An update from Firaxis about the Colonization patch

Suggestions for patch:

Involve cross generation as well as LB generation in the REF formula.

Add a variable for buildings.xml - ipopulationrequired. This is so population prerequisites for buildings can be implemented similar to the original Colonisation. eg: pop 3 to build a lumber mill or stockade, 8 to build a cathedral etc.
 
I would like to see much more aggressive behavior from the AI (native and european). AI should be able to realize that having no transport ships = economic death. I made the "mistake" of sinking their transport ships with my privateers and they just stopped evolving. Had to enter map editor and give them some transports so they would at least grow.
Treasure Units should be more appealing to the AI forcing one to defend them on their way to home.
Native raids should be more common (especially if you dont trade with the natives).
Natives should have their own tech tree (and be playable). Native settlements shouldn't surrender to you because of your high culture.
The land purchase system should be altered. When you buy only the 9 tiles that your colony occupies if a native settlement is occupying one of these tiles it should relocate or its pop be added to another settlement of the same culture. Native selttlements should be limited to recieving one unit/village at a time.
Pioneers should be able to build forts.
Stacks with wagon trains in their composition should get a corral defensive bonus.
Maps should be much larger giving a true sentiment of discovering a new continent.
Settlement graphics should not get to span 9 tiles even if the settlement reacher 3x size. My coastal settlements almost merge into a megalopolis. This is not only inaccurate but also annoying as one can no longer see the improvements on the surrounding tiles. I cant remember this being an issue for me in C4.
 
Blue Wolf said:
Maps should be much larger giving a true sentiment of discovering a new continent.
Settlement graphics should not get to span 9 tiles even if the settlement reacher 3x size. My coastal settlements almost merge into a megalopolis. This is not only inaccurate but also annoying as one can no longer see the improvements on the surrounding tiles. I cant remember this being an issue for me in C4.
Click to expand...

I've found that playing a Huge map is sufficient for me. I tend to prefer small Civ maps though.

This uses the same building layout as the Civ system, but they adjusted the minimum distance between buildings and fooled around with the settings. It reminds me of the Peloponnesian War scenario, or the Alexander the Great scenario--they spread the buildings out there as well.

In other news...people actually ship treasure through the king? I only do that to get a galleon to ship the others myself...
 
Anybody heard any news on how close the patch is to coming out? I just bought the game and before I started playing did a little research and came across this announcement and decided to wait until the patch was out before I started playing. No point in playing a broken game that's about to be fixed. But now I've waited a couple weeks and I'm getting antsy.
 
natedawg219 said:
Anybody heard any news on how close the patch is to coming out? I just bought the game and before I started playing did a little research and came across this announcement and decided to wait until the patch was out before I started playing. No point in playing a broken game that's about to be fixed. But now I've waited a couple weeks and I'm getting antsy.
Click to expand...

No idea when it's coming, but I would hazard a guess that if you load up the PatchMod that it'll be pretty close to what the patch will be. :)
 
Ever since I got a bootleg copy of the first colonization that crashed at the final scene in 1995 I have been waiting for this game, and I wasn't disappointed.

One of the more interesting/challenging parts of this game is that the REF is so large. I was able to beat a REF of 217 Reg, 138 Drag, 195 Art, and 80 SoL, using a tactical retreat strategy, trading cities and terrain to isolate units. (Just like the American Revolution) Therefore I am not as concerned with the alarming size of the REF.

However, the American revolution was not winnable without the French fleet and troops at Yorktown, so the lack of being able to interact with the other European Kings including selling goods (A severe tax from foreign kings, and tax from your king) and soliciting aid in a revolution needs to be fixed. It would be interesting to see your King help a foreign colony in their fight for independence (Just another reason to hate him).

A few other things I would like fixed:
- Resources that make sense. (No tobacco on a territory that doesn't yield tobacco)

- All resources should be improvable (If corn is on a hill it should be farmable, ore in the desert or on ice should be mineable, etc.).

