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SID MEIER'S CIVILIZATION IV: COLONIZATION INFO CENTRE!
Developer: Firaxis Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Format: Games for Windows
Release Date: September 2008
ESRB: Not yet rated
 
Overview:
Civilization IV: Colonization puts you in the role of Viceroy of the New World. You are sent by your King and country to establish colonies in the newly-discovered Americas that lie to the west. You face many of the same challenges that faced colonial organizers of the time-competition from other Old World powers, strange native cultures, the problems of establishing profitable trade programs, and the problems of organizing an army from a rag-tag band of colonists.
The game begins with the European discovery of the Americas (1500) and continues until approximately the time of the American Revolution (1800). In the beginning of the game you are given a trading/exploration ship and a small group of colonists. You have no knowledge of what lies ahead of your ship, so you must explore until you find a suitable spot to lay down your first colony. As your colonies grow larger and larger, you inevitably encounter native populations and are confronted with competing imperial powers from the Old World.
To be successful in Colonization, you must balance your need for military might with your need for essentials. You must decide early what your strategy is and pursue it relentlessly, but be flexible enough to adjust to a changing situation. It is very important to have a consistent policy with the natives, because your handling of those relationships are critical. Finally, you must build a colonial society that has the infrastructure to survive a test by fire-the War of Independence.
In Colonization, you have the chance to change history. As a colonial power, you decide the policies, you make the plans, you choose what is important and what is insignificant. Finally, you will be called upon to decide when to declare independence from your mother country.
As a complete reimagining of the 1994 classic, Colonization is a total conversion of Civilization IV that combines Civilization's addictive "just one more turn" gameplay with all-new graphics and features that add more depth to the franchise. New features, such as a brand-new interface, improved diplomacy options and the included modding tools ensure that Colonization will be the next great title from gaming's premier strategy game developer.
Contents:
- Abreviations
- Features
- Expansion or Stand-alone?
- Nations
- Leaders
- Founding Fathers
- Constitution
- Units
- Professions
- Cities
- Buildings
- Goods
- Game Goals
- Maps
- Screenshots
- Videos
- Multiplayer
- Modding
- System Requirements
- Sources / Links
Abreviations:
Col1 = 1994 original Colonization
C4C = Civilization IV: Colonization
FF = Founding Father
Features:
The current confirmed features for C4C as released by Take2 Games are:
- Complete re-imagining Col1
- Civilization IV conversion built from the ground up
- All-new graphics with higher resolution than Civ4
- Enhanced water, shadows, terrain and buildings
- Brand new interface
- Improved diplomacy
- Included modding tools
- Improved performance
Expansion or Stand-alone?:
C4C is officially a stand-alone product. Whilst it uses the Civ4 engine as its base there is no requirement to own Civ4 or any Civ4 expansion to run C4C.
quote:
Colonization is in the Civ IV family of games because it's a total conversion of the Civ IV engine and we wanted Civ IV fans to know that this is a game they'd really enjoy. Civ expansions have always required the core game in order to be able to play them, and they have always included significant improvements and additions to the core game. The dev team felt that Beyond the Sword (the second expansion pack for Civ IV) delivered so many improvements and additions to the core game that we had arrived at the ultimate Civ IV experience.
We decided to focus all of our efforts on creating a new Colonization experience that would build on the Civ IV engine and deliver the addictive "just-one-more-turn" gameplay our fans enjoy. We made it a stand-alone game because there are no core game additions to Civ IV included and it doesn't rely on any Civ IV game assets, so there was no reason to require the core game to play. |
Nations:
Four European nations are confirmed to be in C4C. These nations and their traits are:
Europe:
- England - Immigration
- France - Native cooperation
- Holland - Trade
- Spain - Conquistadoring
Natives:
- Iroquios
- Aztec
- Sioux
- Cherokee
- Inca
- Tupi
- Apache
Leaders:
England
- George Washington: -50% cost to equip soldiers
- John Adams: +25% bell production and economic help (gold?)
France
- Samuel de Champlain
- Buade de Frontenac
Holland
- Peter Stuyvesant
- Adriaen van der Donck
Spain
- Simon Bolivar
- Jose de San Martin
Founding Fathers:
Founding Fathers give specific bonuses to your nation. There are 52 FF in C4C, and each FF can only join one colony.
