I really have enjoyed Tropico 4 a good bit more than 3, according to steam about 20 hours more.
I enjoyed the basic tropico 4 campaign, even tho the back of my brain wonders about the time machine el presidente must use bouncing through time for each island.
The modern times campaign brings a lot of interesting ideas to the game, some work, others not so much. I like the direction tropico seems to be heading, but the modern times buildings are fairly redonkulous and I prefer not to use them.
My gripes are fairly minor,
1> They fail to make a basic gender test for speaking about El Presidente, always using masculine pronouns. I get voice work costs money but it is disconcerting.
2> I really wish traits would have their own catastrophes and opportunities
3> AI needs help. I had a mission where I had to export 500 smoked beef, and for 15 or 16 years teamsters never swung by the ranch (like 1600 storage waiting to be picked up), I finished the objective of the map and never completed that objective.
Ive only maxed out about 20 or so skills, some of them just seem.... awful
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That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
I have not played it on Xbox so I really do not know. Until earlier today I didn't even realize there was an Xbox version of the game. I can't even imagine how clunky the interface must have been with a controller. It was tough enough to manage with a keyboard and mouse.
Teamsters work roughly on basis on 'how much is there to pick up/how far is the drive' if the internet is to be believed. If you truely need it driven, build a teamster right next to it, raise the wages, and demolish it right after.
Teamsters work roughly on basis on 'how much is there to pick up/how far is the drive' if the internet is to be believed. If you truely need it driven, build a teamster right next to it, raise the wages, and demolish it right after.
I built 2 teamsters next to the ranch, like literally across the street, I watched them take metro and go elsewhere... little farkers.
I doubt their is an elegant solution to this issue, I'm guessing there is some sort of greedy algorithm that calculates cost of exports and beef was just too low on the list to ever get picked up (I had a fairly industrial island at that point, with 1 of every industry and most of them with 2.
I would like to see an efficient routing set up, or at the very least the option of telling the office their next pick up needs to be from the following building.
Again fairly minor as it was just 15 middle east relation but it was the mission where I had to maintain cannery modifier showing up in 2 of my quest fields, which means after the wheres the beef option meant I could only take 2 optional quests at any given time.
Also you dont need ANY farms for feeding your people, you can use a marketplace or grocery store to take care of all your food needs. However this means you HAVE to have a positive balance once a ship comes to pick up goods, as imports (where all your food comes from in this scenario) is calculated after all your goods are loaded.
So generally I don't bother with any food stuffs, and switch all my starter farms to cash crops, until I can remove them permanently. Unless I have aggro traits I just skip on to industry.
Also high schools need a slider where you can set maximum age, I dont need my 34 year old teamsters enrolling in high school and stop making deliveries, (uneducated workers are important).
I have not played it on Xbox so I really do not know. Until earlier today I didn't even realize there was an Xbox version of the game. I can't even imagine how clunky the interface must have been with a controller. It was tough enough to manage with a keyboard and mouse.
It actually works pretty well. Much better than you'd think. If you have a 360, they have a demo for it. Check it out.
Though, yes, KBaM is really more suited for games like this.
Either way, I'll be getting 4 for the 360 whether I can edit maps or not. (Kind of have to since I already stocked up on some DLC during a sale a while ago.
1> They fail to make a basic gender test for speaking about El Presidente, always using masculine pronouns. I get voice work costs money but it is disconcerting.
2> I really wish traits would have their own catastrophes and opportunities
I agree with these. I mean, it's kinda funny when my female, womanizing El Presidente ends her speech by hitting on the ladies without taking a reputation hit with the Religious faction, but it's mostly just ridiculously obvious that they just didn't care to make an actually female El Presidente.
As an aside, I don't know any Spanish at all whatsoever so I wonder if "El Presidente" are gendered words or if they could actually apply to men and women equally.
It's...kind of weird. 'Presidente' is essentially unisex so for males it would be 'El' (masculine form of 'the') and females would be 'La' (feminine form). However, 'Presidenta' has become so common that it is now excepted in use as the feminine form (along with 'la', of course). My supposition is that this mostly because women as presidents and such are fairly new so people didn't really know what to do and just feminised a perfectly good word.
