For those lucky enough to have the full retail version, how is the random island generator?

What are the islands like? Are they large enough, small enough, hilly enough, smooth enough?

Are they as shapely as they were in Tropico 1? Is there a lot of obstacles like rocks that can't be built over, or how about the cliffs? Do they all line up properly or are they gapped?

What about beaches? Is there enough beach space (I always thought there was plenty of beach space for tourists in Tropico 1) to layout some nice looking resort villages?

Do the islands look natural when created from the Map Generator or do they look more artificial?

Lastly, does Tropico 3, "name" any of the island areas like in Tropico 1 where if you started an area away from the main town it would give that a new town name?

Anything else you want to say on them, please do, Im more interested in the RMG then any scenarios that might ship with the game.

Oh, lastly if you could take some screenshots of your islands as an overview and post them that would be great.

Thanks,

Edit: Lastly, are there more uniforms for the female avatar then in the demo? I can't remember how many were in the demo but it was a very short list so much so that I never played another female Presidente.

there were only three in the demo and only the suit was any good.
I'll ask a question here for the people with the full game too as i've got on to ask. Are there winning and losing videos? it was nice to see in Tropico a short description of how the island fared under you and who likes or doesnt like you, game you something to work for.

It's pretty cool, you can choose island size, flatness, how many minerals are on it, vegetation. Lots of stuff to choose in sandbox mode. You can do "God Mode" too where there are no elections, you start off with 100k i think, and its really easy, but you dont earn achievments.

You start off with 100k because you chose low difficulty.

Eastern Dictator Wrote:You start off with 100k because you chose low difficulty.

Your wrong. Whatever difficulty you choose, you actually start off with 500k in God mode, I just tested it on all difficulty levels. it doesn't matter how difficult it is, you will start with 500k if you put god mode on.

Anantram Wrote:It's pretty cool, you can choose island size, flatness, how many minerals are on it, vegetation. Lots of stuff to choose in sandbox mode. You can do "God Mode" too where there are no elections, you start off with 100k i think, and its really easy, but you dont earn achievments.

I am FREAKING HAPPY to hear you say these things - I think there is a misconception out there that there is no terraforming options, and from what you say there is! I loved making ridiculously mountainous islands (even thought from what I read I might not be able to build roads on them LOL).

fourthstreet Wrote:

Anantram Wrote:It's pretty cool, you can choose island size, flatness, how many minerals are on it, vegetation. Lots of stuff to choose in sandbox mode. You can do "God Mode" too where there are no elections, you start off with 100k i think, and its really easy, but you dont earn achievments.

I am FREAKING HAPPY to hear you say these things - I think there is a misconception out there that there is no terraforming options, and from what you say there is! I loved making ridiculously mountainous islands (even thought from what I read I might not be able to build roads on them LOL).

There's no indication of what you said in this post. Furthermore, I heard that there's no terrain editor, only random generator. But then I don't have the full game yet.

Here are the options you get to chose in the Island Generato, it shows a preview of the island after you click "Generate" and it is randomly generated but you can keep clicking generate to change it:



Here are the settings:



After those two pages are where you pick yoru character/traits.

So, if you hit generate, is that the real island you will see, or it will Re-generate again when playing the island?

yeah you see it, when you hit the generate button in shows what it will look like per size and elevation.

Yeah, the island you see in the preview window is still the same when you play.

Thank you, that's what I wondered Anantram.

Too bad we can't create our own islands the random generator is too random. For example, I still cant figure out how to randomize a island with lots of green areas for tobacco.

Yah, it sounds like the generator is truly a random generator then, since you have no controls over what produce will be on the island, but this is what it's supposed to do, is it not?

I've read on other forums people complained that out of x numbers of maps generated they never got any gold mine deposits (I guess they wish to make jewlery maybe), so seems truly random which to me is what it should be for a random map generator, otherwise it would be bordering on a map editor instead. Although I agree that it would be nice if people could put a couple check marks next to certain things they would like the RMG to include in their islands.

unrealalex Wrote:Too bad we can't create our own islands the random generator is too random. For example, I still cant figure out how to randomize a island with lots of green areas for tobacco.

