"Absolute Power" expansion announced. 03/01/10

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[TomNobles]

Yeah, I've noticed that also -

I have built 'thus&so' building(s) and it/they is/are not doing anything.

For me, T3 plays almost the same as 1 & 2. The basic game mechanics are still there with the exception of teamsters using trucks to haul to the dock which requires planned placement of the garage which I think is the greatest improvement to the game. Of course there are a lot more and the building graphics being the greatest and possibly best change of all (IMO).

I finally finished the last scenario of the campaign, by the way.  

[City Builder]

I think Tropico 3 will be a good bit better after this coming expansion pack.  It includes things that people (myself included) were hammering on the developers for since day one.  Like the smaller garage (finally!) and the alternative roads (again, finally!) it's only a shame that they couldn't introduce these two items in a free patch instead of the expansion pack, but hey they are in it to make money and since those two items are one of the most requested items I'm sure they realized that it would help the expansion to sell.

I don't know if I'll actually buy it or not, as I got a bit burned out on T3 as while it is a fun game and I do endorse it to my friends, after a while every game starts to feel the same since there is a limit to what buildings are available.  So it becomes less of a "game" and more an exercise on trying to build the most efficient layout as one can do.  If they had included a mass of other buildings (like 10 more houses, and 15 more condominiums, apartments etc, just more and different graphics) then it could go into the build a "beautiful" city instead but as it is now, all my cities pretty much look the same.

Plus... Here comes the expansion and still no full landscape editor (thank goodness for the random map generator), and unfortunately though it's a good thing (the random map generator) it does produce very generic looking islands and we could do so much better if they gave us the editor that they are using to create the custom maps that they created for the campaign.

[CoconutKid]

... - For me, T3 plays almost the same as 1 & 2. The basic game mechanics are still there with the exception of teamsters using trucks to haul to the dock which requires planned placement of the garage which I think is the greatest improvement to the game. ...

It appears that for the great majority of players of T1 who went beyond an elementary introductory phase found the absence of land vehicles to be so intollerable that the addition of anything remotely resembling them would be like putting boobs back on a female sex symbol who had been drawn by CP3O.

Not to be too sarcastic, but saying so in that way seems to me to reflect that gamers appear to be able to "suspend belief" about any game component other than automobiles and that females are identified by boobs. There is a significant minority that want weapons to be drawn in highly accurate detail.

I can understand that the T1 Teamster with his handtruck was\is hard to believe -- he would have looked so much better leading a donkey (with & without a huge pack), but think about the mechanics -- he could pull the handtruck out of his "portable hole in the ground" but his workday would be intollerably long if he had to return the donkey to the office when his last load was dumped.

You ask, 'why couldn't the donkey go back on its own?' -- of course it could ^^ just as some of the vehicles in T3 return to garages after they drop the person off along the road. At least the donkey would be more believable than a driverless car\jeep\etc.

Consider the programming mechanics for the animations that appear to be vehicles. In T1, everything that moved fell in the category of UNIT -- that is people, boats, airplanes, animals, birds had\have the same basic elements.

T3 seems to use the same basis. That is the reason there are no busses or army trucks which carry several <<people>> ! Boats and airplanes do not "carry" several people -- the terminal buildings generate\absorb people units in conjunction with the arrival\departure of the vehicle units. That complex operation is too much to use for the random pick-up and drop-off of even a scheduled bus route, let alone a "jitney" style bus.

Therein lies my rejection of the roads & vehicles supposedly introduced by the Haemimont developers. All they did was add new animations for each person unit in much the same way the T1 Teamster gets his handtruck when he picks up a load (transmogrification) but with the elaboration of the "garage system" as a substitute for the "portable hole in the ground" to hide the change inside a building -- that preserves verisimilitude and aids suspension of belief. However, it is simply not capable of handling multi-person carriers. Indeed, there are no donkey carts because the animators could not produce an animation of such a combination turning a corner which would meet the verisimilitude test. Of course, neither does the freighter turning at the dock look real; but who watches that anyway?

Personally, I suspect that all that was used was stuff that PopTop had already tried and rejected, but left in the documentation.

I speculate that players like the other aspects of the game so much that they are frantic to overlook the ridiculous aspects of having one vehicle for every person on demand if a "garage" is available. Particularly when that dumps on the story line of the game.

Even as "Island Transportation Tycoon" it come up short because it can't cope with the need for people movers and the expansion doesn't deal with that.

[TomNobles]

GamersGate has Tropico 3 Absolute Power Expansion listed for pre order. Supposed to be available the 14th. Looks like the army base has a tactical nuke? I also noticed the females have boobs. Now I know I'm getting it.

[City Builder]

Honestly, if I had to wait around for my people to carpool from one stop to another someplace else I'd uninstall the game SO fast.  Plus growing up in Los Angeles (for part of my teen years anyway) I'm quite used to seeing one person per car.  Granted I wouldn't expect to see everybody have a car in a poor place such as Tropico (tenement dwellers and all), however I recognize it as a game mechanic that IMO is a necessity.

Boobs you say?  Hmmm, that kind of tips the scale slightly in favor of getting it.

[pad11]

well boobs are good, right?

I'm actually back to playing T3 right now, finishing up the main campaign....

Can't wait for the expansion, definitely getting it!

pat!

[CoconutKid]

Women have boobs in the game!
 
There's no sign that the add-on changes them.
 
Or makes a topless beach.
 

Just for your interest.

Tropico 3 - Absolute Power
Manual Table of Contents

Advanced tutorial
Absolute Power campaign

<New Buildings>
Garbage dump
Marina
Grade school
Ferris wheel
Balloon ride
Weapons factory
Wind turbine
Nuclear program
Golden statue
Christ the Savior
Eternal Flame
Radar dish

<New Edicts>
Free houses
Ideology Book
Outlaw a faction
National day
Lure the rebels
Print Money
Polit[ical] education
Shoot Juanito
Privatization
Hola Presidente

<Interface>
Building context hints
Building markers
Unit markers

<Other Features>
New faction - Loyalists
Megalomania Score
Prominent faction
New roads
New character traits

<Faction disasters>
[one page]

<Faction demands>
[one page]

[City Builder]

I wonder what Building markers and Unit markers will do... Well besides "mark" buildings and units.  I wonder how that will work or why have it.

[CoconutKid]

<Interface>
Building context hints
Building markers
Unit markers

This is purely speculation:

Building context hints = how many farms it takes to supply a factory; how many teamsters it takes to service a production building; how to get food from farm to market (hopefully); etc.

Building markers = an illustrated list of the icons which float over them.

Unit markers = an illustrated list of the icons which float over them.

What they used was not intuitive enough for many players, especially the money bag with a "no" slash.

[pad11]

I just hope there are more decorations!  As for balance, I find T3 extremely well balanced and challenging as it is!

pat!