Express World hosted another successful Tropico chat. To read the transcript of the chat, click HERE. Poptop's, Dave Deen provided some terrific info on the game. A summary of what was said can be found at Express World. I have also put together a summary of the things I found most interesting from the chat:

The delay of the game is due to the fact that Poptop was overly optimistic. The alpha is almost ready, and the beta with follow right after. The demo will still be available mid-February.

Phil is still implementing some of the features of the game, namely the political aspects of the game, like elections, faction leaders, etc. (According to Dave, who has been playtesting lately, elections are a fun part of the game, as will keeping up with individual citizens.)

There are different ways in dealing with your political opponents, like prison, bribes, etc. There aren't "political parties," simply factions. So a strong leader of the farmer class will have a lot of influence on farmers and other low-class commoners. Faction leaders are chosen based on personal attributes, i.e. because they have more leadership skills, high courage, etc. They are natural born leaders! Some of these attibutes you will be able to track, so there is a possibility of discovering a leaders before they become leaders!

Orphans will basically get to live alone and free, so they will be supported by the government but not put into any kind of orphanage.

If either the US or the USSR gets angry enough, they may attack you. Having the US on your side woud be a BIG deterrent, though.

Nearly every available building has at least one upgrade. Some even have two or three available upgrades. Not all buildings will generate revenue. Religion, medicine and education will always be free on your island, and there will be a maintenance fee to operate the churches, schools, hospitals, etc. Plus, you will have to pay the wages of the teachers, priests and doctors. You can tweak various aspects of your buildings. For example, you get to set the channel on each individual radio station, TV station, etc. You have about 7 or 8 choices to pick from, and each has a different affect.

You set all salaries, plus you set rent (except for shacks which don't charge rent) and you set service fees. Your income comes from export of crops/resources/manufactured products/meat, tourism and more tourism, and funding from the US or USSR. You can also generate some income through taxes, but it won't make your citizens too happy. Tobacco is your cash crop, but it takes longer to grow and if you don't have good soil, you can't grow it.

You start the game with a palace, a dock, a construction office, a teamster office, a set of farms (2-4) and a bunch of shacks. Buildings will take several in-game months to build. You can set the priority of what you want built first. Official word is that building-naming (and, despite previous statements, possibly even citizen renaming) will probably be possible.

You spend a lot of time interacting with your citizens, particularly checking their needs and opinions, as well as searching for stronger leaders. You will also interact with them directly through edicts.

As soon as you build a hotel, tourists will start coming to the island. When they leave, they will tell others about their experience. Each building gets rated by the tourists. The highest-rated buildings can charge more without driving away tourists. The quality of a buildings service is largely based on the skill and happiness of the workers there, and the basic level you set (linen napkins vs. trashy dump). The tourists will go where they want, usually to the beach or a pool or a casino, etc., but sometimes will just wander around, tour the city, etc. There is a crime factor (the tourists may get mugged, but you won't see it happening).

There will be 46 characters, 35 occupations, and up to 500 independent and unique citizens on your island. Tropicans will go to the market by themselves and get their food. If you don't have a market yet, they will have to go farther (to the farm itself, or the dock) to get their food. They could also go to a pub or a nightclub for food.

Poptop's goal is for the game to be accessible for beginners, but deep enough and flexible enough in setup to allow hard-core players to be very challenged. There is a lot more depth to the game than is first apparent. There will be a quick learning curve to get into Tropico, but at least as much of one as in Railroad Tycoon 2 to get into the depths of gameplay.

Dictator Deen, despite all his experience in Guadalingo, got beat in the game by a farmer...a female farmer! He lost the election to her!!

We added the Military Police to the Character Section. So far, 26 of the 56 characters in the game have been highlighted. We are still waiting on the showgirl....

You can read a preview of the game at Daily Radar. They played an early alpha version of the game, so they have some interesting things to say!

I have removed the countdown box on the side of the page. It was stuck on 11 weeks, as I was waiting for it to catch up after an announced delay. Now it looks as the game won't be available until May, so I just removed it rather than watch it move the wrong way....

The Tropico chat was a great success!! There were a few problems early on, but overall it was great. Special thanks to the TWO Poptop employees who attended: Dave and Paul. They were a great help in answering questions (and we sure bombarded them!) About a dozen people participated in the chat. Here is a summary of some of the things that were said:

The demo will likely still be released around Feb. 7th, give or take a few days, but the game -- initially scheduled for an early April release -- will not be released until May. That is according to Poptop Dave, the self-named temporary Harbinger of Bad News. The demo will be playable but won't be balanced and the team will be looking for positive and constructive feedback from users.