As far as whether or not Tropico should have gone to the extra effort? Nah. It's better this way. It makes it all the more hilarious to use a female avatar that is just so damned macho everybody is afraid refer to the office in feminine terms. She is El Presidente.
quick question is there an a way to get a list of criminals from the almanac... i would really like to get better use of my prisons but i can never actually find criminals, and ill be damned if ill just click on random people to find out.
also when the 'twin' of el presidente is a dude and people mistake you for him... well that cant be good for el presidentes self esteem. (I went back and redid the mission with the ugly trait for giggles.
quick question is there an a way to get a list of criminals from the almanac... i would really like to get better use of my prisons but i can never actually find criminals, and ill be damned if ill just click on random people to find out.
Just go to the Lists (last page of the almanac), then sort people on their Job. Because Criminal is a job on Tropico.
cool thanks, anyone else play a batman presidente? vigilante etc. all the traits together removed the need for police stations the 5 games i played with it to max out the trait
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That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
If you want something big, built fast but don't want to shell out for the instant build, placing the building on high priority and sending El Presidente over seems to really get things done in a hurry.
I was a huge fan of the original game, and picked up both 3 and the expansion....but when I saw 4 come out, something about them re-using the art assets (or at least appearing to) and not really big all that revolutionary a sequel turned me off to it.
If I have more money to burn, I might try picking up 4 and the expansion, but I wonder if I shouldn't just reinstall 3/exp to get that itch scratched.
If you want something big, built fast but don't want to shell out for the instant build, placing the building on high priority and sending El Presidente over seems to really get things done in a hurry.
Using the Avatar also boosts production from farms/factories/etc. for six in-game months. I send mine on a walking tour of the island just to get that small bonus in the early going.
I was a huge fan of the original game, and picked up both 3 and the expansion....but when I saw 4 come out, something about them re-using the art assets (or at least appearing to) and not really big all that revolutionary a sequel turned me off to it.
If I have more money to burn, I might try picking up 4 and the expansion, but I wonder if I shouldn't just reinstall 3/exp to get that itch scratched.
Frankly, they almost literally (and probably did) reuse the art from the first one. Either way, they added a bunch of new mechanics to 4. Better they spend their money improving actual gameplay than uping the shinies.
I was a huge fan of the original game, and picked up both 3 and the expansion....but when I saw 4 come out, something about them re-using the art assets (or at least appearing to) and not really big all that revolutionary a sequel turned me off to it.
If I have more money to burn, I might try picking up 4 and the expansion, but I wonder if I shouldn't just reinstall 3/exp to get that itch scratched.
Wait for a sale when you can get the game, expansion, and steam DLC for <$10.
Steam sale might be the best bet. Tropico 4's mechanics didn't seem like enough of a step up to warrant buying a new game and an expansion--what I've seen seems to suggest would have been more appropriate as another expansion or two.
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ShogunHair long; money long; me and broke wizards we don't get alongRegistered Userregular
Steam sale might be the best bet. Tropico 4's mechanics didn't seem like enough of a step up to warrant buying a new game and an expansion--what I've seen seems to suggest would have been more appropriate as another expansion or two.
Having played both I agree and disagree. If you can snap it up for $10 or so do it. Don't buy the game and dlc and whatnot at full price. Its been on sale so many times at this point it would be silly.
How do you guys decide when you should build another port?
I usually call it when the ships are getting stuck in port for more than a couple of months waiting to be unloaded. By that time I can usually save up $50k to start my second port. I will usually stat by building my road out to where I want to sick the port. I will plop a port, garage, teamster office, construction office and a couple of Apartments to start things off. Quick build at least the garage to avoid having your workers walk back clear across the island. I once had half my work force walking back for well over a year becasue I fucked up and didn't quick build a far off garage.
I actually tend to build another port fairly early on (well before loading times become an issue). Purely for purposes of traffic management in the longer term. I often used to end up with a ridiculously lop-sided island with massive traffic jams leading to the main port and the side ports don't get used much because of the way the island has grown. So now I make it a priority to get another port up and running elsewhere with an alternate traffic route so that I don't get crippled with traffic later on.
