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Could somebody post the contents of closing.txt file? It appears that in my version of the game somebody played with numbers and completely messed it up.

Thanks!

[Incappucciato d'Ombra]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest @ Jun 2 2007, 10:16 PM) [snapback]292716[/snapback]</div>

Could somebody post the contents of closing.txt file? It appears that in my version of the game somebody played with numbers and completely messed it up.

Thanks!
[/b]

;
; COLONIZATION Closing Animation Data
; Copyright © 1994 by MicroProse Software
;
; Altering the contents of this file may cause the game to
; malfunction.
;
;

;
; Animations
;
; Series, Frame, Repeats, BaseX, Delay
;
@CLOSING
4, 1, -1, 0, 0 ; Fireworks
6, 1, -1, 0, 0 ; Liberty Bell
5, 1, -1, 0, 100 ; Rock
0, 1, -1, 0, 16 ; Hat
1, 1, -1, 0, 0 ; Lady
2, 1, -1, 0, 0 ; Man
3, 1, -1, 0, 0 ; Military
-1,390, 0, 0, 0 ; End of closing
0, 0, 0, 0, 0

; Messages
@MESSAGES
Loading Game...


I think this is the original content (never manipulate, just played the dos version sometime)

When opening game following error message pops up right before game menu appears

"One or more CON pages invalid for a given keyboard code"


Is this message the reason for why pretty much every key won't work properly?

The importent keys F, B, P, R and so on do not react, only the arrow-keys works... So to build a colony I have to use the mouse and choose from the rullgardinmeny on top of the screen.

Anyone with similar problem?

What can i do to get it OK?

[velik_m]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Øyvind @ Jul 1 2007, 10:50 AM) [snapback]297412[/snapback]</div>

When opening game following error message pops up right before game menu appears

"One or more CON pages invalid for a given keyboard code"


Is this message the reason for why pretty much every key won't work properly?

The importent keys F, B, P, R and so on do not react, only the arrow-keys works... So to build a colony I have to use the mouse and choose from the rullgardinmeny on top of the screen.

Anyone with similar problem?

What can i do to get it OK?
[/b]

Use dosbox.

Right.

Downloaded Dosbox, installed it changed some lines in config, read the Readme file, and still do not know how to play with it. And how do I know I have mounted something properly????

[_r.u.s.s.]

when you mount something properly it says 'drive [driveletter] is mounted as local directory [directorypatch]. then to get in to drive by typing [driveletter]

so for example if you mounted C as your local drive, type "C:" and press enter.

then to move in to other directory press 'cd [directoryname]

[The Fifth Horseman]

A Beginner's Guide to DOSBox

[Grand Dad]

Really DOSBox is easy once you get the hang it! And saves you so much headache .

[oea]

i love colonization. i love sid meiers. that said let me you a few my strategies. why listen to me? well if you can be ready for the war of independence by 1650 with all the founding fathers then you dont need my help.
this strategy also helped me unlock the other win possibility. if your empire is so large and economically powerful th king will just give you independence (this only happenedto me once when i built all over north and south america and had started just using custome houses. you know your on the right track for this victory when the king keeps dropping! the tax rate.

starting countries: well for me its the dutch all the way. the starting merchantmanis great but the trade benefits (i.e. the non collapse of goods) are where its at. the english can be fun as they get lots of people cheaply butquite frankly i think i can buy almost as many with the dutch trade benefit. the frnch are neat at beginning but since pocohantas duplicates their benefit, they are somewhat weak. now the spanish are a different game entirely. ill get into theirstrategy another time.

i really like the america map, i have rarely found as good a map randomly or by choosing settings.
on the america map the 2 good places to start are the northern and southern starts. both of these have all the resources in close proximity. but the n.american continent is better, more territory and best of all, a great river network to ease your travel.

so here is my dutch north american strategy.

if you have never looked at the n.am map reveal the eastern seaboard and hit the show terrain. look at how nicely the different terrains are lined up. starting in the north all that great fur land, then right below the cottenbelt, next the tabbaco land and unfortunately only 2 sugar spots (good thing texas is just a river ride away). so the idea is to first put a city in each area.

