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Tropico 5 - Released

Brinko

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May 7, 2012
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Tropico 5
'Return to the remote island nation of Tropico in the next installment of the critically acclaimed and hugely popular 'dictator sim' series.' Expand your Dynasty's reign from the early colonial period to beyond the 21st Century, facing an all-new set of challenges, including advanced trading mechanics, technology and scientific research, exploration and for the first time in Tropico history -- cooperative and competitive MULTIPLAYER for up to 4 players.

• The Eras - Start your reign during colonial times, survive the World Wars and the Great Depression, be a dictator during the Cold War, and advance your country to modern times and beyond. From the 19th century to the 21st, each era carries its own challenges and opportunities.
• The Dynasty - Each member of El Presidente's extended family is present on the island and may be appointed as a ruler, a manager, an ambassador or a general. Dynasty members gain skills and experience based on their individual assignments.
• Research and Renovate - Advance your nation by discovering new buildings, technologies and resources. Renovate your old buildings to more efficient modern buildings.
• Advanced trade system and trade fleet - Amass a global trade fleet and use your ships to secure trade routes to neighboring islands or world superpowers, both for export and import.
• Explore your island - Discover what lies beyond the fog of war. Send prospectors to look for new deposits, but be wary of hostile animals and native tribes.
• All new art - All artwork has been re-designed from scratch to provide Tropico 5 with a unique visual identity. Choose from over 100 buildings from each of the individual eras.
• Cooperative and competitive multiplayer -- Up to 4 players can build up their own cities and economies on any given island map. Players can choose to share resources, supplies and population or declare war on each other.

Kinda excited as long as their DLC milking doesn't turn the game into retard proof easy mode.
 

Keshik

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Mar 22, 2012
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The idea of a dynasty is interesting, hope the game poses some tricks though - I found it I could just stupidly bulldoze my way through Tropico 3.
 

Whisky

The Solution
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Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera
I hated Tropico 4 and swore I'd never buy another.

But I gotta admit, being able to start from the 19th century and forge your own dynasty sounds interesting; very Crusader Kings. Can't wait to appoint my deranged and severely unqualified nephews as cabinet ministers.
 

Space Satan

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Tropico 3 and 4 had awful small aspects that almost ruined it. Insanely annoying building construction mechanics, fail tourism, that couldn't earn you money. great ideas but buiried under a pile of mundane shit. And always at some point you will get so much money, that you stopped worrying. That was the main reason for boring experience - once you strived to earn money and establish an industry, game was very interesting, but once you started to earn huge profits- gameplay degraded to wait till victory conditions will be fulfilled. And oil industry granted you with near unlimited money.
Should they add more challenges and fix that unlimited money state of things - game would be great. Plus, universal superbuildings added to the overall decline - megafarm, megaapartments. Back then, you had to choose between low quality house with lots of apartments or high quality with few people to live. In Tropico 4 you just build uberhouse.
Decisions were another failed concept - they cost you fixed amount of money. So with oil industry ou can enact them all without any trouble.
 

Borelli

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Dec 5, 2012
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Tropico 4 felt like an expansion pack to 3 but these new things really sound good. Although multiplayer with "declare war" on each other sounds stupid. The point of the army in Tropico is to rule the people not to you know actually use them as an actual army.

Cautiously optimistic.
 

Turjan

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Tropico 3 and 4 had awful small aspects that almost ruined it. Insanely annoying building construction mechanics, fail tourism, that couldn't earn you money. great ideas but buiried under a pile of mundane shit. And always at some point you will get so much money, that you stopped worrying.
Well, the games had sliders where you could customize your experience, so complaining about easy oil money doesn't really count. You can just switch that off. Also, tourism could be very profitable. It didn't quite work as early game cash cow, as you probably have to spend your money and building capacity on stuff that keeps you from being ousted, but from the mid game on, it works quite nicely. The only thing that I found always a bit grating is that the liberal democratic way is the easiest. There's no threat to ever lose an election. Also, the "modern times" expansion of Tropico 3 sucked in as many ways as it was good. A lost opportunity.

I'm looking forward to a new iteration of this game. The changes sound good. Let's see what they will come up with. I don't expect anything groundbreaking though.
 

Space Satan

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Well, the games had sliders where you could customize your experience, so complaining about easy oil money doesn't really count. You can just switch that off. Also, tourism could be very profitable. It didn't quite work as early game cash cow, as you probably have to spend your money and building capacity on stuff that keeps you from being ousted, but from the mid game on, it works quite nicely. The only thing that I found always a bit grating is that the liberal democratic way is the easiest. There's no threat to ever lose an election. Also, the "modern times" expansion of Tropico 3 sucked in as many ways as it was good. A lost opportunity.

