BtS: Colonisation port

[Dale]

Hi all!

I'm going to give you all a chance to put on designer's hats, and tell me your answer to the following question:

If you were given the project Colonisation II, what would you change from the original?

For instance, I would do away with slaves and indentured servants, and just have colonists. In my games I either used those types for early scouts or cheap infantry to kill off the Aztecs and Incas.

[Fleme]

Oh my god! I loved colonization so much!

Is there going to be a second one? Or a scenario for Civ?


Well for one I'd like for the unit cap to be removed because I always ended up at the cap and it was no fun plus it limited the amount of cities one could realistically have. The city radius would also need to be grown to the civ-sized cross. I'd also have some infrastructure created for the more developed Native American cultures, the Incas and the Aztecs. Surely they had some road networks? Multiplayer mode would also be real sweet.

I'll think of more later. I'd LOVE to see colonization 2.

Edit 1: I would like for the diplomacy to be improved. There are a lot of options that are missing in the original.

[wodan11]

Re: BtS: Colonisation port

Originally posted by Dale
If you were given the project Colonisation II, what would you change from the original?

Add in the SMAC leaders, and the excellent backstory. Also, add in many of the SMAC mechanics as well as the best of CIV's mechanics. Get rid of Colonization's mechanics that don't fit with the resulting compilation so that it's a coherent whole.

Wodan

[Hydro]

Woden - heck, if you're going to do all that then scrub Colonization II and just make SMAC II!!! Now THAT would be great!

Never played Colonization, though. I wonder if it is still in a bargan bin somewhere?

Hydro

[Darsnan]

Re: Re: BtS: Colonisation port

Originally posted by wodan11

Add in the SMAC leaders, and the excellent backstory. Also, add in many of the SMAC mechanics as well as the best of CIV's mechanics. Get rid of Colonization's mechanics that don't fit with the resulting compilation so that it's a coherent whole.

Wodan

I'd given this some thought in the past as well. Essentially my thoughts were as follows:

1. Replace the colony with a solar system which the player then needs to cultivate.

2. Access to the solar system would be via wormholes, which would be a player defined variable parameter: the more wormholes connecting to the solar system, the more trade revenue from other connecting solar systems. However the more wormholes connecting to the solar system, the greater access to pirates, maurauding aliens, and eventually to the motherworld's fleets when you try to break away.

3. Improvements would need to be cultivated on habitable worlds and asteroids. The terraforming of marginal worlds (or uninhabitable worlds at the beginning of the game) would be an option as well.

4. Natives would be replaced by aliens or renegade human settlers. The difficulty level chosen by a player would then be linked to the tech level of these natives, and the player would then have to deal with them as such (i.e. the higher the difficulty rating, the higher the tech level of these natives, meaning they will be more likely to have spread throughout the solar system, which the player will then need to negotiate with the natives for access rights to various resources).

5. Exploration of the solar system would yield resource bonuses and artifacts. These can be traded with the motherworld at an exhorbitantly taxed rate, or the player can try to get them by customs via the black market (which would have its own pitfalls and rewards).

6. When the player tries to break away from the motherworld, the player will have to guard each of the wormholes against invasion. At higher difficulty levels the motherworld would have the option of FTL which would allow them to pop fleets in at different locations within the solar system.


D

[Supr49er]

Enlarge the city radius.
Allow selection of any Founding Father.
Map Editor.
River canoe trade.

[wodan11]

Originally posted by Hydro
Woden - heck, if you're going to do all that then scrub Colonization II and just make SMAC II!!! Now THAT would be great!

Exactly my point.

That said, if, due to licensing / ownership headaches, the only possible option is to call it "Colonization" rather than SMAC, well then that's its own answer.

Wodan

[Dale]

I'm not going to make a SMAC clone. Maniac is already doing that.

[Supr49er]

Re: BtS: Colonisation port

Originally posted by Dale ... For instance, I would do away with slaves and indentured servants, and just have colonists. In my games I either used those types for early scouts or cheap infantry to kill off the Aztecs and Incas.

I just used a teacher to upgrade the criminal into an indentured servant. I then moved the indentured servant into native villages to get them expert experience.

[Dale]

Takes too long. Easier to give them 50 guns and attack the native village.

[Supr49er]

Originally posted by Dale
Takes too long. Easier to give them 50 guns and attack the native village.

I usually play the Dutch or French and hate to attack the villages.

[Common Sensei]

I'd almost always use criminals as missionaries.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Supr49er
Enlarge the city radius.
Allow selection of any Founding Father.
Map Editor.
River canoe trade.

The first two, at least in the Col original conception, would dramatically unbalance the game... there was a reason for those decisions

The latter two sound good though.

[Dilger]

Glad to hear it

Make a scenario that gives Victory Points for holding key areas....importance of New York, Sugar Islands, Spice Islands, Gold mines, Silver mines, etc. Spain and England start at war...France and England near war... and the Dutch neutral...what year do you start is another question....Portugal option?....if you could not tell but I am brainstorming...I created a board game based on Avalon Hill's Brittania for the Americas 15 years ago (also loosely based on Colonization)... some civs should be allowed to ally Portugal/Spain, France/Sioux England/Iroqouis...needless to say I am very interested in seeing your project become reality.

[Fleme]

Perhaps add in an option where you play as the natives with access to their own branch of the tech tree with some crossovers and so that you can make new types of units with technology / resources from the europeans (muskets)

Diseases brought by the Europeans? Don't stray too far away from the original concept though!

Anyways the Portuguese should be an option along with the ones in the original.