Old Col player intersted

[candle]

Ok ive heard good and bad about this game. To give some background I played the original to death both windows and dos version. I still play it on dosbox. I also was on the team that attempted to make CoL II on the CivII Engine, the project fell apart as far as I know as I stopped getting updates and needs, I was an artist making new units.

How does this game stack up to the old one, if it new enough to feel diffrent but also the same. Also how is the interface to someone that has never even played Civ4, I stopped with Civ3 because the game just annoyed me to the max, and still play CivII to death.

I heard trade is easier but can i still choose to micomanage if I want, and is it still a massive headache to build colonies inland, like the original. I still only build coastal cities in the old one to save that headache.

How is the AI, do they still attack for no reason, demand tribute and just fortify on your resources without declaring war? Do they still go from allies to enimes without any reason that can be determined?

Ive heard the Custom house is gone, how does this affect trade once revolution is declared, am I pretty much stuck broke unable to hire merc's once I run out of my gold

Also can you still hire mercs from other nations during endgame?


and finally, how will my computer handle said game

Athlon64 3500
1gb DDR400
Geforce 6800 256mb PCIe
WindowsXP Pro SP3

 

[dalgo]

I also played the original game extensively, from the time it came out until Col2 arrived, but I now enjoy the new game more.

The game is much easier to play for someone who has played the original than it is for someone just coming from Civ4. It is a very different game from the Civilization series but for old Col players the same tactics that worked before still work here.

Trade has not changed much with the same goods still available. There is more trading available with the natives now with each tribe a separate trading entity. Auto trade routes are improved but still not as good as they should be. I mostly use inland colonies myself but then I did in the original too.

The AI is a lot better, especially with the patch installed. The most welcome change is the addition of culture boundaries which means the other European powers cannot enter your territory unless you allow them to (or they declare war of course). The Indians can go where they want to however.

There were quite a few features dropped from the original game that I would rather have seen retained. Custom houses for one, although you can still continue to trade with Europe after the Revolution. The Fountain of Youth and the Seven Cities of Cibola are also missing as is the free troops from your ally and the ability to hire mercenaries during the war.

Acquiring Founding Fathers is more of a challenge now because they are unique and each can only be hired by one nation. It adds another level of management to the game. You need to decide in advance which ones you really want and build towards them (not unlike Wonders in Civ).

The promotion system for your soldiers is much improved with the ability for your elite troops to become considerably stronger than the best the King can put up late in the game.

One change, sadly, is that a galleon can now carry 6 treasures instead of 1. In spite of the fact that this bug was well known it was not even fixed in the patch. Every time I dock a galleon carrying 6 treasures worth 10,000 gold in Europe I am reminded of how much better it would have been to make 6 journeys.

 

[candle]

ok so now being rich in endgame doesnt help alot to hire mercs, instead having all my colienes having an armory and stables instead and lots of colonists standing around then? I will kinda miss not having mercs I can hire that are already Cont Regular Army.

Is the Cont Army still weaker in base attack than the Kings unless both fight in a field where the continetals got an abush bonus?

 

[dalgo]

Is the Cont Army still weaker in base attack than the Kings unless both fight in a field where the continetals got an abush bonus?

Yes, considerably weaker in fact if you haven't fought any battles in preparation for the war of Independence. It pays to promote your soldiers by testing them against the local Indians and the other Europeans first. Some of the Founding Fathers confer free promotions on your troops too, and there is also a rebel sentiment bonus.

 

[craigdh]

Ok ive heard good and bad about this game. To give some background I played the original to death both windows and dos version. I still play it on dosbox. I also was on the team that attempted to make CoL II on the CivII Engine, the project fell apart as far as I know as I stopped getting updates and needs, I was an artist making new units.

How does this game stack up to the old one, if it new enough to feel diffrent but also the same. Also how is the interface to someone that has never even played Civ4, I stopped with Civ3 because the game just annoyed me to the max, and still play CivII to death.

I heard trade is easier but can i still choose to micomanage if I want, and is it still a massive headache to build colonies inland, like the original. I still only build coastal cities in the old one to save that headache.

How is the AI, do they still attack for no reason, demand tribute and just fortify on your resources without declaring war? Do they still go from allies to enimes without any reason that can be determined?

Ive heard the Custom house is gone, how does this affect trade once revolution is declared, am I pretty much stuck broke unable to hire merc's once I run out of my gold

Also can you still hire mercs from other nations during endgame?


and finally, how will my computer handle said game

First off I have to say the vanilla version of this Col is far lacking from even the original Col. They really butchered it, and even though the first patch has helped somewhat, it's still a far inferior game. I was quite angry as I was a huge fan of the original. There are some mods out there that improve the game dramatically... namely Age Of Discovery II by Dale.

Now to answer a few of your questions... trade is much easier, yes, by setting cities to export and import certain goods and putting wagon trains on auto. This makes inland cities much easier to manage, in fact I build as few coastal cities as possible.

The AI is much easier to deal with. In Vanilla, if you don't provoke them, they'll never attack you, and in fact they can take a lot of provoking before they do. You pretty much have to initiate combat. AODII helps this a lot... in the vanilla version the other colonies and native tribes are so pointless they might as well not even be there. You never have to worry about them beating you to independence, and if they do declare first, they get absolutely slaughtered (which can be amusing).

The natives can be challenging, more so than in the original. I've fought with some large native tribes that have put up better fights than the king in the war of independence.

Customs house is gone. AODII has a watered down customs house, but it's still not the same as the original. I think this is a major shortcoming for the Vanilla version, but I've grown used to it, you just have to adapt your style. You can't buy mercenaries in the WoI, and no other euro colonies come to your aid. Gold isn't much use in the WoI, except finishing buildings and training veteran soldiers.

 

[craigdh]

So further to my above post, my recommendation is to check out Age of Discovery II by Dale, in the Creation and Customization, Project and Mod Development thread. His final version isn't out yet, but the beta of it is very very close to the final version, and 100% playable (and 100x better than vanilla).

He's done a huge overall on so many of the game aspects, and all with a lot of feedback from the colonizations community.

 

[candle]

alright well im buying it tomorrow when i get paid, and my computer will handle it correct?

 

[dalgo]

Your specs match or better the recommended requirements on the box so you should be OK.

 

[Greybriar]

The graphics in Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization are better than those in the original Sid Meier's Colonization.

And that's all I'm going to say.