Imperialism I & II

[Maniacal]

They can produce finished goods without labour? How do you know what kind of goods it will produce? What is the cost of upgrading?

What if you build a port on your home continent, and build a lot of roads around it that connects far away resources, will all those resources be sent to the port? I'm amusing that the port isn't connected to the capital.

I don't know how much they cost, and they will produce goods that are next to the city I think. Though not as many, I do not know if it uses labour or not. If those resoruces are not connected to the capital but are connected to a port they will be shipped by sea.

 

[Janusi]

They can produce finished goods without labour? How do you know what kind of goods it will produce? What is the cost of upgrading?

I can help with that. They don't require labor, but they do require raw material. Basically, the province the town is in has to produce 4 raw material for you to get 1 finished product.

For example, 4 wool gets you 1 fabric. This can be from four different nodes or two nodes upgraded to the second level. 8 wool gets you 2 fabric.
With steel, you need 2 coal and 2 iron to get 1 steel.

Upgrade costs are 4 lumber and 4 cast iron, but that is going by memory and I haven't played the game in a while.

 

[Olav]

^Ah, nice. If a town is upgraded, and, lets say, produces 1 fabric from 4 wool, will those wool disappear from the transport network?

Is there a tech-tree somewhere?

 

[LulThyme]

^Ah, nice. If a town is upgraded, and, lets say, produces 1 fabric from 4 wool, will those wool disappear from the transport network?

No, both the wool and the fabric still can\need to be transported.
It's still a huge bonus and upgrading towns that will produce finished goods is a very high priority.

Going from memory, a finished good is worth 2 basic resources + 2 labor, and each labor costs a least a food per turn, hence a transported finished good saves AT LEAST 4 non-finished goods to transport.

That's why provinces with 4 of a single resource are good, as you can get upgrades without upgrading to level 2.

 

[Olav]

When a major power attacks a minor power, the minor power sometimes joins my realm. Why is that? Is it due to pacts?

Also, time to update the AAR, Thorn.

 

[LulThyme]

When a major power attacks a minor power, the minor power sometimes joins my realm. Why is that? Is it due to pacts?

Yes.
(tenten)

 

[Olav]

^Thanks, nice to know.

Spies: How does spies work regarding techs? Do they steal techs (you will get one of your enemies' tech the next turn), or do they reduce the number of turns you have to invest in the tech?

Regarding techs: Do you leave it to the computer, or do you adjust them yourselves? For me, it feels like a lot of MM to adjust them every turn, so I just let the comp do it.

 

[Thorn]

Spies are good for scouting provinces for invasion. You can see the enemy force size. To steal techs just place them in a Great Power's province. The may get caught though. And it may take a while to steal a tech.
I can't wait to get back to my game. This netbook I'm using gives me an assertion error when I try to run Imp2

 

[Maniacal]

I left the research to the comptuer, and when my money got low (like 10k) I turned it off for a bit waited till i had 30k again and turned it back on. All I have left now is resoruce gathering techs that I don't really need.

And a major war with Holland, they just DoWed on portugal and only need 9 more regions while i need 10 to win.

 

[LulThyme]

To steal techs just place them in a Great Power's province. The may get caught though. And it may take a while to steal a tech.

At higher difficulty levels, spies are the most efficient way to research (at least for the first half of the game).
For 500$ and 3 paper, you can get more than 1000$ per turn worth of research until they get caught. An amazing investment.
Their usefulness is much lower for Normal and lower though.

 

[Maniacal]

Yeah I'm playing on Easiest

 

[BC1871]

It seemed to me that Imperialism 1 was by leaps and bounds better than IMP2.

 

[Thorn]

It seemed to me that Imperialism 1 was by leaps and bounds better than IMP2.

A lot of Imperialism fans agree with you. I've always like Imperialism II, probably because of the better graphics and the addition of the New World. Also, there's a lot more micromanaging in the first Imperialism that isn't much fun. I haven't played many games of Imp1 though I might try again after installing my graphics mod.

Now if you will excuse me, I have an Imperialism II AAR I must work on.

 

[Fistleaf]

When you first start a game, send your ships to find the new world and try to produce 3-4 explorers. Quickly explore your own territory (hills/mountains/swamps) for at least some important iron/copper/tin/coal. Then, explore the mountains/hills/deserts (in this order) in the new world to search for Gems/Gold/Silver/Diamond. Try to acquire some New World provinces with these resources and your income is set for the rest of the game. Deserts may contain the most valuable Diamonds but the occurrence is rather low, mountains can give you a better chance of getting the 2nd-most valuable Gems.
Once you have the income, your research will give you an advantage over your enemies.