# Tropico 3



## MRCL (Jul 31, 2009)

Just saw on Steam that this game will come in september. Man I can't wait! Tropico series are one of my most favourite games, I have spen't hours upon hours and whole nights playing Tropico 2. 

Check the http://www.tropico3.com/en/index.html for infos. You can walk around as El Presidente now!

According to Gamestar.de, this are the system requirements:

Minimum:
CPU 2.4 GHz
1 GB RAM
DirectX-Version: 9.0c
GPU: Geforce 6 / ATI X1300
5 GB hard drive space

Recommended:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 2.1 GHz / Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+
1 GB RAM 
DirectX-Version: 9.0c
GPU: Geforce 7600 GT 256 MB / Radeon X1600 Serie
5 GB empty space

Seem very moderat requirements, judging by the graphics on the teaser.


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## FordGT90Concept (Aug 1, 2009)

Woo! I hope they make a Pirate Cove version too.  I  being a Pirate! AAArrrgh!


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## kid41212003 (Aug 1, 2009)

http://dawnofdiscoverygame.us.ubi.com/pc/downloads.php#demos
Way better than tropico .


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## FordGT90Concept (Aug 1, 2009)

Dawn of Discovery/Anno 1404 stresses logistics and planning (gotta produce a crapload of goods and get them all to your cities) more than anything--really not a very fun game by comparison.


What's unique about Tropico is that every resident has a name, age, needs, etc.  You can track an individual throughout their artificial life.  They also take on characteristics according to how you treat them and, at the end of the game, they rate you as El Presidente.  It has a level of uniqueness I haven't seen in an RTS before or sense.


What sucks is that Gamestop and Amazon don't have it up for pre-order yet.  I was going to preorder it on Monday/Tuesday but that's kind of hard to do if no one lists it.


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## MRCL (Aug 1, 2009)

I just preoderet it


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## AltecV1 (Aug 1, 2009)

is it quest based or just free build game?


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## MRCL (Aug 1, 2009)

AltecV1 said:


> is it quest based or just free build game?



If its like the previous ones; its either. You can play quest based, or freely build your nation.


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## FordGT90Concept (Aug 1, 2009)

MRCL said:


> I just preoderet it


From where?  I hope USA doesn't get shafted for the release.


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## TheMailMan78 (Aug 1, 2009)

Here is a teaser trailer. I like the engine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BkM3sT6ITo&NR=1


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## MRCL (Aug 1, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> From where?  I hope USA doesn't get shafted for the release.



From where I live lol. We have a very nice online game shop, has everything, can preorder anything. Actually Europe releases are always later than US releases, weird that its the other way around now


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## FordGT90Concept (Aug 1, 2009)

I think, like X3: Terran Conflict, there is no intention to release it retail in the USA, Steam only. 

I guess that means I won't be buying it.


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## olithereal (Aug 1, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> I think, like X3: Terran Conflict, there is no intention to release it retail in the USA, Steam only.
> 
> I guess that means I won't be buying it.



Offtopic; have you played it, X3: Terran Conflict? Wondering if I should pick it up.

On topic; the engine does look good. Never been a fan of those type of games tho, won't play it probably.


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## ShiBDiB (Aug 2, 2009)

the pirate cove was more fun imo. will definetly pick this up tho


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## FordGT90Concept (Aug 2, 2009)

olithereal said:


> have you played it, X3: Terran Conflict? Wondering if I should pick it up.


http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=76379

All the major bugs were fixed in Aldrin Missions, by the way.


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## olithereal (Aug 2, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=76379
> 
> All the major bugs were fixed in Aldrin Missions, by the way.



Thanks, I'll look it up!


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## a_ump (Aug 2, 2009)

so this is like sim city then? sounds kinda neat i always liked sim city might look into this game if i get bored with eve online, css, or l4d lol which is kinda doubtful


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## FordGT90Concept (Aug 2, 2009)

It's more like SimCity Societies than SimCity.


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## FordGT90Concept (Aug 22, 2009)

http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=75767

*FordGT90Concept dances...badly.*


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## MilkyWay (Aug 22, 2009)

its more like a cuba simulator lol
basically grow tobacco and sell it get workers, house them ect.

make a island nation lol

it was okay but its nothing like sim city, more like anno without much combat


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## MRCL (Sep 23, 2009)

It finally arrived, I have it in my PC now    Here are a few screenshots, excuse the clipboard on the side, its the tutorial and I just wanted to show you guys how Tropico 3 looks with all details maxed. Quite nice actually. The soundtrack sets you in the mood after the first few tunes, by the way. Brilliant. Oh, and its PG16 here, because it features violence lol. Here we go:


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## pbmaster (Sep 23, 2009)

Downloaded the demo; it was pretty fun. It's weird though, I kept exporting goods and only building what it suggested but for some reason I went madly in debt...