Interestingly:
quote:
Depending on which nation you're playing and which strategies you're using, different founding fathers will become available to join your cause and grant your nation substantial bonuses. |
Known FF:
- Betsy Ross: increased garment production
Constitution:
We have heard a few reports of a "constitution". It appears that when you declare independance some immediate decisions are made by the player to determine their constitution. These decisions have an impact on post-independance bonuses/penalties.
quote:
Right after you hit the big bell-shaped button that causes your colony to revolt, you'll have some big decisions to make. A series of either/or questions pop up immediately after you declare independence, the collective results of which will comprise your nation's constitution. Will you support slavery? Enforce the separation of church and state? Model yourself after your monarchist rulers, or opt for a representative democracy? Each of these elements will bestow certain global properties on your colony. If your state is against slavery, for instance, you'll enjoy a bonus to the population of each of your settlements. |
Units:
This is the list of Units:
- Criminal
- Indentured Servant
- Converted Native
- Colonist (has a profession)
- Specialist (master of a profession)
- Cannon
- Trade Wagon
- Caravel
- Merchantman
- Galleon
- Ship of the Line
- Man-O-War
- Privateer
Whilst all units have not be confirmed for C4C, one can only assume this concept will be in some form due to the foundation nature of this concept.
Professions:
In C4C each colonist can hold a profession. The professions from Col1 are (most have been mentioned as professions for C4C in previews and screenshots):
- Farmer
- Fisherman
- Fur trapper
- Silver miner
- Ore miner
- Lumberjack
- Sugar planter
- Cotton planter
- Tobacco planter
- Preacher
- Statesman
- Carpenter
- Distiller
- Weaver
- Tobacconist
- Fur trader
- Blacksmith
- Gunsmith
- Scout
- Pioneer
- Settler
- Soldier
- Dragoon
- Missionary
There has been mention of Specialists who will give an even greater bonus to production. For instance a "Master Furrier" has been mentioned to "produce clothes of the finest quality for higher prices in Europe". Is this a third level of training for our colonists (Col1 only had two levels of training: colonist, specialised)?
Cities:
GameSpy has summed this up well:
quote:
Every city has a certain number of buildings, each of which has a number of slots to fill with industrious colonists. You can choose to have your colonists working the land around your city (usually gathering raw materials) or working in buildings within (manufacturing those materials into finished goods).
While you can let the AI figure out a workable allocation, some of the fun lies in tweaking the economies of individual cities by hand, figuring out the optimal allocation to meet your goals at the time. At first your untrained colonists, working in the most basic of cities, can do little more than harvest goods to ship back to Europe. All your "big-ticket" items -- like guns! -- will have to be imported.
As your economy develops, your cities will begin to spread across the map, encompassing multiple tiles. We loaded up an advanced game and checked out a Spanish settlement featuring multiple large cities, all walled-off with stockades. The largest of the cities had little satellite towns around them, harvesting raw materials, while tiny wagon trains criss-crossed back and forth between urban centers. Visually it looked great. |
Buildings:
Confirmed buildings in C4C:
- Provincial Capitol
- Tobacconist
- Cigar Factory (upgrade)
- Weaver's House
- Cloth Factory (upgrade)
- Distiller's House
- Distillery (upgrade)
- Furrier's House
- Furrier (upgrade)
- Warehouse
Goods:
- Tobacco - Cigars
- Cotton - Cloth
- Sugar - Rum
- Fur - Clothes
- Logs - Lumber
- Ore - Tools - Muskets
- Liberty Bells
- Silver
Last update: 14 AUGUST 2008
Last edited by Dale on 20-08-2008 at 19:43
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Game Goals:
Here are some of the goals of the game:
Native Relations:
quote:
When you have friendly relationships with a nearby tribe, you can expect a steady stream of gifts from them, forge alliances and receive troops when you go to war with a rival colony, and offers to train your people in any skills at which the Natives are experts. In the demo, the English were next to a tribe of friendly Native Americans who happened to be expert sugar planters and offered to train English units in sugar planting, knowledge that could rapidly give the English side an economic advantage over the other three colonies. The only real downsides to trying to coexist with Native Americans is that they'll get upset if you build too many colonies near their cities without paying them for the land, and they may expect you to side with them if they choose to go to war against rival Native tribes or your rival colonies.
