Hello,

I'm playing Tropico 3 with the "Absolute Power" expansion. While I can build the new buildings of the expansion pack, and they seem to "work" normally, these buildings are not visible in the game at all (only some greyish/brownish tiles are shown). The buildings of the base games, on the other hand, are shown fine. The graphics are overall not slow, zooming and rotating goes fairly quickly, so it doesn't seem to be any overload problem. - How to get the buildings of the expansion pack to show up as they should in the game?

Another strange thing is that I see a large number of (sometimes rotating) white boxes with a red "F" on the map - is that a feature or another graphics problem?

The latest versions of both DirectX and NVidia graphics driver are installed.

Other basic parameters:

Windows XP SP3
Intel Dual Core Processor, 2.2 GHz
Graphics card NVidia Geforce 7600 GT (256 MB RAM)
3GB RAM
plenty of GB free hard disk space

Thanks for any help!

In addition to this, when I try to start the "Absolute Power" campaign (first island), the game crashes immediately. The base game campaign works, though.

(15-07-2010 06:27 PM)Polarhki Wrote:  In addition to this, when I try to start the "Absolute Power" campaign (first island), the game crashes immediately. The base game campaign works, though.

Try uninstalling Tropico 3 and the expansion, then reinstalling both before playing again. Make sure all anti-virus or malware programs aren't running while installing.

<Edit>
I forgot to ask as Timo mentioned, are you mixing versions: ie. boxed and download? Some games go through it with ease but some won't work. I have Dawn of Discovery boxed version and its expansion, Venice as a download but they work. I read that you can't mix download and boxed in Tropico 3 and its expansion.

Also, go into diagdx to see if it's truly showing that you have the most up to date drivers for your sound and graphics. Sometimes a glitch that you won't see, doesn't update the drivers, usually a second time it works. I saw that my driver wasn't updated when I saw it on diagdx even though it went through the installation. Also, check if it says, "error" in diagdx for any of the tabs.

This all sounds like a faulty installation. As suggested, try uninstalling and reinstalling both games. Are you using a boxed retail copy or downloadable versions?

Thank you for your replies.

Both the base game and the expansion are the boxed version, bought from Amazon. So I guess there should not be any incompatibility issues, nor any issues with corrupted installation media.

DxDiag: No errors, all tests completed fine, latest graphics driver shown.

Next I'll try re-installing...

---

Re-installation done, virus scanner off during that, result: exactly the same behaviour.

Any further ideas?

Well, I fixed the error myself in the meantime, BUT THIS IS SOMETHING YOU SHOULD BE AWARE OFF, AS THERE IS OBVIOUSLY SOME ERROR WITH YOUR "ABSOLUTE POWER" INSTALLER:

So Timo was right that the installation was faulty, however doing it a second time did not fix the error. But then I noticed some "copy failed" messages during the "Absolute Power" installation. So I looked through the directories on the DVD and the ones on the hard disk, and indeed NOTICED THAT SEVERAL FILES FROM "ABSOLUTE POWER" WERE NOT COPIED OR UPDATED! I then simply copied them over by hand, directory by directory, and after that the game works fine, all buildings are there, and also the "Absolute Power" campaign works.

As copying the files manually solves the problem, there cannot be any issue with a defective DVD, nor are there any problems with my hard drive. IT MUST THUS BE A PROBLEM WITH THE INSTALLER, MAYBE ONE THAT ONLY APPEARS UNDER SPECIFIC CIRCUMSTANCES. (Am I the only one having this type of problem with "Absolute Power"?!)

We tried to reproduce the installation problem you described to no avail. Plus, we have no reports about the problem you describe. I think we can safely rule out that the installer is broken.

Did you make sure to install both the original game and expansion from a user account with admin privileges and in the same language?

Yes, both were installed in English language, and both are from the same account with administrator privileges. Sorry, I can only describe what happened to me. I am a very experienced computer user, so I believe any user errors can be ruled out, especially since I tried it two times, and the second time even unloaded F-Secure's anti-virus program.

One thing, I can still see such white boxes with a red "F" on it, the more the more I zoom in. Maybe I should read the manual ;-) , but is that normal? For example when I demolish a building, then there is always a big box of that kind in the previous place of the building.

See an example of those boxes here:
http://www.picpaste.com/Tropico.jpg

That kind of weird F boxes are most certainly not normal, or at least I have never seen them. Usually when you demolish a building or it gets destroyed, there is a sort of wreck left behind on the ground in AP.

Polarhki, the display errors in your screenshot indicate that objects or textures are missing in your game, which is why I believe you have a defective disc and the installation did not finish properly. Please refer to your game manual on how to obtain a replacement copy.

Indeed I noticed that when I re-insert the "Absolute Power" DVD, it offers me again the option "Install", but not "Play" - so in addition to not having copied something correctly, it seems it also has not registered correctly.

Should I exchange both DVDs (base game and "Absolute Power"), or only "Absolute Power"?

Sounds like admin issues of not allowing some files to be changed/updated. Some Anti virus and Anti spyware programs can also do this.

