So, this may have already been posted here but I didn't see it. Over on Gamefaqs I read about someone who found some hidden buildings that are not available from the build menus. They can however be accessed by going to the options menu and setting them up as hotkeys. In fact there are at least three buildings that you can create on the hotkeys listing that are not in the build menu.

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this, if Kalypso is aware of it, and if perhaps they're going to fix this so we can access the buildings?

So far the buildings I've noticed that are missing but still usable are:
Cement Factory
Plantation
Bunker (this is like a Guard Station but holds 6 soldiers)

Anyone else see this or am I extremely late to the party here?

Yep its been mentioned here a few times. As far as I know no dev has acknowledged it yet, but I'm sure they have seen us talking about it as they seem to frequent this forum quite often.

Ah ok, thanks. I haven't really visited this forum too much for some reason. Sorry to bring up an old topic.

Its not really such an old topic. It has been found recently here too (well by me at least)

(09-09-2011 01:17 PM)cardician Wrote:  Ah ok, thanks. I haven't really visited this forum too much for some reason. Sorry to bring up an old topic.

I wouldnt really say its "old." It came up a couple days ago, & I actually think a separate thread hasnt been started about it yet. Its just been mentioned in a lot of other threads.

Plantation have 3 choice amongst coffee, tobacco, sugar
What's the difference to farm??

(09-09-2011 01:24 PM)TZEYAN Wrote:  Plantation have 3 choice amongst coffee, tobacco, sugar
What's the difference to farm??

Plantations are a little bigger & hold more workers, & thus produce more.

I believe someone also mentioned plantations don't take up as much field space or they're more compact. Where as a farm can have it's fields spread out all over the place. Not sure if that's true since I haven't placed one yet.

(09-09-2011 01:31 PM)ArmaDeFuego Wrote:  

(09-09-2011 01:24 PM)TZEYAN Wrote:  Plantation have 3 choice amongst coffee, tobacco, sugar
What's the difference to farm??

Plantations are a little bigger & hold more workers, & thus produce more.

wow it would be able to build in stage4
and it getting high yield

Are these buildings that were cut at some point in development? They mostly seem a bit redundant, simply higher-capacity versions of existing ones.

(09-09-2011 06:43 PM)Deaghaidh Wrote:  Are these buildings that were cut at some point in development? They mostly seem a bit redundant, simply higher-capacity versions of existing ones.

The plantation & bunker are, but the cement factory is new & kind of cool. I think it does speed up build times quite a bit. They've always been a money loser for me though as far as exporting cement goes.

The bunker is in my opinion a lot more useful, since it doesn't require in it's current state to have generals, allowing you to field a larger and cheaper army.

I'm not sure if it's a bug, or if the lack of generals explain why I've been having so many effing coups lately.

(09-09-2011 07:16 PM)Gen.Armando Wrote:  The bunker is in my opinion a lot more useful, since it doesn't require in it's current state to have generals, allowing you to field a larger and cheaper army.

I'm not sure if it's a bug, or if the lack of generals explain why I've been having so many effing coups lately.

Yea you can build it without having generals, but you still get the hit to militarist happiness if you have too few generals for your army. So spamming them would probably be a good way to have a coup on your hands.

(09-09-2011 01:55 PM)cardician Wrote:  I believe someone also mentioned plantations don't take up as much field space or they're more compact. Where as a farm can have it's fields spread out all over the place. Not sure if that's true since I haven't placed one yet.

Actually, unlike Farms which scatter working fields all around the Farm, the Plantation workers tend to plant more a solid block of fields that keep expanding year after year. That makes it a long term good investment, provided you don't encroach on the Plantation's area of expansion. It also uses two additional workers than a Farm, so if you have high Unemployment, it's a fast way to put a large chunk of citizens to a productive task. And at a cost of @3000, it's not all that much more expensive than a Farm.

The Bunker has no special requirements to build (such as number of active Generals), and it hires 8 Soldiers immediately, so it's a fast way to build up your army. Cost is @6000.

