Who's not playing until a patch comes out?

[UWHabs]

I play it since it's a good graphics version of the old Colonization game I loved to play. I've done one game vanilla, and now I'm on the mod. I like some aspects of each. I think in my next game, I'll make some tweaks to the mod to make it more suitable for what I'd most want. There are some flaws, and an official mod to mainly fix the LB stuff would be really nice to have, but it's still a fun game with some cool features.

 

[Jeckel]

Yep things are broken in the game. Yep Firaxis are a bunch of lazy SoBs that gave this game about as much effort as they put into the Scenario Mods in Warlords. Yep we are paying beta testers.

Atleast half of the things people rant on and on about can be fixed with the changing of one or two XML values.

Education Cost Increase: Fixed by changing one Global Define number from 20 to 0.

REF Grows to Fast: Fixed by changing two Global Define numbers, one from 75 to 200, the other from 10 to 100.

The Length of the Game is to Short: This one really bugs me.. Turn off the Europe Victory.. poof, no time limit. Beyond that, if you really want a time limit, \Assets\XML\GameInfo\CIV4GameSpeedInfo.xml, check it out, it controls how long the time limit is on each Game Speed.

Any Other None SDK Balance Issue: \Assets\XML\, you just need NotePad or any other text document reader. In half the time it takes to write a two screen post, you could open a single file, change a number or two, and fix whatever issue you have. This is one of the most moddable game engines on the market, use that ability and play whatever game you want.

I'm sure an official patch will come, but it most likely will only include the bugs that we kill in the Unofficial Bug Only Patch Mod, so no sense waiting for somthing you can get right now or fix yourself.

 

[MaxellSnow]

Thing is, those early statesmen don't really pay off for themself, if we just look for maximized profit. They are mostly for FF generation. With all that, it's still not enough compared to higher REF gain you'll face.

As I said, I only use statesmen when I have infrastructure in place, ie, specialists and a level 2 or 3 building. Per your figures before, if we say the use of statesmen equate to another worker in a balanced city that would be say, another 12 at least cigars produced as an example. Sold in Europe, that would be on avg 120 gold, which is either about 50% food needed for a colonist, 1/5 weapons needed for a soldier, or 100 horses. Now I have never had the king add troops every 2 or 3 turns, even so, there are mow's added in which are irrelevant if a final inland city is used.

The benefit of the statesmen, when a production infrastructure is in place, outpaces the increase of an attacking force if all goods are purchased in Europe, even more so if you are producing horses/weapons domestically. Ergo no need for a bell explosion in late game to 'manipulate' the king's forces.

 

[Dale]

The Length of the Game is to Short: This one really bugs me.. Turn off the Europe Victory.. poof, no time limit. Beyond that, if you really want a time limit, \Assets\XML\GameInfo\CIV4GameSpeedInfo.xml, check it out, it controls how long the time limit is on each Game Speed.

PatchMod is changing this too for the next version.

In the next version Snoopy's added in that you have the full number of game turns to someone having the DoI (225/300/450/900), then you have 1/3 of those turns to complete the WoI (or stop someone else winning their WoI).

 

[Öjevind Lång]

PatchMod is changing this too for the next version.

In the next version Snoopy's added in that you have the full number of game turns to someone having the DoI (225/300/450/900), then you have 1/3 of those turns to complete the WoI (or stop someone else winning their WoI).

That sounds excellent. I hope you and Snoopy understand that those of us who are criitical of the way Firaxis released this game are still grateful to all the effort put into improving he game by modders like you two

 

[Reiko]

You forgot two options:

No, I'm playing with the unofficial patch
No, I'm playing with one of the fix mods

That's what I'm doing. Yours and Snoopy's patch mod is great!

 

[Dale]

Thanks all.

 

[Gliese 581]

I played for a week or two, can't remember, then I got bored. I don't think this game will ever be fixed, I think the problems are too fundamental.
I would love to be proved wrong though, col1 is one of the best games when it was new that I've ever played. Then again, I wasn't old enough to play it very well, I guess every advantage comes with a drawback..

 

[NASAROG]

By the way, BlackMantle sums it all up very well.

Bro, That's not a summation. that's a dissertation.

Just sayin'

 

[fugazi]

What I don't get is all the high rated reviews this game gets. Did they even play the . .. .. .. .ing game or did they get an envelope with some money in it? I never took IGN and Gamespy and so on serious anyways, but this truly takes the cake. Double-u-t-f.

 

[Mr Legend]

I was a huge fan of colonization which I had on my Amiga, so when I saw there was a sequel I was obviously really excited.

The thing that strikes me, is that it feels like there's less to it than the original, which just seems wrong. The game feels much more bland than the original which had lots of character. There's none of the 'first cargo from the new world', or 'finding the pacific' events which could have been updated and given little videos all which would help immerse the player into that world.

The other thing that surprises me is just how similar the game is to the original. This might sound daft, but there's a real lack of new things and concepts. I expected Col2 to be the leap forward that Civ4 was, but I've been really disappointed.

From where I'm standing this game feels like a fan mod, with shiny new water effects and a lackluster video at the beginning. This was really a missed opportunity to make a really cool game. The biggest failure of this game for me is that it's not as good as the original, and given the age of said game that's pretty shameful.

 

[Bloink]

It seems to me that Firaxis put their development money into Revolutions for game consoles(came out about a month before Col) and only made Colonization to keep PC gamers appeased.

