Before we starting nit-picking the expantion pack apart for its flaws, bugs and short commings; let me start a thread of praise instead.

Kuddos to the devs on having listened to the fans and implemented so many things which people brought forth.

I'm loving the new garage, its so small its almost cute.
"Aaahh who's a cute little garage? you are, yeah you are"
Ahem...

Sweet that we can now change iron into something more valuable.
Liking the new tourist traps, I mean attractions.
Monuments are great ways to spend money in the later stages of the game.
Yay for a smaller scale electricity generating structure. The change to roads works well and the megalomaniac edicts are fun.

Betty Boom cracks me up. Conformist wind turbines indeed!
I like the many changes to the political factions. It's quite a bit tougher to get them all to 100. There are just so many things that they want and so many things that conflict with eachother, well done.

I'm liking the new islands, the time paradox one is especially good.
Also like how you've linked them, so to speak. Example: Playing on island A you get a message that island B has been hit by a hurricane and you can offer aid.
Later on while playing on island B you get hit by a hurricane and get aided by island A.
It may not seem like much when I type it in such a dumbed down way but ingame it's really great.

All in all; Absolute power - Absolute awesome

PS. Any change/addition that I haven't mentioned (or haven't discovered) I like them too in advance

The first mission in the absolute power missions the island is so beautiful. Its visually really a nice island. I love the new avatar costume with the guns strapped on him. Kingpin like pablo escobar. Yea is a great expansion. It adds logical things to the game that enhance it. And it does a great job.

This makes me sad inside.

Thanks guys for all your support and feedback! You rock!

(17-05-2010 12:40 AM)IronFist Wrote:  

This makes me sad inside.

I share your pain,

but don't worry, our time shall come, and when it does

Tropicans will suffer

(17-05-2010 07:10 PM)Timo Wrote:  Thanks guys for all your support and feedback! You rock!

You rock and your game rocks. Expansion pack is rocking too.

(18-05-2010 03:58 AM)Tibor Wrote:  

(17-05-2010 07:10 PM)Timo Wrote:  Thanks guys for all your support and feedback! You rock!

You rock and your game rocks. Expansion pack is rocking too.

You say? I can now have my own "Kim Jong-Il" character and he even has his own nuclear program!

Sounds great! Now, get it across the Atlantic!

(17-05-2010 08:11 PM)Gen.Armando Wrote:  

(17-05-2010 12:40 AM)IronFist Wrote:  

This makes me sad inside.

I share your pain,

but don't worry, our time shall come, and when it does

Tropicans will suffer

My day will never come...

Just bought Aboslute on Steam - we'll check it out this week (just started download after downloading an updated version of Tropico 3)

I was wondering that myself. I went to Direct 2 Drive to see about buying Absolute Power and the only way I can get a copy of the expansion according to them is if I have the digital version of the game. I have the hard copy of Tropico 3. Any ideas on what I need to do? I don't want to have to buy the original all over again in order to get the expansion pack.
Thanks

Add your installed hard copy as a Steam game.

How do you do that? Just download the steam client and register your code with steam?

I think so.

I'm afraid this will not make the Steam version of Absolute Power available for boxed retail copies of the game, though.

I tried this before spending the $7.50 on the steam version of Tropico 3. When I entered my serial number from the boxed version into the steam client, the serial number was not recognized as a legitimate serial number. There are some games that it is allowed that a boxed serial number can be entered into a digital distributors list of games and you are allowed to download that digitial distribution of the game, it seems to me from my trying it, that Tropico 3 is not one of them.

Yeah I just got an email from customer support saying that the serial code won't work on Steam if I bought the hard copy.

Alright Kalypso... need Absolute Power over here in North America so i can update my transportation guide!

If you want to ship me a free copy now so I can get a head start... by all means do so. :o)

I agree. They said that its shipping to the USA this summer and that the European version ships on May 28th. I wish I had my copy already lol.

To get back to praising Absolute Power, and with it Haemimont:
With AP I returned to Tropico from a pretty long absence and I can make it short: I wholeheartedly agree with the OP that this is indeed a very fine add-on. It not only adds a lot of new toys for Presidente, the more subtle changes simultaneously improve on more aspects of the game than one would expect from the feature list.

All the new buildings seem to be very well thought through, and so do the new edicts. I really like that you can now challenge the rebels when you deem appropriate. Printing Money seems a bit weak though considering the immense inflation it causes.
The radar dish is just so wonderfully quirky...
Tourists have more things to see and we get to see more things visited by tourists, it's a win/win.