first city goes on cape cod or boston harbor (when game start hit the end of turn option so you can drop your first setteler on turn one).
next city goes in either new york or pensylvania (next boat will found the other). try to utilize fish squares on all the eastern cities if possible (i have restarted games because i didnt find fishing spots the amount of population a fish can support is that good). timber spots are also very good but not neccasary. and last a city with at least one sugar spot (if there are no good spots this city or rather its function can be placed elsewhere).

the idea here of course is that these first four cities will each become the hub of their respective resources.
so you have your first 2 cities at this point i explore one turn? and then head back to the last city grab its meager produce hit the first city and head to the old world. why so quick because your first setteler will be waiting in europe. why bother to grab goods well its not that improtant but i like to grab horses with that little money. thse horses will be the seed stock for my empire. anyway drop the setteleron the tabacco or cooten are whichever you havent settled yet.

once all 4 opening cities are started the next thing to do is equip a scout.during the course of the game you should visit every indian city and get their gifts and learn what they want in tradeand what they teach. you need to find the indian cities that train the farming specialties (tabaccaco planter is usually the toughest to find on the america map). a note here dont many uncover any city rumours until you have hernando desoto.
i only uncover the ones right around my cities, ones blocking my river ways and ones right near enemy cities.

what to do with immigrants? so you hate those loosy convicts and the indentured servants arent much better. well improve them. indentured servants get sent out immediately to all those indian villages to learn trades. petty criminals get turned to missionaries and sent to all those indian villages where soon they will inspire natives to come join your empire (and keep those indians quiet).

by the way that first scout should talk first to all the eastern villages then head into canada until some village trains him into a scout. right you can get trained into a scout as a gift! as soon as you have an expert scout send him straight to the aztecs (aztecs and incas give better gifts) and then continue to explore s.am with him.

so you have your first 4 cities and a scout and poosibly some missionaries ( if you havent gotten or bought a petty criminal to be missionary turn someone else you want a mission quick in order to get indians their extra food and outdoor goods potenteial is needed until you get experts and their versatility is so useful on the frontier) now is the time to start developing your cities. the next couple immigrants should be give tools and set to work on ech city.one of these opening cites (usually for me its new york or virgina) should be designate the homeport this city should be devloped first. after you have those pioneers working its time for the next round of cities. first is the foundry city. there is a great pace for this city in ohio the mountain with the river in it gives you as much ore as an ore spot. by the way a major river gives the terrain as much extra resource as the special terrain symbols). after you have a foundry site you need to plants cities to bring in more resources of each type. along the missouri youll find (usually) more cotten then you can handle and a bunch of wheatsites. if you follow the lower east west river you will find great tabacco terrain (and hopefully a leaf), right below this area (texas/mexico) is your extra sugar. note i start these citieseven before i have a wagon (if they fill before you have a wagon have them build their own.

so back to the cities. eventually every city should have at leastone of the following lumberjack, carpenter, elder statesmen. the latter ofthese can wait awhile but perticularily on the east you should get them sooner rather then later.

what to build?first in your home port if you dont have a bonus food area or an expert farmer build the dock first, if you have the food the lumber mill should be first, this rule applies to most cities, but the lumbermill if atall possibleshould be built first the reason being that if you clear a forrestwhen you have lumbermill you get more timber if you have an expert pioneer even more(an expert pioneer clearing conifers with a lumbermill in the town yeilds 160 timber!). after you have lumber mill and dock its time for a wagon (if your supply cities need it now otherwise after you) or a warehouse.all these coastal citieswilleventually need warehouse but near star only the homeprt and maybe one other for overflow. once you have the timbermill,and warehouse (and docks if you can, and wagonsas you need) its time for the industry to start. build the industry building for each town (i.e. rum distillery for sugar town etc.) this includes the blacksmith shop for the foundry. after the industrial building build printing presses.

