Old Email saves

[Coconut Kid]

I noticed that I have a file of old Email notices of posts that include some from the the period which was lost from the big hack. I'll post them here for information and amusement.

[Coconut Kid]

Rebel-Yell on October 07, 2009, said:
<< I wasn't able to examine this closely in game yet, but at least both the manual and strategy guide clearly state that crop rotation is necessary. The strategy guide backs that also with some numbers - according to it, Soil Quality is compromised out of Humus, Minerals and Organic Matter. Each plant affects those 3 parameters in a unique way (also plants have a favorite air humidity and elevation level) and the soil quality is recalculated every three months. The guide recommends changing crops every 15 or 20 years. Using this strategically will be difficult however - the game only has a humidity overlay (and the exemplaric help text even provides inaccurate information), none for the other parameters. So you can just glance at table and guess, what part of the soil quality has deteriorated most and what should be planted next (Corn is however always not a bad idea, as it is the only plant which causes a net increase in overall soil quality). >>

This was retrieved from Kalypso's T3 board.

[Coconut Kid]

From: "Ivan-Assen Ivanov" <ivanassen@gmail.com>
11/19/08
Subject: Tropico 3

Hello Coconut Kid,

I just found the thread on Cafe Tropico about Tropico 3!
Thank you for you colorful opinion on Bulgarian game development in general, and on the prospects of Tropico 3 in particular :-)  I would like to ask you to visit our adobe hut, so we can drink fermented horse milk together and play some of the barbaric, boring shoot-em-ups inspired by our primitive way of life!

On a more serious note: we treat the license with enormous respect, and Tropico (the first one, not the piratey one) is the most favorite game of all time of Boyan Spasov, the game's lead designer. Don't worry about it turning into a shooter, a platformer, or an online fragfest; it will remain true to the spirit and tone of the original. Our designers are going through your wishlist, and said they've found interesting things. Of course, you understand that not everything can fit together, so no promises about them!

As somebody else mentioned on the thread, Tropico has some peculiarities which would be extremely badly received on the market today; our biggest challenge with Tropico 3 is how to change them without alienating old-time fans such as yourself.

As about the "extensive multiplayer features", I'm afraid that of all your opinions stated in the thread, I fully agree with the one about the competence of the marketroid who wrote the press release. Tropico 3 won't turn into Halo, Starcraft or Age of Empires. We will, however, provide you with interesting ways to interact with your Cafe Tropico pals from inside the game.

I hope that in about one month you'll be able to download the demo for our latest game, Grand Ages: Rome, and find a deep, serious city-building game, albeit in a different setting. (The third, IMHO vastly superior part in the series Glory of the Roman Empire / Imperium Romanum - we don't have much luck with names :-(  ). And don't worry, Tropico 3 will NOT be a reskinned GA:R.

I and my game designer colleagues will monitor periodically your forum; feel free to contact me at any time with any questions about the game. Maybe we can organize an interview with our designers, with you collecting the questions from the forum and filtering them to 8-10, and me getting approval from Kalypso?

Best regards,
Ivan-Assen Ivanov
Technical Director, Haemimont Games
Tropico 3 Lead Programmer

[Coconut Kid]

From: "Ivan-Assen Ivanov" <ivanassen@gmail.com>
12/02/08
Subject: Re: Tropico 3

Hi [CK],

As somebody else mentioned on the thread, Tropico has some peculiarities which would be extremely badly received on the market today; our biggest
 ...snip...
is an historical fact. Most of us would be sad to lose the 'Showgirls'. Tell us the problems, and maybe we can help.

The prostitutes are not a problem (as far as I know - of course, it's never too late for the publishers to freak out). But we live in a society which is much less a victim to political correctness than America; for example, for our Roman citybuilder back in 2005 we didn't even consider that depicting slaves would be a problem - with slavery being an integral part of Roman society and all. Later we were shocked that Caesar, supposedly the most realistic and most historically accurate Roman citybuilder of them all, had no slaves!

