Holy cow, what is happening?

[DagHammarskjol]

Just tried to start up a couple of games, can't really figure out what's going on.

Is the manual available online somewhere? I got Colonization through Steam, but they don't seem to be offering a copy of the manual.

Here's a question to show how fundamentally bad my understanding is at this point. Why should I care how much money I have? What is money good for?

I guess I can use it to buy goods, right? But which goods should I be buying and why?

You can see I need a lot of help.

If I get to play for a few hours tonight I'll probably be able to figure it all out, but meanwhile, a manual or a fairly detailed online guide would be nice.

 

[DagHammarskjol]

Found the manual: http://cdn.steampowered.com/Manuals/16810/manual_english.pdf?t=1255715006

 

[HamTard]

Money is good for hiring Specialists from Europe. You want to do that because they are more productive at their specialty, and can get your economy up and running a lot faster.

This game is really complicated, having a bit of Civilization experience helps, but it's still very different from traditional Civilization.

 

[Talquin]

Regular Colonists and converted natives have a chance of becoming a specialist as well after doing the same job for a while.

I don't know what the formula is though.

 

[GrandpaKim]

Regular Colonists and converted natives have a chance of becoming a specialist as well after doing the same job for a while.

I don't know what the formula is though.

Really? This does make sense but I have seen not the slightest hint in the civilopedia that it is possible .
Can someone confirm this?

 

[dalgo]

Sadly this does not happen. It was a feature in the original Colonization and I would have expected it to be included in the remake, but it wasn't. There may be Mods that allow it though.