Computertech: Please note that I disabled F-Secure during the second try, and the result was the same.

Timo: I have now sent the "Absolute Power" - DVD back for exchange as you suggested, to Kalypso Germany.

Hello, I am a italian player of Tropico 3. I'm sorry for my bad english. However i want say that i have the same problem of polarhki (many white boxes with a red "F"). I have Tropico 3 DVD version and Absolute Power DVD version. Ther'is a solution at this problem. Thank you for answers.

There are obviously some problems with the Tropico DVDs. In the end it turned out that the DVD installed all files in 8.3 short filename mode, even thought the filenames should be long. Re-inserting the Absolute Power DVD thus gave back the "Install" screen, and if one starts the game from explorer etc., problems like missing textures (shown as boxed with an "F" on them) appeared.

My solution was to copy all files manually over to the C:\Program Files\Kalypso directory tree, after having recovered the long filenames with some special software. (Also trying some other DVD drive may work; however, the DVD drive I have used never had and has any such problems with any other DVDs than the Tropico ones, so it is clearly not a drive issue.)

I tried to copy manually the file of DVD, but however there are the boxes with f. For to recover these files from DVD, what program you used?

Do the filenames on the DVD appear in 8.3 style for you, or do you see long filenames?

Sorry but I don't understand... When I open the DVD there are SETUP and files with final "-----.HPK". For example FALLBACK.HPK or PREFABS.HPK

Sorry but I don't know what format are files in the DVD. How I can see it?

What are the programms for recover the textures in the DVD? Give me all the names of the programms and after I try to recover them. Thanks Polarhki.

Under the directory "Movies", is there a file named HAEMIMONT.BIK, or does it read HAEMIMON.BIK?

If you see only HAEMIMON.BIK, try another DVD drive first, maybe it may recognize the long filenames with this DVD. (This was the case for me, only ever happened with the Tropico DVD, for all other DVDs I ever used, the drive recognized long filenames correctly.)

If you see HAEMIMONT.BIK and install doesn't work anyway, then either exchange the DVD at Kalypso, or try to use, for example:
http://www.isobuster.com/isobuster.php

Polahrki, thank you for the answer. In my pc there're however the box with. This is a beautifull game, but I think that I will never play it. It's trash and a true "delusione". However, thank you Polarhki.

I found this thread after having a similar problem installing the Tropico 3 - Absolute Power expansion that I bought and downloaded from Amazon. I noticed that, during avatar customization, some selections would cause the avatar not to show up, or to show up with a giant box with an F on it. When I reinstalled the game and expansion, I noticed the "copy failed" messages when I installed the expansion. I took Polahrki's suggestion of copying the expansion files over manually, and that seems to have worked.

Not sure what's preventing the installer from copying the files; I don't use any antivirus software and I have things like Windows Defender disabled entirely.

Incidentally, I did notice that the expansion pack contains a file named MEMASSET.hpk, while the base installation contains a file named memAssets.hpk in the same folder. I hope MEMASSET.hpk isn't intended to replace memAssets.hpk.

Found this thread after also having the same problem. I bought the digital download from amazon. the original game works and plays fine but as soon as I install the expansion pack both of the advanced tutorial and expansion packs missions automatically crash when I open either menu from the main menu. As well as when I open an normal game some of the people are walking around as boxes with f's. buildings like garbage dump and grade school, only show up as a box with an f in it instead of all of the details and half of the new building that are supposed to be in the selection menu are missing including some of the original ones like the power plant and electrical substation. I have tried redownloading 6 times each separately and still no problem installing and playing original and everything comes back when I install expansion. Have tried uninstalling and reinstalling both another 4 times now and no luck.

those grapical issues typically come form one fo two things.. a bad install, Or, bad drivers..

what kinda video card do you have? and what drivers are you using?

I'd start a new thread, and post your DX diag, that can often show what is wrong and why you are havin graphical issues

Also, do you have compatible versions of the game? i know steam can't use anything other than it's own version.


You can also buy the complete version of the game taht includes both T3, and AP, for 10 bucks on sale at http://www.gog.com from time to time, though i think normal price is 15 or 20.

if a wrong version is the issue perhaps contact amazon if you do have the wrong version and get a refund, then just buy the complete version at gog, and you shouldn't have any problems..

Polarhki had the right idea. When you install the expansion pack a few files don't get copied. You have to go and do that yourself. The first files I noticed that failed to copy were in the "Patches" folder. Copy both "EXPANSIO.HPK" and "MISSIONS.HPK" from the install folder (Patches) to the corresponding Program Files folder (also Patches). Then replace "memAssers.hpk" in the "Persist" folder (Program Files) with "MEMASSET.HPK" from the "Persist" folder (installation folder). After I did this, I could see my windmills and my construction workers were not spinning cubes of "F" around them. THey actually carry toolboxes.

I downloaded both my copies from Amazon, so what I'm calling a "Installation Folder" was deposited on my desktop during the install. If you have a DVD, I suppose it's on there. The files you will need to replace are in "Program Files(x86)." You'll see a Kalypso file in there. Make these three changes and you'll be good to go.