[Col] Settle The World (Colonization like fan game for the Amiga)

[Blake00]

Oooh this looks awesome! IndieRetroNews have done a article on this cool little indie Sid Meier's Colonization like Amiga game project called Settle The World by TheoTheoderich (Christian Wiegel) that's recently been updated and is coming along nicely! Also note the boat on the river which is interesting as I'm sure many classic Col players tried to do that like I did back in the day haha! EDIT: He's now released a playable development version for people to try out! (Note: Game is still in a early state with minimal AI)

Project page:

Settle the World (Amiga) by theotheoderich

A turn-based building and trading game with a focus on local multiplayer for Amiga computer.

theotheoderich.itch.io

Discord:

Join the Settle the World Discord Server!

Check out the Settle the World community on Discord – hang out with 89 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

discord.gg

Download & Setup instructions:

[Col] - Settle The World (Colonization like fan game for the Amiga)

Oooh this looks awesome! IndieRetroNews have done a article on this cool little indie Sid Meier's Colonization like Amiga game project called Settle The World by TheoTheoderich (Christian Wiegel) that's recently been updated and is coming along nicely! Also note the boat on the river which is...

forums.civfanatics.com

Video:

Screenshots:

 

[pavelbel]

Looks nice and oldschoolish)

 

[Hans Lemurson]

The graphics look halfway between Col's and an old JRPG, and that's not a bad thing.
But yes, an AI...that is the trickiest part of these games. It's comparatively easy to define systems, but a decision-making engine?

 

[AyCe]

The graphics look halfway between Col's and an old JRPG, and that's not a bad thing.
But yes, an AI...that is the trickiest part of these games. It's comparatively easy to define systems, but a decision-making engine?

Writing an AI is the most fun part!

 

[Blake00]

One of the members of the Col discord just reminded me about this project and wow.. the author Theo has been mega busy over the last year. There's lots more features, some basic AI and the game is looking really really retro cool.

You can see his recent dev logs here:

Devlog - Settle the World (Amiga) by theotheoderich

theotheoderich.itch.io

And in his latest one he's released a playable development version for people to try out! (Note: Game is still in a early state with minimal AI)

Development versions available for download - Settle the World (Amiga) by theotheoderich

As announced, I will be making the current development version of Settle the World available for download at non-regular intervals from now on. Development versions available for download are always l...

theotheoderich.itch.io

He's also got a discord for the project, I've spoken with him and he's super keen for people to test his game and give feedback!

Join the Settle the World Discord Server!

Check out the Settle the World community on Discord – hang out with 89 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

discord.gg

 

[Blake00]

More news! I've spoken more with the developer Theo/Christian about ways to help more people find, play his game & give feedback and as a result he's very quickly gone above & beyond creating 3 awesome things!

Firstly for those that don't wish to mess with Amiga emulators he's created a huge gameplay tour video where you can see just how amazing his game is now. All the paintings and artwork he uses for the 'ColPedia' terrain info screens and game events are really nice and add to the immersion! Seeing all the new goods, professions and buildings (much like what Civ4Col We The People does) shows how much the Col gameplay is expanded. And I love seeing those boats going up and down rivers as I used to try to do that in original Col. The retro Amiga chip tunes are nice too and Theo says he plans to add more in the future.

Secondly the biggest hurdle stopping people playing his game was that Amiga games required the emulators to use a Kickstart Amiga boot rom usually only available on illegal rom sites. However Theo has now modified his game to be compatible with the free, legally safe copyright free, opensource fan made AROS Kick-Rom removing the need for any dodgy stuff entirely! Plus this free rom actually comes built in to the latest versions of RetroArch and WinAUE removing this step entirely.

Thirdly the other hurdle stopping people playing his game was that Amiga emulators can be a bit messy to get working for the casual gamer not familiar with all that stuff. So Theo has created a detailed setup guide booklet and I'm also going to put a simple step by step guide below too.