how to populate the cities? first in each city is the field worker to bringing the main resource next is the skilled worker producing finished goods, then the foodproducer (or 2 as needed), then comes the carpenter, then the lumberjack (this one is less neccasary as forrest can often provide enough timber without the expert but in mid gamethey should all actually be lumberjacks and you might want morethen one carpenter). and the sixth person (or even earlier) should bean elder statesman (or anyone in the capitol). why worry about liberty bells so early? two reasons first the more liberty bells the faster you get founding fathers who can be a great help, the sond reason is to enablethe city to grow in order to get ober 7 people into the city you need to be over 20 percent rebel.not only that but when you reach 50percent and 100percent you get production bonuses and this whole strategy is about getting a huge economy.

these first 4 cities (and maybe lots of others) will max out on people (15 to 20 or so). meaning you will have 3pros workinging your industry 2 or 3 carpenter, 1 or 2 lumberjacks, 1 or 2 fieldworkers,2 or 3 statesmen, lots of food producers and on the east coast either preachers or teachers.

founding fathers? i always get peter minuet first, not having to buy land or piss off indians is great. hernando desotoshould be gottenassoon as possible. next(i just learned the escape trick from this forum i used tojust reload to get different fathers) well i stilled dont have a set order breuboff is great to make expert missionaries out of the petty criminals, and the guy who increases the chance for indians to convert, brewster can be good (i usually wait a bit for him as in the begining with my stratgey hes not neccasary.
hudson can be fun. revere can be useful. if you are goingto wipe out indians (which i only do when i play spain) get cortez. jefferson should bein your first fiveas he will help bring more fathers faster (the same holds for bolivar even more soifyou get him early and for paine less so.painecomes into his own later when your taxes are higher. for midgame the stockade builder isreally great. adam smith is one of this strategys goals (when your factories in one city are producing 72 finished good per turn the galleons are needed to take it away). and pocohantas ahh pocy baby this founding father is a timingthing for me. i build roads everywhere and liberally clear forrests so eventually the indians get really pissed (ill deal with indian strategies later) when their levels of anger are red red red its pocy time. in case you didnt know poy clears out all that negative indian vibe prestoall gone. penn well with this stratgy hes not really a big deal, i can usually buya boatload of whatever settlers i want so freeones arent needed but i wontknockthem either theyre free. bartolomo should be used when you have a lot of indians and the neccasary training facilities to teach them (formethiscanbeatough transitionbecause i will have lots of indians who are usually feeding my outlying cities not to mention that until i have found and trained a bunch of field experts the indiansaremy planters etc. drake is good here if you have lotsof pirates (i will usually have a few for their speed factor).
magellans ok ( though only really neccasry if you cannot reach the high seas from your homeport).
late game. stuye is needed to keep a good war economy, the guy who lets you trade with foreigners is ok(they dont give as good of trades thoughbut during the waratleastyou can get more supplies).personally i never boycot taxes so fugger is worthless (i want paine to be great) knowing where the other cities are can be useful(though when play america i know where they are alredy). franklin isgoodifsomewhopersistson attacking you or you get a warmonger king. and ofcours theres washington. i get him in end game because im not a warrior in this game (except when i play spain)
the most important fathers are the politacal ones (all but franklin being really great). de soto and the stockade builder are great. all the religious ones are very useful. stuyevant and smith are integral to my strategies. and for warring drake and washington are great.

once you have the basics going you need to start more cities. at least 2 more foundries and at least one more supply city for eash resource. and lastly for cities you need to build a few stable cities. these are essentially cities to produce horses. at all those sheafs out west andall the greatlakes fish spots build cities and stock them with fisherman and farmers these and the foundries are your war supply cities

here is what i consider ready for the war (note this is actually so overprepared that i usually dont bother with the war which is really really boringand dumbimean all the expeditionary forces do is drop a load every turn usually at the same city, realy great stratgy ijust camp out with my cavelry and wipe them out every turn restock my horses and repeat yawn)anyway here it is...