I was talking about more subtle things. The main problem with individual unit simulation, as we learned the hard way with our first two Roman citybuilders, was that it makes the malfunctioning of your city subtle and non-obvious; if you lay out the buildings in the wrong way, or hit a peculiarity in the game logic - like in your example with the near church at 60% vs. the 95% cathedral - your city slowly but surely sinks into disrepair, and it's very hard for you to tell what's wrong, or even that something is wrong! When this happens, the common reaction of a modern, ADHD-driven player, raised in the "30 seconds of fun, over and over again" game design methodology of Bungie, is one of the following two:
- Your game is too slow! Nothing ever happens! Give me a 10x speed button!
- My city is OK, but it doesn't work! Why does this unit here starve?
Both invariably lead to a general "Your game sucks!" conclusion.

At this point, it's very hard for the game to detect what's wrong with the city - detecting this requires a very complex analysis of the economy, which is equivalent to a very strong AI playing the game. Which we didn't have. Our economy system was fairly simple, but looked inscrutable!

This is mainly why for the third game, recently renamed Grand Ages: Rome, we switched to the opposite system, where the economy is instant, and building-driven; this actually allowed us to build a much more complex system of buildings and resource interactions!

For Tropico 3, unit simulation is a must - but our main challenge is how to make it more transparent, so that problems bubble up to the player's attention. I realize that virtually anything I say might instill fears of "dumbing down the game" in you --.

 ...snip...

Best regards,
Assen

O.K. - Originially I missed the point. I was too immersed in some details of T1, and I did not pidk up on the broad picture. I missed the boat, and I won't embarass myself further by posting my initial reply.

"Bubbling-Up" the problems for the player was not a problem for T1. Perhaps the nature of the standard gameplay changed over the years so that the habituated gamer required the exact opposite of subtle to attract his attention -- analogous to the popular music, played beyond loud by half-naked women and tarted out pimps.

But yes, it is a problem for game designers. Now with T4, there is a minority of players who understand subtle and who find the game too easy.

I'm not sure that missapplication of the ESRB type standards to exclude slavery from an historical game is appropriately called "political correctness" -- it is more inept marketing. Disney sanitized pirates by making them magical rather than disease ridden alcoholics. Slavery would be sanitary if masters and slaves both have the same skin color. History has to be seen spinning like politics to be acceptable.

[Coconut Kid]

I sent this to a friend 02/07/09:

Here is my loosey-goosey translation without foot notes of an Article about Tropico 3 in 3DZone (Evoker Wednesday) -- published in Bulgarian.
Published on the Cafe by Caribbean King.

Boian Spassov ; Boyan Ivanov ; Lyubomir Iliev

discussion of direction of new generation of game

BI: proved the series still has a serous and active fan base, especially in Germany.

talk about Bulgarian Studio vs first person action / clone of GTA

BI: game begins with choice of character. ... will provide a choice of appearance. El President will participate directly in the action of the game and not like someone who sulks in the office and runs the city from a distance. Player will be able to send their Avatar (El President) for example, to open a new building or to go on a diplomatic mission in America or Russia.

BS: The beginning island is inhabited by only a few, primitive people living in shacks and earning a living solely by farming. The Player starts in the role of dictator who is only interested in staying in office. But we will also provide alternatives for the Player who does not want to be dictator but would rather be a paternalistic "leader" who helps the people to happiness and prosperity with a high quality of life style, while foregoing embezzling money from the national treasury for his personal, secret Swiss bank account. All this will be assessed and will determine whether El Presidente is a genuine tyrant and dictator or liberal leader, who thinks of the people.

YOU?: Every person in the game will be simulated individually. ..., in Tropico 3 choveche tata [apparently a Bulgarian idiom, e.g. there is a popular game of that name that translates as "don't be a mad man"] will be essential.  This will choveche tata Player. You can select a person and track all his life issues, e.g. how the immigrant women are married, how parent's children are doing  in life, what relative was shot like a dog on the street by a policeman, -- because El President's rigor is such that cops can light oil [Bulgarian idiom] to anyone who does not walk straight.