- Building of outpost/forts - An outpost could give an additional line-of-site and be upgradable to a fort which could give additional protection and storing of goods capability.

- One long range upgrade might be to have garrisoned troops consume food to simulate the actual cost of fielding an army.

- Make Frigates meaningful. The REF navy should be a combination of MOW, SOL, Frigates, Gallons and merchants, and MOW's should only carry 2 troops, if any at all.

- The trade routs screen is a mess! Trying to set up trade routs for 8 or more goods with 8 or more cities creates a huge list that is randomly organized. Impossible!

- Lastly, I would like to see a native village screen. On the huge map, trying to find what villages desire what goods and what specialists they train is very time consuming.

I can't wait for the first patch!
 
I guess Im only suprised that the date on the OP is Feb 2009, I don't know why but it feels as if I've had this game for a year or more and quit playing it I can't remember when while hoping for a patch.

Well, better late then never, even if the long wait period is only in my own mind.

As a side note, I did recently buy this for the 360, and well... Here I am back playing it on the PC, nuff said I think.
 
I do hope they'll do something about the graphics. Some of the resources are almost impossible to tell apart, both on the big map and in the city screen. The same goes for the trade goods. Silver and sugar are almost identical. Then they should do something about the almost invisible roads, and about the fact that as your cities grow, the graphics splash out and make the terrain surronding them very hard to see.
 
It is nice to learn at long last that Firaxis is working on a patch.
However, I hope that the patch will contain more than is outlined as much of the balancing stuff has been done by modders meanwhile (I did for myself).

1.More Victory Options
What I would like to see most in the game is alternative victory options.
I would like to see peaceful roads to commonwealth/independence as well as victories based on population or commercial achievements like x amount of raw meterials exported to homeland, or fur, sugar, tobacco or cotton tycoon producing or exporting x amount of those.
At present one could just as well call the game the road to independence.
Colonization to me is above all about building and developing your colonial empire.
That could but would not of necessity result in independence and independence would not necessarily have to be gained through a revolutionary war. Initially the crown should be a close and supportive friend also sending troops, with a potential but not a certainty of relations getting poor or hostile later on.

2. Commerce and Commerce Overview
It said in the manual that Colonization was largely a game about trade. This should be reflected in victory options as mentioned above but also in interface improvements like a Trade Overview Advisor (which I dearly miss from Col1) and improvements for managing your trade routes.

3. Liberty Bells, Culture and Productivity
During most of the colonial period culture points should be culture points rather than Liberty Bells which imho should only come into play during a major conflict with the homeland ie. the movement for independence.

4.Colonial Charters
Colonial Charters offering privileges could be added as a kind of colonial constitution. As colonies were basically founded for supplying their homelands with raw materials the privilege to build advanced building and enable processed goods could be obtained after substantial payments or delivery of goods (ie. 1000 tobacco before you can produce cigars).

5. Diplomacy and Trade with other Europeans and their Kings could be enhanced.

6. Indians should not give up their lands/settlements so easily. As in Col1 you should pay for every square, culture/liberty bells should have less effect. If they did hand over a settlement they should found another one 'further west'.
 
I've only played 2 games so far, both on easy mode. The first was vanilla colonization on a huge map at marathon pace. The second was AoD2 on the huge western hemisphere map at marathon pace. Most of the issues I have noticed have been addressed so I'll just highlight a couple that most concern me.

Treasure carts should not be able to explore the map. Please disable their ability to reveal tiles, uncover goody huts, and initiate communication with native tribes.

FIX THE ASSIGN TRADE ROUTE INTERFACE! What seems to be a very powerful tool for reducing micromanagement is completely destroyed by this disordered abomination. At minimum it needs to be ordered alphabetically by commodity. It would be nice to have the ability to also order it by originating city as well as destination city. Filtering by commodity, origin city, and destination city would be ideal.