The additions to the faction system add some nice twists, especially if you get a dominant faction whose ideals are directly opposed to Presidente's. The faction disasters appear like a real threat, though so far I was lucky enough to avoid them.

So many things to play with. And on a nice variety of islands, too.
Cold war megalomania really suits Presidente.
As for Betty, well... Yes, the comment on the turbines made me laugh as well.

I could go on for quite bit.
Haemimont have really shown a great sense for detail and especially for the "Sentimento de Tropico". In my opinion Absolute Power is a far better add-on than Paradise Island was for the glorious first Tropico. A thoughtful overhaul for a fair price.
Sorry for torturing the unfortunate who still have to wait.

TPP


One thing though (and now I'm turning into a grouser): I think I expected a little more when I read about the improved garage. Yes it is smaller, which is a great relief. But I still think it looks oddly misplaced in the game. Just compare it to any(!) other building and it really looks rather bland and unfitting. I was hoping for a more rural looking alternative. Maybe you could at least look into the textures again (especially the white stucco parts) to make it blend in more with the overall style of the game? And maybe give it back its ground texture? I guess it was removed for making it fit rural areas better, but now the transition between building and sourrounding is too abrupt. Those are just cosmetic issues but it really sticks out in this otherwise so marvellously detailed game, it's like a blemish.
And while I'm at it: What about allowing teamster's to use their office to get a truck when carrying a load?

Bah, now I feel bad.

(20-05-2010 01:02 PM)TwoPestPlants Wrote:  Haemimont have really shown a great sense for detail and especially for the "Sentimento de Tropico". In my opinion Absolute Power is a far better add-on than Paradise Island was for the glorious first Tropico. A thoughtful overhaul for a fair price.

I disagree. T3 is a decent game and AP brings some nice additions, but if I compare Tropico 1 + Paradise island with T3 + AP, I still come to the conclusion that the former offers more challenge, long term motivation and is in a more polished state (AP hasn't seen any patches yet, but I doubt that patches will change that much - the patches for the core T3 game fixed technical issues and some minor stuff)
New buildings, edicts and idea are nice - but only to the extend they feel well designed. I like the idea of privatization and money printing for example - but I don't like the oversimplified and restricted implementation. Inflation should affect more the one times expenses and privatization shouldn't be a one time deal nor it is realistic that private factories cease operating because of lacking raw materials.
PI might have offered less new tings, but those tiny changes solved some issues of the core game. I fail to see this effect for AP (maybe except for the tourism fix, if it should work at all) - more power and control over the game is the least I have demand for, when my feeling is that I miss challenge.
Speaking of challenge...if they repair the challenge editor, I would view that as a major step foward. T3 will still suffer from poor, non-customizable and unrealistic maps and the flaws it has regarding terrain handling (if I think alone of auto-bulldozing and trees vanishing by just planning a building), but the editor offers at least tools to change most stuff regarding buildings and units (edict effects missing is the biggest downside)

Well, I did not say that T3 is generally superior to T1+PI (all those funny little abbr.s). In fact I still have the first game installed next to T3 and I agree that in terms of challenge it is better at least than vanilla T3, though I haven't played AP long enough to say if it is still the case with the add-on.
However I was posting my thoughts on the expansion only and I still feel that AP does a very good job in adding to T3's (and not T1's) gameplay. The additions to the faction system are one example of this. It also covers a pretty wide array of themes. It really is nothing but my opinion but I for one did not feel like tourism was the best thing to concentrate and develop on in Tropico. So I'd say that by concentrating on political content AP does an excellent job of improving on one of the "landmark" features of the Tropico series (excluding T2 of course).

I do admit that saying it does a far better job might have gone too far, yes.

What I wanted to stress is that I can heartely recommend Absolute Power to anyone who still has a fair interest in Tropico 3 as it really does add some new twists to the game.
Finally I don't feel that the implementation of the new elements is lackluster. Printing money does need some tweaking I think either by increasing the amount of money gained or by reducing the immense cost increase. Yet I think it will generally work pretty well inside Tropico's game mechanics to act as quick emergency edict.
I do agree however that privatization needs to be looked into again but seeing how Haemimont is actively discussing some thrreads o this forum I do believe it is possible we might see some improvements in the future.

is it possible to re/position the palace in a sandbox game with the AP expansion? it's the only thing holding this game back for me...

(21-05-2010 05:58 PM)steve Wrote:  is it possible to re/position the palace in a sandbox game with the AP expansion? it's the only thing holding this game back for me...

No, still not possible.

Its a lovely add-on... nice challenges so far also