Colonization

Thoughts by Mr Creosote (11 00 2016) – Amiga (OCS)

At the end of its commercial life, the Amiga had some strange releases. As the viability of ports decreased, but wasn’t yet completely absurd, the key was often to cut costs. Ports came late, if at all, and often hadn’t been subject to sufficient quality control. Colonization was ported two years after its initial release by Microprose’s UK branch. It doesn’t do completely horribly, but also shows the typical signs.

It seems the route they took was writing a wrapper to display pre-made screens in an OS-friendly manner, i.e. within the default windowing system. So Colonization finds itself deeply within the controversy around how much immersion into a game world is possible if it looks like a Workbench application. The free placement of component windows is rather pointless, as there are only few sensible arrangements (i.e. one). Some things have not been consistently straightened out; e.g. sometimes, you will need to close child windows with the button on top left, but sometimes, there are buttons/options within the window as well. Apart from the immersion aspect, there are no major disadvantages at least.

The game, however, is plagued by the same issue which already haunted the Amiga port of Civilization: mouse clicks are not registered reliably and in general, everything feels rather sluggish, from screen redraw to general responsiveness – interestingly enough, regardless of how powerful the host system is. A couple of bugs known from the original have been fixed (such as the infamous “u” one), but others not (transport routes still don’t work reliably) and occasionally, new ones pop up (whom to take along from Europe). The loss of colour depth causes some issues of intuitive recognition. For example, it’s a bit hard to tell trained soldiers apart from untrained ones. Missing animations and cut scenes (the comedy king is absent) are not much of an issue, but not displaying the surrounding tiles in the city screen has serious repercussions on resource planning.

So it should be clear that if you want to play Colonization, this is not the ideal version to play; rather, we should see it as a historical oddity: on a system where virtually all games used custom self-booting floppy formats to bypass the operating system completely, we suddenly got a game which was the polar opposite in this respect.

Putting all technical aspects aside, Colonization of course remains a fascinating game. Its focus on economical development and logistics set it apart from the bulk of the war-focused strategy games. Which comes at a cost. That being that the worldview transported through this game is an extremely American one: the absolute primacy of capitalist economy above everything.

Given the (theoretical) subject of emancipation and attaining freedom, settlements could have been centres of humanity; the player could be tasked to build a social, peaceful utopia. Instead, cities are nothing but production centres. Whether they are spaces to live well or not is apparently of no relevance – or the designers actually equate Protestant core values (“work hard”) with that. Or, much more generalized, the game has a very narrow worldview and offers virtually no alternatives to its player. The only way from start to finish is to build up a strong economy, rebel against the motherland and resolve this conflict with military means.

There are some facets of the way there, on the other hand, are quite interesting; in particular, there are the three potential enemies.

First, there are the natives. It’s axiomatically atypical to face an opponent who doesn’t start out the same way you do. The native tribes begin at the height of their power, and as the European’s strength grows, theirs dwindles. They take at least a triple role of being potential trading partner, education centre and military opponents – often all at the same time, because the state of war and peace with them is not binary, but rather gradual.

Second, there are the other Europeans. They come closest to opponents like they are known from games like Civilization. What is special is that beating them is not necessary for a human player to win. It’s not even necessary to be more powerful (by whatever definition) than them. Actually, it is possible that three out of the four protagonists all win the game! Appropriately, the other Europeans act aggressively towards the player, but not necessarily in an outright war-like way.

This is because the winning condition is only gaining independence from the European motherland. Who is the third opponent, and in a way, the most mysterious one. Initially, there is no way to survive without it. However, right from the start, the European royalty is portrayed as pompous and basically evil. They raise taxes for no apparent reasons. They demand extra payments for necessary survival support. They bring their wars to the new world.

However, their real power remains unseen throughout most of the game. There is no way to resist their judgments in significant ways. From time to time, there are news that their army just got stronger again. Even accepting the premise of a military resolution without alternative, there is no way to sail to Europe and fight the conflict there. It is an extrinsic, almost godlike force; a sword of damocles hanging above the player’s head – in spite of the buffoon-ish behaviour of the king.

It is not clear whether these opponent types have been distinguished the way they are intentionally by the designers. Some aspects indicate that at least, these ideas have not been fully developed, not used to their full potential.

For example, take the role of the other Europeans in the new world, potentially the already independent “New World” states and the natives during the war of independence. There is none. Or at least no relevant one. Units of other (Ex-) Europeans are simply removed from the board. Natives could, in theory, take arms against the player as allies of the evil king, but in practice, this will not be a danger anymore at this stage of the game.

It’s even worse the other way around. A war of independence for the competing Europeans controlled by the artificial intelligence doesn’t even exist. They are simply “set free” by their respective rulers without further ado at a certain point in time.

Both limits illustrate the large untapped potential, areas where the game could have really played out the conceptual strengths of having such very different forces within the game world. As much fun as it is the way it is – this is a game which really could benefit for a “re-imagination”.

Thoughts by NetDanzr (25 00 2006) – PC (DOS)

Designed by Sid Meier’s protégé, Brian Reynolds, Colonization adds a whole new level of strategy to Civilization, a story that has never been reproduced in a turn-based strategy game, and gives a whole new meaning to replay value.

