Can we get a autos or trucks for the army to drive to where the rebels are attacking? In my games the rebels drive little red jeeps (very cute) to the place they want to attack, but my poor army must go on foot all the way across the island to save my mines, and other industrial buildings or even the mansions.

Yep.

Sometimes I saw my army relied on the garages nearest to them but sometimes they just ran on foot to the battlefield, though the island I was governing wasn't small, lol.

The same thing was with my El Presidente.

If you have garages near the guard towers and your troops are smart enough they will ride into battle on army trucks.

With a regret,

Sometimes, my soldiers just tried to run on foot, though a TV tower was set up (learn with larry to double the experience). Were they so smart?

I know that any dull soldier in this world has enough brain to consider that moving by a Humvee is always faster than relying on his feet. Lol

I think generals should have limousines like El Presidente, but a little bit littlest, even for their own transports, to home, to work, etc. It would be great!

Even El Presidente's Limousine relies on the garages and he should walk to them.

Thank you Timo for answering. I did have the guard shacks next to garages, in the little districts where the mines are, but they still run on foot. Also, the El Presidente does not always go for the limo even when I have him go help production at farms or other buildings. Instead, he doesn't go to the garage nearest him, he runs across the land (as the crow flys) to get to where he is going. I have to reclick for him to get closer to the garage, (maybe 10 steps) then redirect him to go to the farm or wherever. I also noticed the builders don't even drive to the building site, they will run across the land, too (often enough to annoy me). I don't mean to gripe, I would just like the Army to use the trucks more often as this makes many get killed before they all arrive cause they were hanging out at the pub, and decided to walk to the battle.

(06-03-2010 02:38 PM)El De Facto Wrote:  Thank you Timo for answering. I did have the guard shacks next to garages, ..., but they still run on foot. ...

A garage next to a guard station works under two conditions:

• For the soldiers employed at that guard station;
• The soldiers are in the guard station (i.e. at work) when the alarm sounds.

All the generals and soldiers check for any intermediate garage between their location when the alarm sounds and the location of the attack. That is to say, it does not seem that the military uses any different logic for using a vehicle to respond to an attack than does the teamster in hauling goods.

this is not working properly. both teamsters and civilians will always take a car as long as there is a garage closer to them than their destination. both will use vehicles even if they have to go slightly out of their way, because it's faster in the long run, so why is it that soldiers will only do this under such strict circumstances?

what I think is happening is that el presidente's logic to reach persons (ie. protesters) was used instead of building destinations, which is the only other case I have seen this happen. even then it can't be functioning right because he still usually takes his limo if he's far away. at this point I find it a bit stubborn for this not to be fixed along with tourists, because the current logic is detrimental to both elements of the game. tourist destination/turnaround could generate more profit, and there's no good reason for well trained soldiers to run towards rebels and get slaughtered one at a time. since rebels are nice enough to wait for all your soldiers to be dead before demolishing a building, el presidente's army should return the favor by arriving some time today.

(21-09-2009 05:09 PM)chrono Wrote:  .... One guy fighting four does *not* die 4 times as fast.
The fighting logic is rather complex, so I won't be explaining it here, but the idea is that at the beginning it's like a civil war / uprising. The people haven't prepared extensively, and the army is caught off-guard. Every participant starts fighting wherever the fight catches him. As the fight progresses, one side may gain numerical advantage and seize "The hill" (what they're fighting about, usually the palace). Then they'll group around that building. But that does *not* mean that the conflict has a clear winner.

Once again, the numbers are complex and I'm oversimplifying but think of it as always fighting one-on-one. It's made so that the geographical positions of the fighters are not too relevant (i.e. if you have soldiers on the other side of the Island, they should still count in the fight).

So, if one soldier kills 3 people (not sure if it's set up like that in the game, just giving an example) and he's fighting four people, he *most probably* will kill 3 guys and die. If two soldiers are fighting 5 people, they'll survive. If one soldier is fighting 5 people, he should kill 3 and die. Then the second one should kill the rest.