First I have to say despite the lack of graphical upgrades, tropico 4 > tropico 3, and by a good bit.
As far as ports go I try to build 3 industries around any one port before planning the next one (assuming the island allows for it).
I tend not to do much of the basic mineral/plant builds and skip straight to industry, so I have to be real careful about staying in the black and upping the import values of each port, i try to import around 25% of the value I export.
I try to get 2 or 3 small cities on the edges of the island build inward, with poor (tenement) being at the first dock, and then raising to better housing as I go around so as to reduce crime with modern apartments on the other 2nd and 3rd dock.
After you get used to some of the basic tenets of the game its more of a how do you want to build your city than resource management.
Although 4 is nearly the same game as 3 the game engine is so much better it completely changed my experience with it. I had 3 for a while and couldn't quite get into it because of the clunky interface but 4 has such a better engine that its a real joy to play. There is a lot of older games where if they just repackaged the old game with a new engine (SimCity) I'd be happy to play them all over again.
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That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
Tropico 5 should have an optional multiplayer mode ala Sim City where you can work as Lieutenants under El Presidente on a private archipelago. Instead of having separate instanced islands, have everything connected together in real time.
Tropico 5 should have an optional multiplayer mode ala Sim City where you can work as Lieutenants under El Presidente on a private archipelago. Instead of having separate instanced islands, have everything connected together in real time.
I dunno. I play Tropico to be El Presidente, not Penultimo.
That said, not all islands are created equal. Some don't have many mineral resources or are unsuited to growing certain crops. So instead of importing and exporting to and from the AI, you might be able to import and export to your fellow players. Maybe involve tourism somehow as well.
Of course, it would have to be an optional multiplayer. We don't want another SimCity, do we?
SimCity 4 basically allowed the player to start multiple cities on the same larger map. The more cities you have, the better off other cities can do. A Tropico that allows me to more or less manage multiple islands in the same country? Sure.
Tropico 5 should have an optional multiplayer mode ala Sim City where you can work as Lieutenants under El Presidente on a private archipelago. Instead of having separate instanced islands, have everything connected together in real time.
I'd rather see some dependencies on previous islands, you import export with them based on their goods and services, depending on how you faired on island 1 determines how you start on island 2 etc. I would also like to able to heroic members of the island who have a greater impact, the possibility of getting miss pineapple as your education minister etc, perhaps if you meet certain requirements with certain factions.
MP seems like a pain in the ass to implement without making the game take itself too seriously.
MP seems like a pain in the ass to implement without making the game take itself too seriously.
Why should Tropico have to take itself seriously in multiplayer?
I think somewhere near the core of mp is a competitive streak, even if it is co-op. The fundamentals of tropico are less grounded in fair and more in fun, so adding a MP aspect would bring spreadsheets further into consideration at the pros and cons of buildings, and styles of rulership. Booze baron is just one example of this that would have to go away but is oh so fun
OK, so I know Tropico 4 uses caricatures for its stereotypes - Nick Richards is Richard Nixon; Brunhilde van Hoof is probably Margaret Thatcher; Sheik Salim is Yasser Arafat; Marco Moreno is Che Guevara and I'm pretty sure Generalissimo Santana is based on Fidel Castro.
So now I'm wondering if everybody else are also based on anyone or are 'just' exaggerated stereotypes.
I really wish they would do a HD remake or sequel to Tropico 2, I loved the pirate theme more then the island dictator one.
Tropico 2 was amazing except the game was terrible. I'm really surprised how un-fun it ended up being. The music was great, the concept was great, the pirate ambiance was all there, and it seemed tough to fuck up, but somehow they did it. That game is probably in my top 10 disappointments. It wasn't awful but compared to the first Tropico, which was brilliant, Tropico 2 just wasn't very good. I haven't played Tropicos 3 or 4 but from what I hear they're basically just remakes of Tropico 1 with more stuff - if Tropico 5 is that again it's just going to be more egregious that they haven't taken any risks like, for instance, making a good pirate Tropico game.
Hmm. I suppose I should say that I hope Tropico 5 won't be Tropico 3.75, but let's face it: I'd play it anyway.