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## FordGT90Concept (Sep 23, 2009)

Like SimCity 4, you got to make sure you always have a positive cash flow.


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## MKmods (Sep 24, 2009)

I played the first one a long time ago, Im sorry I quit as it was kind of fun. Thanks for reminding me with this thread

Il give this one a try too.


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## MRCL (Oct 1, 2009)

pbmaster said:


> Downloaded the demo; it was pretty fun. It's weird though, I kept exporting goods and only building what it suggested but for some reason I went madly in debt...



Don't build what the game suggests you, human logic is pretty much the best way, as I swim in money now. By the way I played quite some hours now and I believe I can make a verdict:

Its a pretty damn good game. Its Tropico, there's humour, the economical and political simulation is very nice. There are fa few things here and there thats can be made better, but really its minor. The important part is, that its fun to play. And really its a time eater. A few screenshots (I like screenshots) from an advanced state of the island:

The details are pretty nice, so it looks good from a distance and up close





The view is amazing. It displays the tankers at the other side of the ocean, everything is animated, a slight blur... and yes, those are oil rigs. Theres the cashcow to be milked!





Another view. It startet to rain afterwards, thus is pretty grey back there. Glad it was just rain, because Typhoons and earthquakes can happen too, with fatal consequences. At the left hand side, thats a zoo. With animals. The animals overall look very nice and real. 





This is El Presidente. Nice touch that when he holds a speech from the balcony of his palace, that the people are gathering around it. Doesn't seem to bother the lorry drivers tho, as they plow straight through the crowd. Whats funny is when a pedestrian is crossing the street and a car is speeding towards him (and they are speeding, ALWAYS), the pedestrian leaps to the other side of the street. Thats those details that make Tropico Tropico.





Ah, the sun rises on the horizon, as a walking moneyba...tourist approaches the viewpoint.
Mind you instead of the sun, there can be a mushroom at the sky...





Um, yeah. Thats Ricarda. She's a showgirl in the cabarets and the nightclubs. She has kids, so hands off!


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## JanJan (Oct 3, 2009)

wow it's hard to find city building fans...im downloading dawn of discovery right now tho but definitely will try this out after.

the sunrise scene is soo sexy


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## FordGT90Concept (Oct 3, 2009)

I still have to wait another 2-3 weeks to play it.   Damn Euro/US delay. XD


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## FordGT90Concept (Oct 22, 2009)

I placed the order yesterday for it.  I can't wait until it arrives.


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## lemode (Oct 22, 2009)

I downloaded the demo on steam last night and goodness, is this game beautiful! I am not normally into games like this but this is an exception. Going to pick up the full version when I get some extra cash.


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## FordGT90Concept (Oct 25, 2009)

I just installed and started playing now.  It updated from 1.02 to 1.04 right away after asking for the key.  Funny how on the box it says it is Windows 7, Vista, and XP is recommended even though the game came out a few days before Windows 7.

It uses one core at about 66%, two cores at about 33%, and one core at about 5% (mind you, I really have nothing on the map yet).


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## CDdude55 (Oct 25, 2009)

Not my type of game.


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## MilkyWay (Oct 25, 2009)

The demo sucked the juice from my system like mad, low frames but tolerable.
If the demo is anything to go by its just Tropico 1 with new graphics, most stuff is the same, make alliances and buildings are all the same.

To me same game different skin maybe thats a good thing tho as i enjoyed the first and second.


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## FordGT90Concept (Oct 25, 2009)

I'm already enjoying Tropico 3 more than the orginal.  It just feels more like a finished product.  I still think I like Tropico 2 better than Tropico 3 but that's because it is a pirate island (hard not to be good XD).


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## Conti027 (Oct 25, 2009)

Is this anything like black and white 2 but without the war part? I loved just building cities in black & white 2 just didn't care for the whole fighting part..


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## MRCL (Oct 25, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> I'm already enjoying Tropico 3 more than the orginal.  It just feels more like a finished product.  I still think I like Tropico 2 better than Tropico 3 but that's because it is a pirate island (hard not to be good XD).



Yarr, pirates can't be topped. I'm hoping for a Tropico 3: Pirate Cove 



Conti027 said:


> Is this anything like black and white 2 but without the war part? I loved just building cities in black & white 2 just didn't care for the whole fighting part..



Well, the only war thats going on is between your government and some lousy rebels on your island, but thats sort of rare and not really "war". Its more focused on building, economy and politics (latter being relatively easy with you being a dictator). And mind you, the layout of your city is important.


