1) Will there be a "Fat Cross" that expands out like in Civ4, or just the original 8 squares surrounding the settlement?

2) Will there be any new goods besides the original ones (like Sugarcane, Tobacco, etc)?

3) Will colonies consume any of their goods besides food, ore, etc?

4) Will they improve the Indian relations possibilities? It seems like war with the natives was inevitable in the original.

5) Are there some cool articles out there somewhere I can read about it?

Oh, and another question,

6) Will they fix the tedium of micromanagement once you get beyond like 3 or 4 colonies? That was always a bugger for me. It was fun until the MM got to the point where every turn took 20-30 minutes.

7) Will terrain bonuses for Civ factor into combat for Col?

1) Will there be a "Fat Cross" that expands out like in Civ4, or just the original 8 squares surrounding the settlement?
I think it will be only 8 squares especially since colonies can lie to next to each other.

2) Will there be any new goods besides the original ones (like Sugarcane, Tobacco, etc)? Apparently no.

3) Will colonies consume any of their goods besides food, ore, etc?
I think colonies consume only food but they are able to use lumber and ore to build buildings, make ships etc.

4) Will they improve the Indian relations possibilities? It seems like war with the natives was inevitable in the original.
Highly likely but inevitable? Well, it seems the options has been increased as native camps seem to be able to assimilate with your territory.

5) Are there some cool articles out there somewhere I can read about it?
There are numerous links to previews in Colonization information center.
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/colonization



Oh, and another question,

6) Will they fix the tedium of micromanagement once you get beyond like 3 or 4 colonies? That was always a bugger for me. It was fun until the MM got to the point where every turn took 20-30 minutes.
Personally I liked the micromanagement part but I would prefer also bit more automatical processes that could handle the most basic things. Hard to say how much such options are available in the new game.


7) Will terrain bonuses for Civ factor into combat for Col?
Most likely will but it's possible they aren't exactly same for Colonization.


I answered as well as I good, but I suggest you read the previews.

4) Will they improve the Indian relations possibilities? It seems like war with the natives was inevitable in the original.



The most over power feature of the original was trading tobacco to the natives. As trading to them also made them happy I never wared with them.

Of course you had focus to get the founding father the took away cost for indian land first. Otherwise I guess early wars could happen.

If they fix the trade routes, which I'm sure they do, that would remove alot of the annoying elements of the original. It's boring to manually transport 10 tons of ore between two cities every turn.

I have a question: Will there only be two buildings of every kind now? I mean, is the middle stages (like the blacksmith shop) removed? That was the impression I got, but I really hope that I'm wrong.

If they fix the trade routes, which I'm sure they do, that would remove alot of the annoying elements of the original. It's boring to manually transport 10 tons of ore between two cities every turn.


You could automatize that in the original!

You could automatize that in the original!

In theory, yes, but it just didn't work that way. Most of the time my wagon trains just went nuts. Not to mention what happens when an indian unit is in the way. The pathfinder was awful.

Luckily, from Civ3 and beyond pathfinding is great.

Before that, some less then perfect algorithms were used, since computers of that time were just too weak to utilize proper pathfinding (another reason why I never ever used goto in Civ2).

In the original if you patched to fix the bug that allowed unloading of boycotted goods in the home port (by pressing U rather than drag and drop), trade routes in America failed when the good being carried was boycotted in Europe as the wagon train on a trade route wouldn't automatically unload it in any colony! I don't suppose that bug will ever get fixed in the original! Poor pathfinding didn't help either.

Hopefully both are fixed in the new version

(there will be trade routes I hope)

A couple of questions:

What are the defensive structures that you can build for your colonies' cities, and what bonuses do they offer? And since your mother country's Royal Expeditionary Force is superior to your army, is it really worth it to take the time to build these defensive structures instead of focusing on your economy or building up your own army? :hmm:

Thanks for putting up with my ignorance,

Sooner :blush:

A couple of questions:

What are the defensive structures that you can build for your colonies' cities, and what bonuses do they offer? And since your mother country's Royal Expeditionary Force is superior to your army, is it really worth it to take the time to build these defensive structures instead of focusing on your economy or building up your own army? :hmm:

Thanks for putting up with my ignorance,

Sooner :blush:

I'll answer them for the original game, since I don't have the new game yet.:(

Colonies could build stockades, forts, and fortresses to help protect the forces inside. Stockades provided a +100% defensive bonus, forts +150%, and fortresses +200%. The colony itself provided +50%. In addition, artillery had a defensive value of 5, which was the best that you could get.