i will have 8 finished goodcities,2 for each good (at factory level)with six experts of each craft, 5 or 6 field specialists of each type. i will have 3 foundry cities (or more) with nine backsmiths and 2 to 4 gunsmiths (with 2 arsenals). i will ahve around 5 to 7 supply cities and around 4 or 5 horse cities (by the way i will often start these early by sending out a scout and just have them farm until theproduce a citizen thenpack the scout up and start another). so somewheres around 20 cities. in addition i will have between 6 and 8 pioneers working constantly (thus the need for at least 3 foudries and 9 blacksmiths). every city at the time of war will have at least one elder statesmanwith all my eastern cities and other major cities having 3 (by the time the war is over every city will have 3 elder statesman). i will have at least one university and 2 colleges (by somewherein early midgame i will have a college so that i can train field specialists and other pros). i will also have at least one shipyard and usually 2 dockworks(one inthe gul fo fmexico the other in the north).i might also have 1 or 2 cathedrals (not that i really needthem but you ve gotto build something).
most of my mjor cities will be completly built up (nothing to build but artillery). every oneofmy coastal cities will have fortresseswith at least 7 artillery (by war time almostall my cities will be as built as i need them and will all be turning out artillery for the duration needless to say by wars end i will not be able to put artilerry on the field because i will have built too many and cant get more units, that goes for wagons and people from surplus food too not to mention anyone trying to leave a city). at the start of the war i will have 30 or so cavalry(dont forgetto spreadyou troops around when you declare revolution so that all will become contenintal soldiers). at this time most of my boats will be filled with horses (i will usually have my merchantman 2 gallions, 4 to 6 frigates and multiple pirates).every city will have a costom house (one ofthe last things i build beforethe war). in regardsto the custom house, as much as it makes trading easier it is also more expensive usually( ibelieve the cutom house take 50 percentso unless you taxes are high..by the way speaking of that once your taxes pass 50 percent they will start going down, ah the path to alt victory).

things to remember. just keepbuilding those cities until you have all the sites started some ofthem might not do much for yearsbut the liberty bells will keep addingup so that when you start to fill themout its easier. dont forget to develop your terrain. finding the bonus squares is a lot of fun (by the way if you cant find indian trainers make sure to get a regualar citizen to work on abonus squarethis increases the likely hood of learning from the land i believe plowing or roadbuilding depending will also increase the chance).
dont put off building the newspaper either this helps so much not only in getting fathere faster but in lowering tory status in the city the production rates goes up (beforethestartofthe war all my cities will be at 100percent).dont forget statesman (and elderstatesman) for the same reason. if you want to get all the fathers start your statesmen early and dont let up(it also helps during the war, i will usually get foreign aid within a few turns of starting the war).

indianswhat to do? indians are your friends (mostly), treat them nice. every indian village near my cities will get a missionary, it keeps them peaceful and brings you converts. do set up trade with the indians they will give you much better prices for what they want then europe example i will usually get 1000 dollars for in demand tabbaco. this is also the only use for tradegoods which get goodprices also, the indians will alson sell you a load for cheap every time you sell them something.in fact you should process as much as possible through the indians becase they buy dear and sell cheap. how to keepthem happy. give them something just givne them say 5 of what they want and they are happy, but just trading regular will work too. indians and guns. lot to be said here i never give the indians guns or horses, with my building so much they will use them against me (i shouldnt say never i have done the provacatuer thing to indians near other powers that can be fun).another thing indians get upset forevery load of guns brought in and for each artillery. so i only buy about 150 guns and never get artillery until midgame or later. if you dont have guns the indians dont attack as much. i just keep about 5 soldiers on standby (till endgame of course) when indians threaten a town i move them there. never attack the indians unless you want to wipe them out it just exacerbates the situation. remember to get pocohantas only after the indians are thourougly pissed just so the effect is greater and so it wont happen again as quick.
a thing about money. once your economy gets rolling and one of the pwers has left the new world stock up on money you want to have at least 10000 sitting around. why? so that the powerthat leftwill sell you mercenaries of course. often these will bealittlemore expensive but but them anyway (unlees its a really bad price) just to encourage them to do it againeventually when the price ofartillery is toohigh the price will be more reasonable.
well im tired sure i left out lots might get back to it some other time . hope this helped somepeople or gave you some new things to try. till the fireworks fly... later.

[Grand Dad]

Good of you to take so much pain to write that detailed 'walkthrough', I am sure all those new to the game will appreciate it .
I have been playing it (after trying out the easier levels then as a Viceroy) ever since it came out.
For me it's about the best strategy game AFTER Civilization.