Native Americans will also get upset if you expand your colony's borders too quickly or too much, even if you're expanding away from the friendly tribe's territory. This can lead to war, but it's better if you instead give the tribe gifts and favors to placate them. You can also opt to send missionaries to a tribe's city to build a mission, which can begin converting all of the local tribesmen into populations loyal to your particular colony. That part of the game is almost so realistic that it makes me a little uncomfortable, but it certainly seems to be a winning tactic, judging from the part of the demo that looked at a game that was close to ending. |
Declaring Independance:
quote:
When it's time to declare a revolution, you begin by declaring the principles of the new country you're trying to found. You aren't obligated to pattern your nation too closely after America: The English colony in the demo was a theological monarchy. Each characteristic you pick grants your new nation particular bonuses, so what kind of country you choose to found may have more to do with how you like to play games than what sort of political beliefs you have. Once you declare revolution, you have a brief time to prepare your colony for war while the mother country's troops sail across the Atlantic to come give you a beat-down. Once they arrive, the fight's outcome really comes down to how well-prepared you are. You can use ships to sink enemy ships before they can land troops on your territory, which makes winning the war easier. Unfortunately, building ships is expensive, and it's rare you'll have as much of a navy on hand as you wish you did. Once the fighting starts on land, then it really comes down to who has the most powerful units. There's nothing you can actually gain by defeating European ships that aren't carrying troops, since defeating the invasion force dictates whether or not you win independence. While the war goes on, you'll have to keep an eye out for other colonies that may join in the fray, but you may also get valuable help from any Native allies you've cultivated. It's not guaranteed that rival colonies will want to fight you once you declare revolution, but you need to make sure that you keep everyone happy while you trade with them.
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Maps:
Confirmed Map Types:
- Americas (North & South connected by Ithmus)
- Caribbean (small island chains)
- United States (historical not random)
Quote from IGN Preview:
The game will feature randomly created maps, just like Civilization, and it's up in the air whether historically accurate maps will be included.
Screenshots:
Screenshots available here. (Removed to separate page due to number of SS's)
Videos:
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Info centre updated with latest round of information.
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Great work with this Dale!
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Info Centre updated with E3 coverage and new screens.
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Settler
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Jul 2008
time: 03:51
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I am so happy I could cry.
I was really yearning for Colonization - one of my favorite games of all time. I was reading about it on wikipedia and remembering all those fun times I had wiping out natives, other colonies, and the king's army. I had quietly accepted that I would never be able to do it again..... but now this!
Awesome, simply awesome. Fall '08 better mean soon...
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King
of Brisbane
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Oct 1999
time: 13:51
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Will there be new sound effects in the final build? I watched a video and noticed the exact same sound effects as Civ IV. What's the point of having new music, refreshed graphics etc, when stale old sound effects are being used? By sound effects, I specifically mean battle victory sound/battle defeat sound, etc.
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Settler
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Nov 2007
time: 03:51
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Does anybody know if C4C will be available on Steam? I see GamersGate is selling pre-orders, but I'd very much prefer Steam.
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Technical Assistant
Of the Peanuts Gallery
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Apr 2004
time: 21:51
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I won't ask why... but I think it is coming out on steam, though I don't know if it's 100% confirmed.
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Settler
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Nov 2007
time: 03:51
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There is a dearth of information regarding its release on Steam which leads me to believe it won't be coming out on the platform. I'd hoped somebody here might have a bit of info regarding the matter.
From the total lack of information it's easy to surmise that there may have been a rift between 2K Games and Valve over the particulars of this release. It's happened before with other games (most recently Bionic Commando Rearmed from Capcom).
Why what? Why I prefer Steam? It's simply my favorite digital distribution system. Stardock's service is the best in terms of rights management and customer support but Steam's usability is great, it has a huge catalog and their "Community" system is coming together nicely (nicely enough that I'm using Steam as the center of all my PC gaming endeavors, in fact).
A friend recently noted that the release of Colonization has been tepid in comparison with other Firaxis launches of late. Is it just me? It seems that C4C has been "riding under the radar" for a while, so to speak.
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Settler
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Nov 2007
time: 03:51
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So nobody knows. It's just odd; you'd think availability details would be all over the place by now, what with this being such a big title.
*shrug*
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Apolyton Time is 22:51. |
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