4 ms·

I always preferred Colonization with its far more detailed economic mechanisms. In Civ, I never got over the feeling that my actions actually had little impact.

I always preferred Colonization with its far more detailed economic mechanisms. In Civ, I never got over the feeling that my actions actually had little impact. Similar in SimCity: build all three types of zones, then build whatever services are in demand. There is nothing creative in those games. Intersperse commercial and residential zoning to reduce traffic? Nope. Build a school blocked in by coal power plants? Sure!

dwighttk 9y ago
man, why you building power plants you gotta replace every 50 years? Hydro or nothing. Colonization was great too...
- isostatic 9y ago
  Sc2k you could raise land, build water, then build hydro. It was dumb, but useful.
  - dwighttk 9y ago
    and even top it off with a water pump!
eropple 9y ago
Colonization is a great game from a mechanical perspective (aside from the AI bugs, which make it a slog to play today, and the crazy behaviors of the game when you have Ben Franklin). I find it difficult to play today in no small part because of the level of violence done to history. Civilization posits itself as almost a board game, and to me it largely strips itself of the historicity that its setting implies by turning it into overtly "gamey" stuff. Pottery implies Granary. Colonization personalizes a lot...and stuff like the way that native "converts" "flock to your mission in their city" when you attack it with artillery is a significant whitewashing of what anybody playing the game as an adult knows is going on. I don't think Brian Reynolds had ill intentions by any stretch; you can, of course, be peaceful in Col, and it's probably the best way to play at higher levels (France becomes really advantageous, especially stacking with the Pocahontas bonus). And the way the manual is written clearly indicates that they understood the parts of the historical record that the game leaves out. I have always assumed that there was fear from higher-ups at MicroProse that made them sanitize the game a little. But it mostly makes me wonder what a more honest game, made today, would look like. I might or might not have half an engine written on this laptop, as it happens...at some point I'd love to sit down and talk to Reynolds about that game. Everyone asks him about Alpha Centauri, but I really want to know about Col! (Also: while Civ4Col is pretty lame, I think its biggest mods, The Authentic Colonization and Religion and Revolution, take important steps toward a more honest representation of things. They're also really, really fun in ways Civ4Col was not.)
- secabeen 9y ago
  The amazing thing for me about Colonization is that it still runs on relatively recent versions of windows. Just stick the wing.dll file in your system32 directory, and run it.
  - eropple 9y ago
    Does it? I've never tried. I instead use GOG's DOS version, because I really like the DOS version's music when rendered through MIDI. I wonder if Colonization for Windows fixes the trade route bugs though...
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
gota 9y ago
I'm a long-time Civ player, and I've recently tried the Civ IV Colonization. One match later I installed the 'Religion and Revolution' mod and I'm amazed at how deep a community-made mod takes an already deep game
hobbes78 9y ago
Although the country is nowadays irrelevant on the international arena, it's always a shame to see represented only four of the five then-big players of the colonization race, missing Portugal. It's like a game about space exploration missing the USSR, for example...

dwighttk 9y ago

man, why you building power plants you gotta replace every 50 years? Hydro or nothing. Colonization was great too...

isostatic 9y ago
Sc2k you could raise land, build water, then build hydro. It was dumb, but useful.
- dwighttk 9y ago
  and even top it off with a water pump!

eropple 9y ago

Colonization is a great game from a mechanical perspective (aside from the AI bugs, which make it a slog to play today, and the crazy behaviors of the game when you have Ben Franklin). I find it difficult to play today in no small part because of the level of violence done to history. Civilization posits itself as almost a board game, and to me it largely strips itself of the historicity that its setting implies by turning it into overtly "gamey" stuff. Pottery implies Granary. Colonization personalizes a lot...and stuff like the way that native "converts" "flock to your mission in their city" when you attack it with artillery is a significant whitewashing of what anybody playing the game as an adult knows is going on. I don't think Brian Reynolds had ill intentions by any stretch; you can, of course, be peaceful in Col, and it's probably the best way to play at higher levels (France becomes really advantageous, especially stacking with the Pocahontas bonus). And the way the manual is written clearly indicates that they understood the parts of the historical record that the game leaves out. I have always assumed that there was fear from higher-ups at MicroProse that made them sanitize the game a little. But it mostly makes me wonder what a more honest game, made today, would look like. I might or might not have half an engine written on this laptop, as it happens...at some point I'd love to sit down and talk to Reynolds about that game. Everyone asks him about Alpha Centauri, but I really want to know about Col! (Also: while Civ4Col is pretty lame, I think its biggest mods, The Authentic Colonization and Religion and Revolution, take important steps toward a more honest representation of things. They're also really, really fun in ways Civ4Col was not.)

secabeen 9y ago
The amazing thing for me about Colonization is that it still runs on relatively recent versions of windows. Just stick the wing.dll file in your system32 directory, and run it.
- eropple 9y ago
  Does it? I've never tried. I instead use GOG's DOS version, because I really like the DOS version's music when rendered through MIDI. I wonder if Colonization for Windows fixes the trade route bugs though...

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

gota 9y ago

I'm a long-time Civ player, and I've recently tried the Civ IV Colonization. One match later I installed the 'Religion and Revolution' mod and I'm amazed at how deep a community-made mod takes an already deep game

hobbes78 9y ago

Although the country is nowadays irrelevant on the international arena, it's always a shame to see represented only four of the five then-big players of the colonization race, missing Portugal. It's like a game about space exploration missing the USSR, for example...