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## FordGT90Concept (Oct 25, 2009)

MRCL said:


> Yarr, pirates can't be topped. I'm hoping for a Tropico 3: Pirate Cove


Me too.  Kind of surprising that PopTop (who made Tropico and Tropico 2: Pirate Cove) was merged into Firaxis studios.  I'm clueless as to how a Belgian developer got the rights to make Tropico 3 but they did a damn fine job and I so hope they do make a pirate version.  I've completed 3 campaign missions already and have barely scratched the surface (don't even have access to power plants yet).


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## MRCL (Oct 25, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> Me too.  Kind of surprising that PopTop (who made Tropico and Tropico 2: Pirate Cove) was merged into Firaxis studios.  I'm clueless as to how a Belgian developer got the rights to make Tropico 3 but they did a damn fine job and I so hope they do make a pirate version.  I've completed 3 campaign missions already and have barely scratched the surface (don't even have access to power plants yet).



I'm telling you, the campaigns are kinda hard once you progress. And what REALLY rules are oil refineries. Complete with huge dock, oil rigs and a shitload of money.

There is some criticism about there being too few buildings. Well I can say there are enough, you'll find yourself more than once in a situation where you think "damn where to put that thing". Seriously, you have to plan the city big time in advance, exlore the island and everything... its deep alright. And because of that so much fun.


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## FordGT90Concept (Oct 25, 2009)

It's deeper than SimCity but not as deep as Anno 1404 (annoyingly deep with all the micromanaging).  I just did the Industry one and had one cigar factory and one jewlery factory.  Their combined revenue was consistently at 30,000+.  I was rolling in dough at less than 250 people.  I built them a power station, armory, army base, sports arena, and hospital and my funds never dropped below 20,000.  I think they may have made it a bit too easy but I know I'll regret saying that...


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## MRCL (Oct 25, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> It's deeper than SimCity but not as deep as Anno 1404 (annoyingly deep with all the micromanaging).  I just did the Industry one and had one cigar factory and one jewlery factory.  Their combined revenue was consistently at 30,000+.  I was rolling in dough at less than 250 people.  I built them a power station, armory, army base, sports arena, and hospital and my funds never dropped below 20,000.  I think they may have made it a bit too easy but I know I'll regret saying that...



If you do it right from the beginning, you can walk thru. If you fuck up at the beginning (ie madly in dept), you face consequences. I always built at least three farms and a fishermans dock at the beginning, that way I'll make reasonable profit soon; from then on I'll expand.

I don't build the inferior apartment buildings tho, always the nice ones that cost more, but it keeps the people happier. 

Say, do you have the problem too, that when you have a perfectly flat strip of beach, and when you want to build something there it says "terrain could not be flattened (or something similar)? I had that once, that threw my whole plans overbord, so there was no more space for building large hotel areas... I hate that.


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## FordGT90Concept (Oct 25, 2009)

I've only had problems trying to get a road straight up a mountain. 


At the beginning of the Industry Titan, I built a high school and three tobacco farms (setting the farms to high priority).  Once the high school was done, I built the cigar factory.  That put me $4000 in debt (USSR and USA bailed me out and I didn't take sides so they were fighting over me ).  Once the product started flowing and the high school grads got to the factory, it turned into very reliable supply of funds.


I build tenatments near uneducated labor (farms and such) because by default, they don't make enough money to live in the apartments (apartments are $3/month and tenatments are $1/month--required not to take a loss on the property).  At some point, you are done building that cheapo stuff so from that point on, the focus is on the apartments.  Apartments will satisfy high school and college graduates although to get their housing satisfaction really high, you have to produce electricity and build Luxary Homes and Condominiums.


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## MRCL (Oct 25, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> I've only had problems trying to get a road straight up a mountain.
> 
> 
> At the beginning of the Industry Titan, I built a high school and three tobacco farms (setting the farms to high priority).  Once the high school was done, I built the cigar factory.  That put me $4000 in debt (USSR and USA bailed me out and I didn't take sides so they were fighting over me ).  Once the product started flowing and the high school grads got to the factory, it turned into very reliable supply of funds.
> ...



The road building suprised me, you can't go straight up vertically, but it will allow some pretty awesome routes.

Ah damn the slums around those farms! I have it like that: Setting the minimum salary to 6 bucks, and the rent for the apartements from 3 to 2 bucks. That way, even farmers and such can afford living in a nice home (they can afford rent at 2/3 of their salary). This increases happyness, and swipes those rotten shacks off the map.

I also build a lot of decorations... which brings me to another question: To switch between the decoratons, I always have to click on the decoration icon again, until the one I want eventually shows up. Isn't there a shortcut or something to switch directly between them? Haven't figured out yet.


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## FordGT90Concept (Oct 25, 2009)

[ and ] change the decoration.  It says down in the tool bar what keys do what which the selected object.

By the way, there is a "Pirate Cove" island that just unlocked for me.  I haven't played it yet...


