Two Major Questions for Developers [Answered]

[Coconut Kid]

Two Major Questions

Hopefully Haemimont will have answers for these which they can release soon. These have been the long standing issues among players -- almost forever. These answers will help focus user discussion on useful points.

• Motor Vehicles and Roads
  Will they be included? How will they be treated, more or less abstractly? Roads are expected, but how elaborate will they be? The unceasing clamor for them and their appearance in the "early development" screenshots indicate that motor vehicles shall come to T3. Will they be in scale and controlled by the "Time-Line Editor"?
  
  
• The Illegal Drug Trade
  It is expected that certain aspects of society - legal & illegal - will be included, e.g. tobacco, alcohol, voluntary prostitution, littering & other pollution, abstract crime, etc. However, the game treatment of the various illegal drugs such as marajuana, cocaine, etc. continues to spill ink, and divert discussion from useful game play topics. Will the minor and/or major illegal drugs be included in the game? I suggest it is not a question to be put off much longer.
  

[Lyubo_Haemimont]

• Motor Vehicles and Roads
  Will they be included? How will they be treated, more or less abstractly? Roads are expected, but how elaborate will they be? The unceasing clamor for them and their appearance in the "early development" screenshots indicate that motor vehicles shall come to T3. Will they be in scale and controlled by the "Time-Line Editor"?
  
  The player will be able to build roads on his island. As to how and when vehicles will be available to the player in the game, we are exploring several different possibilities, but the main idea is that the maps are larger than in the original Tropico and a faster way of transportation might be needed (if we simply make the units faster, they will look weird). So far we are very pleased with the look of the vehicles and feel that they contribute to the atmosphere of Tropico.
  
  
  
• The Illegal Drug Trade
  It is expected that certain aspects of society - legal & illegal - will be included, e.g. tobacco, alcohol, voluntary prostitution, littering & other pollution, abstract crime, etc. However, the game treatment of the various illegal drugs such as marajuana, cocaine, etc. continues to spill ink, and divert discussion from useful game play topics. Will the minor and/or major illegal drugs be included in the game? I suggest it is not a question to be put off much longer.
  [/quote]
  
  

There will be no illegal drugs included in the game.

[Coconut Kid]

Thank you very much !

• Motor Vehicles and Roads -- The player will be able to build roads on his island. ... [vehicles], but the main idea is that the maps are larger than in the original Tropico and a faster way of transportation might be needed. ...
  
• The Illegal Drug Trade -- There will be no illegal drugs included in the game.

.
I think that news will be regarded as good, generally.

 

[el_malo]

As to how and when vehicles will be available to the player in the game, we are exploring several different possibilities, but the main idea is that the maps are larger than in the original Tropico and a faster way of transportation might be needed

CK, read the above quote... very carefully.

All it says is that they are "exploring" including vehicles.

It does not state that there will definitely be vehicles in T3.

We both know how developer plans end up on the cutting room floor

Q2 is almost on us and they are still exploring possibilities

Don't hold your breathe for a Q3 release.

[Lyubo_Haemimont]

All it says is that they are "exploring" including vehicles.

We are exploring how they will work. They will definitely be in the game.

[Coconut Kid]

We are exploring how they will work. They will definitely be in the game.

@ el_malo

There you go! You can put on your best uniform and call for your limo and drive over to the US/Soviet embassy for drinks and lunch.

Alternatively, you can drive down to the beach and join some babes in the sun & sand.

Then again, perhaps you can jump in your half-track with your suitcase of cash and drive to the secret dock of your escape boat.

 

[el_malo]

What vehicles actually make it in to the game... will be interesting.

Will MrP finally get his tanks

We are exploring how they will work. They will definitely be in the game.

If Haemimont is still trying to figure out how to make the vehicles work, at this late stage of development, I still believe that a Q3 release date is fantasy.

[Coconut Kid]

If Haemimont is still trying to figure out how to make the vehicles work, at this late stage of development, I still believe that a Q3 release date is fantasy.

Well they do imply that some actual game play testing is happening. If that is true, they have the basic framework of the game "engine" up and running. Maybe they are struggling with the link(s) between the background and the visual. Almost any computer geek (even CoffeeBean has tried it) can draw a visual and maybe even annimate it. But linking the visual, the game engine, and the story is a whole different thing than just a few test runs around the track.

What are the stakes of the el-malo vs CoconutKid bet about the early release "ScreenShots" ? Art Department vs Game Play. Shuckey dern, what do I have to do to lower the stakes just before I admit you have won?

 

[Coconut Kid]

What vehicles actually make it in to the game -- will be interesting. ...

Well, this is one part I am getting really anxious about. I know it is likely to be nothing more than cars/autos and trucks/lorries which are road bound. They may even have the patented "Portable Hole" in which the T1 Teamster kept his hand-truck.

But I can't help wishing for trolly to connect Factories with the Ports ; "Toonerville" keeps running past my mind's eye. I lived in the area of the "Cherrylyn Horse Car (Englewood/Denver)" famous for the horse pulling the car up the hill and then getting on the back platform and riding down the hill on the return trip.

There's the old saying: "Rails are for riding, while roads are for walking."

While I'm at it, I have to mention the famous bus in Gus Arriola's (1917-2008) comic strip "Gordo" = "El Cometa Halley", it was on a dependably regular schedule, but the frequency left something to be desired.

I hope 'Tropicans' drive with abandon. 

[Coconut Kid]

f y i

Sorry to burst your bubble but -- no they wouldn't.  There's no room on an impoverished island with dirt roads, for jeeps.  And a day-night cycle would be just ridiculous in a game that is played in [increments of] months.

No walking on the roads!

T3 begins to sound like Herbert Hoover: "A chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage."

Next is the question - will shacks have attached or detached garages?

 

I keep saying it - bicycles. In China, there are 200 bikes for every car. It would make sense for an island like Tropico to have bikes.

 

[Mr.P]

Will MrP finally get his tanks

T...T....Tanks?!?! Could such a thing be true? Well, Tropico 3 is a reality, so just about anything is possible

Wetting.....Pants....Excitement....! All control of bodily functions has now ceased!

[el_malo]

MrP, nice to see you

Vehicles are in... from what we have been told.

Whether or not, any tanks show up, is not known at this time.

Don't stay a stranger