Still... that trailer seems to indicate El Presidente is aiming to rule the world this time. That could be an exciting new direction, but it might also mean losing the "small Cold War dictatorship trapped between the US and the SU" feeling of the previous games.
EDIT: OK, looking at the official forums, yes they are going to try some new things with Tropico 5. Here're the bullet points.
Features of Tropico 5
The Eras – From the 19th century to the 21st, each era carries its own challenges and opportunities. Begin your reign during colonial times and advance your nation through the modern era and into the future! The Dynasty – Each member of El Presidente’s extended family is present on the island and may be appointed to key leadership positions, earning skills and experience in their assigned roles. Research and Renovate – Advance your nation by discovering new buildings, technologies and resources. Transform your old buildings into modernized, hyper-efficient designs worthy of an economic superpower! Advanced trade system and trade fleet – Amass a global trade fleet and use your ships to secure import/export trade routes to neighbouring islands and key nations. Explore your island – Discover what lies beyond the fog of war. Send prospectors to look for new mineral and ore deposits, but be wary of hostile animals and native tribes. All new art – All artwork is reworked to provide Tropico 5 with a distinct historic visual identity. Choose from over 100 unique buildings from each of the individual eras. Cooperative and competitive multiplayer – Up to four players can build up their own cities and economies on any given island map. Players can share resources and citizens, or declare war on each other.
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The politics in one are just so much more difficult and interesting. Plus, It is the only sim game where it is possible to lose after the early game.
I enjoyed the basic tropico 4 campaign, even tho the back of my brain wonders about the time machine el presidente must use bouncing through time for each island.
The modern times campaign brings a lot of interesting ideas to the game, some work, others not so much. I like the direction tropico seems to be heading, but the modern times buildings are fairly redonkulous and I prefer not to use them.
My gripes are fairly minor,
1> They fail to make a basic gender test for speaking about El Presidente, always using masculine pronouns. I get voice work costs money but it is disconcerting.
2> I really wish traits would have their own catastrophes and opportunities
3> AI needs help. I had a mission where I had to export 500 smoked beef, and for 15 or 16 years teamsters never swung by the ranch (like 1600 storage waiting to be picked up), I finished the objective of the map and never completed that objective.
Ive only maxed out about 20 or so skills, some of them just seem.... awful
I have not played it on Xbox so I really do not know. Until earlier today I didn't even realize there was an Xbox version of the game. I can't even imagine how clunky the interface must have been with a controller. It was tough enough to manage with a keyboard and mouse.
I built 2 teamsters next to the ranch, like literally across the street, I watched them take metro and go elsewhere... little farkers.
I doubt their is an elegant solution to this issue, I'm guessing there is some sort of greedy algorithm that calculates cost of exports and beef was just too low on the list to ever get picked up (I had a fairly industrial island at that point, with 1 of every industry and most of them with 2.
I would like to see an efficient routing set up, or at the very least the option of telling the office their next pick up needs to be from the following building.
Again fairly minor as it was just 15 middle east relation but it was the mission where I had to maintain cannery modifier showing up in 2 of my quest fields, which means after the wheres the beef option meant I could only take 2 optional quests at any given time.
Also you dont need ANY farms for feeding your people, you can use a marketplace or grocery store to take care of all your food needs. However this means you HAVE to have a positive balance once a ship comes to pick up goods, as imports (where all your food comes from in this scenario) is calculated after all your goods are loaded.
So generally I don't bother with any food stuffs, and switch all my starter farms to cash crops, until I can remove them permanently. Unless I have aggro traits I just skip on to industry.
Also high schools need a slider where you can set maximum age, I dont need my 34 year old teamsters enrolling in high school and stop making deliveries, (uneducated workers are important).
It actually works pretty well. Much better than you'd think. If you have a 360, they have a demo for it. Check it out.
Though, yes, KBaM is really more suited for games like this.
Either way, I'll be getting 4 for the 360 whether I can edit maps or not. (Kind of have to since I already stocked up on some DLC during a sale a while ago.
I agree with these. I mean, it's kinda funny when my female, womanizing El Presidente ends her speech by hitting on the ladies without taking a reputation hit with the Religious faction, but it's mostly just ridiculously obvious that they just didn't care to make an actually female El Presidente.