Numerous things were cut from the original design of the game. Voodoo is not a part of the game. The only religion will be catholicism/christianity. There will also be no secret police. There will be 40-50 edicts available.

With most games, you play for X number of years and it rates you on your performance in the goal you chose. With Open Ended, you simply play; no rating imposed on you. You will have certain goals to "win" the game, like make citizens happy, build Swiss bank account, etc. At any time, though, in any game, you can get thrown out and "lose the game."

Direct3D works but OpenGL is still questionable. The team is not at alpha yet, but are getting closer every day. The game is coming along great but not near completion.

You can export all of your resources for money, but how robust that area of the game is is still unknown. You can have relations with USA and Russia, to represent the two dominant forms of government: capitalism vs. communism.

Room for growth, taxes, religion, stuff like that affects birth rate to at least a small degree. If you build too many buildings too quickly, you may have trouble finding employees, and your budget will take a hit! You can fire people from their current jobs and force them to find new jobs. There are a couple buildings that are tourist-specific buildings (hotel, motel, beach site, pool), but the cabaret and night club, etc, are open for all. But you can set them to have a nice dress code, basically eliminating the chance of locals to go.

You have the option to have elections or not, based on how badly people demand it. You can choose whether it's a fair election or rigged. The citizens will know when the election is rigged, but it will be like in Cuba, where they don't really expect a "real" election -- unless you have a real election and then try to go back to a rigged one.

There were conflicting accounts, but the final word is tourists will not get involved in your society -- they will spend money and go home. The island will always have a dock, so you can't block their departure. You will probably not be able to assassinate them.

There has been talk about an expansion pack.....but first things first!

Poptop actually shipped Dave in from a small tropical island -- Guadalingo. He was shipped in a 2x2 box with airholes punched in the side. Unfortunately, they didn't punch the holes until after the box arrived and a little oxygen depravation set in.

Tropico Paradise suffered some technical difficulties with its server the past few days. I apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused you! The Tropico Paradise chat session will be this Sunday (January 21, 2001 at 3 p.m. EST). Since I do not know how stable my host server is, I recommend accessing the chat HERE, then bookmarking the page it opens up. This way, you will be assured not to miss out! Poptop Dave will be attending the chat.

Congratulations to Poptop owner Phil Steinmeyer, who is expecting his second child at the end of April. You can read his latest interview at OnlineGameReview.

MrP has submitted another great article on past dictators. This article is on the Duvalier Dynasty, former rulers over Haiti. Albeit lengthy, it is very interesting. No dictators page would be complete without info on "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc"! Recommended reading for any dictator wannabe. Thanks MrP!!

On the subject of recommended reading, MrP has also discovered a terrific title for the dictator-in-training. It's a book titled "Coup D'etat" by E. Luudwak, available via Amazon.com and most other sources. Here's one readers comments on the book...

"Do you ever feel the urge to take over a small country and do horrible things to its downtrodden inhabitants? If so then this could be the book for you. Coup d'etat excels as a step-by-step guide through the intricacies of recruiting conspirators, neutralising security forces and keeping loyal members of the military at arms length. You have identified a suitable target country, recruited some cronies and overthrown the government. What now? Never fear! there is even an appendix discussing the 'economics of repression' to help determine the optimum balance between propaganda and hypertaxation. Simply brilliant. "

Okay, here's some rather vague information on the chat session Tropico Paradise will be hosting January 21, 2001 at 3 p.m. EST. Poptop Dave has agreed to attend this chat. You will be able to access the chat HERE. I have set up a Bravenet chat room. However, whether or not this is the chat room that will be used is still undetermined. I may be using the voice/chat room set up at CafeTropico. I don't know how that room will handle a large number of people. At any rate, go HERE the day of the chat and there will be more info posted (it will also be posted on this main page).

If you count the number of buildings listed for the game in the Building Section, you will see that there are more than the 56 buildings in the game. That means some of the buildings have been eliminated. Not counting the Landscaping items, there are about 75 different buildings listed. That is counting nine different farms and three different mining camps. For all I know, these could count as just one building "type". Buildings that aren't real crucial to gameplay are probably gone (like tennis courts and mess halls). I know the truck depots, taxi stands and bus stops are gone from the game -- there will be no vehicles on the island whatsoever. Plus, certain buildings listed may just be upgrades to existing buildings, like a fortified palace may just be an upgrade of a palace, which would not count against the 56 building types. Poptop has kept the building list under pretty tight wraps, so until the demo is released, all this remains speculation!!

