Features of Colonization?

[Ekmek]

I never got colonization, but heard it was enjoyed by many. Can any one tell me what the significant features of colonization are compared to civ1 or civ2 or where there is FAQ about it?

[conmcb25]

Much more orientated towardss of course colonization of the new world by four different powers (you choose one) and then as you colonize trying to develop your colonies to the point where you can declare independence and then win the war for independence.

[Ekmek]

thanks,

how did the resources work?

[AoA]

Its a nice change from civ.
Grain and Fish resources for food and colony growth
Buildings require both Wood and Ore ....not just generic shields....to be collected (which must be converted to Tools to finally build)
Special resources are actually useful, not vague concepts as in Civ3. You can grow tobacco, furs, sugar and something else??? on grassland or swamp or whatever and plow the land the improve the collection rate. Then sell it or convert to Cigars, Coats or Rum.

Biggest difference is a more personal connection with your citizens. They're not generic people...maybe its seeing the individual people standing in your city You can train them to be Soldiers or Lumberjacks or Blacksmith or Tobacco Planters or Tobacconists and the specialists have improved working skills.
Love this game....LOVE THIS GAME!!!!!!!!!

[Panda]

Let's see...

• four nations for choice, each with special attributes
  very micro-management orientated, but mostly free-style play
  colony building, resource management (every terrain square produces something of unique types, i.e. lumber, furs, food, tobacco, sugar, cotton, silver, ore, fish.
  Develop New World: clear forests, build roads, farmland.
  ICS inhibited by production penalties based on liberty rating (see below)
  economics: sell primary resources or produce goods to sell to mother country, trade with Indians, or other Europeans.
  Manage relations with various Indian tribes, i.e peaceful co-existence (a French attribute) or conquest (a Spanish attribute - extra booty)
  Exploration of New World or random maps, inc various naval units, inc Privateering
  Dscover lost cities of gold, the fountain of youth! or disturb indian burial grounds and get massacred
  Build own dockyards through to naval bases
  Increase colonial defences from stockades to fortresses
  Wars with other colonial powers: produce dragoons (using colonists, muskets, and horses) and cannon (using tools and lots of time),or buy from mother country
  Colonial development: learn from natives (esp Master Sugar, Tobacco, and Cotton Planters, only from natives or very rare random skill increase. Import specialists from Europe. Build educational facilities for colonial training from Petty Criminals, Indentured Servants, or Free Colonists.
  Further colonial liberty through statesmanship for bonuses and eventual declaration of independence
  Recruit "founding fathers" bestowing unique bonuses(like Wonders of World bonuses)
  Cope with taxes from mother country; declare boycotts
  Fight war for independence from mother country.

There is a cheat mode, for legacy debugging purposes, which in theory would allow custom maps for scenario purposes, but these would have to played from saved game positions and were not really explored at the time.

The game does include a .mp for playing a game in the Americas, so again if the format was known you could in theory make a custom map to replace that .mp file and play a new game using your custom map.

Colonization for Windows, if you can find it, is fully compatible for XP, and includes .wav files for unit sounds, so again there is the possibility of customization.

A classic game worthy of an open-source petition.

[Ekmek]

woow it sounds great. but it also sounds similar to 1602AD is that right?

[Changmai Beagle]

Very Different from 1602

First - turn based. I spent a lot of time optimizing my production facilities etc.

[gerf]

Originally posted by E
woow it sounds great. but it also sounds similar to 1602AD is that right?

No, 1602 sucked.

Colonization was/is much like Civ in overall feel.

Shipping is similar, movement is similar, colonizing is similar too.

Instead of researching techs, you get Founding Fathers. Instead of researching science, you have town halls with people in them creating more "Liberty Bells" which 1) help get more FF'ers, 2) increase city patriotism 3) give city bonuses at 50 and 100% of the population supporting revolution, and 4) eventually allow you to declare independence, and "win"

the goal is war, and the only chance of a win



What a crack game. I bought it back when I was a kid for about 20 bucks. I got the game on floppy disks, so even though the disks are dead, I still have a copy floating around in a .zip file. w00t!!

[aegisx]

Used to have alot of fun arming the indians with muskets and horses and having them fight my wars for me.

[TimHobbit]

I have started playing Colonization again

I have started playing Colonization (COL) again recently. My old laptop doesn't have enough disk space for CivIII or even CivII, but COL only takes up a fraction of the space and is still as time-stealing/obsesive as I remember it. If someone would update the graphics this would still be a better game then many that are out there.

The biggest problem with playing a 10 year old game is finding support and files for it. This is one of the few places that still have a few live links to COL files.

I strongly recommend that you dust off those old diskettes ( or in my case a CD with all of Sid Meier's old games) and try out COL again.

Ben Franklin lives again!

[Ekmek]

I'm impressed this thread and colonization gets so much attention.

Can anyone post screenshots of managing the resources (cotton etc) that stuff sounds interesting.

[willgamer]

Re: I have started playing Colonization again

Originally posted by TimHobbit
I have started playing Colonization (COL) again recently.... Ben Franklin lives again!

Me too! CivIV seems very boring compared to COL, for many of the above reasons.

Just to add to the list, COL has a wonderful sim of the home country markets. Super high prices paid to incent producing a particular good, then huge crashes when it is over produced. Example, Silver usually can be sold back in the home country for around $20/unit. When over produced, by ALL players, it will literally fall to $1/unit. Over buying has a similar, opposite effect.

Combat is unique in that the first loss to cavalry is the horses, dropping the unit back to infantry. If the infantry loses, it drops back to a colonist. If that unit loses it is captured! Natural advantage to a town well stocked with horses and muskets.

This, in turn, prompts more choices about how much storage to build, corrals for horses, etc. The feeling of making a ton of decisions that matter is incredible in this game!

[Gezz Inti]

COL is so beautifully multilayered. First the home country is on your side and you face the natives. Then the "fellow" Europeans. Later the king starts to exploit you and you finally turn against him. The process and gamebalance is great.
Which game confronts you with paradigmatically different antagonists, which can also be to your advantage and used against the others? I haven't found a similar experience in any other game within my more than 20 years of strategy gaming.

[gerf]

Personally, I like having to mini-manage like in Colonization, than macro-manage like Civ4. The city management is much more interesting than civ's.