As an aside, I don't know any Spanish at all whatsoever so I wonder if "El Presidente" are gendered words or if they could actually apply to men and women equally.
As far as whether or not Tropico should have gone to the extra effort? Nah. It's better this way. It makes it all the more hilarious to use a female avatar that is just so damned macho everybody is afraid refer to the office in feminine terms. She is El Presidente.
And she'll fucking kill you if you get it wrong!
also when the 'twin' of el presidente is a dude and people mistake you for him... well that cant be good for el presidentes self esteem. (I went back and redid the mission with the ugly trait for giggles.
Just go to the Lists (last page of the almanac), then sort people on their Job. Because Criminal is a job on Tropico.
If I have more money to burn, I might try picking up 4 and the expansion, but I wonder if I shouldn't just reinstall 3/exp to get that itch scratched.
Using the Avatar also boosts production from farms/factories/etc. for six in-game months. I send mine on a walking tour of the island just to get that small bonus in the early going.
Frankly, they almost literally (and probably did) reuse the art from the first one. Either way, they added a bunch of new mechanics to 4. Better they spend their money improving actual gameplay than uping the shinies.
Wait for a sale when you can get the game, expansion, and steam DLC for <$10.
Shogun Streams Vidya
Having played both I agree and disagree. If you can snap it up for $10 or so do it. Don't buy the game and dlc and whatnot at full price. Its been on sale so many times at this point it would be silly.
Shogun Streams Vidya
I usually call it when the ships are getting stuck in port for more than a couple of months waiting to be unloaded. By that time I can usually save up $50k to start my second port. I will usually stat by building my road out to where I want to sick the port. I will plop a port, garage, teamster office, construction office and a couple of Apartments to start things off. Quick build at least the garage to avoid having your workers walk back clear across the island. I once had half my work force walking back for well over a year becasue I fucked up and didn't quick build a far off garage.
As far as ports go I try to build 3 industries around any one port before planning the next one (assuming the island allows for it).
I tend not to do much of the basic mineral/plant builds and skip straight to industry, so I have to be real careful about staying in the black and upping the import values of each port, i try to import around 25% of the value I export.
I try to get 2 or 3 small cities on the edges of the island build inward, with poor (tenement) being at the first dock, and then raising to better housing as I go around so as to reduce crime with modern apartments on the other 2nd and 3rd dock.
After you get used to some of the basic tenets of the game its more of a how do you want to build your city than resource management.
I dunno. I play Tropico to be El Presidente, not Penultimo.
That said, not all islands are created equal. Some don't have many mineral resources or are unsuited to growing certain crops. So instead of importing and exporting to and from the AI, you might be able to import and export to your fellow players. Maybe involve tourism somehow as well.
Of course, it would have to be an optional multiplayer. We don't want another SimCity, do we?
Multiplayer? No.
I'd rather see some dependencies on previous islands, you import export with them based on their goods and services, depending on how you faired on island 1 determines how you start on island 2 etc. I would also like to able to heroic members of the island who have a greater impact, the possibility of getting miss pineapple as your education minister etc, perhaps if you meet certain requirements with certain factions.
MP seems like a pain in the ass to implement without making the game take itself too seriously.
Why should Tropico have to take itself seriously in multiplayer?
I think somewhere near the core of mp is a competitive streak, even if it is co-op. The fundamentals of tropico are less grounded in fair and more in fun, so adding a MP aspect would bring spreadsheets further into consideration at the pros and cons of buildings, and styles of rulership. Booze baron is just one example of this that would have to go away but is oh so fun
So now I'm wondering if everybody else are also based on anyone or are 'just' exaggerated stereotypes.
Without seeing everything, I'd go with exaggerated stereotype. You could probably find a real person, though.
Still... that trailer seems to indicate El Presidente is aiming to rule the world this time. That could be an exciting new direction, but it might also mean losing the "small Cold War dictatorship trapped between the US and the SU" feeling of the previous games.
EDIT: OK, looking at the official forums, yes they are going to try some new things with Tropico 5. Here're the bullet points.