No Master Sugar Planters?

[SuperJew]

Ive replayed the game atleast 5 times and have put several hours into the game already (without once declaring independence).

I have never once come across a Sugar planter. This is really annoying, because I like to have colonies that can specialize in each of the produced goods, but sugar and rum seem to be one commodity that is in higher demand by Indians than Tobacco Coats and Cloth seem too.

But not one single Indian village Ive come across in all my hours of playing can train a sugar planter. How else do I get this rare elusive unit in game play?

I personally think that in the game, every occupation that can not be trained in Europe should be available in the game. Now I remember in old Colonization that if you left a free colonist in a square growing the same resource for about 100 turns, it would train itself into a master sugar/tobacco/cotton planter without having to go to the Indians.

I have not played long enough to find this out for myself, but has anyone seen a Master Sugar planter in this game at all?

[KrafT]

I've seen master sugar planters, though they do seem quite rare. I've played games without one at all. In my last game, there was one, but he wasn't anywhere near a marsh even.

I know what you're talking about in the old colonization, a free colonist doing the same thing for many turns, would eventually specialize. I've never seen that happen in this new one.

I bet if you played the Caribbean, you'd get a lot of them in the hot and wet climate. Also, I got in the habit of playing temperate worlds, from Civ 4 and not liking to hack through so much jungle. I bet if you played a wetter, hotter world, you'll see more marshes and more master sugar planters.

More alarming to me is that you have to have a marsh to get sugar. If there's trees or jungle, you can't chop them down and get a marsh. Marshes are hard to find in the games I've played.

[SuperJew]

For me, this new colonization is a love/hate relationship.

I love the fact that they brought back an old favorite of mine, that was always IMO the most addictive game Ive ever played.

But I hate how they have strayed away from the original Colonization in so many ways and have made it worse, by adding %30 extra time to each graduate.

Lessening the number of Indian Villages to a small fraction of what they were in the original.

The concept of this game is great, but it needs a big buff before its gameplay becomes even remotely comparable to original Colonization.

I use to remember sugar being on more than just marshes in the original too. Sucks that were limited to just marshes, I can barely ever find a good place for a sugar plantation, and on a side note, I almost never find silver veins in hills which is really lame of the creators considering how common silver veins were in the original and its the most valuble resource.

Make no mistake, this new colonization is ALOT harder than the original, I practically have to save before each turn to make sure the outcome of my decisions come out in my favor (like in wars). The only way to get colonists in a meaningful period of time is to grow tons of food so you can constantly be adding new ones, they sure dont show up on the docks ever once you get 150 or so turns into the game.