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Topic: FreeCol (Read 2762 times)
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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Colonization was always one of my favorite Sid Meier (actually Brian Reynolds! bah) games. Where's the sequels? Anyway, there's a free version being worked on over here. I dabbled around a bit on break and it's pretty cool. Still a ways from release 1, though. Version 1 aims to create the original game with updated graphics and interface. Then they're going to work on improving it and putting out a version 2. Oh yeah, windows, osx, linux, etc. Woot.
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Mr_PeaCH
Terracotta Army
Posts: 382
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I'll assume you already know about FreeCiv? Thanks for the Colonization hookup; can't wait to d/l and play when I get home. Now if we could find a free Imperialism II we'd really be cooking!
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COME ON YOU SPURS!
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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Yeah, I've known about FreeCiv for a long time. But they're at least still making Civ games. Colonization brought some cool advancements to the Civ formula that were utterly dropped, never showing up again. I guess maybe the whole 'dealing with natives' made a half-assed appearance in SMAC (again, Brian Reynolds), but it lacked the ability to incorporate natives into the gameplay in different ways, reducing them to just combat units.
The ability to have professions from slave to statesman, and train or re-train citizens, was amazing. Give a silversmith guns and a horse and you've got a dragoon (albeit a pretty green one, and a waste of a talented silversmith). Build a school and have citizens train each other, or have the natives train them on the local specialty (unless you killed all the natives, you dirty Spaniard). Hell, the ability to take resources and stock them, then process them, is way beyond anything SM or BR have done since. I guess it was too complex? Games like 1701AD have picked up on that stuff, but they're not TBS.
And then the whole shift in gameplay with the Revolution that's only cropped up in Civ 4 with FFH2 and the angels/demons.
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Mr_PeaCH
Terracotta Army
Posts: 382
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Grrr! It's as addicting as it ever was. In fact, my chief complaint (really more of a compliment) is that this is the exact sort of game that I am forever re-starting thinking of how I could have done one thing better. Plus I am endlessly fascinated by tweaking the world generation settings and exploring. Got any starter tips to share? Me, I tend to like the Dutch because I can really take advantage of that 4-cargo ship. I like making a lot of little towns instead of a few high pop ones; generally I get a dock going so I can take advantage of a prime fishing spot and put a second citizen at work on another resource. How soon do you worry about either having to defend yourself or declaring war on someone?
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COME ON YOU SPURS!
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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I usually play dutch, too. I've been going for a quick resource grab, buy some horses, go visit the natives who can give you a ton of gold in gifts. Then I buy a cannon and smash any enemy towns in the area (not the natives, I farm them for cash), drop money into some guns and horses early on while they're cheap. Leave 50 horses in each town then upgrade the militia to dragoons when they hit 100 horses.
Still iffy, the other Euros are bastards about sneaking up behind you and nabbing a weak city.
Also, invest in privateers early and at least one Frigate to smash their privateers. If you can control the ocean, you can keep them from getting privateers, or at least limit it to one Euro who isn't living in your area.
Fun stuff, I missed this game.
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Mr_PeaCH
Terracotta Army
Posts: 382
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Yes, any Euro near me is my enemy. I only just remembered about the importance of horses and how cheap and easy they are to buy and breed early in the game so that's covered now. But what do you do when the natives get restless... how do you keep the peace with them? Do I need to regularly trade with them or how do I gauge them correctly? (the Euros I just assume are biding their time to whack me to I hit them first.)
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COME ON YOU SPURS!
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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I've only had one native tribe get uppity, but I haven't had time to get real far into the game. I always take pocahontas because I like to keep natives around. Usually as the third or fourth choice when they are starting to get nervous (resets their hostility and thereafter it only goes up at half speed).
Makes me kinda miss Seven Cities of Gold where the native would start pounding the war drums.
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Mr_PeaCH
Terracotta Army
Posts: 382
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OK, I'm switching tic-tacs. French give you a hardy pioneer to start and they naturally accrue indian hatred at half speed. (Plus their fur trappers are all expert and their missionaries might be special too... the documentation is pretty poor.) Plus using your tip to start trading early and often (trade goods ftw) and I'm flush enough with cash to start buying privateers right out of the gates. My only complaint with my current game is that I don't have any Euros nearby to roll up on. Oh, and I think all my future maps are going to be Small; Medium is just too much, plus there is Large and Huge !?.
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COME ON YOU SPURS!
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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Ahh... didn't check out map options. I love huuuge maps.
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Mr_PeaCH
Terracotta Army
Posts: 382
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New and improved tic-tac... Statesmen FTW. Let freedom ring, bitches!
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COME ON YOU SPURS!
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