Unless I am mistaken, can't you generate green areas for tobacco based on the elevation and vegetation? I remember you could get alot of area for coffee if you did high mountains and lots of vegetation, but sugar cane only on flat islands with minimum vegetation - maybe you just have to find the right combo?

What grows is dependent upon the Humidity and Elevation, from the demo readme. There is no set x amount of tobacco, corn, sugar, etc. Just map overlays that transform into what will grow at a certain speed. Take Corn, it has a wide variance to grow F(Humidity,Elevation) possibly pollution too. Whereas Coffee wants a different Elevation and Water factor to maximize growth.

I hope I can govern longer than only 20 years from 1950 to 1970. I want elections and such for at least 30 to 50 years. Look how long Castro was around.

Questions about Disasters

Could somebody tell me what the disasters are in the full game?


In regards to disasters, any disasters that destroy buildings... Does the game tell you what buildings were destroyed, and does it show you the rubble and when you mouse over it will it tooltip to tell you what the building was, or do the buildings that get destroyed just magically go poof into thin air to leave you wondering what buildings might have been destroyed?

I can't remember how it was done in Tropico 1 & 2, but I thought that I could mouse over them to find out what building it was that a tornado or whatever had knocked down to make it easier to replace them. Hoping that its the same or similar in T3.

Guess it is ok to tell since the game is out now. There are disasters that destroy buildings, when the disaster is over you get a message about the buildings that were destroyed and of course the amount of aid you have received.

So you can see which buildings are destroyed or only a list telling you what was destroyed and you're left to wonder where they were, or is there rubble on the ground where the old building was that you have to clean up before you can rebuild? And does the aid you receive come close to covering the costs of rebuilding or it's just a stippance?

Thanks,

City Builder Wrote:So you can see which buildings are destroyed or only a list telling you what was destroyed

After a Tropical Storm/Earthquake a pop up tells you which and how many buldings have been destroyed, how many people have been killed and the aid you have received from intenational organisation.

Quote:and you're left to wonder where they were, or is there rubble on the ground where the old building was that you have to clean up before you can rebuild?

Sadly no rubble...just vanished.

Quote:And does the aid you receive come close to covering the costs of rebuilding or it's just a stippance?

It did for me in 3 out of 4 cases so far (3 storms, 1 earthquake) - they first storm was probably somewhat more serious. I lost a Ranch, a Fisherwarf, the Immigration Bureau, a Farm and a Logging camp which add up to 9250$ damage, but the help was only 4625$.[/quote]

Is it possible to generate larger islands than those in the demo or were they close to th maximum size?

Buckshot Wrote:Is it possible to generate larger islands than those in the demo or were they close to th maximum size?

The maximum size is a larger. Hard to jugde how much, but I would say at least 50% larger then the island of the Banana Mission.

There's a thread on this forum (I think it's the I challenge you thread) where a person shows off his island that was randomly generated. Are all randomly generated islands round looking or do some of them have more details and it's just a matter of fiddling with the settings to get a more detailed looking island?

Thanks,.

Rebel-Yell Wrote:

Buckshot Wrote:Is it possible to generate larger islands than those in the demo or were they close to th maximum size?

The maximum size is a larger. Hard to jugde how much, but I would say at least 50% larger then the island of the Banana Mission.

Okay that sounds good enough, thanks.

City Builder Wrote:There's a thread on this forum (I think it's the I challenge you thread) where a person shows off his island that was randomly generated. Are all randomly generated islands round looking or do some of them have more details and it's just a matter of fiddling with the settings to get a more detailed looking island?

Thanks,.

An interesting question. I did a quick test: I generated islands in each size with each elevation (vegetation and minerals somewhere in the middle position, as I don't think it has an impact on the layout of the island)

The result was quite interesting - the size (!) setting seems to have an influence on the shape, elevation merely adds rocks and some elevated parts to the map.

Now what size give which islands? Labeling them from 1=smallest to 5=biggest, my impression is that the sizes 1,2 and 5 lead to that round islands, sometimes more like a rhombus with rounded corners...but not very exciting. However, things are better with size 3 - I almost always get a more natural shoreline and/or lake or bay. A sideeffect of the elevation setting in this case might be the size of the lake, also it tends to "bite" out the circular base shape more. Size level 4 has also a slight tendency to smaller inland lakes, but overall the circular shape is more visible here.

