I'm not impressed

[rastak]

But it's not as bad as Civilization Revolution. Now *that* was unimpressive.

I'd agree except for the 200 hours of fun I had with that title.

 

[tour86rocker]

I definitely agree with the UI complaints. I'm going to try to tweak a couple of things that Dale suggested, though. I agree about the right to left flip complaints, the curve thing taking up space, etc.

I think that Firaxis is getting to play both sides in way, re: this isn't or is Civ4. "Benedict Arnold is born in Roanoke" for example (just born...but a fully functioning general hmmmmmm). Or when you "destroy" a brave. Same old clunky language as Civ4. But I will admit that there is a substantial amount of new writing in the game with Founding Fathers.

They labeled it Civ4 Colonization, and those of us who don't like what they changed in the UI from Civ4 can very validly complain. They marketed it as something familiar, after all, and as customers, we have a right to be disappointed. I loved BtS, btw.

 

[tour86rocker]

That thing with clicking the arrow to move the unit portraits up just reminds me that I wish that there were more notes over stuff that you hover on.

Another language gaffe: "A Indentured Servant is waiting for you in Europe." Should be "an"...that stuff always bugs me.

And I'm tired of dragging and dropping units in Europe and them not going into the Caravel on the first try! Grrrr!

 

[Dale]

You know if you click the unit a "load" button appears opposite the "leave europe" button, right?

 

[tour86rocker]

Actually I didn't notice that button, thanks. If I had a number of units on the dock to pick and choose from, the drag and drop would remain difficult, but I haven't had that problem.

 

[centrelink4]

Why would you expect a completely different game with super high-res graphics? It was always marketed as a remake of the Microprose Colonization title based on the Civ IV engine. The screenshots on the box didn't lie.

hehe oh I dont know maybe when it was called CIV4?

Or maybe when firaxis said it was a "A re-imagining" and not a remake?

Or could it have been when they said "Classic Game Design Rebuilt for the Modern Era"?

Or could it have been . . .

 

[Jeckel]

Why would Col2 be different then Col1? If you want "A re-imagining", why not just get some other imagining? I like playing Col1. It needed better graphics, Flying Help Texts, and a faster engine, but the game play was wonderful.

The worst thing they could have done was make a different game and call it Colonization. Perfect example is "SimCity Societies". Not a bad game, I guess, but it most certainly isn't SimCity, not a next step in the line of SimCity 1 through 4. Why not just call it SimSocieties? Well because someone had the great idea of "re-imagining the franchis" and "updating the game for the modern era". What happen? A big flop of a game.

Bottom line, props to Firaxis for taking a game that works and allowing us to play it with modern technology. Now if they would just do the exact same thing for Alpha Centarie....

 

[rubbersocks]

The graphics are indeed top notch, but there's not enough change from Col I... I kind of expected more. Maybe have to dig deeper into it...

 

[Greybriar]

...there's not enough change from Col I....

If there were a lot of change from the original Colonization, then they should have given it a different title.

Personally, I don't think it is enough like the original.

 

[Wheldrake]

I don't think the original poster is giving the game a fighting chance to be fun. The "land is so far away" problem probably comes from playing the French or the English on the standard Americas map. It's true, they do start something like 4-5 turns away from land, IIRC. I would suggest trying a random map, you generally start 4-6 squares, or 1-2 turns from land. As far as the city screen is concerned, I agree it is kind of rudimentary. It's intended more as a placeholder for the various colonists working in the city than as a graphical representation of streets and buildings in the city.

As far as gameplay is concerned, you ain't seen nothin' until you've played Dale's AoD2 mod. It's far superior to the vanilla version of the game, and although the current build (v1.10) has a slight drawback where the competing colonial nations expand *very* rapidly, it really has *everything* I would have wanted to make the Colonization experience complete. I just suggest playing on one of the very lowest difficulty levels, and do your best to expand your empire very quickly in the initial phase of the game.

Concerning the OP's complaints about the lack of automation in actions like loading ships and so on, he just needs to poke around a bit more. There are several different ways of loading ships, changing professions and the like, some are faster, and some give greater control.

Cheers, --- Wheldrake

 

[pajeg]

Blurry, ugly graphics. "Ye old pioneer" style is ok for some people, but I want a sharp image. Its an interface, not a sketch of an interface.

there's some mods to have the original graphics and musics...

Bad interface design: Buttons are often spaced too far apart, or not nearby the thing they modify. Often-clicked buttons are right next to not-so-often used buttons, like delete. Its not easy to tell what is going on. Is that colonist on my ship, or not? And for goodness sakes, get rid of that curved design, it takes up room!

you can reduce the interface, or if you use the shortcuts, don't show it

Lack of shortcuts: highly annoying. It might be fun to drag and drop the first few turns, but dragging those goods in Europe from all the way from down the bottom to all the way up to your ship? Annoying. Not being able to right click a colonist and give him a profession? Annoying. Not being able to right click a good and automatically load all units onto a ship. Annoying.

why not take a look at the manual before crying...

Game play isn't fleshed out. Easily changed, but still. Why is my ship wandering around for 20 turns looking for land at the beginning of a game? Hello, not fun at all, very annoying, and serves absolutely no purpose at all, except to annoy. Most people want to find land and actually have fun. Put the map closer, and if someone wants it far away, they could choose it that way in a custom game. When they remade Civ for Civ 4, one goal was to reduce all the silly things they made you do for no reason in the interface and in micromanagement. It seems they didn't go through Colonization with the same fine-toothed comb this time.

just create another game if you think your strating positin suck so much, you can choose the distance to reach land when you create a game too (unless it's from a map script)

More interface bad choices: Why switch all the buttons from Civ 4? Do you think the majority of buyers won't already have civ 4? So putting the civilopedia buttons and the others on the left, does it serve a purpose except to annoy civ 4 users? Not to mention how tiny they are. Get rid of some interface down below, and make them bigger up top. Put them into the interface instead of freestanding, it makes things easier to find and click.

would you rather have the menu from the original col?

Bring back my opponents on the lower right hand side.

Put the selected unit above the interface, like civ 4. Its very hard to tell who you have selected, what its carrying, etc, when its way down at the bottom.

open your manual... you can do this

It seems this game was remade without adding anything extra to make it more fun. Its more of an update, so we can all play colonization again with new screens. But thats about it. Its very lacking in complexity, which I know will be a plus for some users, but leaves others kind of feeling empty.

On the plus side, there were some improvements I really liked, such as the indian villages now tell you what profession they will teach and what goods they want.

take a look at the section mods, that's a big extra

 

[pajeg]

They labeled it Civ4 Colonization, and those of us who don't like what they changed in the UI from Civ4 can very validly complain. They marketed it as something familiar, after all, and as customers, we have a right to be disappointed. I loved BtS, btw.

it's a remake of col using the graphics from civ4,you don't even need to have civ4 to play it, as it say on your box