The Cement Factory is like any other factory, but you MUST have an active source of Bauxite (mined or imported) or you will paying maintenance for no output. Cost is @8000.

Also, for all three structures, blueprints are NOT required.[/b]

(09-09-2011 08:44 PM)CaptainPatch Wrote:  The Cement Factory is like any other factory, but you MUST have an active source of Bauxite (mined or imported) or you will paying maintenance for no output. Cost is @8000.

I built a cement factory & had no bauxite & still got output from the factory.

I would just like ot point out that when I made a thread about this subject it got deleted without an explanation. So this one will probably get erased as soon as a staff member sees it.

I'd love to know why, though. People are going to keep writing about it, after all.

(10-09-2011 12:17 AM)Tomixcomics Wrote:  I would just like ot point out that when I made a thread about this subject it got deleted without an explanation.

Really? Wow, I wonder why? Thats weird.

My guess is that those particular buildings were not fully worked up as to how they mesh into the game. The Cement Factory, for instance should require an input of some kind (Bauxite), yet Arma says it was functional without Bauxite. So what raw materials need to go in in order to produce the finished good (Cement)? Where is Cement in the Almanac's list of commodities? The Bunker makes it waaaaaayyyyy too easy to bolster an army _without_ Generals (which cost an arm-and-a-leg in the way of wages PLUS installations). There should be some kind of limitation such as "Thou shalt have at least THREE Generals!" And as the Plantation is sort of like a Farm on steroids (noticeably greater output in the tighter space) for almost the same price, it makes jumpstarting Coffee, Sugar, or Tobacco _quickly_.

So my guess is that as the release date started to loom closer, those buildings got left on the sidelines, destined to appear in the Build menus in the first DLC when it appears.

I'm just confused why bauxite is needed to make cement and not aluminium

Cement from bauxite only happens in Tropico, which has no limestone and knows nothing of aluminium. Easy !

(10-09-2011 03:30 AM)milton Wrote:  I'm just confused why bauxite is needed to make cement and not aluminium

It seems like I posted to this question in another thread, but I can't seem to find it.

Bauxite is the ore that Aluminum is extracted from. Bauxite deposits aren't all that common, but small pockets of the stuff can be found most everywhere; just not in quantity enough to set up a mining operation.

The most common cement is Portland cement: It consists of Tricalcium silicate (alite), Dicalcium silicate (belite), Tricalcium aluminate, and Tetracalcium aluminoferrite. Most of the mix is crushed Calcium, which you find in rocks nearly everywhere. What the Aluminum does is act as a kind of glue that will bond the Calcium particles together just by adding water. The addition of water starts a chemical reaction that takes a fair amount of time to dissipate. [It took years for Hoover Dam to cool off after the concrete walls had been poured.] Afterwards, the mix hardens into one solid mass. It allows a builder to _shape_ walls instead of assembling a jigsaw puzzle of rocks and mortar.

You most likely have seen concrete walls with iron rebars sticking out. The iron in the rebar also helps the wet concrete mix keep its shape while the concrete dries out. And thereafter it helps the concrete resist tension fracturing. (Sort of like a skeleton inside a body.)

Trivia: Hearst Castle in California was built to look like a Spanish mission, which were usually made out of adobe (=mud) bricks. The main buildings at the Hearst Castle were actually made with shaped concrete, and then given an outer facade to make the structures look authentic. However, being made from concrete instead of adobe bricks, they will last hundreds of years longer. [It also made construction considerably cheaper and faster.]

^^^^Cement does appear in the almanac. I rmeember because that's the first time I heard anything about a cement factory. I opened the almanac, saw cement and went "Cement??? How the heck do you produce cement?!"

I found another building that can be hotkeyed: the Colonial Museum

It looks kind of like the museum that can be turned into a dungeon. Its square like that. It is a tourist attraction & needs 1 male college educated workers. It says that Tropicans & Eco Tourists can visit it.

(10-09-2011 05:41 PM)ArmaDeFuego Wrote:  I found another building that can be hotkeyed: the Colonial Museum

It looks kind of like the museum that can be turned into a dungeon. Its square like that. It is a tourist attraction & needs 1 male college educated workers. It says that Tropicans & Eco Tourists can visit it.