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## MRCL (Oct 25, 2009)

FordGT90Concept said:


> [ and ] change the decoration.  It says down in the tool bar what keys do what which the selected object.
> 
> By the way, there is a "Pirate Cove" island that just unlocked for me.  I haven't played it yet...



Thanks man!

The Pirate Cove campaign is pirate related, because the people of that island are ancestors of pirates. Sorry to burst your bubble


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## FordGT90Concept (Oct 25, 2009)

I figured it wasn't going to let me loot and pillage because it just doesn't fit the scope of Tropico 3.  I haven't played it yet but will eventually.


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## ShiBDiB (Oct 25, 2009)

loved tropico 1/2 im also waiting for a new pirate one.. that game was and is epic


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## FordGT90Concept (Oct 26, 2009)

Viva Tropico was pretty hard (200% difficulty, 25 year limit).  I had to retry 3-4 times in order to meet the requirement (65% happiness or greater) within the time limit.  I ended up bankrupting myself with very high wages in order to boost it from 63% to 65% in the last year.


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## FordGT90Concept (Oct 27, 2009)

Two things that really impress me with Tropico 3:
1) No disk required to play!!! 
2) Alt+Tab is fully supported.  The game was minimized for hours, played for hours, minimized again for hours, etc. and it never skipped a beat.


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## minhbola (Oct 27, 2009)

I dont know but dawn of discovery looks kinda like anno 1404. It is time consumption game, way too long to get to the next game .


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## FordGT90Concept (Oct 27, 2009)

Dawn of Discovery is Anno 1404.  It was released under one title or the other depending on where you live.

Tropico 3 has very little in common with Anno 1404.  It's more like the Cuban version of SimCity Societies but much better because you control a whole island.


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## AsRock (Jan 8, 2010)

Well been playing Tropico 3 for over a week now and it's been lots of fun.  Seems less picky than most others like Sim City for one and Anno for another.  Still waiting for one like Civ but with realistic armys so a archer cannot take a tank out lol.

Only thing is annoying me with it is a lack of a delete tool like for removing trees.  So when you build a farm you remove the tree's in the area you need.

I end up building roads over the area's were i am going build a farm then delete the road lol.  I wish they added fences to the game to so you could fence area's.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jan 8, 2010)

:| Farms won't clear trees by themselves?


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## AsRock (Jan 8, 2010)

FordGT90Concept said:


> :| Farms won't clear trees by themselves?



Sure, but i like clearing a area out ready. Give's me some idea were the farms going be as i have noticed they will grow what ever were nothing is before were tree's are well seems that way at least.. Still should have the tool for deleting them .


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## DreamSeller (Jan 8, 2010)

i don't like it cuz im always in -


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## MRCL (Jan 8, 2010)

DreamSeller said:


> i don't like it cuz im always in -



Go for oil as soon as you can. Thats were the money's at. Build many farms and fishermans barns. Fish is a great source of income at the beginning.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jan 8, 2010)

I usually do it in this order:
-Cigars (tobacco farms + cigar factories)
-Jewelry (gold mine + jewel factory)
-Oil (oil refinery first then oil rigs)
-Tourism

Tobacco is valuable by itself but it becomes very valuable and a very reliable source of income with a cigar factory.  Jewlry makes a lot of money while the gold lasts (sell the mines and jewelry factory once the goods are gone).  Both cigars and jewels only require a high school education saving money on college grads.  Once you have money for a college, buy an oil refinery.  It will provide a constant supply of money to help start your tourism industry.  Once the oil dries up, you'll be left with tourists and cigars.  By the Luxary Hotel as soon as possible (I think mine was making 20-30k a month).


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## AsRock (Jan 11, 2010)

Getting annoyed with it now lol. I get to the point that every thing is running sweet and i mean 20k-50k+ income steady and then it seems that losses start to happen for some reason.

This seems to be around the time when the rebels start trying to get your workers to strike and even though they don't get them to strike massive losses start happening like if the games fixed in some way were the games forced to end sooner or later as if that don't get ya the high wages will has you will not be able to to higher them any longer due to max limit.

So maybe some one has a idea or two to try ?.  Like is there a way to keep the wages lower ?.

Last game i was playing i was making shit loads built a airport and rebels started to bug my docks so i kept them working as best ya can but seemed like the game wanted to end it.  As when i play a mission i like to carry on after but this stops me sooner or later even if the income should be better than the responce..


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## FordGT90Concept (Jan 11, 2010)

Figure out what the rebels are upset about and fix it.  Generally, it is poor healthcare or inadequate housing.


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## MRCL (Jan 11, 2010)

Never build those poor mans apartements, always the nice ones, and make them affordable for everyone. I set the rent for 2$ and minimum vage 6$, this way even the farmers and fishermen can live at a nice place, increases happiness. Also have some military ready.


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