BI: The population will drive the entire economy, just as in the original Tropico.

BI: The entire range of the Petroleum Industry will be added, including storing the product waiting for a good price.

YOU?: The six original factions will be back as well developed political parties. In addition, there will be a Nationalist Party which is xenophobic and isolationist.

BS: New concept is Presidential speeches. Player will have a range of options to combine which will reflect the role being played, e.g. tyrant, paternal dictator, soft leader, etc. There will be a direct impact on the entire population, not just those physically close to the El Presidente avatar. These speeches are modeled on those actually made by 'world leaders'.

YOU?: Also new is the Secret Police who do not have a known building as headquarters. They are people with dirty numbers [Bulgarian idiom] that will seyat El kompromati [Bulgarian idiom] when President wishes. We intend to use the Secret Police sub-system for any interaction between foreign intelligence agencies as the CIA and the KGB secret police and El Presidente, and any others who will enter the island to try to extract information.

BI: Multi-player will be the final development phase. Meanwhile, we can share only plans and intents. Players will be able to use their Avatar (El Presidente) to visit another player's island, and have a minor influence there.

discussion gets diverted to editor and scripting stuff

BS: Direct multiplayer is not in the plans; it would not make sense. Tropico 3 is not RTS. We can not predict the classical multiplayer because of the player's control of the direction of his choice of completive (tyrant) vs co-operative (paternal) style of play.

BI: We want players to be able to make their own scenarios using a random card generator. And we have a timeline editor, which will trigger certain scripted events in a given period of development of the state. This timeline will be the editor and also the controller for the single-player campaign, this being first of the new series which we will issue from time-to-time.

YOU?: The idea is that by using these tools, players can create scenarios and then put them online so other players may play and evaluate them to draw up some ranked as the best to be declared official and included in the list of specially selected fan scenarios. This will be a kind of best of the best fans for fans.

BI: In respect of buildings and how they look, we aim at a realistic level. When you consider a factory, it is not nearly the size of the 'real world' building itself; because of the modern game it is funny and serious. As architecture we have focused on the socialist, the screenshots you will see that prevail in the dark depressing colors typical of the period. We turned a great attention to detail as well as in Grand Ages: Rome, you'll see quite a nice visual surprises.

BS: At first we expected about 60 but now we think about 75. These are just the basic building types. For example, the generic "residential block" will have several variations. We are aware of the need for diversity.

S?: A new concept will be private buildings by foreign investors. Their presence will affect the attitude of the population. El Presidente (the player) will sell permits to foreigners; naturally receiving a fee and a percentage of the profits from each of them.

BS: Such buildings will require money, electricity and construction crews. This issue affects the development of the population of the island, and that in the beginning everyone will be inexperienced but time will improve, will require more resources, higher pay, will become experienced, but will become more effective subsequently. So in the beginning construction of buildings, if done in a way that progresses in the game and improvement of construction workers will be done.

[Coconut Kid]

Subject: day/night cycle
From: Ivan-Assen Ivanov
03/14/09:

...snip...

For now it seems there will be a day/night cycle for Tropico 3; at least, we're technically prepared for it. How it will affect gameplay, I'm not yet sure - simply shutting down most of the economy (except for e.g. the casino) at night doesn't work, we've tried it in the past. It simply makes the game more drawn out, without providing the player with more "interesting choices".
But we can't pass up on the opportunity of a screenshot of a brightly lit seaside boulevard with attractions, reflected in the sea :-)

...snip...

Follow-up 04/06/09:

All in all, the timescale of the game is a huge problem.  On one hand, we want to have somewhat realistic walking speeds for units, and realistic unit vs. building scales (which the original game didn't have, the units are HUGE compared to the buildings). On the other hand, we to pass 30-50 years in several hours. This means a unit can only go to work, church, etc. [only] several times in his lifetime!

