new CTPDatabase();
		Assert(g_theUnitBuildListDB); 
		if (g_theUnitBuildListDB) {
			lex = new DBLexer(C3DIR_AIDATA, g_unit_buildlist_db_filename);
			if (!g_theUnitBuildListDB->Parse(lex)) {
				Assert(FALSE);
				return;
			}
			delete lex;
		} else {
			return;
		}

[The Big Mc]

E this looks a good idea barbes.txt

We might want to add a flag for this file (can find in ruins ) and then make a slic hybrid file with ruins related finds in. an a header in this file or another could give the ruin types eg (ruin 1 = tile index 123) but this is another project.

[Martin Gühmann]

E what do you want with the lexer, if you just want that the Barbs get there units from a build list, just take the list that use the Barbs to decide which units to build. I don't see here the need for an additional file, maybe we could add this list to risk.txt, but that should it be. But actual I prefer the way it is. Using the technology that is in the world anyway.

-Martin

[Ekmek]

I was thinking of adding a build list that was just barbarians in the UnitBuildList. I figured it would give modders better options like in a Rome scenario only barbarian like units would be made instead of legions or in an epic game barbarians would use guerrillas instead of modern infantry.

[Mirimunchkin]

I know that it's a bit late in the day for any additional thoughts on this subject, but...

Why not reverse the game logic so that Barbarians are "discovered" by the human player(s)? Then all that's required is an algorithm which checks newly discovered (and none-AI controlled) Tiles for the possibility of Barbarian placement. That's usually, at least in the early game a max of 5 Tiles (10 if travelling along a river). There would also, I assume, need to be check to limit the number of Barbarians that a single unit/stack could encounter each turn (or not, if you want to be swamped).

Just seems a simpler method to me.

[Mirimunchkin]

PS
I agree with E regarding upgrading Barb units. It adds no pleasure to the game when a stack of Tanks is attacked by a lone Hoplite. Waste of processor usage.