There has been some question over the game's difficulty. Thanks again to Poptop, I have some new and interesting information regarding Tropico's difficulty settings:

The game will be similar to Railroad Tycoon 2's difficulty model, where depending on how you set up your map, the difficulty rating will be a percentage. Only it will be much more complicated. You have both the physical landscape (size, water coverage, resources, vegetation, etc) and political landscape (win conditions, political atmosphere, political stability, length of time, etc). One Poptop employee claims to have easily got his difficulty up to over 900%! So the game can be as hard or as easy as you would like.

You will have an overall rating that you could save/print/display so that when you play a particular map you will be able to compare your dictatorial reign to others. It will work both as a numerical score and as a more general rating of victory level (i.e. "You had a trash can named in your honor" vs. "You had the palace renamed in your honor.")

The selection of the dictator (flaws, qualities, etc.) does affect the game's difficulty, although at the moment, it does not affect the difficulty percentage. Since the dictator's qualities will significantly impact what strategies work, you can deliberately set up your dictator's qualities to conflict with the goals or political landscape of the map, creating a significantly harder game.

Poptop posted the most recent character highlight, The Fisherman. You can check him out, as well as all the other character highlights in the Character Section.

I have to give David Deen a ton of credit. He is the artist that created half the characters (and some of the buidings as well.) He has really done an excellent job making the characters look realistic -- like people you might actually see on a tropical island. Great job, David!

Additional Notes on exclusive screenshots:
   Image 40 displays banana crops in multiple stages of growth. I don't think any previous screenshots had shown banana crops before.
   In regards to the Almanac information book, the details of the layout are not necessarily finalized. While the diffrerent variables will probably stay the same, their labels and placement may change. You'll notice some of the words are yellow- those are "hyperlinked", meaning you can click on them to delve deeper into the details of that section. Again, which sections have more information can still change.
   This screenshot shows buildings in both yellow and red ghosted stages. The yellowed buildings are waiting to be built, while the red buildings are waiting to be bulldozed. Although shacks are the only buildings the citizens build by themselves, as well as buildings in which you cannot charge rent, you CAN bulldoze them if you want/need to.

Don't forget to sign the Guestbook!

Here are the final three in the series of new and exclusive screenshots! The three new screenshots can be found in Gallery 5. The most interesting is a shot of the Overview screen from the information page. It indicates that the biggest things you will track on your island are: Average Worker Pay, Happiness, Swiss Bank Account, # of Residents, # of Tourists, Tourism Rating, Total Profits and Special Expenses.


     

I have added four new screenshots to Gallery 4. Two are from Gamespot. They show the airport and dock.

Here is the sixth in the series of new and exclusive screenshots! The sixth screenshot in Gallery 5 is a shot of town. Pretty cool looking cathedral and hotel, as well as some other buildings.

If you haven't read the recent Tropico article by Gamespot, head over to the Articles Section. There were a few interesting tidbits on gameplay found in the article. One intersting the is that depending on the size of the island, you automatically start off with a set number of farms, a teamster office, docks, a palace, and a construction office.

Here is the fifth in the series of new and exclusive screenshots! The fifth screenshot in Gallery 5 is a shot of town. The only information gained from the screenshot is that shacks will never charge rent. I believe a shack is the only building a citizen will build on his/her own, if no other living areas are provided.

Just a reminder to swing by the Guestbook and let me know what you think of Tropico Paradise and what you would like to see. It only takes a second!

Here is the fourth in the series of new and exclusive screenshots! The fourth screenshot in Gallery 5 is a shot of various buildings in town. One of the buildings is what appears to be a health clinic. You can take a closer look at the health clinic in the newly added buildings section.

I moved all of October's news to the newly added Archives Page. At the end of each month, I will move that month's news to archives.

Since Tropico is basically a builder game, I thought I should add a section for Buildings. There really isn't much there now (and may not be until the game is actually released) but at least I will have the section ready! Plus, this is the first Tropico fan site to attempt to highlight the buildings found in the game.

Here is the third in the series of new and exclusive screenshots! The third screenshot in Gallery 5 is a shot of a town with numerous buildings in the process of being built. Obviously, each building you desire to build will take time to build. One cool aspect of the game is that you can't just "build" a building. If you don't have any laborers, your buildings won't get built -- which will affect your strategy in gameplay.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I have been pretty busy today eating turkey and watching football, but I also have made some additions to Tropico Paradise. First, I added the most recent character to the character highlights page. You have probably seen it already -- it is the rather attractive Barmaid.

Also, as promised, I have another exclusive new screenshots!! I will post one new exclusive screenshot a day for the next eight days. The second screenshot in a new gallery, Gallery 5. It is a shot of a citizen's house. It looks as though in the game, the house can make a profit (perhaps rent) but will also have annual maintenance costs.

If you would like to download the Tropico FAQ as a word document, here it is . Just right-click, then save as.

I also have some exclusive new screenshots!! I will post one new exclusive screenshot a day for the next eight days. I have put the first screenshot in a new gallery, Gallery 5. The first one is a screen of the information page. You will notice the look is similar to Railroad Tycoon 2. Let's hope the gameplay is as excellent, as well! It shows the five main areas where you can get information are: Overview, Goals, People, Policies, and Economy.

I have been out of town and have been unable to update this site for the last five days. I am going to try to do some work on the website over the Thanksgiving holidays.

