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Customizing Colonization

Tweaking the NAMES.txt file found in the Colonization folder lets you change almost anything, so there are endless ways of customizing the game using this method.

Open the file in a text editor, ie Notepad.

Things you can change:

- AI leader traits
- Terrain yield
- Unit movement and strength
- How much colonists produce
- Cost of buildings
- Prices in Europe
- And more...

In short, you can tweak the game to fit your own preferences. Just remember that the changes will affect the computer players as well.

It is probably a good idea to make a backup of the NAMES.txt file if you make a lot of changes, just in case.

Colonization Cheats, Cheat Codes

Home » Sid Meier's Colonization » Cheats

Presented here are some cheats for Sid Meier's Colonization. If you find that a certain cheat is not working, it may be due to the fact that some cheats only work on earlier versions of the game. For example some of the cheats found in Colonization were considered bugs, and consequently they were corrected in the 3.0 patch (colv30). Microprose did, however, make a cheat mode tool for game tesing purposes, and this was made available in the 3.0 patch.

Enter Cheat Mode

Hold Alt and type WIN ("W" then "I" then "N") to access Cheat Mode. A cheat menu wil now appear. You can also enter the following codes:

At the Colony screen:

Shift + 1 Finish all buildings in city
Shift + 2 Town Hall disappears
Shift + 4 Get $1000
Shift + 5 100 more of selected cargo
Shift + 6 100 more of selection
Shift + S Promote colonist
Shift + T Add more colonists to city
Shift + Space Turn elapses instantly

Cheats on Europe screen:

$ = Add 1000 gold to treasury
[ = Lower tax rate by 1%
] = Raise tax rate by 1%

At the Map screen:

Shift + F1 Make colonists
Shift + F2 Show debug info
Shift + F4 Full map
Shift + F5 Set human player
Shift + F6 Kill natives
Shift + F7 Advance revolution status
Shift + F8 See strategy
Shift + F9 See colony site ranking
Shift + F10 Test routine

To turn cheat mode off again press Alt+W.

This cheat is for the Colonization 3.0 upgrade. You can upgrade the game with the colv30 patch in the downloads section.

No competition cheat

In the DOS version you can edit the names.txt file to set the speed of the caravel to 0. If you then pick the Dutch you won't have competition from the other countries because their ships can't reach land. Just make sure that you don't attack their caravels or they will get privateers from their home country and will start creating settlements.
(Thanks to Cheater for revealing this cheat)

Selling cargo during boycott

When your ship is active, select the cargo you want to sell and press U. (Unload function)
This cheat no longer works after the colv30 patch.

Get more Founding Fathers options

If you hit the escape button when you have the Founding Fathers selection menu up, new choises will appear.
This cheat no longer works after the colv30 patch.

If you know a cheat that isn't already listed here, please tell us about it.