You or someone may wish to report that as a "bug" since once upon a time the Colonial Fort was a passive building until it was upgraded. There were three upgrades: Dungeon, Museum and Artifact Dig.

On the other hand, you may wish to expand your search for HOT KEY buildings because they may include all of the upgrades for all of the buildings. That could be a real treasure trove of stuff to build.

(10-09-2011 06:19 PM)CoconutKid Wrote:  You or someone may wish to report that as a "bug" since once upon a time the Colonial Fort was a passive building until it was upgraded. There were three upgrades: Dungeon, Museum and Artifact Dig.

On the other hand, you may wish to expand your search for HOT KEY buildings because they may include all of the upgrades for all of the buildings. That could be a real treasure trove of stuff to build.

Yea it was weird too, the building was there as soon as I clicked to put it down. It didnt have to be built like most buildings do.

The Colonial Museum IS accessible within the game without a hotkey. In fact, there can't be a hotkey because it is a fixed location: It MUST be placed on the ruins of an abandoned old Colonial era fort. Hotkey buildings are ALL free placement construction: hit the hotkey and the mouse cursor turns into a ghost of that structure that you must place. The way that you access the in-game option to build a Colonial Museum is to left-click on the fort ruins. You then are given the option to build either the Colonial Museum OR the Dungeon.

Ancient Native Indian ruins work the same way, except that your choice is to build either a Museum or a Archaeological Dig.

(10-09-2011 09:00 PM)CaptainPatch Wrote:  The Colonial Museum IS accessible within the game without a hotkey. In fact, there can't be a hotkey because it is a fixed location: It MUST be placed on the ruins of an abandoned old Colonial era fort. Hotkey buildings are ALL free placement construction: hit the hotkey and the mouse cursor turns into a ghost of that structure that you must place. The way that you access the in-game option to build a Colonial Museum is to left-click on the fort ruins. You then are given the option to build either the Colonial Museum OR the Dungeon.

Ancient Native Indian ruins work the same way, except that your choice is to build either a Museum or a Archaeological Dig.

No I hotkeyed & placed a Colonial Museum.

I turned the fort that was already on my island into a dungeon. (Only had one.)

This gave me a Steam achievement too.

(10-09-2011 09:05 PM)ArmaDeFuego Wrote:  No I hotkeyed & placed a Colonial Museum.

??? I Optioned my Colonial Museum to = Numpad 4, but in game, if I hit the 4, no ghost of the structure appeared. (No Colonial Forts on that particular island.) When you did it, is the ONLY place where the ghost cursor appeared was when you had the pointer directly over a Colonial fort? In which case, you really wouldn't need the hotkey; you could just click on the fort and get the Build menu window.

(10-09-2011 11:49 AM)Tomixcomics Wrote:  ^^^^Cement does appear in the almanac. I rmeember because that's the first time I heard anything about a cement factory. I opened the almanac, saw cement and went "Cement??? How the heck do you produce cement?!"

??? Where in the Almanac? I deliberately checked the list of commodities under Trade (where you can turn imports on or off), and I failed to find "Cement" anywhere.

(10-09-2011 11:57 PM)CaptainPatch Wrote:  

(10-09-2011 09:05 PM)ArmaDeFuego Wrote:  No I hotkeyed & placed a Colonial Museum.

??? I Optioned my Colonial Museum to = Numpad 4, but in game, if I hit the 4, no ghost of the structure appeared. (No Colonial Forts on that particular island.) When you did it, is the ONLY place where the ghost cursor appeared was when you had the pointer directly over a Colonial fort? In which case, you really wouldn't need the hotkey; you could just click on the fort and get the Build menu window.

Usually it wouldnt work for me but in my current mission it did. I am on mission 10 I believe, the one where you are trying to become a colony of Europe. I hotkeyed it & pressed the hotkey & it brought the building up. I could place it anywhere, it didnt have to be over the fort. I actually placed it close to my palace, which is a good ways away from the fort.