Lots of news today!! First, Tropico Paradise is proud to announce its first ever

Nothing really new to post today. I have been working on the Dictators Section to make it a little more user-friendly. Go check it out and let me know what you think. If you like this site, or have any suggestions, feel free to sign the Guestbook. And feel free to head over to the multi-site Message Board if you have any Tropico-related questions you need answering.

There is a short new preview of Tropico over at QuartertoThree. Actually, I am not sure how new it really is. It mentions golf courses, which are no longer part of the game. It also mentions that there are over 100 buildings to build, which is also inaccurate, although I do not know how many buildings there actually will be. When you head over there, be sure to check out the screenshot of the dock. In the bottom corner, there is a scene of what appears to be two people hugging. I don't know if this is the dictator or general, but it raises some questions!

I added the rich tourist to the Character Section. She is looking good!! Perhaps the tourist trade would be good for the economy after all...

Things are pretty slow in Paradise today. About the only news to post is that the demo will be released around February 7th. This means that there is actually less than one month before we can start dictating!

MrP wrote another excellent article on Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. It can be found in the Dictators Section.

I have added Gallery 7, with 10 new screenshots. The screenshots are courtesy of GamesDomain. They show a variety of new Tropico features, like an assortment of overlays. You will be able to see where the communists hang out on your island, which buildings are most profitable, and where the best spots are to grow your crops. There are also two screens that show the features of the random map generator. Gamesdomain also has posted a New Preview. They were actually able to play a pre-alpha version of the game! I am a bit green with envy... Head over there and check it out.

As promised, I have added a write up of Muammer Qaddafi to the Dictators Section. Thanks to Brian for bringing this info to my attention!

There has been a lot of talk lately about the release date of Tropico slipping to April. this is highly likely, although no dates have been confirmed. As for the demo, here is some speculation: Initially the demo was slated to be released in late January. However, if you have visited the Gathering of Developer's website lately, they are doing a new promotion. You can sign up to receive a free Gathering of Goodness CD with game demos, screenshots, gameplay footage, sneak peeks at upcoming games, pictures of scantily clad women, etc. My guess is that they will be holding the demo to be released on the first Gathering of Goodness CD, which ships mid-February. It's free, so head over there and sign up so you don't miss out.

There has been quite a bit of activity at the message board lately. In fact, just today there has been posts by four different Poptop employees! Here is an example of one post you might see. It was posted by PoptopBrent, who is a programmer. He has cleared up some of the questions regarding the actions of Tropico citizens when they get angry:

There are 4 forms of "unrest" in Tropico: protests, uprisings (revolutions), coups, and rebellion.

The first one, protest, is when a member of your population becomes unhappy enough that he stops doing anything productive and walks around trying to spread unrest to the rest of your population - which can lead to uprisings and coups.

An uprising is when you have enough of the population unhappy and protesting. They form a mob and go wreak havoc on your structures.

A coup is basically the same thing except it is your military instead of your general population. Soldiers tend to be a lot more dangerous when they are upset with you than your average joe, something to do with those guns they carry.

Rebellion is when there are enough rebels on your island that they will feel confident in leaving their hiding places in the jungle and raiding your city to destroy some target (most likely military, communications, or govenmental).

Whenever an uprising, coup, or rebellion happens, other citizens that are not initially involved but close to the action will make one of 3 choices:

A) Join the uprising/coup/rebellion in which case they become part of the problem.
B) Run and hide, this is what the majority of citizens will do
C) Defend their presidente against the insurgents. This means they will throw rocks or shoot guns, if they have them, at the bad guys. Of course the bad guys will return the favor.

I am back from traveling and things should be back to normal at Tropico Paradise with regular updates. As it is January, not too much longer to wait until the demo is released! I moved all of December's news to the Archive Section.

Two new Characters have been added to the Character Section. It is the priest and the maid. Some Tropico fans were a little disappointed that the maid isn't more attractive!

Brian sent me a link on Muammer Qaddafi and Mr. P sent me info on Fidel Castro, so those will probably be the next two dictators added to the Dictators Section. So be on the look out for those two! If you have a 'favorite dictator,' email me or sign the Guestbook and I will do my best to research him (or her, although no famous female dictator comes to mind).

Hope everyone had a Happy New Year! I am still on the road, but I thought I better take a moment to try to update this site. I have had a lot of trouble with my laptop, so I haven't been able to make any updates or visit the Message Board lately. I will be back on January 4, at which time the regular updates will recommence!

Rumors have started to abound that the release date of Tropico as been pushed to April. There is no official word yet, but I will keep you posted. The official word on the demo is that it will be available late January!

I have added a new dictator to the Dictators Section.