I'm looking forward to a new iteration of this game. The changes sound good. Let's see what they will come up with. I don't expect anything groundbreaking though.
On the contrary - tourism earned quite a lot early on, but as your expenses progressed, it failed to provide adequate income for mid and late stages. You had to add industry to get first power station as tourism income could not get you college to get workers and costly station. But yes, election was dumb. Mostly because it was too easy to build best houses, and ell edicts cost almost nothing. Especially when you earned tens and hundred times more.
 

Turjan

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On the contrary - tourism earned quite a lot early on, but as your expenses progressed, it failed to provide adequate income for mid and late stages. You had to add industry to get first power station as tourism income could not get you college to get workers and costly station.
Not sure what you refer to here. Why do you need industry to get a power station? You don't need a college to provide electricity, either, it just costs more. It's true that industry can be much more profitable than tourism can ever hope to be, but I like that the latter softens market swings. The major problem with tourism is the attractions and that they seem not to have any corroborative effects. They are easy to saturate. Then again, a bit of high wealth tourism yields a great budget baseline, so I'm okay.

I noticed one other, a bit more disturbing problem when I just fired the game up again to check a few things. One of the latest updates in July broke textures and other things. It still isn't fixed.
 

Space Satan

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Not sure what you refer to here. Why do you need industry to get a power station? You don't need a college to provide electricity, either, it just costs more. It's true that industry can be much more profitable than tourism can ever hope to be, but I like that the latter softens market swings. The major problem with tourism is the attractions and that they seem not to have any corroborative effects. They are easy to saturate. Then again, a bit of high wealth tourism yields a great budget baseline, so I'm okay.

I noticed one other, a bit more disturbing problem when I just fired the game up again to check a few things. One of the latest updates in July broke textures and other things. It still isn't fixed.
power station requires college education workers. No power - no hign-end hotels and top attractions, plus, you'll need college education for clinics etc.
 

baturinsky

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Economy is too easy even with most hardcore settings. Both industry and tourism are quite profitable. And there are many buildings (media, banks, offices) that generate money from population. I think it's possible to make self-sufficient economy late-game. Too bad you barely can even sell anything to locals. Except may be jewelry in malls.
 

Turjan

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You don't need a college to provide electricity, either, it just costs more.
power station requires college education workers. No power - no hign-end hotels and top attractions, plus, you'll need college education for clinics etc.
If you just need power for a few tourism buildings and one or two industry updates, use wind turbines, they don't have workers. Also, you can already build a profitable tourism infrastructure without any electricity, even some of the top attractions don't use any. The first clinic can be staffed from available college graduates. You can hire experts from abroad. You can use your immigration policy in combination with sufficiently high wages to attract experts that come to the island on their own. Also, getting the money for a college together is trivial, so I don't understand that limitation. You can also keep the costs of a college, when you built it, down by limiting staff. I often build power plants very late, as they are only later nice to have in order to increase profit.

A powerless tourism infrastructure with just things like motel, standard hotel, beach bungalows, the basic pubs and restaurants (and/or cocktail bar), a beach site, the spa (or the pool), the marina, the cabaret, and a botanic garden is already quite profitable (about $45,000 profit per month with 1 motel, 2 hotels, a few bungalows), and none of these need electricity. The upscale tourists pay more than $40 to stay at that shabby motel, if you don't flood the island with other options, although the most profitable option is small beach bungalows, anyway. In my experience, the powerless attractions make a better profit. The only powered tourism building that is really worth it is the skyscraper hotel, and of the entertainment the nightclub.

The only thing that doesn't work well is running an island without any kind of income from farming or mining or logging. You need that to jumpstart tourism during the first years. A few years later, the tourist income alone is sufficient, even without electricity.
 

Space Satan

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Wind turbines, require some condition to be built, forgot which one. Anyway, you will need college anyway and can build it, it will just sap you finances. Powerless tourism is very well possible, but, once again, could not cope with increasing expences well. Industry, any industry, is more profitable that tourism. Shabby bungalos accomodate few tourists and you'll need numbers. Plus, sooner or later you'll need airport.
 

Turjan

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Wind turbines, require some condition to be built, forgot which one.
You need to buy a blueprint, that's all. Wind turbines are not very cost-efficient though. And you should build them high, which may be difficult at the game start.

Anyway, you will need college anyway and can build it, it will just sap you finances.
It's cheaper to build a college. You don't actually need it, no. Also, as I already mentioned, you can just fire professors you don't need. One (or two to be on the safe side) is enough.

