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Sometime next month, Civilization IV: Colonization is expected to be released worldwide to the gaming public. It is a highly anticipated sequel to the original Colonization released more than fourteen years ago; as expectations run and momentum rises higher and higher, questions remain. This month, gamers have an opportunity to ask those questions of and directly to four key individuals at its developer Firaxis Games in a special edition of PolyCast (PC), an official podcast of Apolyton Civilization Site (ACS).

Civ4Col Lead Artist Mike Bates (http://www.firaxis.com/company/bios.php?bioid=14), Lead Programmer Alex Mantzaris (http://www.firaxis.com/company/bios.php?bioid=80), Designer Ed Piper (http://www.firaxis.com/company/bios.php?bioid=79) and Producer Jesse Smith (http://www.firaxis.com/company/bios.php?bioid=51) will join Daniel "DanQ" Quick (http://apolyton.net/forums/member.php?action=getinfo&userid=2) and a fellow co-host from ACS' PC series to discuss the game.

To ask these gentlemen questions, you can either post them in this thread or leave a voicemail: (301) 637-7659 (North America), +44 121 288 7659 (Europe) or VoIP (skype:thepolycast?call) for free via Skype (http://www.skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/windows/downloading.html).

Why does this game have "Civilization IV" tacked on it? I know it uses the engine, but you don't call Call of Duty "id Tech 3: Call of Duty".

Marketing move perhaps. They expect it to sell more than it would if it were named just Colonization or even Sid Meier's Colonization.

@Jerry
Absolutely for marketing purpose

Why wasn't Portugal included?

Will colonization support full mods (like Civilization) or just customAssets (like Railroads)?

Why wasn't Portugal included?

Maybe because Portugal wasn't included in the original Colonization?

But don't worry. I'm sure it won't be long after the game is released before there is a mod for it which includes Portugal.

Yeah, that's probably it. I just wanted to see if we could get a statement from someone at Firaxis.

Question: will the combat system be changed from the original Colonization?

Question for the Firaxis guys: Given the predominance of slavery in Colonization's time period, how will it be present in gameplay beyond a simple choice in the drafting of the constitution near the end of the game?

Will we be able to build stockades and forts out in the wilderness that we can abandon later in the game? Or does the old rule about a size-3 colony building a stockade that you're stuck with forever still stand?

Some parts of colonization like training colonists or trading involved a lot of micromanagement, what if any automation options shall be present in the new colonization?

Thanks to all who submitted questions -- the timeframe in which to do so has now past.

Maybe because Portugal wasn't included in the original Colonization?
Don't want to pick a war, but , if they are going to change the combat system of the Original game ( that is far more central )..... including a extra civ would be far less problematic ;)

On the question ;) : Like i said above we already know that the combat system of CivCol will not be the "armed citizen with horse that can get another gun and another horse and fight next day as if nothing had happened", but we don't know how it will be..... are we going to see a thing like in regular civ? Or something entirely ( or even partially diferent? And, if it is possible, to say how it is diferent from Col and Civ IV?