Although the game concept is good, it has a lot of tedious elements particularly towards the end of the game, when you just get buried in Colonists captured during wars. If some of these improvements were added it would improve game play greatly. Many fans would greatly appreciate Microprose creating a Colonization II game.
I have added my own comments in square brackets [ ].
The Teacher should train up Indian Converts, Indentured Servants and Petty Criminals to
become Free Colonists.
[OCT06] Soldiers in Prison Hulks and barred from returning from Europe!!!
Also conspicuous by their absence are the Prison Hulks where Soldiers and Veteran Soldiers were kept in awful conditions until peace was declared. Or possibly a prisoner exchange made. Particularly among the Gentlemen Officer Classes. Soldiers were often returned to Europe, as in the game, but had to give their word of honour not to return to fight in the Americas.
Also Soldiers never die. Only Scouts and Pioneers with Tools. Or indeed are injured making them useless as soldiers.
[AUG06] Have larger fonts for partially sighted people by
Steven Sanderson
Steven is a "Legally Blind" Veteran.
[MAR06] Continue Game after Independence by
Pablo from Argentina
Do you know something about logistics? Colonization is a bit of logistics, it's very funny when there is a colony attacked by the continental army and one must move artillery by ship or by land until no there's no enemy left. And when trading a bit too.
What Colonization should do is open a bit the economy view, because you don't pay colonists, there are no costs, the ships don't worn out (I usually have the caravel I started with in a colony without moving, almost 300 years the same ship! There should be a museum).
About the idea of trading contracts it would be possible to make them with other European powers, the mother country or with Indians, in case the human player doesn't make what it's singed it would be more difficult to make them cause he would loose reliability.
[FEB05] 50% less emigration for the Dutch
The Dutch should have 50% less (Sid's favourite number) emigration forcing them either to hire a preacher or spend some of
their considerable loot on paying passage for colonists. This would compensate for their higher commodity prices and head
start with a merchantman. The Netherlands is after all a smaller country than England, France or Spain. Everyone always
chooses the Dutch this might put them off a bit.
[FEB05] Ghost Outdoor Workers when under Siege
When ever an enemy Unit fortifies in one of you Colony square the Colonist can no longer work that square and is moved to the Carpenters shop. This is a real pain as you usually defeat the unit next turn and have to move the colonist back again. If he were ghosted he would wait, produced nothing until the unit was destroyed or moved. He could be moved manually if the siege lasted a long time. You also forget to put the unit back and risk starvation.
I have a new idea, accidents and hurricanes should be included.
[MAY00] noyu@angelfire.com suggested:
Disasters should be added. Especially fires.
[FEB05] Select new feature for Colonization II by
Jorge Pérez
They should take some ideas, some aren't difficult to program (I think) and would make the game more realistic, or they
could leave people the decision whether to play the traditional game or the modified one.
[FEB05] Load and Sell part cargoes through the Custom House by
Jorge Pérez
When you trade horses the number of them is down to 50 tons, and then you have to wait a
lot until you get more horses in that colony, I think that one should be able to say the number of horses one wants
to sell and the quantity that one must have reached to sell, so if I can sell 100 when I have 300 I would have a
faster increase if I keep 200 in my colony.
[ Use the SHIFT and DRAG MOUSE command to sell a set number of horses or other commodities. ]
I didn't know how to do that of the quantity while selling. Thanks!.
[FEB05] Jorge Pérez continues later:
How can I choose the quantity I want to sell and the one I want to keep in the colony?, 'cause if I have 300 horses, and I say: sell horses, then they're reduced to 50 the next turn and then I need of a lot of time for increasing them again, and besides, why does Colonization keep 50 tons of the items I sell through the Custom House?, I told you this and you said it could be changed it but I’ve tried and can't do it, please tell me this again step by step. I think you misunderstood me and /or i explained it in a wrong way. If this is what happened then there's a subject that can be improved, when clicking the Custom House I should say the quantity that once is reached it must sell and the quantity I want to keep in the colony, so I could choose, for example in horses, sell when it reaches or is more than 280 horses, and keep 200 in colony (because I can need them for dragoons)
[ I said hold down the SHIFT key and DRAG the cargo. A box will appear asking how much you want to move. Just type in the number. You can also click on the custom house and order items to be stockpiled or sold. That's all you can do. I think you should be to order the Custom House to keep 100 or 200 or 300 of an item and sell the rest. Especially with Tools (for construction work), Muskets and Horses. You can build a spare wagon train or galleon and put the excess in there. ]
[FEB05] Build Lumber Mill at Population of 2.