Powerless tourism is very well possible, but, once again, could not cope with increasing expences well. Industry, any industry, is more profitable that tourism.
Tourism can cope with your basic finances. But yes, I already agreed in post #9 that industry is much more profitable. However, you can run without it.

Shabby bungalos accomodate few tourists and you'll need numbers. Plus, sooner or later you'll need airport.
If you look at the numbers, those shabby bungalows may be a poor use of space, but their profit per tourist is the same as for the skyscraper hotel.

Anyway, I don't think we have to keep this up, as we both agree that tourism isn't really such a good economic strategy in this game. It's a nice baseline income, but it pales against an industrial strategy. I found that a mix is the best way to go.
 

Space Satan

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Pre-Alpha Screns:
05.jpg

04.jpg

07.jpg

06.jpg

03.jpg

02.jpg
 
Dumbfuck
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Feb 2, 2012
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Codex 2012
Didn't like Tropico IV so much

Also looks like it will be a pain in the ass to play... why do we need insane gfx requirements for a Sims-like strategy game?

Does anyone actually zoom in to see their sims/buildings up close?
 

baturinsky

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GTA/city builder mix with this graphix would be awesome. Afterall, Presidente always liked to handle things personally.
 

Turjan

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Does anyone actually zoom in to see their sims/buildings up close?

I sometimes do in the Tropico games. There's quite a bit happening in the close range, or you make it happen ;).

Regarding those screenshots, I have mixed feelings. The buildings look visually imbalanced. Too many chiefs, not enough indians.
 

Brinko

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http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/tro...ship-from-the-colonial-era-to-the-modern-age/


Coups are delicate work. You’ve suckled from the teat of a mothering monarchy for decades and it’s time to flip some tables, build some barricades and embrace autocracy. But do you have enough food to feed your populace? Can you hide the resentment and plotting of your plebs from your overlords long enough to grow an independent military? Welcome to Tropico 5, the dictatorship sim that lets you build a dubious paradise from scratch.

The latest entry in the Tropico series will now let you manage your country from its historical foundation in the colonial era, through World War II, through the Cold War and up to the present. As always, you’ll have to run your city, keep your economy afloat, protect your citizens and squash resistance – dictators aren’t fond of delegation. But you’ll also have to move through the eras as a political loner, fighting for independence in a shifting sociopolitical climate.

Your constitution is a useful new way to keep yourself in power, and define the sort of country you want to run. What if only men were allowed to vote? Would that keep El Presidente in place? What if only party members were allowed to vote? You can be as brazen as you want if you’ve got your people under a tight screw. But as the world modernises and becomes more progressive, it becomes harder to hold onto extreme traits without alienating potential trade partners or even provoking military action. “We want to make the player adapt to changing situations. The world does not stay the same,” warns producer Bisser Dyankov.



This means you’ll be making interesting decisions about allegiances. Will you sit down with Axis or Allied factions in World War II? Can you make it through the Cold War without being absorbed by an ambitious emerging superpower? You can research new skills that will improve your diplomatic abilities. If you’d rather be an isolationist police state, you can focus on creating a better economy so you’re less reliant on trade. Or: resort to illegality. “This is still Tropico,” says Dyankov, “you should be able to embezzle anything.”

The change in timescale is a significant step outside of the comfort zone for a sim that’s spent recent years iterating on its core management systems. It’s still got the sunny look and tongue-in-cheek tone, but Tropico 5 is showing more ambition than its predecessors. A new combat system will add depth to conflicts and there’s a fresh multiplayer mode that’ll let you compete for resources with adjacent player-run dictatorships. The addition of multiple eras raises a succession question as well. How will you ensure that El Presidente junior steps into papa’s big black boots? Clinging to power is a challenge.
 

Brinko

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May 7, 2012
Messages
884
Yeah I have no illusions that this will probably be shit. Even if they somehow make the game good we can rest easy knowing that their DLC packs will simplify the game to where even a retarded infant couldn't lose
 

Burning Bridges

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Tropico 3 was great value for the money (spent ca 15€ for it), but after Tropico 4 it will not lead to huge sales if they just keep churning out slightly updated versions for full price.

If it was not for replayability this could have been the best city building simulator ever. I particular liked the part about building the many different (banana etc) farms which is very realistic.

But the worst aspect (apart form the combat and rebels) are the islands themselves. There are enough to choose from, but almost all look over the top, with huge overdone craters and rock formations or stuff like aztec temples. In the end there was only one island (called Mantaraya) I would play.
 

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