We're still trying to find the right ballance between all these numbers, and we hope the transportation system (roads + cars) helps speed up the economy a little.

I do worry about the size of the island and how it is "generated" for random games.

No "scale of Cuba", we'll be close to the T1 scales. All islands will fit in a 1.5 x 1.5 km map (1x1 miles to you, I guess).

After shipping eight strategy titles, we're all too familiar with the natural tendency of strategy game players to cry "more! not enough! bigger!" no matter what number they hear - map size, buildings count or virtually anything measurable about the game. I think we know better than to listen to all of them :-)

There will be no bridges, everything will happen on the main island. Any small islands will be purely decorative. We have enough trouble with roads as it is, without bringing roads [bridges] into the picture.

...snip...

[Coconut Kid]

11/01/09
A reply has been posted to a topic you are watching by Pinstar.
The text of the reply is shown below:

There seems to be a 'crop grid' that the fields must conform to, meaning that if there is a little patch of space of great fertility that happens to have a tiny sliver of it not suitable, that whole patch won't be planted. Even with enough space and fertile fields, the farms only plant about 8 patches or so.

Interestingly, the farmers seem to have gained teleportation powers. When they enter the farm and emerge again to start their shift, the field they want to go plant will have magically appeared, clearing any trees int he way instantly. Further, a farmer harvesting a field will teleport the goods to the farm's output store without actually having to walk back with the harvested crops in hand.

If you ever box a farm in too tightly, you'll get the message "A farm cannot place its fields"

[Coconut Kid]

10/31/09
A reply has been posted to a topic you are watching by Pinstar.
The text of the reply is shown below:

Garages serve as big chunky means of obtaining a car. All tropicans can use garages (the base building) however for buildings with their own built-in garages, only employees of that building can use it. A teamster's office will give trucks only to the teamsters who work there.


A tropican enters a garage (the big ones) through one of three doors. Once inside, they turn into a car that gets spat out of the front. They will do this if the garage is along the way from point A to point B

A------G----------------B

They will also travel backwards a little bit to pick up a car

G-----A-----------------B

However they are smart enough to know when to skip the garage entirely

G--------------A-----B

Teamsters carrying goods can hop into a public garage to turn into a truck that can drive the goods all the way to the dock.

[Coconut Kid]

12/14/09 Email
A reply has been posted to a topic you are watching by loverevolutionary.
The text of the reply is shown below:

They walk to a likely spot and plant a small square of crops, about four grid squares. In Tropico 1, the farmers planted each individual plant. In this version, they plant and harvest a square as a unit. The square matures as a unit, and when the farmers perform the harvesting action on it, it goes right back to the baby plant stage.

This is for plant crops, not tree crops (bananas and papayas). I haven't watched what the peeps do with tree crops yet. In the original, harvested individual plants become detritus on the ground, and the crop had to be replanted, while tree crops were planted once, and the harvest collected from each tree on a regular basis.

[Coconut Kid]

12/19/09 Email
I report to a friend:

Mr.P posted in the "Army of Tropico" thread.

It is hilarious. Some rebels - apparently living in the city center instead of out in the jungle - decide to attack a building on the other side of the island. So they line up at the door to a garage and go in and draw their red jeeps (one each) and head down the road to the objective.

Meanwhile the army responds with some driving trucks and some running -- also El Prez with his Limo. There is a traffic jam, but no shooting at vehicles.

One rebel got shot down at the garage. From the screen shots, the army and El Prez got there first (I think the numbers were 6 rebels vs 20 army) along with El Prez. The red jeeps dismounted rebels one by one and did a "U turn" and drove - without a driver - back to the garage. El Prez at the head of the troops (including generals) shot down the rebels with his pistol.

