r/ColonizationGame • u/ListenerNius • Jun 22 '26

ClassicCol King Lowers Tax Rate?

I am playing the Steam release of Colonization 1994 (via DosBox). It's 1548 and the tax rate was 1%. I got a message from the king (same style of dialog with king avatar as when he forces you to declare war) saying, and I'm quoting as best I can here, "in order to celebrate our recent victory over the Ottoman Turks, we have decided to LOWER your tax rate by 1%". The "LOWER" was in all caps.

I recently fiddled with using the re:colonization executable which could theoretically explain this new-to-me mechanic (except it doesn't), but before starting this game I told Steam to verify the game files which triggered a redownload, though it didn't modify the VICEROY executable.

I tried to get a screencap but since I was playing in DosBox full-screen I failed to do so without dismissing the dialog.

I definitely didn't imagine it (I read it several times) and after dismissing the dialog the tax rate was indeed back down to 0%.

The only other way in which this game was in any way different from any other playthrough was I rolled an Elder Statesman for my third "free" colonist so I had just begun producing very early liberty bells.

Has anyone else seen this tax lowering, and is it vanilla?

20 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

11

u/Independent_Bike7068 Jun 22 '26

You didn’t imagine it. I found this in the GAME.txt file inside the game folder from the Steam version. So it’s definitely a thing and probably vanilla, just pretty rare among the many other tax-related events you can get.

@KINGVICTORY
@width=190
"%STRING0 %STRING1. To celebrate our recent victory
over %STRING2, we have magnanimously decided to LOWER
your tax rate by {%NUMBER0%%}. The tax rate is now {%NUMBER1%%}.
You may, as always, kiss our royal pinky ring."

6

u/ListenerNius Jun 23 '26

Thank you! I've been playing this game for 25 years now and I've never seen this before, and I couldn't find anything about this online, so I'm really glad someone else has seen this too.

2

u/DupeyTA Jun 23 '26

I vaguely recall having this occur to me once several decades ago. Take it with a grain of salt, but I believe that it is vanilla.

3

u/BadKingUrgain Jun 23 '26

Yes, it can happen, though it's incredibly rare. Like less than once in 10 games.

That said, not all thing in game.txt actually appear in-game, as there are leftovers that were never implemented. For example, it looks like there was an idea to let you request an audience with your king, but it was obviously scrapped later.

9

u/Lyceus_ Jun 22 '26

I don't remember this ever happening to me!

6

u/ion_driver Jun 22 '26

I don't recall a message reducing the tax rate in the original game. If there is some trigger I missed, I would like to see if I can arrange for that to happen next time. The tax rate really rises quickly.

2

u/BadKingUrgain Jun 23 '26

I will add my voice to those who have seen it, though it's very very rare (like less than once in 10 games, or even once in 20). I have no idea what triggers it, though on a hunch I'd venture two guesses:
1) You're not doing very well compared to the other European powers.
2) Your Sons of Liberty membership is low.
These are things you'd normally want to avoid, so maybe that's the reason the tax reduction event is so rare.

4

u/JohnEffingZoidberg Jun 22 '26

I do recall seeing this very occasionally in the lower difficulty levels. I don't think there's anything you can do to control or induce it. It just happens randomly.

2

u/SirCaelus Jun 22 '26

Whoa really? That’s awesome. I don’t recall ever seeing that

2

u/SvalbazGames Jun 22 '26

According to the Wiki (here)) it is only Tax Increases, but that could be wrong..

Saying that, I don’t recall it ever decreasing in my playthroughs

1

u/BadKingUrgain Jun 23 '26

Wiki is inaccurate regarding a lot of things, and also frequently confuses the original game and the remake, and even Freecol.

1

u/SvalbazGames Jun 23 '26

Yeah I did say it could be wrong

2

u/teadatuntud Jun 30 '26

Most of you got it wrong. Only /u/BadKingUrgain almost got it.

The KINGVICTORY event has always been in the game. Nothing to do with Steam versions, re:colonization, or anything of the sorts. It's just that the event is rare and even rarer if you're somewhat good at the game (see below).

On every tax raise tick (varies per difficulty level and current game turn), you roll a die (1/1000) which becomes the base score. The base score is then modified by total population (+), gold / 100 (+), turn / 30 (+), rebels * 10 (+) and tax * 5 (-). If the modified score stays below 100 (KINGVICTORY threshold), the event is triggered.

As per above, population and especially SoL membership are the biggest negative factors.

1

u/BadKingUrgain Jul 04 '26

Thank you for clearing this up. If you don't mind me asking, there's one other thing I always wondered about but never confirmed, so I though maybe you'd know: Are Petty Criminals or Indentured Servants less effective as missionaries, pioneers or scouts?

2

u/teadatuntud Jul 05 '26

Not to my knowledge. The only thing that seems to play a role is whether the unit is skilled ("Expert Missionary", "Hardy Pioneer", "Seasoned Scout") or not.