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[Siquo]

Incidentally, this game is pretty good. It showed up way before release on several sites, so I grabbed it even though I have it preordered on steam. If you have questions, let me know

So... As my previous experiences with pre-order (Spore, or "will I ever learn") were horrible, am I going to regret this?

[forsaken1111]

Incidentally, this game is pretty good. It showed up way before release on several sites, so I grabbed it even though I have it preordered on steam. If you have questions, let me know

So... As my previous experiences with pre-order (Spore, or "will I ever learn") were horrible, am I going to regret this?

If you enjoyed Tropico 3 you'll like Tropico 4. I've had a lot of fun so far.

[BigD145]

Pretty much an expansion to 3 and that's okay. Planning out your buildings based on disaster risk makes things interesting.

Oh hi Mr Volcano. Should I build my salt mine next to you? Would that be okay? You promise not to get angry?

[hemmingjay]

Talk about meta, I was downloading the "demo" when the earthquake just hit here(New York). Pretty sure it was just an aftershock from the one in DC, but I stopped downloading anyway

[Siquo]

There was a quake in DC? *check* ah yes, there was.

[Thexor]

So, here's a question for you: did the final traits feel any better balanced than in the demo? The new trait system looked like the weakest part of T4 - it felt like they took all the positive and negative traits, added a couple of (weak) 'bonuses' to the flaws (Flatulence: "The rebels attack one more target before hitting your palace."), and then tried to call them all equal. Does the leveling mechanic make up for that? Admittedly, T3 didn't exactly have balanced traits either (Moronic versus Gambling Addict, anyone?), but in T4 I saw more or less that I'd never even remotely consider taking half the traits. 

[dogstile]

I never figured they were there to be balanced. I just thought they were there to be funny.

[BigD145]

Fabio Colon will be the best Defense Minister ever. I will have to allow Same-Sex Marriage just for him. I will make any wives mysteriously disappear in order to make him the happiest man on the island.

[forsaken1111]

So, here's a question for you: did the final traits feel any better balanced than in the demo? The new trait system looked like the weakest part of T4 - it felt like they took all the positive and negative traits, added a couple of (weak) 'bonuses' to the flaws (Flatulence: "The rebels attack one more target before hitting your palace."), and then tried to call them all equal. Does the leveling mechanic make up for that? Admittedly, T3 didn't exactly have balanced traits either (Moronic versus Gambling Addict, anyone?), but in T4 I saw more or less that I'd never even remotely consider taking half the traits. 

I didn't notice any difference between the traits in the game and the ones in the demo.

[burningpet]

Are there any (significant) differences to number 3 that weren't shown on the demo?

The campaign missions are much more structured and interesting. The 2nd campaign mission should have been the one they showed in the demo as it was much more fun. You are hired by a texas iron monger to mine a tropical island and throughout the mission you get feedback and choices on what to do, as well as opposition in the form of competitors, the environment (earthquakes), etc. There is even an amusing throwback to the chilean miners who were trapped in a hole a while back. It's a lot better designed than the campaign missions in T3.

As well there are a few minor additions I enjoyed, like if you connect your crappy old tenements to power grid you can at least give the residents A/C to improve their housing quality a little. Also your offshore account is persistent between campaign missions with the same presidente, and each time you win a campaign mission you 'level up' the traits of your presidente so they get more effective.

thats really sounds like an expansion and not a sequel.

[forsaken1111]

thats really sounds like an expansion and not a sequel.

Its hard to describe but there are a lot of little improvements. I don't regret buying it. The campaign is a lot more approachable now and more fun, the radio messages are more varied and there is more than just the guy and girl on the radio, you have a cabinet of ministers which talk to you about various aspects of the island, you have random events which pop up with opportunities. You can now pursue relations with more than USA and Russia. Lots of stuff. I'm really enjoying it, but I've always loved the series so I'm hardly objective.

[Siquo]

I like how the ministers are inhabitants as well, that you can either hire from abroad or train up yourself.

[Xinvoker]

I love this series, looking forward to getting back to my non-crappy PC so I can play Tropico 4!
The feature I'm most exited about is the more detailed exporting, I hope it lives up to my expectations.

[Fikes]

Any guess on how many hours of fun a seasoned Tropico 3 vet could get out of it?

[Brons]

I'm pleasantly surprised. After playing the demo I suspected that it was going to be a cheap add-on sold at full price. While I must say that it's too expensive at full price the game itself is a lot of fun.

Most stuff about the game has already been talked about here. I just want to add that the campaign has a story line now and there are little 'press' quotes at the start and the end of each missions that give it a lot of flavor. There are cut scenes now too.

I'm only at mission 8 but I think that there are some overpowered features in the game. First, importing is really great. All resources you could ever need you can import now as long as you have a positive balance. Each freighter only brings 500 units at a time. I think this is a little too strong. Now you can start every industry even on desolate islands. I guess the 500 units limit was introduced to keep you from building huge industries based on imported goods, but you can build more docks to attract more freighters to solve that problem. Another overpowering feature, imo, is the nuclear powerplant. Fully operating it will generate over 1000 MW, that's enough to operate everything for a most islands. Granted, you will have to pay to import your uranium but it's a small price to pay to have a gigantic power production with very little land usage. Also, the air conditioning is pretty strong too, if you combine it with your firestation on cat rescue you can get your tenements to over 60 quality. Which is a lot, I guess they tried to solve the annoyance of home building that was T3 (tenements suck, apartments hold very few people) but I'd rather they introduced some skyscraper homes or something than have 60 quality tenements.

But overall I'm very happy with the game. I've played it for about 10 hours now and I'm at mission 8 of 20.