I always took the time to build up each coastal colony to at least a fort. Fortresses took a lot of wood and a lot of tools, so they came very late if at all. And by that point I was busy trying to build up the army and other higher priority things.

7) Will terrain bonuses for Civ factor into combat for Col?

Yes. i read a preview where they played as the french and settled in the Tubdra. Their colony died in the end, but they mentioned a defence bonus from Tundra.

I was wondering if anyone has heard whether colonization is going to be released on MAC. In addition to that what about BTS?

This should answer your question for Colonization: http://www.esrb.org/ratings/search.jsp?titleOrPublisher=Colonization&searchType=title&rating=E10%2B&ratingsCriteria=&platforms=&platformsCriteria=&javaScript=0&searchVersion=compact&content=&searchType=title&contentCriteria=

I don't know about Beyond the Sword, though.

In addition to that what about BTS?

No one cares about Mac.

Thanks, i appreciate that link, also no one may care about mac as far as developers go, but as a user who may want a machine that stays running well for more than two days out of the box it is the only way to go.

Thanks, i appreciate that link, also no one may care about mac as far as developers go, but as a user who may want a machine that stays running well for more than two days out of the box it is the only way to go.

Huh, I guess you've never used Unix or Plan 9. Or even Windows XP for that matter.
Stop being a pretentious ass.

I have XP on my PC, you are correct that I have never used open source OS but as far as microsoft goes I have little to no faith in their reliability. Hundreds of law suits for releasing OS with unfinished code, and rediculous service packs have made me look elsewhere for hardware.

Ok, after playing FreeCol for a bit, I have some more questions about the new Colonization. :D

1. Can colonies grow on their own (like in Civilization) or will you have to bring in all of your immigrants from Europe (people can't be born in the colonies)?

2. Does anyone know if immigration will be faster in Civilization 4: Colonization than in FreeCol? (I played a whole game and got maybe 10 immigrants in all) Also, are the amounts of immigrants you get determined by things like the economic prosperity, etc. of your colonies (better economy=more colonists)?

3. I'm not sure if this has already been answered, but what will be all the different items that you can buy and trade?

This is all I can think of at the moment, but I might have more later. :lol:

Ok, after playing FreeCol for a bit, I have some more questions about the new Colonization. :D

1. Can colonies grow on their own (like in Civilization) or will you have to bring in all of your immigrants from Europe (people can't be born in the colonies)?

2. Does anyone know if immigration will be faster in Civilization 4: Colonization than in FreeCol? (I played a whole game and got maybe 10 immigrants in all) Also, are the amounts of immigrants you get determined by things like the economic prosperity, etc. of your colonies (better economy=more colonists)?

3. I'm not sure if this has already been answered, but what will be all the different items that you can buy and trade?

This is all I can think of at the moment, but I might have more later. :lol:

Again, I'll mostly answer these for the original Colonization, since I have limited experience with FreeCol and none with the new game:

1. Colonies can definitely grow on their own. It takes 200 excess food to make one colonist. One quick hint: expert farmer/fisherman + special food square = ridiculous amounts of food.

2. No idea about the new game; hope so, since the turn limits are so truncated. In the old game, yes, it's pretty slow - especially at the higher levels.

3. The tradeable items look to be the same as the original: food, lumber, sugar, tobacco, cotton, furs, ore, rum, cigars, cloth, coats, silver, tools, muskets, horses, and trade goods.

Ok, after playing FreeCol for a bit, I have some more questions about the new Colonization. :D

1. Can colonies grow on their own (like in Civilization) or will you have to bring in all of your immigrants from Europe (people can't be born in the colonies)?


As far as I know theres a chance for the population to increase when you produce extra food. I think there was a screenshot from the new game on one of the previews that showed a 'poplulation has increased in a settlement..' message.

Anyway, looks good to me, already preordered the game. :)

Colonies can definitely grow on their own. It takes 200 excess food to make one colonist. One quick hint: expert farmer/fisherman + special food square = ridiculous amounts of food.

Yeah, that was a pleasant surprise after getting used to Civ1, where you had to have almost every square in the BFC producing food. If you site a colony where there's two fish resources, that was all you needed for that colony, unless you wanted it to be one of your biggest ones. Two Expert Fisherman could support about a size 12 or so colony, IIRC. That left all your land squares for planting cash crops instead of farming.

Honolulu Blue, is your name a reference to the Lions colors?

Honolulu Blue, is your name a reference to the Lions colors?

Yes, of course.