The basic ideas for the colonial system were implemented for Victoria: Empire
under the Sun and has now undergone a substantial re-haul to work better in
actual gameplay. The improvements have focused on three areas:
- Slowing down the pace of colonial building
- Reducing the colonial dead locks resulting from countries building
colonies in strange places.
- The concept of range. No longer can you just build colonies anywhere; you
need the province to within range of a naval base. As your naval tech advances
you can build bigger naval bases and extend your range. By the end of the game
you can virtually colonize anywhere in the globe, if there are any slots left.
The players’ ability to colonize is linked to the province life rating. As
players discover more tech they can colonize provinces with yet lower life
ratings. The default setup is done so that a spectrum of techs and inventions
are needed from various areas in order to colonize yet more provinces. However,
those who enjoy modding the game can use whichever techs of choice.
In addition, the size of the huge colonial provinces has been reduced down to
maximum 4 provinces in the state.
There is one last final change. Historically each country focused its
colonization on single regions and tended to not welcome other countries in
their area (unless the other country was bigger and more powerful). In Victoria:
Revolutions players will also be forced to prioritize harder as they can only
colonize a certain number of states at a time. Should someone else want to
colonize a state, there is only one way for you to beat him to it – by having
superior prestige.
The color coding is also an important aspect of Victoria: Revolutions.
Blue: Already owned by someone
Green: The player can colonize
Grey: The player cannot colonize due to life rating being too low, the province
is out of range, or the province cannot be reached from current position.
There is an additional color (Red), which advises if someone is already
colonizing the province. Overall, these changes and the new map view have been
designed to make those colonial decisions much simpler.