There are, however, many factors in the fight. The avatar may be a coward/war hero. The soldiers may be underpaid. El prez may just be a bad ruler and then there will simply be too many rebels / citizens to fight against. The soldiers don't gain experience overnight and the campaigns are rather short. Give them time. Also, generals are stronger than soldiers, I believe. ...

The single most important factor that will ensure victory in fights is having high respect (in a civil war) and high soldier training (in a rebel attack).

It seems to me that - according to that abbreviated description - how the soldiers arrive at the scene of the attack does not make that much difference.

^^fair enough, but don't you think it's still a bit nonsensical for it to work like this? it's much more entertaining imo, to watch a showdown of your army vs. the rebels in one fight instead of several, staggering in one at a time just kind of sucks the fun out of it. especially when one or more is inclined to flee or die without killing any after a few shots have been fired, then more waiting kind of diminishes the whole ordeal. even if they were not to fix this transportation problem, the least they could do is sort of mirror the rebels and not fire upon them until they all get there. I guess they could stand around heckling/pumping their fists at each other in a similar fashion.

(08-03-2010 05:45 PM)whybuybeta Wrote:  ^^ fair enough, but don't you think it's still a bit nonsensical for it to work like this? ...

Oh my word! All I was trying to do as a sideline observer was to try to clarify what I think is happening. Far be it from me to suggest that the effect of the "road & garage" system coupled with the concept of one person unit equals one vehicle unit can rise to the level of "nonsense" for the Army of Tropico vs the Rebels.

Whatever the merits of Haemimont's addition of vehicles to Tropico, the visual and gameplay effects for the military and the rebels are ludicrous and not worthy of being called "tongue-in-cheek" humor.

While the visuals have been redone to suit the citybuilders and the gameplay logic from the original has been "tweeked" heavily, who is going to say that red jeeps being driven by invisible rebels are closer to the Caribbean than the Canals of Mars are to Flash Gordon? Maybe they can be seen sometimes -- but getting into line at a public garage to draw their red jeeps to drive to the attack? Even Buck Rodgers or Dick Tracy would gag at that. Then we go the the AoT side of things. When the Rebels attack -- or is it an uprising of many people - sometimes called an 'Uprising'? The players have little experience to report since they struggle to be so corrupt and mean as to trigger an uprising.

As a gameplay element, it seems reasonable that the AoT is always going to be unprepared. (That's another debate if you don't mind.) Therefore, the members are not all going to be at their places of employment -- besides not all such places have built-in garages. Guess what !! Given the alarm (I wonder how, but then the rebels attack at only one place, eh?), most of them rush to a public garage and fight for a place in line with the rebels also waiting to draw vehicles from the bottomless store of vehicles kept there.

Then there comes the visual of the battle. Hopefully the rebels have picked a well situated building on a main highway if not the Palace. That way everyone from both sides can drive up and transmogrify back into people so as to have a nice battle to satisfy the player. First there might have to be a sorting-out of the traffic jam to allow the driverless vehicles to return to a garage. After all, we don't wish to upset the player with a visual of a vehicle just going poof and vanishing as the driver transmogrifies back into a person.

Did I cover "nonsensical" to your satisfaction?

well sure why not? they could just not fight the band of rebels one at a time, this is not at all hard to implement I'm sure.

I must say, I have no idea what you all are talking about. I was thinking the game engine is geared like any other game to "take the shortest distance" to the place they are trying to go. I only wanted that fixed. It seems to me, the shortest distance sometimes includes going through a mountain instead of up the road that is going across it, and sometimes running up a hill (builders) instead of driving up the hill. This explains why El Presidente runs up a hill or through it (as the crow flys) instead of turning to his left or right and going to the garage, first.

Even when my Army are natives, and the El Presidente (custom) is not a coward they still run away, get there late, arrive one at a time sometimes, do not drive but walk/run even when they are well paid, job happiness 100%. Even when in their thoughts they state it is an honor to serve the El Presidente...so it has to do with the island shape, the shortest distance, and whether the were near a garage (though if their need meters are almost full) they shouldn't be at a pub or somewhere else but on the job. I only want the 'shortest distance rule' to include some logic. A garage, or hmmm, I will run across the land and get there much too late.