As I promised, I have posted a Tropico FAQ. A special thank you to David Deen and Franz Felsl at PopTop Software for editing the FAQ for any mistakes I may have made in writing it. I will post a downloadable Word document version of the FAQ in the next couple of days.

I added one new screenshot to Gallery 4. The screenshot is of Tourists walking down the street. The box in the bottom right of the screen shows the tourists being selected. Then the box in the middle reads "I need to check into a hotel." This is the character detail panel, where you will be able to view specific, written thoughts of a selected character. (This gameplay aspect appears similar to Roller Coaster Tycoon, where you can click on any character in your amusement park and know what he/she is thinking at that exact moment.) It raises various questions, like what if your island has no hotel? Will the tourists bother coming? If a hotel is too pricey, or service is poor, will that affect future tourists from coming to the island?

I am also curious why the game doesn't allow you the ability to name each of your island visitors individual. The characters will be given randomly chosen names from a database. At least give the player an option of editing the database! I think it would add a personal touch to the game.

I hope to get the Tropico FAQ posted by the end of the week, but we will see.

I have been working on a Guestbook. It is fully functional now, although it needs a bit of work to make it look better. Head on over and sign the guestbook! Let me know what you think of Tropico Paradise and how it can improve.

Added the Unemployed (Male) to the Characters Page

Check it out!

Hello everyone. If you missed the Tropico chat then here is a summary of the Tropico information given by David Deen of PopTop Software:

There will be a demo in a few months (January 2001)

The game is developing nicely with a lot of the features being fleshed out. Poptop is still on target for a March 2001 release date. It should be released in the U.S. and in the United Kingdom simultaneously.

Minimum system requirements will be 266 mHz processor and 32-64 megs of RAM

There will be 30-50 edicts in the game (laws you can pass as dictator)

There may or may not be expansion packs

You cannot give the citizens of the island individual names. They will each have a unique name randomly determined from a database

Currency will be a Tropican-based monetary unit. The symbol will still be $ for the U.S. game

No decision yet on beta testing

Characters in the game will think iconically (like in the sims) so that you can see what they are thinking about doing in the world. When they need to go to work, rest, eat, go to church, be entertained, etc..., you will see a thought balloon over their heads with an appropriate icon. They can also think political thoughts. In the character detail panels, you can see specific, written thoughts of a selected character. (Like"I want to go to church," to, "i'm really depressed about the state of our military.")

There will be a lot of little things to tweak and switches to throw, which you don't need to know about in order to play the game, but which can add a lot if you like the detail.

Tropico will have a bell-curve shaped learning curve. It will go slow as you figure out the ropes, then you'll start to learn thing really fast for a while, then you'll have to work to "master" the fine touches.

There will definitely will be other language versions. German, Spanish, French, Chinese and Russian are the most likely.

In the game, you don't simply declare a form of government. There "can be" elections if you want, and you control how military the island is, how oppressed the people are, which country you affiliate with, etc. So you really kind of create the government you want.

The political atmosphere of the island, as you dictate by the edicts you enact, influence your people, which in turn influences output. There are "communist" or "capitalist" type edicts you can enact, but you don't declare yourself as one or the other.

I added two new characters to the Characters Page, the boy and the girl.

I may be wrong on some of these, as they are not all confirmed, but I have compiled a list of characters that are in the game:

Teamster            Pitboss Poor Tourist (M) Poor Tourist (F) Farmer (M) Waitress Prostitute Spy Unemployed (M)    Farmer (F) Cook

Professor            Athlete General Banker Soldier Doctor Rebel (M) Rebel (F) Rich Tourist (M) Bartender Laborer (F)

Factory worker Unemployed (M)        Unemployed (F) Teacher Fisherman Laborer (M) Maid Cow Rich Tourist (F) Police Stripper

Miner Lumberjack Journalist Bishop Priest Mother Dock Worker Attendant Boy Girl Landlord

I added a new Interview in the Articles section. The interview is with PopTop employee Franz Felsl. It is worth checking out.

Also, I Franz has agreed to join the November 11th chat. Railroad Express will be hosting a chat session 2 p.m. MST to discuss Tropico (as well as Railroad Tycoon 2). David Deen has confirmed that he will be attending the chat, and apparently he persuaded Franz Felsl to join as well.

I have posted some background information on Franz Felsl so you can know something about him before participating in the chat.

In case you missed it, I also posted some info on David Deen. Check it out HERE

I added a new Tropico preview in the Articles section.

It doesn't give any new information about the game. In fact, some of the words and phrases are lifted directly from other previews I have read, including Tropico's own game description. But check it out anyway, as there hasn't been very much revealed lately about the game.

Here is some interesting information from PopTop regarding gameplay:

MESSAGE BOARD ADDED!!
You can now access the Message Board. It has been a long time coming, but now you can head over and post questions, comments, complaints, or anything else you want to post.

I fixed the links to the three videos in downloads. Should work now....

Chat with PopTop employee David Deen

November 11th at 2 p.m. MST, Railroad Express will be hosting a chat session to discuss Tropico (as well as Railroad Tycoon 2). David Deen has confirmed that he will be attending the chat (he is trying to get some of his coworkers to attend as well).

I have posted some background information on David Deen so you can know something about him before participating in the chat.

Check it out HERE

I added the LUMBERJACK to the Characters page.

That makes 12 character previews thus far.

Teamster, Pitboss, Journalist, Professor, Athlete, General, Rebel, Unemployed, Tourist, Miner, Lumberjack and Cow.