[Coconut Kid]

12/31/09 Email
A reply has been posted to a topic you are watching by Rebel-Yell.
The text of the reply is shown below:

Quote from: Richard40 on 12/28/09 at 06:43 PM

I am curious Rebel Yell.  You say that changes in T3 have made the political game worse?  That is not good news, since I always thought the political game in T1 was one of its best features.  The addition of the T3 feature for el presidente to make speaches with promisses, make visits to varius locations, and the new nationalist faction, appeared to be potential pluses.  But what changes have been added that you beleive make the political game worse?

CK has basically summed up the relevant things. It is a mixture of too much cash to buy away any problem, too easy-to-calm Tropicans and Super-El-Presidente (mattering in that sequenze for the too easy gameplay IMO).

I started my first game on average difficulties and it felt like playing on the easiest T1 level (above T1's "sandbox" levels, which are now called God-mode). You can increase difficulty and the game will become moderately harder, but it does not even come close to the pain T1 caused, when you maxed out all difficulty sliders. You might suceed in creating a similar challenge though by using the challenge editor - you have tools to increase people's needs, building/times costs and various other things (if they aren't broken)

[Coconut Kid]

12/31/09 Email
A reply has been posted to a topic you are watching by Rebel-Yell.
The text of the reply is shown below:

Quote from: Richard40 on 12/30/09 at 06:22 PM

I agree that they should be vary careful about giving the player constant additional positive tools making the game too easy.  Any feature that makes it easier for the player should be balanced by either having some disadvantage associated with it (like my suggestion on allowing food purchases, but only at a normally uneconomic price level), or by raising the overall economic/political settings to compensate.  I also agree that if the game is working well, the player should be struggling with poverty most of the game.  Even in T1 I was sometimes dissappointed that tourism was a little too easy, and led to too much income late in the game.  From what I am hearing, T3 may be worse in terms of the players have too much income.

Ironically, Tourism in T3 is no longer an outstanding problem (for the T1 situation: even without the double-revenue-bug, I always felt that it was easier to get cash with it. You don't have to wait for teamsters, dockworkers or processing people to do their work - it is just a constant source of extra income, instead of unsteady, big chunks of money coming in and tempting you to spend too much) - the hotels are fairly profitable, the attractions rather not. But is is hard to get as many tourists as in T1. The problem is that the other branches of the economy have gotten easier, that constructing things has gotten cheaper (in the way that you get a nearly instant reward for your investment), that you can go in debt actively (without paying interest) or just that you can get away with paying less wages or just deliberately delay the support of some services (e.g. one of the developers mentioned somewhere, that you can often skip religious buildings and still maintain a fairly content society).

[Coconut Kid]

02/28/10 Email
A reply has been posted to a topic you are watching by Mr.P. (Almanac = improved layout?)
The text of the reply is shown below:

Quote from: Coconut Kid on Today at 05:16 PM

I suggest reading this entire thread may be useful to the interested player. Lyubo makes an allusion to overlays which suggests that some of the information dropped from the Almanac may be available from overlays.

Indeed CK, there is much from the Alamanac that can now be found in the overlays. I must confess that my initial reaction on reviewing the Almanac was one of horror, noting the missing detail when compared to T1.

This slowly subsided to moderate irritation that much of what I was looking for has moved to the overlays, yet is still present due to the loss of detail of the more subtle data and trend analysis lost.

As a micro-manager of activity on my islands (I would spend 10 minutes for each years play reviewing the Almanac) the loss has been the most negative aspect of T3 for me.

[Coconut Kid]

03/01/10 Email
A reply has been posted to a topic you are watching by Mr.P. (Same sex marriage and number of people)
The text of the reply is shown below:

Quote from: Coconut Kid on Today at 04:36 PM

Quote from: Mr.P on Today at 03:31 PM

CK, that has truly frightening implications for those rulers who traditionally pay (far) less than the Caribbean wage, thus (in part) attracting less [fewer] immigrants. ...