The ability to rename wagon trains and cargo ships, or at least give me some ability to differentiate one from the other. Even if they were just numbered it would help me keep track of which one was doing what.

The trade route debacle is really killing a game I would normally be enjoying very much. I know AoD2 has a different trade route system built into it, but frankly I don't care that much for it. I would rather just see the assign trade route system fixed. Currently I am left with no choice but to manually control my wagon trains and cargo ships which gets really tedious very quickly.
 
black_feather said:
I think the patch may have just been released, my steam is updating colonization right now for some reason :)
Click to expand...

Yes, mine did too. Although I can't find any patch notes in my Col folders, only a Spanish readme.htm that does talk about version 1.01 though.
 
says version 101 build date 28th feb 2009 for me in game :D

It's nice for steam to get a patch early for once


And here's the list of changes -

Updates to Civilization IV: Colonization Update have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted.

Enhancements


Released PITBOSS executable

The end of the game is extended once a colony declares independence

100 turns on Normal speed

Missionaries now have a chance of failure to establish a mission.

A failed mission angers the native chief

Added the ability to sail from Europe to the west edge of the map

Changed text for when natives abandon their settlements to be less confusing

Missions now always send converts to the player who established them

Added warning message for when a settlement needs more raw materials

Added warning for when stored goods are nearing storage capacity

AI tries to produce more defenders in their settlements

AI tries to prepare better for revolution

AI uses King to transport treasure if no Galleons are available

AI knows how to pick up treasures without bringing them to a settlement


Balance Fixes

The Royal Expeditionary force increases less rapidly as the game progresses, depending on difficulty level

AI colony leaders are less friendly

AI native leaders are more likely to declare war due to proximity of borders

Changed Europe width to be a percentage of the map size

Europe plots are now at least four tiles from the near land

AI gets some free money depending on difficulty level

Satisfying the King’s demands delays increasing his expeditionary force

Great Generals are born more frequently on Marathon and Epic speeds

Crosses levels required for immigration increase more slowly

Education points required for graduation increase more slowly

Enforcing a 20-turn peace treaty between colonies at the start

Population no longer affects score – just Land and Founding Fathers

Increased price of horses in Europe

Natives change their desired good only when supplied with that good

Military ships (Frigate, Ship of the Line, Man-o-War) cannot enter native settlements

The price of hurrying immigrants never exceeds the price of buying them

Starting location is now randomized every time you lose all your ships

Domestic Advisor no longer available when the trade screen is up

Exploration points no longer scale with game speed

Converted natives can no longer be educated in native settlements

Converted natives can no longer become missionaries

Traded goods through warehouse expansion count towards tax raises

Boycotted goods no longer count for tax raises

Bug Fixes

Armed Mounted Brave does not receive defensive bonuses

Armed Brave receives defensive bonuses

Fixed lost production bug

Fixed bug with two citizens graduating in the same turn

Fixed reversed labels on assign trade route tooltip

Fixed some starting location issues

King no longer asks for money after you have declared independence

King no longer raises taxes after you have declared independence

King no longer adds to his expeditionary force after you have declared independence

Units ungroup when traveling to Europe

Units ungroup when being educated by the natives

Terrain double movement from promotions now works properly


Other Changes

Automated pioneers will not remove features from an improved plot being worked

Removed cap on production overflow

Colonists can join settlements even after they have moved

Units left in Europe after the revolution are eliminated if Elections are chosen in the Constitution

Education point threshold increases per city, as intended, rather than per player

King is more likely to have a balanced REF (rather than all troops and no ships, for example)

Fixed exploit where gifting a wagon full of goods in a city would double the goods(!)

Fixed gifted cargo disappearing

Fixed text bug dealing with incorrect token

Slavery gives extra hammers as well
 
Sounds like a nice bunch of fixes. With 'sail-to-europe' squares now at a fixed distance from land and the ability to go west to get there, this should make larger maps much more viable.
 
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