Is Colonization Broken

[SonofWinter]

1598, no seriously 1598.

I'm playing Ethiopia and by 1598, there is nothing to take other than the interior of Africa. That's right, other than my African colonies, almost everything else is gone.

Now I wasn't paying attention to this because well, Ethiopia/Aksum, who cares about the rest of the world but my ally Commonwealth called me in against the Russians. And now I have to travel all the way to Vladivostok to occupy this big green ass.

 

[grandadmiralbob]

Yes, IMHO colonization is waaay to fast. I hope that something will be done, but I won't bet on it.

 

[SonofWinter]

Spanish British Columbia.

 

[Abnormalmind]

Agreed. Colonization in certain parts of the world was way, way too fast. Starting the game @ 1607 displays some interesting comparisons: Africa was barely colonized (and the Cape - not at all). NE America was barely colonized. Many of the internal provinces in Brazil and (present day) USA are uncolonized. The culprits are: # settlers (and the stacking bonuses), 1 colonist can be used for multiple colony starts, and historically it was the coastal regions (especially river estuaries) that drew the colonists & investors and declaring wars against natives for free provinces (huge issue). In my 1643 Papal States game, there's _nothing_ left to colonize in the new world. Portuguese Mexico had a 84k force limit, which was higher than Great Britain and twice as high as Portugal's 40k force limit.

 

[HypnoSkales]

Spanish British Columbia.
View attachment 960380

i wish there was an angry reaction emoji, but there isn't, so i'm giving it an X

 

[FishieFan]

Agreed. Colonization in certain parts of the world was way, way too fast. Starting the game @ 1607 displays some interesting comparisons: Africa was barely colonized (and the Cape - not at all). NE America was barely colonized. Many of the internal provinces in Brazil and (present day) USA are uncolonized. The culprits are: # settlers (and the stacking bonuses), 1 colonist can be used for multiple colony starts, and historically it was the coastal regions (especially river estuaries) that drew the colonists & investors and declaring wars against natives for free provinces (huge issue). In my 1643 Papal States game, there's _nothing_ left to colonize in the new world. Portuguese Mexico had a 84k force limit, which was higher than Great Britain and twice as high as Portugal's 40k force limit.

View attachment 960384

Whats the red state in anatolia?
Now leviathan is far in the past we can't limit natives blobbing as much sadly which is main culprit for USA being taken ao quickly

 

[unmerged(771301)]

It's really shameful that such a core part of the game has been so horrendously broken for so long.


Overall, imho, the Tinto team has been doing a good job. But they need to work on colonization sooner rather than later. I don't even play the colonization game anymore because of how broken it is; of course, that cuts into a huge part of the game experience and immersion, especially with the big powers like England, France, Spain, etc.

 

[SonofWinter]

i wish there was an angry reaction emoji, but there isn't, so i'm giving it an X

I wish there was a Patrick Stewart reaction emoji but there isn't, so I'm giving your post an x.

 

[Richard-monagha]

For me its not just how fast they colonize provinces but also who takes the exploration ideas. I often see small nations in Europe (mostly in the Lowlands and sometimes Germany) colonize too and most of the time they will only be able to take a few provinces in Africa or the new world and lose all their European provinces being exiled from Europe. I don't mind other nations taking exploration but many of them don't have a chance to colonize much before Spain/Portugal take most of the new world followed by France/England and Norway/Denmark.

I am used to seeing the Mamluks colonize sometimes and then get exiled to a few islands in the East Indies and seeing Mamluk Australia being a thing sometimes.

However in a recent Kilwa game I allied The Ottomans and was planning to make a trade Empire around the Indian Ocean and was close to colonizing everything east of Africa before the Europeans arrived when I realised that The Ottomans had colonized 1 of the provinces and was sending to another province which really pissed me off because they'd taken exploration as their 4th idea group??? They wasted 2800 dip points so that they can colonize only 2 provinces that were left in the east indies when they were for the past 40 years in constant debt. I would send them money to pay off their debts before calling them into wars but within months of ending the war they would be back in debt. Instead of taking exploration they could have taken trade ideas to boost their economy....

 

[grandadmiralbob]

One problem, IMHO, is when you take just 1 of the colonizer idea sets, you colonize a LITTLE bit too slow. But when you take both, you turn into a monster quickly for just 6 ducats/month. And all you really need to do is dominate Ivory Coast, Caribbean, or St. Lawrence and you get some nice money quickly, it pays for itself and it doesn't cost any MPs. I'd say nerf Expansion. With 2 colonists and faster settler growth, even the AI can colonize quickly.

 

[Abnormalmind]

Whats the red state in anatolia?
Now leviathan is far in the past we can't limit natives blobbing as much sadly which is main culprit for USA being taken ao quickly

The middle red nation was Germinyan (shocking, actually).
The other OPM red nation was Ramazan.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

One problem, IMHO, is when you take just 1 of the colonizer idea sets, you colonize a LITTLE bit too slow. But when you take both, you turn into a monster quickly for just 6 ducats/month. And all you really need to do is dominate Ivory Coast, Caribbean, or St. Lawrence and you get some nice money quickly, it pays for itself and it doesn't cost any MPs. I'd say nerf Expansion. With 2 colonists and faster settler growth, even the AI can colonize quickly.

Yet despite this, ROI on taking colonizer ideas is bad for SP compared to alternatives, if you're trying to get rich quickly, get strong quickly, or do most goals other than larping.

 

[FishieFan]

The middle red nation was Germinyan (shocking, actually).
The other OPM red nation was Ramazan.

Why are they independent?

 

[Abnormalmind]

Why are they independent?

I have no idea. I simply started the game at the 1607 mark, and that's how the game looked.

 

[Maxwell Tornado]

For me its not just how fast they colonize provinces but also who takes the exploration ideas. I often see small nations in Europe (mostly in the Lowlands and sometimes Germany) colonize too and most of the time they will only be able to take a few provinces in Africa or the new world and lose all their European provinces being exiled from Europe.

I just love having to clean up all the tiny exile nations in Africa with cultures such as "africaine", "neuwelder" and "morado" every time I convert my games to Vic2.