If your Oppressive Excellency will allow me to say so, even your most benevolent (I had to lookup the spelling of that infrequently used word.) fellow despots may have no idea of the impact of various aspects of Tropican life upon using announcements of Open (Jail) Door Immigration or Skilled Workers Welcome (to Our Sweat-Shops) have upon efforts to "suck-in" immigrants. It could be that wages alone may not be the key. Additionally, which micro-manager has screened the immigrants coming under adverse conditions to gage what "rif-raf" they actually are?

CK, you point about the inputs that influence immigration is well made, however I have to say that my experience is that the Caribbean wage is a prime driver to the volume that come and over what timeframe. If you have ever read my AAR, you will see that I tend to micro-manage all immigrants and code them, based upon their likelihood for dissent. (I must confess, T3 is far less challenging when it comes to repression - You really have to try hard to have the people rise up against you!).

I therefore do review all immigrants and have found that

• job availability,
• salary [by quartile] and
• liberty

to be important drivers. When I have run a developed island and suppressed liberty, closed off job slots and reduced salary $10 below Caribbean average, the number of immigrants were between 40-50% down than when these conditions were no applied. Now, it could be argued that such fluctuations would have occurred has I not undertaken such measures, but running it three times with suppressed indicators vs non-suppressed, the reduction was between 40-50% across all tests. Hardly scientific, I agree. However I am one for simple tests at assessing my (and others’) anecdotal observations and it appears to bare it out, albeit I cannot assess to what degree the job availability and liberty adjustments have been drivers.

[Coconut Kid]

03/03/10 Email
A reply has been posted to a topic you are watching by Rebel-Yell. (Absolute Power - Expansion pack announced!)
The text of the reply is shown below:

First of all, I'm glad that work on T3 will not stop On the other hand, I share CK's concerns...

Somehow the list is disappointing. I miss a kind of red line in the feature list. It looks like a random conglomerate of additions.

PI around 10 years ago was completely different - I would rate it as one of the better Addons I have seen for a PC game. It was definitely not the sheer number of additions, it was just that I had and have always the feeling that many of them adressed core issues of the original game or added at least in a fun and meaningful way. Just to name things like the military base, the changes to elections (in connection with oppressive measures and martial law), social security, price changes/edicts or the funiture factory as 3rd level industrial building. What was missing (and I'm thankful to the PI creators for this, as I know that otherwise some of the mentioned things would have met the cutting floor!) was any kind of irrelevant fluff.