So to sum up, the tendency is round, but with the right setting and some patience (an advantage in T3 is that you see what you generate, before strating in the game - so you can generate tone of island within a minute, until you get something you like) you can fight it to a certain degree.

Rebel-Yell Wrote:

City Builder Wrote:There's a thread on this forum (I think it's the I challenge you thread) where a person shows off his island that was randomly generated. Are all randomly generated islands round looking or do some of them have more details and it's just a matter of fiddling with the settings to get a more detailed looking island?

Thanks,.

An interesting question. I did a quick test: I generated islands in each size with each elevation (vegetation and minerals somewhere in the middle position, as I don't think it has an impact on the layout of the island)

The result was quite interesting - the size (!) setting seems to have an influence on the shape, elevation merely adds rocks and some elevated parts to the map.

Now what size give which islands? Labeling them from 1=smallest to 5=biggest, my impression is that the sizes 1,2 and 5 lead to that round islands, sometimes more like a rhombus with rounded corners...but not very exciting. However, things are better with size 3 - I almost always get a more natural shoreline and/or lake or bay. A sideeffect of the elevation setting in this case might be the size of the lake, also it tends to "bite" out the circular base shape more. Size level 4 has also a slight tendency to smaller inland lakes, but overall the circular shape is more visible here.

So to sum up, the tendency is round, but with the right setting and some patience (an advantage in T3 is that you see what you generate, before strating in the game - so you can generate tone of island within a minute, until you get something you like) you can fight it to a certain degree.

For those of us waiting for the game, if anyone posts screenshots of what the largest, most mountainous custom island might look like, we would love to see them!!!! And if you have played it for a bit with some roads and a city, that would be even better!!

this is gonna be a looooooong month waiting for this to hit our shelves . . . .

City Builder Wrote:There's a thread on this forum (I think it's the I challenge you thread) where a person shows off his island that was randomly generated. Are all randomly generated islands round looking or do some of them have more details and it's just a matter of fiddling with the settings to get a more detailed looking island?

Thanks,.

I generated an island that was the shape of a big U, I used the largest island size too, so it was nice. I used one whole side for tourism and homes.

I'v had several earthqakes (The screen just shakes) then you can see your buildings falling (If there are any) I had a garage and my apartments and tenements fall, only the tall buildings are the ones effected. IT tells you what buidling, how many of that kind, how many people were hurt and you get aid.

I built the same buildings in the same spot after an earthquake and they fell again.

Anantram Wrote:

Eastern Dictator Wrote:You start off with 100k because you chose low difficulty.

Your wrong. Whatever difficulty you choose, you actually start off with 500k in God mode, I just tested it on all difficulty levels. it doesn't matter how difficult it is, you will start with 500k if you put god mode on.

Yeah, sorry. Didn't notice you were talking about "god mode".

Regarding topic, map generator:

It is lacking compared to T1. Initital island is just a quad with a curved corners(not a circle) with features like elevation and 1-3 lakes randomly inserted in the midle or closer to the sides. If the lake is placed too close to the side it might form a lagoon. It seems you never get a higher elevation than a one level plato. Sometimes water splits island in half, without bridges one side is useless.

So basicaly it just generates an area of land inside this quadratic area deformed with water basins and lame elevations. Island won't be in any other form like T1 had(pure random form).

And for some reason even on lowest resource setting oil fields are the most abundant (3 - 5 fields on lowest).

[/quote]


this is gonna be a looooooong month waiting for this to hit our shelves . . . .
[/quote]

I know yeah im dieing allready lol i want this game so badly for so long which feels like years!!!!!!!!!

Rebel-Yell Wrote:So to sum up, the tendency is round, but with the right setting and some patience (an advantage in T3 is that you see what you generate, before strating in the game - so you can generate tone of island within a minute, until you get something you like) you can fight it to a certain degree.

Thanks Rebel-Yell. If you have any screenshots of unusual looking islands please share them, I know theres more than I that would like to see how they turn out since all we've seen so far are the round or square with rounded corner looking islands.