In Colonization, you will play the role of a viceroy of one of four European nations – England, France, Spain or the Dutch, with the goal to establish a colony in the newly discovered New World. Each nation has its own advantage: the English produce more emigrants willing to settle in your colonies, the Spanish enjoy a military bonus when fighting the natives, the French are better diplomats and the Dutch can count of more price stability on domestic markets. This adds a whole new level to the replay value, which was reproduced only much later in Alpha Centauri (also designed by Reynolds).

As you arrive to the New World, you will have a single colonist, a scout and a military unit. Your first task will be to find a suitable place to build your colony, which will exploit up to eight unoccupied spaces around. It is essential to find a good source of food, as well as some source of timber and preferably one or two raw resources. If you are lucky, you will find such a place really quickly, but most likely you will end up close to the natives, who also occupy their eight squares around their camps.

Once you establish a colony, you will be able to place your colonist to one of several positions. He can gather food, cut trees, or work in one of many workshops. To work in those workshops, however, he needs raw materials, which will be scarce at the beginning of the game. In order to build more improvements, somebody will have to cut wood, and somebody else serve as a carpenter to build the improvement. In addition, a farmer will be necessary to feed those two (and himself). As a consequence, at least three people will be necessary to establish a viable colony.

There are three ways to increase population. The most straightforward but very time-consuming way is to wait till you gather enough food to ?grow? a new colonist. Another, very unreliable method, is to establish religious missions in the surrounding native villages and hope for some converts. Basically, the only viable way will be to wait for new emigrants from the Old World. Whenever you create enough crosses (through churches or preachers), a new emigrant will appear at the pier of your capital, and your transport ship will be able to ferry him over to the new world. The majority of these emigrants will be skilled workers, which automatically add a production bonus when working in their area of expertise ? an expert farmer will generate more food when farming, but very little products when doing something else, for example. From time to time, you will be able to find a bonus with your explorers, which will automatically generate several emigrants at the same time.

Over time, you will encounter other nations. At first, they will graciously allow you to share the newly found continent with them, but over time they’ll change their mind and attack you. Thus, it is essential to maintain a strong army. You will be able to equip your immigrants with horses and/or muskets, but the better way (much more expensive) will be to train veteran soldiers. You will be also able to build city fortifications, and buy artillery and better naval units.

In addition to other nations, you will encounter the natives. While initially they will be friendly to you, this changes as your military presence increases, and will attack you later. You can keep destroying their camps, which will yield more land and some money (or very much money when you destroy their capital), but will have an adverse effect on your final score. It is much better to get certain people to the Continental Congress, who will give you certain advantages against the natives (among other things).

The Continental Congress serves as a combination of world wonders, technology improvements and palace from Civilization. Each new member will give you certain advantages, such as the ability to trade with other nations, all native land for free, better diplomatic relations, more production, and more. Every time you progress enough into the game to be awarded a member of the Continental Congress, you will be able to choose one of five people, from each of the major categories: military, exploratory, trade, diplomatic and religious. The advantages you get vary with every person, and are usually important enough for you to strive to build up the congress.

With so many purchases I mentioned, it is apparent that you will heavily depend on income. The game has a very advanced economic system for its time. You will be able to ship any raw materials or finished products back to your homeport and sell them. Over time, the prices will change, depending whether you are selling a certain product or buying it. As the game progresses, you will be able to manufacture your own products, and instead of gathering raw materials around your home cities, you will buy them at home and ship back finished goods. However, over time, your king will increase the taxes on your products. It starts rather low, with one or two percentage points, but will build up to over 50% if you always give way. You can refuse the tax by dumping the entire stockpile of a certain product, which you will then be unable to trade with your home country. This will also raise the rebel sentiment, which is important for the endgame?

The ultimate goal of the game is to declare independence. Rebel sentiment in your colonies will rise over time, and once it grows to over 50%, you will be able to declare independence. Your declaration will be immediately followed by your king sending his elite troops against you and promptly conquering a few of your cities. The game ends when you defeat the king’s troops, with the help of one of the other nations, which will supply you with additional troops after several turns.

On the technological front, the game is a mixed back. While the sound is much improved from Civilization, the graphics have experienced no improvement since Civilization three years earlier. They are still the same static figures, only slightly more detailed. The terrain looks a little differently, but the quality is roughly the same. The A.I. is weird, to say at last. On one hand, the A.I. makes some really nifty moves: it attacks your most weakly defended cities (which gets especially cumbersome when you declare independence) or attacks when it can gain certain advantage, such as when you are transporting a huge loot. On the other hand, the A.I. makes some glaring mistakes. A foreign nation can offer to sell you certain units, only to attack the city defended by these units two turns later. Overall, however, the A.I. is better than that in Civilization. On the other hand, the game balance is much worse. There are two main problems I encountered here. The first problem with the balance is the disproportional price system. On one side, the most advanced warship will cost you 5000 gold, on the other, a veteran soldier unit will cost you 2000 gold, which is too much relatively to the ship. The second problem with the balance is the relative difficulty in building colonies with no access to water. In order to trade, you will need to ship goods, and from inland, you will only be able to ship them by wagons. This method is very cumbersome and slow, virtually preventing you from building inland cities, unless there is a very good reason (a high concentration of raw materials) to do so.

Overall, Colonization is to Civilization what Alpha Centauri is to Civilization II. It introduces new concepts, improves the replay value and allows for a very unique experience, while maintaining the same style of play. Despite the weak graphics, unbalanced A.I. and a few rather weird choices by the designer, the game should be in the collection of every serious gamer.