Absolute Power is different (at least from what this first feature list tells me). Partly this is caused by the fact that the base game already simply falls short compared to T1. I would not go as far and say it is bad game, just average - and that's already a lot less than what I would consider T1 (a milestone) But that only one half - the other is that Absolute Power doesn't seem to do a lot to change this. I see a lot of the "fluff" I mentioned above and the "hard" additions lack a coherent picture from my point of view. To go in detail:
  * New campaign featuring 10 missions on a separate map (all islands are also available in sandbox mode) = I'm mainly interested in the sandbox mode, aka as long-term motivation. Campaign is one time fun but, costs deveopment ressources lacking in other areas
  * New buildings (including Garbage Dump, Marina, Small Garage, Children's Playground, and more...) and a new buildings category for current and new decorations with individual icon models = Buildings are "hard additions", but I'm disappointed about the mentioned ones. Ok, "and more" leaves room, but usually the top ones are named first.The problem I have with them is that I cannot see what they should contribute. Garbage management can be fun (Sim City 3000 style), but it is currently not part of T3 and I miss an entry in the feature list that garbage is added as an issue. Marina is probably tourist (and I don't rate it as useful - the available tourist buildings are already underused and enough to support the hotels). Childrens Playground is still the best in the list - I curious what this might do (I hope that it is not just another tourist or entertainment facility) The small garage might solve room issues, but what else? I remember a guy who posted a great idea about an island parliament on the offcial forum, he even provided a graphic for the building panel. I honestly would trade all of the above buildings for that one!
  * New “Megalomania” Edicts - demonstrate your absolute power by ordering the construction of a huge golden statue of Tropico's top export, declaring an annual festival dedicated to yourself or even print your own money! = I fail to see what this should add or what gameplay purpose it should have. The game is rather easy, I already feel like having too much power. It sounds like fulfilling the wishes of very vain players -- Printing money would leave room for a nice feature -- I think of inflation and such effects. But that's far too much for the game depth T3 is aiming (I must admit, it goes even beyond the depth of T1!); also the economic challenge is very limited anyway, so no need to print money for economic purposes.
  * Six New Landmarks ­ build huge decorations and structures which dominate the island landscape and make each island unique. = Unique islands sounds good, but I doubt this can repair what was lost with giving up the old-style random islands. However, depending on what those landmarks are and their gameplay effetcs, this might be among the more interesting additions of Absolute Power.
  * New Faction - The “Loyalist Faction” are your die-hard supporters and want no elections (since El Presidente is obviously the best candidate) and want a statue of their beloved leader on every corner! = A rather simple idea, but that does not mean automatically that it is bad. I would probably rate this addition very positive, if only the political business on the island would be as troublesome as in T1. Or if we had at least a parliament. So I just wonder what adding a very loyal and supporting faction - especially if you make use of the “Megalomania” Edicts - will add to the game. I doubt it will make anything more complicated.
  * Faction Disasters - Low standing with any island faction will trigger new disasters if not addressed = IMO, another half-hearted attempt to fix an underlaying problem with something superficial. I assume the event system will be the technical base for this. Unless those events have really disastrous consequences (which would be bad as well, because they are still controlled random ones like the ones I'm convinced), they will not suceed in fighting the main problem of too-easy-to-calm-people/factions. You will probably still have ways to buy you out of the trouble -- and we all know that money is never short in Tropico 3, nowadays even less if you can print it.
  * New Intro and Win/Lose Cutscenes = I don't really care. surely they can be nice to watch - but I can only enjoy such stuff, if a game has top gameplay. Otherwise I tend to think that development ressources were wasted on the wrong edge.
  * Four Additional Avatar Costumes ­ Two for male and two for female avatars = I care even less. Some more Dictator attributes would be more fun.
  * Beautification upgrades for the presidential palace including rooftop pool, extra towers, flags, banners and a larger balcony (which will increase the effects of balcony speeches) = Again fluff. The gameplay effect on speeches is either to neglect or unbalance (should I win because of beautifying my palace?).
  * More icons displaying the status of buildings and displaying input/output storage numbers for selected buildings = Ok, a better interface never hurts, so I don't complain about this. Though there are areas where I see more need (better almanac, documentation of the challenge editor). [The icons floating in the air tend to destrory the ambiance, especially if they are not intuitive for almost all players.]
  * Prevalent Faction - In every sandbox game one faction is chosen as "prevalent" on the island. Members of this faction will be especially numerous throughout the entire game and their satisfaction will be more important than usual = Feels like a rather artificial attempt to bring more challenge into the game. Again, I don't think it will work really, as long as more fundamental issues are left untouched. At best I can imagine a game to be challenge where you have numerous environmentalists, as that was and is always a small, but hard to please faction.
  * More radio announcements to guide you through Tropico’s daily life = Fluff. You have heard them soon and then - if not before - you will turn them off.
  * Gravel Roads ­ A second type of road for rural areas with decreased travel speed = I fail to see why I should build them then?

[Coconut Kid]

05/06/10 Email
A reply has been posted to a topic you are watching by Richard40. (Absolute Power - Expansion pack announced!)
The text of the reply is shown below:

I think you nailed down the main problem with T3.  All the changes made all involve making things easier for the player, with no changes making things harder.  If they couldn't have made changes to make things harder in some areas, then they should have just scaled up each of the difficulty area selections, so the overall difficulty parameters were harder for the player.  That would have balanced out the benefits of these new enhancements, so the overall game balance would have remained intact.  That way the toughest difficulty setting would have been just as challenging as the top setting on T1.

