Colonies

[TechWins]

Hey, I really think my two ideas " Maybe a way to have colonies be more worth while could be to have every colony generate one extra trade arrow to every city that it's connected to. As well, as providing the resource(s)." and "Another way could be to have colonies create a small border area. An 9 square colony radius. All resources that are in the radius could be distributed to all the cities, if linked to the colony from the resource then to all the cities." would really add some more value to colonies. What do you all think?

[Grumbold]

A colony that produces 9 squares of resources is as productive as a size 8 city. Adding trade arrows is interfering with the role that luxury resources are going to play. Having them farm the square they are built on would not be too bad.

[TechWins]

A colony that produces 9 squares of resources is as productive as a size 8 city. Adding trade arrows is interfering with the role that luxury resources are going to play. Having them farm the square they are built on would not be too bad.

You won't get 9 squares of resources with a 9 tile colony radius, unless there are 9 resources in that radius, which I seriously doubt would ever happen. If you got lucky, at best you might get 4 resources.

The colony would only add one trade arrow to every city that it's linked to. Colonies provided much trade to their motherland, this would represent the colonies giving back trade. Hnow does the trade arrow affect the luxury resources?

How would this work? "Having them farm the square they are built on would not be too bad."

I do thank you for at least replying to my statements.

[Grumbold]

Originally posted by TechWins
You won't get 9 squares of resources with a 9 tile colony radius, unless there are 9 resources in that radius, which I seriously doubt would ever happen. If you got lucky, at best you might get 4 resources.

I suppose it depens how dense they make the resource clumps. One colony pop is still achieving more than the same pop point in a city.

The colony would only add one trade arrow to every city that it's linked to. Colonies provided much trade to their motherland, this would represent the colonies giving back trade. Hnow does the trade arrow affect the luxury resources?

There are going to be resources that boost your empire wealth and culture rather than allow you to build units. This impinges on them if all colonies generate trade. It is also pro-ICS because it makes each colony more effective the more cities you build. 1 population is suddenly mining iron or uranium and generating more trade than a bank.

How would this work? "Having them farm the square they are built on would not be too bad."

Like SMAC supply crawlers, the home city gets the food, shield and trade output from the colony square (as well as supplying the resource to all connected cities). Unlike SMAC the colony can't move.

[joseph1944]

Originally posted by LightEning
If the colonies are useless, they are made useful. Yet another reason for Firaxis to take its time to tweak the game.

On one of the sites, it said "These screens represents the whole game. Meaning 4000BC to 2020AD. So the colonies would be swallow up by the year 1AD I would suspect".

[Grumbold]

Well I would take that with a pinch of salt because I haven't seen a screenshot of the game map that reminded me of any time much after the invention of musketeers and factories. The rocket cutscene seems to be their justification for quoting "the entire span of human history". I believe that testing has not yet reached a satisfactory level with the modern era otherwise we would be seeing screenshots of the map with modern city graphics, farmland, railroad and modern units like tanks and fighters. None of the shots give me the feel of a leading world nation.

[Sabre2th]

Considering how little information we have, I think it's a bit early to start worrying about stuff like this. I'm sure colonies will be very useful. If they weren't, Firaxis would certainly remove them.

[Grumbold]

I think of it the other way round. We know the game is well into development and that they would like, if possible, to publish it this year. That leaves an increasingly narrow window for anyone to influence their thinking before all the game processes are defined and playtesting is just nibbling at the edges, adding an extra gold to support cost here or removing a trade arrow there.

We only have until they shout "gone gold" or "public beta" because after that the only meaningful discussion will be about the release date. In all likelihood they have already reached the point of no return but we haven't actually seen the screenshots to prove it.

[Sabre2th]

they would like, if possible, to publish it this year.

We don't know this. Personally, I think Firaxis will take however long they need to get the game right. Infogrames and the millions of civ fans are the ones that are really pushing to get the game out.

We only have until they shout "gone gold" or "public beta" because after that the only meaningful discussion will be about the release date.

At the moment, there is very little meaningful discussion anyway.

but we haven't actually seen the screenshots to prove it.

And I don't think we will. If I were Firaxis, I wouldn't release any more information (except for maybe a few bits and pieces) until the game is set in stone.

[JellyDonut]

I think the reason we dont see more colonies on the screenshots is that Firaxis wants to center the screenshots on the interesting stuff like cities. Colonies would tend to be far away from the cities because of two reasons. First, a city will eventually swallow a colony as its border expands, so you would essentially waste a worker if you built a colony near a city. Secondly, the resources will tend to clump, so you might want a resource clumped elsewhere and you don't want to use 2 pop points to build a city so you choose a colony instead.

Colonies should take time to build, and cities even more time. As they say, Rome wasnt built in a day (and neither was French West Africa!)

Giving a trade arrow to every city with every new colony would definitely make ICS more alluring. A colony connected to a road network should divide the resource equally among the cities on the network. However, giving a trade arrow or two to the nearest city wouldnt be so bad.

[Sabre2th]

I think the reason we dont see more colonies on the screenshots is that Firaxis wants to center the screenshots on the interesting stuff like cities.

All these people here, worrying about nothing. (I hope)

[tniem]

Question:

Stated above in more than one post is the condition of colonies having their borders grow and take in more than one resource.

Where has Firaxis said this going to be the case? I always thought that a colony would simply bring in the resources from the tile it was on. I am probably wrong, I would just like confirmation. Thanks.

[Sabre2th]

Originally posted by tniem
Question:

Stated above in more than one post is the condition of colonies having their borders grow and take in more than one resource.

Where has Firaxis said this going to be the case? I always thought that a colony would simply bring in the resources from the tile it was on. I am probably wrong, I would just like confirmation. Thanks.

At the moment, colonies do not have borders and, as far as I know, only cover one square/resource.

[JellyDonut]

Originally posted by Sabre2th


At the moment, colonies do not have borders and, as far as I know, only cover one square/resource.

Correct. In all of the screenshots I have seen, colonies have not had any borders. If you look at the new screenshot with the colony in it (see earlier this post) it has no borders. And I'm sure they would have mentioned something like that in the resource mini-tutorial.

[Col Bigspear]

Why is every one saying "are these colonies useful" I thought it was painfully obvious what the colonies do from looking at the walkthrough on the firaxis site. if something is outside your borders you build a colony and connect a road, thus gaining access to it. I dont think of them a colony colonies more of mining colonies eg the type that sprung up in the west of north America for the gold rush. Once your borders swallow the colony there is no use for it and it is removed from the map, that resource is now part of your country. So I think colonies will be very important in the early game. If they are, the firaxis site showed your first city being built and then a colony being built on silk outside the borders. Though I have been skeptical about the pictures being Mock-ups on other threads