28th November 2004, 5:42 PM
It's really annoying when it wipes out relatively long posts...
Anyway, making barbarians more relevant and being able to set up alliances and treaties and stuff (bribe tribes to do things against your enemies, etc) would be good. Barbarians in history were a whole lot stronger and more important than they are in this game. Now, it presents problems because of how in real history tribes developed over time while in Civ you can't do that because to compete you must be there from the start, but still, they could have a larger role... perhaps let them invade your territories, take over your cities (upon which time they would either go into anarchy or into barbarian control), and in time assimilate the barbarians into your culture, strengthening it... this would require stronger barbarians, of course, but it'd be neat. And if you want you could lower their strength with the barbarian frequency slider that's already there.
As for the late game, having them be so impressed with your technology that they follow you doesn't seem like it's either particularly historically accurate or a good idea. More accurate would be you just wiping them out... by that point in the game anyway there usually aren't that many barbarians left to bother you so it's less of a problem. But definitely their usefulness should peak and then decline and then by the later game they wouldn't have much use except to destroy or assimilate.
Anyway, making barbarians more relevant and being able to set up alliances and treaties and stuff (bribe tribes to do things against your enemies, etc) would be good. Barbarians in history were a whole lot stronger and more important than they are in this game. Now, it presents problems because of how in real history tribes developed over time while in Civ you can't do that because to compete you must be there from the start, but still, they could have a larger role... perhaps let them invade your territories, take over your cities (upon which time they would either go into anarchy or into barbarian control), and in time assimilate the barbarians into your culture, strengthening it... this would require stronger barbarians, of course, but it'd be neat. And if you want you could lower their strength with the barbarian frequency slider that's already there.
As for the late game, having them be so impressed with your technology that they follow you doesn't seem like it's either particularly historically accurate or a good idea. More accurate would be you just wiping them out... by that point in the game anyway there usually aren't that many barbarians left to bother you so it's less of a problem. But definitely their usefulness should peak and then decline and then by the later game they wouldn't have much use except to destroy or assimilate.