Falling way behind European powers in FF/Progress graph (TAC)

[Superjew]

Ok I like this TAC mod. It actually makes the game really difficult. I always play it on revolutionary, big land area, low ocean, marathon.

I like the game to feel like it really is two new continents, and frankly it does feel that way since TAC's map area is a good 4x bigger than vanilla Col II with big area low tide, marathon gameplay, randomized map.

I've played several games, and I always have the least founding fathers. I don't lack in exploration, military or other points, its my political points that are in the gutter.

I'm thinking of starting a new game. I found you can get political points from your carpenters. Is this the best way to get them?

I'm thinking I should make two colonies, one dedicated to building up the colony into my production colony, and another one, go for the wheelright workshop and focus on getting my political points up so I don't have to always have the least amount of founding fathers.


A good portion of the founding fathers are gone, its 1587 and I'm by far in last place in the race to get FF, I only have two founding fathers.

Also should I focus more on rebel sentiment as well to get my Political Points up? I got the 3 statesmen in a city hall and a newspaper in my main colony, not even 100 years in (1587) I don't think that is too far behind, but clearly they don't generate nearly enough political points for me to unlock founding fathers.

Also the progression graph, unless I wage warfare with a European power and knock out a lot of his units and navy, I'm usually dead last, although with each game I restart, I seem to be improving. ANy tips for not getting left in the dust on the progression graph under statistics?

 

[Tigranes]

What is the exact point of playing on Revolutionary? See, AI does not play better on impossible levels -- it just cheats well beyond reasonable. Focus on killing Europeans and all the Fathers will be yours.

 

[Stoepsel]

The AI always plays on explorer-level (with the option "reduced REF"), on revolutionary-level you need to produce 25% more fatherpoints for the same FF.

The production of liberty bells is extremly important to get FF. Each liberty bell produced by your statesmen generates 5 political points, the carpenters generate 3 political points per hammer if they should produce them. Another effect of producing liberty bells is the increase of the rebel sentiment which raises the productivity - also of the liberty bells themselves - in your settlement. Additional some certain actions yield unique political points.

Also some leaders, Simon Bolivar for example, got the property "Libertarian" which gives a bonus of 20% on bell production.

Why do you start playing on the highest difficult level? If you want to start a new game, you maybe should choose a lower level, perhaps also the explorer level to get a feeling for comparison to the AI. And play a "Libertarian" leader.

 

[Superjew]

Almost every game I play, I play the most difficult level possible. To be honest, I haven't declared independence once in this game.

I like a long, drawn out, difficult round.

I play FPS, I play Flight simulators, Real Time Strategy games and Skyrim. On all of those games, I play the most difficult level possible, and for Skyrim I have actively sought out difficulty mods to make it more difficult.

The reason I do this, is I use every exploit available in a game to make it easier. Its my gaming style. In this game, Colonization, just as I did with the original, I abused the hell out of the save and reload feature to get a desired combat result in battle, or what I wanted from the ruins and burial grounds, even which colonists I recruit from the docks.

I'll set it back down to Patriot, while I'm not opposed to me using every exploit available shy of actually cheating, I don't like it when the AI cheats.

 

[Tigranes]

By any standards you have a very unusual logic

Highest difficulty in any game -- is the highest difficulty with absolutely no exploits by human player. So you are NOT playing at highest difficulty, sorry. What kind of joy do you get from winning by reloading? Constant reloading is not an exploit -- it is very common form of cheating -- erasing a unit you want to destroy will save you time and will be no different when you finally kill it after 5th reload.

With higher difficulty in Chess game AI actually gets smarter. In CivCol it simply gets discounts and easier times. Very few modders ever attempted to improve AI, actually. Game calls you Governor -- so winning on Governor level is quite honorable and fun!

 

[Superjew]

You don't get veterancy if you delete the unit vs kill it. No I don't access consoles or anything. Really I'd totally change up my strategy if it was multiplayer and didn't allow exploits such as save and reloads.

I got sick of getting garbage units on the docks, so I'd sit and chill out to my favorite music and load and reload until I got the unit I wanted. I might try it your way, but I need a multiplayer version of this game.

Right now when I go into multiplayer, there is no one online.

I'm hoping they remake this game in the future and do it like how TAC mod did it, new units, new resources to gather up, an economy that works well, unlike in the first version where once the Indians ran out of money you had to do all your trading with Europe.

 

[Tigranes]

I mean you can just play TAC, why wait for official releases. Even with BTS I am playing mods anyway.

I see every game I play as intellectual challenge, and reproducing historical reality even in small instances is one of the highly enjoyable experiences with Colonization. I would print out the dates of the foundation of European cities and would try to found them at the exact spots at exact time. If I get Criminals -- I take them, that was the reality of those days. It feels so much more like George Washington or Simon Bolivar -- when you finally declare independence and defeat the King with all your Criminals and highly skilled workers. Giving Women specialists rifles is a great kick too

 

[Windfoot]

First read this (blatant plug)
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=496551

Basically, you need a much higher rate of bell production. You need to get ahead of the bell production curve (and it is doable on revolutionary difficulty). In your first city put a colonist in the village hall as soon as it's built. You need to keep people in the halls..and it's best to have elder statesmen. Also, be sure to build printing press/newspaper. Although at times you can focus on other things, you need to continuously be increasing your bell production by improving the hall, building printing press/newspaper and upgrading the workers to elder statesmen. There are some FF that give bell production for other buildings; so, be sure to build those buildings as well.

my 2cp,
Windfoot

 

[Windfoot]

I should also mention...kill the other Europeans!

If their civilization is wiped out they can't get FF. I usually "farm" the Europeans for colonists...take over their cities, remove all the colonists/resources, make peace, give the colonies back to them then repeat in 50-60 turns (after they get a population built back up).

my 2cp,
Windfoot