 

[SwordofStriker]

I voted not playing until a patch because I am not buying the product until an official patch comes out. The modders do a great job with the unofficial ones, but the fact is they shouldn't have to.

I'll buy the product and play it when it is working the way it should have been from day one. If Firaxis hurries I may even end up paying full price rather than getting it from the bargain bin, but that is entirely in their hands. I did the same thing for BTS. If more people would stop buying flawed games upon release, companies may be more inclined to actually commit some time and effort into quality control and testing.

 

[DrSpock]

I stopped playing this game the 2nd day after I bought it upon noticing how after wasting hours building up colonies and building schools/colleges/universities in them that they were all essentially useless since the cost for education increases for some reason beyond me.

The degree to which this product was shipped in such an unplayable condition makes it absolutely zero fun for me. I have instead actually gone back and played the original and been enjoying all those "bad" game mechanics it had that Firaxis was obligated to "make better":
-Education costing a constant amount of time .
-A beatable REF.
-A game length that allowed you to actually simulate more of what the Colonial Period was like (e.g. an exploratory period, a settlement period, intermittent wars with other European powers and natives) and not simply focus on declaring independence from start to finish.
-Artwork greater than the level of a 7 year old in the colony and city screens
-A custom house to streamline micromanagement.
-Native settlements that actually had unique and appropriate behavior and weren't just essentially additional civilizations that were crippled in what they could do.

I know about the unofficial patch and other mods people have made, but for this level of flaws in a game I want an official patch that addresses these basic issues fully without having to load a special mod just to play the game.

 

[Öjevind Lång]

I stopped playing this game the 2nd day after I bought it upon noticing how after wasting hours building up colonies and building schools/colleges/universities in them that they were all essentially useless since the cost for education increases for some reason beyond me.

The degree to which this product was shipped in such an unplayable condition makes it absolutely zero fun for me. I have instead actually gone back and played the original and been enjoying all those "bad" game mechanics it had that Firaxis was obligated to "make better":
-Education costing a constant amount of time .
-A beatable REF.
-A game length that allowed you to actually simulate more of what the Colonial Period was like (e.g. an exploratory period, a settlement period, intermittent wars with other European powers and natives) and not simply focus on declaring independence from start to finish.
-Artwork greater than the level of a 7 year old in the colony and city screens
-A custom house to streamline micromanagement.
-Native settlements that actually had unique and appropriate behavior and weren't just essentially additional civilizations that were crippled in what they could do.

I know about the unofficial patch and other mods people have made, but for this level of flaws in a game I want an official patch that addresses these basic issues fully without having to load a special mod just to play the game.

I am currently playing a game of the original Colonization; fortunately, I still have an old computer that accommodates it, beside the newer one required for programs for games younger than six years.

I am building up three colonies, one of them with an Elder Statesman and 2 others helping me beef up the independence score for that colony; it just hit over 50%. As you know, that means that the settlement becomes more efficient without any additon to the REF. I'm producing huge amounts of rum, selling some of it to my Cherokee neighbors at a good profit, and having just got Adam Smith, I can also build rum factories.

However, my armed forces are much too weak, and my European neigbours to the north (the French) are becoming aggressive. War with them will soom be inevitable. They have lots of troops, of course - this is the original Colonization game. If I am *very* lucky, my king will get annoyed with them too and tell me to declare war on them withiout a diplomatic penalty, and giving me some free troops and free money.

But this is OLD Col, where all kinds of things can happen. In the original Col, one can't just prepare for the War of Independence and ignore everything else. Does that sound familiar to anyone?

 

[Darkness]

Well, I'm sorry to say that I've shelved this game too...

Two reasons for me:

1.
REF build-up is totally flawed. The only thing that influences REF build-up is liberty bell production. The idiot designer that came up with this idea should be shot!
It's incredibly easy to win WoI. Just don't produce any bells at all until you're ready to start the WoI. Then set your statesmen to work to increase rebel sentiment. In about 20-25 turns you should have about 50% rebel sentiment, while the king has added 1 louzy unit per turn to the REF (which was already too small (on higher levels) to start with). So you get a really small REF, and you can beat it easily if you've prepared well.

2.
Bad programming of AI fighting units in war-time. Especially naval units.
If you found your first colony directly adjacent to a coastal native village, the REF's Man-O-Wars will sooner or later end their turn in that village after bombarding your village. After which you can take out all the ships that are there with a single dragoon...

 

[ScottD413]

I bought it soon after release. I installed it on my PC. Now it sits and waits for a patch that may never come...

 

[erebos]

i postponed to buy this game after reading about the bugs ... when the patch comes i will read the opinions and decide then. don't vote!!! finish that patch. ;-)

 

[L_Clan_Dalamar]

The fact that there are no news from Fraxis after more then a month since the release is really starting to worry me. I normally trust Fraxis but they could at least acknowledge the problems and let us know that they are "working on it."

 

[dalgo]

I would expect this game to be patched to fix any known bugs. However that doesn't mean game balance issues will be addressed. For a start everyone seems to think that 'their' issues are the most important and need to be fixed first - but there are so many different and contradictory views that it would not be possible to satisfy everyone. For instance I think the REF should be made bigger. It starts out far too small, especially at higher difficulty levels, and that can be exploited for a quick victory.

I personally am enjoying the game just as it is. I'll apply the patch when it arrives but I'm in no hurry for it.