[Col] Could Amplitude's Next Big Game Be a 'Colonization Like' Game?

[Blake00]

Very excited to hear the recent news! Amplitude have re-imagined Master of Orion to Endless Space, Master of Magic to Endless Legend and now they're taking on the big one that started them all, Civilization to a game called Humankind.

I for one welcome our new TBS overlords, and I would like to remind Amplitude that as a retro gaming youtuber and promoter I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their forums and store pages.

(Simpsons joke )

So what's next after Humankind? Well this of course makes me think that there's only one Micropose 90s 4x TBS great left unconquered, Sid Meier's Colonization!

I would love to see what those guys could do with that formula. The original of course is a great game and many times I found it even more addictive than some of the other greats. I recently replayed the original in HD thanks to the old Windows 3.1 version being resizable, and even to this day it is ridiculously addictive.



The Firaxis Civilization IV Colonization sequel/remake took advantage of some of Civ4's cool features like upgradable units with lots of cool skills encouraging you to look after your armies and develop them up RPG style!



Obviously Amplitude would need to twist their version into something new and different to make it their own game (and not get sued lol) and there's plenty of interesting ideas from other games that could add to the experience.

For example you could tell that the Age of Empires 3 guys at Ensemble were big Colonization fans as they were able to take Colonization's good old Home port city and turn it into a big home city with numerous upgrades and specials that could change the outcome of a Age3 RTS match (call in a second fort card, yes a please!). A TBS Colonization game with RPG'ish heavily upgradable & expandable home city would be a very cool and addictive thing. Obviously that leads to some interesting things when the time comes to rebel against the crown (eg do you benefit or suffer from a upgraded European home city), so maybe it could instead be your home capital in the new world that you upgrade to get cool bonuses?



The brilliant (& still active) fan made FreeCol project has also taken the original Colonization in some interesting directions too such as adding multiplayer, more colonization era nations (Russians, Swedish, Danish and Portuguese) bringing the original measly total of 4 up to 8 players, much better Indian trading, and maps of other Colonization era maps such as Australia & Africa. If you expand the era dates you could add even more colonizing nations (eg fans have been adding more to FreeCol such as Italian, Belgian, Prussian/German and Otoman).



Another area where they could totally go in a different direction is combat. Colonization had simple Civ1 style combat so why not expand that into zoomed in tactical combat mode. Amplitude certainly have plenty of experience in that area with Endless Legend. The often forgotten about Colonization style game called Conquest of the New World had a very Heroes of Might & Magic style chessboard tactical battle mode that they could take and expand into something way better!



There's plenty of other examples and cool enhancement ideas out there from good Colonial era strategy games like Imperialism series, Anno 1404, Settlers series, and more...

Hope those guys make this dream a reality one day!

Any one else got fun suggestions for a future Amplitude Colonization style game?

.

 

[<Nexus>]

Another area where they could totally go in a different direction is combat. Colonization had simple Civ1 style combat so why not expand that into zoomed in tactical combat mode. Amplitude certainly have plenty of experience in that area with Endless Legend. The often forgotten about Colonization style game called Conquest of the New World had a very Heroes of Might & Magic style chessboard tactical battle mode that they could take and expand into something way better!

I just read that Humankind will have a tactical combat.

But I don't understand why you compare it to Col?
It will more like be Civ.
...I just wonder wich one I hope that they see Civ4 as the etalon too I especially think of modability.

 

[Blake00]

I just read that Humankind will have a tactical combat.

But I don't understand why you compare it to Col?
It will more like be Civ.
...I just wonder wich one I hope that they see Civ4 as the etalon too I especially think of modability.

Erm I think you misunderstood my post. I'm suggesting they make a Colonization style game AFTER Humankind. I'm not comparing them??

As I said above they've done a Master of Orion style game (Endless Space), they've done a Master of Magic style game (Endless Legend), and now they are doing a Civilization style game (Humankind), so it would be awesome if their NEXT game was a Colonization style game to complete the set of Amplitude re-imaginings of Micropose TBS classics.

 

[<Nexus>]

Erm I think you misunderstood my post.

Yes, I did

However, I'm already somewhat disappointed with Humankind:

Amplitude doesn't seem like very "modder-friendly".

Max 8 civs in the game? Advertising the game with 1 million civs is kinda... uggghh!
Max 8 civs in games like Endless Space and Endless Legend is acceptable (or rather forgivable). But in a civ game???

Yes, it looks great, but it's (relatively) easy to create a beautiful game. A good game is a different challenge.

And yes, it has some really good ideas, but I feel it's still not the game I'm waiting for.

If only Paradox would decide to do it's own civ game too. An EU/Stellaris stile game with random maps and all eras

 

[Blake00]

Only 8 Civs? Damn I didn't know that. I hope fans can mod a higher amount into them like you can with some Civ games!!

On the bright side if they made a Colonization style game and it only had 8 civs it would still be an improvement over having only 4 in the original haha!!!

Yeah Paradox having a go at a Civ game and a separate Col game too would be awesome.

 

[<Nexus>]

Only 8 Civs? Damn I didn't know that.

AFAIK EL and ES are all limited to max 8. I doubt that Amplitude would change it's habit.
Also, each era you can choose 1 of 10 civs to change to. So it's 99.9% sure to be limited to 8.

I hope fans can mod a higher amount into them like you can with some Civ games!!

I doubt that very much.

Yeah Paradox having a go at a Civ game and a separate Col game too would be awesome.

I'd prefer a Civ game with Col possibilities, like starting the game in the colonial period as a colony and than work and fight your way for freedom and independence.

 

[Lord Shadow]

Probably twice as much game, but I'd like a Colonization-like which doesn't end after the war of independence, and instead covers post-independence expansion, further dealing with the natives, and interaction with newly free nations. Tech-wise, it could cap around 1880-1900.

It could take certain elements from history in a dynamic fashion, like the possibility of civil wars, which took place in a number of nascent American nations over a variety of reasons, often the handling of government over increasingly large territories.

A highly developed New World in the late game could even lead to a pseudo-Great War as tensions come to a head between the young powers.

Off-screen European nations would take a secondary role after independence, but could still remain relevant due to trade and perhaps incidents which could trigger European interventions.

 

[Blake00]

I would love that too. Those are great ideas!