1. Download an emulator:
   • For Steam users go to the RetroArch Steam page, add it to your library (it's free), and launch.
   • For non-Steam users go to the WinUAE website, download the latest version (it's free). There are other emulators out there but they are untested.
2. OPTIONAL - Download the latest AROS Kick-Rom IF REQUIRED:
   • For RetroArch and WinUAE users the AROS Kick-Rom is already built in to the emulator!
   • For other emulator users you may need to download the AROS Kick-ROM ABI-v1 m68k boot floppy file.
3. Download the latest Settle The World dev build HDF file.
4. Setup the emulator with the Kick Rom and game HDF files:
   • For RetroArch users Theo has written a nice installation guide book pdf.
   • For WinUAE users there's no guide yet sorry. I've had a quick test and this is what I needed to do to get it working.
     • After installation, run WinUAE and it will ask you for a kickstart rom.
     • Go to the 'ROM' page in the list, click the dropdown below 'Main ROM file" and select the built in AROS one.
     • Go to the 'RAM' page in the list, move the 'Chip' slider bar to 1MB, move the 'Z2 Fast' slider bar to 4MB (minimum requirements).
     • Go to the 'CD & Hard Drives' page in the list, click on 'Add Hardfile' and select the game Settle The World HDF file you downloaded.
     • Go to 'Configurations' page in the list, type Settle The World into 'Name', and click 'Save' (so you can load this config easily in the future).
     • Click 'Start' and wait (a while lol, unless you setup a more powerful Amiga in the emulator).
5. Play Settle The World! Please visit the Settle The World Discord to give gameplay feedback or report any issues getting the game working. If you don't have discord then post here and I'll pass on your messages to Theo.

Multiplayer note:
It is also possible to play online multiplayer games of Settle The World via Steam Remote Play. The game also offers "local" multiplayer with up to four players (hot-seat). All players look at the same screen and make their moves one after the other. Each player can therefore see everything that his fellow players are doing.

Intro cutscene:
While testing I noticed the game has a nice animating intro too...

And here's a video version of it...

 

[Lord Shadow]

Looks awesome and captures a chunk of the charm of the original Colonization's pixel graphics. It's something remakes like FreeCol have unfortunately missed.

However, to be brutally honest, the Amiga choice may be Hard Mode for the dev, and an anti-UX hurdle for players. Not only due to the emulator savvy required, but also because the processing seems to be a lot slower than the average gamer is accustomed to.

It does seem the dev is doing this for fun, out of personal interest more than anything else. Let's hope that flame stays alight despite the self-imposed challenges.

 

[Lord_Hill]

Homebrew for old systems is always a labour of love, the challenge is using every modern convenience and trick in the book to get something that looks so good you think it couldn't possibly exist on the platform. I'd already gone through the misery of setting up workbench in the emulator for a previous project so for me at least, it was a simple install. The graphics are utterly charming, and I'm definitely rooting for the guy to get a bit more of the AI in there so it becomes a proper game! I'll be keeping an eye on it for sure.

 

[Dale]

This is something @donald23 would enjoy I think.

 

[Blake00]

Update from Theo on the Colonization fans Discord.

A new version of Settle the World is now available for you to download for free, the "- The Election Update -":
https://theotheoderich.itch.io/settle-the-world
In the game, the population of cities can now vote every few years on whether the player should remain in power.Elections become available as soon as the citizens of a city have reached the worker class for the first time.If the player wins the election, he can continue playing, if he loses the vote, the game ends for him.
The integration of the new election system is far from complete and will be expanded in future updates.
If you like, you can also follow us on Discord. You can find the link on the project page linked above.
I would be very happy to receive some feedback on the game
Please test if the LHA and/or the HDF file works everywhere.
An Amiga compatible system with at least 1 MB ChipMem and 4 MB FastMem is required.KickROM 3.x or AROS is also required.

EDIT: Theo has since posted a big blog post about the Election update too.

The Election Update - Settle the World (Amiga) by theotheoderich

What's new in the Election update: In the game, the citizens of cities can now vote every few years on whether the player may remain in power. Elections become available as soon as the citizens of a c...

theotheoderich.itch.io