As cleared central square can provide food thus just requiring a Lumberjack and
Carpenter to get the Colony started. This can be changed by changing the min_colony field in NAMES.TXT to 2 which is in the c:/mps/colonize directory but it should be standard. It would save dragging a colonist in and out to get your minimum 3
population needed.
[FEB05] Jorge Pérez replies:
If it can be changed then let people do it, but I don't mind about it, it's a bit harder but I don't see that as a
problem.
[FEB05] Have Scenarios like in Civ II
[FEB05] Founding Fathers
Limit founding fathers to their historic country or have them on a first gets it basis like wonders in Civ.
[FEB05] SOL, Tory or Undecided?
SOL was probably only 33% with 33% undecided and 33% United Empire Loyalist's, hence the creation of Canada and the retaining
of two American regiments that fought in the Napoleonic wars. Some people just wanted to get on with their lives and didn't
care either way. So some Colonists should be undecided at not create production penalties.
[FEB05] Pay Workers, Realistic Production and Upkeep Costs
Perhaps 10% of sales or production should go to pay the Colonists and production should only produce 50% of Goods for 100%
Raw Materials to be realistic but probably affect game play and leaning the game. Or implement the upkeep costs for
Buildings in Gold.
[FEB05] Autoselect Trade
When moving an Expert onto a Colony Resource Square have them select their trade in appropriate to that square not
growing food.
[FEB05] Share holds
You should be able to share holds to make plundering enemy colonies easier e.g. 10 silver and 10 furs in a 100 unit hold as
colonies tend to have a lot of commodities in small qualities requiring 2 galleons to take it away when they would fit in one.
Or having to come back and finding the colony has made more of a resource.
I think Microprose should make a new sister game for Colonization and
Civilization. "Imperialization" should be just like Colonization in game play,
but have a Civ2-like map of the entire world. You should be able to play any
major industrialized country such as Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Japan,
or the United States. You should be able to colonize India, China, Australia,
South America, and any other country you can defeat in war. Taking a capital
city would transfer all of the other countries colonies to you.
[ Trade commodities could include Wool for Australia and Tea and Spices for India ]
More military units [Possibly, Hessians for example, unit’s particular to each power.]
Better graphics [Possibly, but not too fancy - 'Keep it simple stupid'.]
Better diplomacy [I agree, like being able to demand Colonies for peace.]
More control over Europe [I agree.]
Different Gov't types [Not appropriate for a historical game.]
3d terrain [Not to my taste but some people might like it.]
More possible endings [Probably not, best to keep to history although maybe some of the other powers could fight for Independence and you could grab some of their Colonies while the war is going on. Also maybe there should be a small chance of voting for Independence.]
Webmaster and Elder Statesman, Thank you for the prompt response on my
letter. I would like to make a suggestion for the creator and assistants who
designed Colonization. Run for political offices! You have the true spirit of
America! P.S. Meyer should write his own biography. I would buy it!
by Philip Richardson
My suggestion is related to your point about getting swamped with useless
units late on in the game, because of capturing them in war. When the final
attack is made on a colony, after all the soldiers have been disarmed a
random colonist offers a token defence in which it is nearly always
defeated. The problem is that this colonist should be killed once the colony
is taken, but he never is. And also unlike a game like civilization, all the
buildings remain intact when the colony is taken. There is no collateral
damage to anything in the colony. I think at least the perimeter defence
should be down graded by 1 level. So a Fortress would become a Fort, and a
Fort would become a Stockade etc.