Thus the new faster transport, and faster building could be balanced by higher default economic difficulty levels.  And the extra abilities of El Presidente to make people happy, could have been balanced by higher default political difficulty levels.  This would have produced a game that was different, but still balanced.  Where now we seem to have a game that is different, and much too easy.

[Coconut Kid]

05/07/10 Email
A reply has been posted to a topic you are watching by Jack88. (Absolute Power - Expansion pack announced!)
The text of the reply is shown below:

The points Rebel-Yell brought up and Coconut Kid's elaboration hit the nail on the head.

The implementation of the transport system, I believe, is the main cause of death of the atmosphere T1 has. I recall from the first group of screen shots released and some very early posts/ interviews/ media releases that roads were not necessary for vehicles to get around on the island. And it seemed that people would park their cars and then and do what ever it was they were up to. But for some reason, that all changed. Garages and lovely roads became necessary for vehicles to get around. What we end up with is:

Everyone gets a car, but who knows how those vehicles got to Tropico and how they were paid for
Where the petrol to run these cars is beyond me
Even Rebels get access to cars, but no one is driving them [The usually invisible rule from T1.]
Tourists get around in taxis, yet they don't pay for them - and who the hell is driving the taxi? The other issue with tourists and vehicles has already been discussed a few times
No car pooling? For example, you could fit a fair few soldiers in the trucks they get around in, yet it's always one soldier per truck
Police seem to be the only people that do not make use of cars. When they arrest someone, they will WALK THEM TO JAIL, no matter how far away it is
Vehicles being driven by no one --
Traffic jams. The horror - - - - the horror
Vehicles never break down

[Suspension of Disbelief and acceptance of Verisimilitude both break down with the vehicle system. The problems with road layout obviously did not get sufficient play testing - besides the bad theory.]

[Coconut Kid]

05/10/10 Email
A reply has been posted to a topic you are watching by Richard40. (Absolute Power - Expansion pack announced!)
The text of the reply is shown below:

Regarding the problems caused by the introductions of vehicles, unfortunately in a way we asked for it.  I remember a lot of posts on past forums by various people asking for vehicles, and they decided to give them to us.  I also remember that CK was one of the people that always opposed the introduction of vehicles.

I do not necessarily oppose vehicles per se, but I do object that they introduced them without enough testing and analysis for how they would affect various situations, and how they would affect game balance, and the overall look and feel of the game.  Anytime any major new enhancement like this is brought in, it requires a lot of analysis and testing to make sure it works sensibly in every situation, and does not adversely affect game balance and look and feel.  It is obvious now that the required analysis and testing was not done.

jack88 just described many of the strange situations created, that should have been allowed for, tested, and properly dealt with.  CK and I have described how vehicles speeded up the economy, thus allowing money to come in faster, and people being able to satisfying needs faster, and how that adversely affected game balance by making the game too easy. 

This is something I have noticed occurs too often on software/electronics products now days.  I call it feature creep.  Developers too often add new features, without adequately analyzing how they will affect the existing system, and not testing side effects enough.  Personally, I prefer a low number of new features, that have been properly tested and integrated, rather than a lot of new features, none of which work well.  The problem is that too many consumers just look for new bells and whistles, and don't demand proper integration and basic reliability.

[Coconut Kid]

05/21/10 Email
Post by Rebel-Yell commenting on change in terminology from his view as a German speaker.

Easiest setting in T1 for politics was called "Sandbox" and meant no political dangers - in T3 "Sandbox" is just the headline for any free game [non-campaign] of any difficulty. Using the lowest available political difficulty - called "like Russian Concrete" - will still result in some political danger - to get completely rid of it, you have to choose the special condition "God Mode".

Somehow Haemimont\ Kalypso found it impossible to provide a cross-walk between the terminology used in T1 and T3. Some of the same words are used but with completely different meanings.
>> T3 God Mode = T1 Sandbox.
>> T3 "Like Russian Concrete" Political Difficulty = T1 "Easy" Political Difficulty.
>> T3 Sandbox = T1 Random Map.