Fan made Colonization inspired games/Clones

[DragosP]

Thanks for the headsup DragosP. I've added your project to the first post and will add it to my site as well in next update. Looks nice so far. Are you working on it alone?

Thanks! Yes, I'm the only one working on it. Someone to help with the graphics would be welcomed and would greatly speed things up.

Best regards,
Dragos

 

[Toni1]

Thanks! Yes, I'm the only one working on it. Someone to help with the graphics would be welcomed and would greatly speed things up.

Best regards,
Dragos

Unfortunately you're not alone in your need for artists, especially dedicated one's. I my self have tried to recruit artists for FreeCol here and elsewhere and while I've managed to send few people their way, none have stayed for long. I find the lack of interest somewhat odd as Civ community most certainly has plenty of tallented and dedicated artists.

To start with you could borrow art from freeciv/freecol or other similar open source project. There is probably some suitable to act as placeholders allowing you to continue development until you can create or recruit someone to create art needed for your project. As for recruiting, beside civ community there's freegamedev forums and similar open source development communities.

 

[Toni1]

Freecol 0.9.0 has been released. In addition to usual bug fixes and tweaks this release improves the AI, stability and graphics (especially GUI). There were also some rule changes.

Changelog:

AI

• AI breeds horses more effectively
• AI uses pioneers more effectively
• AI distributes workers more effectively
• AI creates and assigns soldiers more effectively
• AI constructs more advanced buildings

Graphics

• building graphics (thanks to NewCol and the defunct SweCol project)
• new images for forests and beaches
• redesigned panels and dialogs using MigLayout
• the colony panel, colopedia panel and report panel now remember their size
• more useful for small displays (1024x600)
• the map shows national borders

Rules

• stockades no longer prevent abandoning a colony
• together with a custom house, de Witt circumvents boycotts
• the Treaty of Utrecht

 

[Beamed]

I don't suppose a 'downgrade', perse, to the GUI is either considered or in the works? I'm glad we're having a lot of gameplay improvements, but to be honest the new graphics(especially the opening movie) are simply frivolous.

 

[Toni1]

I don't suppose a 'downgrade', perse, to the GUI is either considered or in the works? I'm glad we're having a lot of gameplay improvements, but to be honest the new graphics(especially the opening movie) are simply frivolous.

Well, I doubt it but if you feel there is need for downgrade, you could suggest it in Freecol forums or make feature request and if enough other people feel the same way, developers might take it into consideration. Remember to provide enough info about what you feel is wrong with new interface and how they should improve it.

 

[Sir_Lancelot]

FreeCol - SF
Version: 0.9.0

jColonization
Version: Playable demo

NewCol
Version: 0.3.1 (Windows & Mac)

Landfall (no longer developed)
Version: 0.63 (Windows only, requires DirectX)

Treasure Fleet
Version: 0.1


Anyone know any others that are active?

There's at least one clone for the Amiga system but I don't remember what it was called.

 

[Toni1]

FreeCol 0.9.1 and FreeCol 0.9.2 have been released. 0.9.1 version fixes several bugs, most notably the one that prevented REF from landing after declaration of independence. 0.9.2 version fixes serious privateer combat bug and reverts a feature that made player have to pay for the land if they tried to settle on indian territory. Feature will be reimplemented once another feature, one that allows first colony to be established for free, is implemented.

Edit: hutzli has released new alternate ship graphics set for FreeCol

 

[Toni1]

FreeCol 0.9.3 have been released. In addition to usual bug fixes this version also contains FreeCol's first graphical mod. The mod contains alternate graphics for goods, ships and native settlements, all made hutzli.

FreeCol 0.9.3 has been released.

We have just released FreeCol 0.9.3. This release fixes several bugs,
including a combat bug that made it possible to capture colonies that
still had armed defenders. The handling of keyboard accelerators was
improved in several ways. Keyboard accelerators are now available for
virtually all mapboard actions, including movement, a feature that was
requested by several users who use keyboards without a key pad. And
keyboard accelerators are now (optionally) localized.

FreeCol has had the ability to include graphical "mods" (bundles of
images that replace standard images) for some time now. But FreeCol
0.9.3 is the first release that actually includes such a mod, a bundle
of images for goods, ships and native settlements by "hutzli". Please
note that you will have to restart FreeCol after selecting a mod
before the setting becomes active.

 

[Toni1]

It's been quite awhile since my last update and quite a lot has happened since.

Three new versions of FreeCol have been released: 0.9.4, 0.9.5 and 0.10.0. First two introduce mostly bug fixes, including several critical memory leak fixes, but also include graphic mod by misiulo that adds new graphics for goods and resources. They also contain improved translations. 0.10.0 alpha on the other hand introduces lot of new features, including selectable rules and custom difficulty, as well as bringing classic ruleset more in line with original Colonization. Do note that this is alpha version and may contain serious bugs and have stability issues.

In addition Treasure Fleet 0.2 and a new version of Landfall were also released. NewCol has resumed development as well.