Overall though I think Colonization is a brilliant (and often underrated)
game. The problem is, that I feel with another months testing it could have
been better. I think the fact that the Manual doesn't quite match what we
have in the game is testimony of this. Anyway, congratulations on a great
site and let’s just hope somebody, whether it’s Microprose, Firaxis or even
Activision get round to doing a sequel.
The GO command
Extend the GO command to go to other European Colonies or specific locations like Indian
villages. Also allow a go to Europe on the sea trade routes.
Australian Version?
Perhaps they should do a new version for the Colonization for Australia,
it's interesting to note Australia wasn't Colonised until after America won
it's Independence, so Britain could have somewhere else to send her criminals, although I believe the majority of immigrants where Soldiers, Governmental, and Settlers. The technology would be more advanced. I went to Portsmouth a few months ago, and they have a spot, where immigrants went to found the first Colonies in Virginia and Tasmania, two distant Countries born in exactly the same place.
Kill Soldiers
The amount of Soldiers you capture as Colonists is totally unrealistic. I get so many that I never need Preachers for recruitment. It gets to a point where you don't want to start a War because of the number of Colonists you are going to have to accommodate. Also defeated Soldiers just retreat and start Colonies everywhere, usually with over lapping radiuses. If say 50% of Soldier Units where killing in combat this problem wouldn't be so great, and it is totally unrealistic to expect no Soldiers to die ever.
Disallow over lapping Colony Radiuses
The map is so big there is no need for over lapping Radiuses. Since you only get 8 square anyway, several taken by a neighbouring Colony just make it impossible.
Select Music
You should be able to select which music can and can't be played. Some songs are really annoying and seem to repeat very often.
There is in fact a Colonization Jukebox in the download section.
Train Appropriate Pupil
When you have say a Lumberjack as a teacher and a Free Colonists cutting Lumber, he should be trained and say not a Statesman. Otherwise all you have to do is waste your time shuffling the Colonists around, when he's trained, and this way is more realistic. Also, Indentured Servants and Criminals should be trained by School level Teachers, as a first choice, as this is quicker. Sometimes the computer uses a Statesman and it takes forever, costing you two skilled Colonists.
Have a Stage Coach
A new member could be added to the Congress who would allow Stage Coaches to operate. A Livery would be required to replace tired Horses, this could be built after a Stable. A service could operate between Colonies with Liveries. The Stage Coach could transport Colonists quickly between Colonies on the same continent for training etc... They would operate in a similar way to Wagon Trains. Or just allow Wagon Trains to carry Colonists.
Colonists with related Skills should work Faster
So, for example, if you have a Tobacco Planter and set him to Cotton Planting he should be half way between Free Colonists and Cotton Planting. Or a Lumberjack as Pioneer should deliver the Hardy Pioneer quantity of logs and a Farmer should plough faster. Also miners are similar and so are factory workers.
Production Queue
There is less need for this in Colonization than there was in Civilization II. It is a lot more critical what you build in Colonization so it is a good idea to keep an eye on things. Also you have less cities to manage and you have to keep an eye on lumber build ups and deficits.
Smuggling?
To avoid the duties set by Parliament, many Colonial traders would sell in France, the Netherlands, and even certain areas in Africa, not to mention India, and eventually China. This was one of the issues which lead to the Revolution. This (smuggling) should somehow be implemented. Even neighbouring Colonies had to send their goods via England if they wanted to trade with each other.
Jan de Witt, a founding father allows trade with foreign colonies in the same way you trade with the Indians. Also when war breaks out and if you have a custom house trade automatically goes to other European countries at a 50% tariff. But you still can't trade with other countries directly. Perhaps ships could attempt to trade but run the risk of being captured by the Royal Navy.
Rebel Sentiment
There should not just be Rebel Sentiment and Tory Sentiment. There should also be a undecided element. This way captured
POW's and Colonies can be undecided, and new immigrants can be Tories. During the American Revolution about 1/3 were in
favour, 1/3 undecided and 1/3 against, as can be attested by the number of Loyalists who fled to Canada. A Revolution could
be declared when those in favour outnumbered those against.