Tropic Euro - Updates and New Features

Remember password option added

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:22:55 GMT

An option has been added to the Log In window, which if selected stores your password (encrypted) on your computer.

Net change indicators added

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:52:25 GMT

Three indicators have been added to each island window to show the net change in cash, VP and tools during the current role phase.

Lots of minor updates have also been made to the interface as a whole, including more descriptive tooltip messages, graphical tweaks and performance improvements.

Tools Left and VP Left sections improved

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:22:55 GMT

The Tools Left and VP Left sections now include an icon to provide a clearer indication of their primary associated role, and a blue title bar to give them a more consistent look and feel with the rest of the interface. This title bar turns red for the appropriate Tools/VP section if it triggered the end of the game.

The "tools on boat" section has also been replaced with a clearer, language-independent graphic that turns green when it is the optimal time to choose the Equipper role - when choosing it results in two more tools than everyone else.

Island renaming

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 08:25:52 GMT

It is now possible to rename each island by right-clicking inside the island window, useful for testing out new strategies or if multiple people are sharing the same computer.

Keyboard shortcuts added for the role selection buttons

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:58:55 GMT

A keyboard shortcut has been added for each of the role selection buttons in the main window, including Alt+P for the Planter role and Alt+C for the Producer role. Also note that when there are two Investor roles available (i.e. during a 5 player game), Alt+I will automatically choose the Investor role with the higher cash bonus.

Goods Available and Goods Produced sections improved

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 10:58:55 GMT

The Goods Available section in the main window now displays each good with a red background colour when fewer than three of that type are remaining, and shows them as semi-transparent when completely run out. The Goods Produced section in each island window now highlights any good that was traded during the current Trader phase and any goods that were produced during the current Producer phase.

Keyboard shortcuts and tooltips added for the lobby

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 08:52:55 GMT

A range of keyboard shortcuts have been added for the buttons, drop-down boxes and other controls in the lobby, including Alt+C to create a new game and Alt+S to start the game. Tooltips are now displayed when you put your mouse over each game in the "Games Waiting" and "Games in Progress" sections.

Help to improve the hard AI player

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:58:22 GMT

For those of you interested in programming/AI, or if you want to help improve the AI, the spreadsheets and source code for the CPU Hard player are now available to download at the Tropic Euro website.

"1 left" indicator added

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 10:28:52 GMT

Buildings (with initial quantity greater than 1), plantations and quarries now show a clear "1 left" indicator when they are about to run out.

Lobby improved, governor indicator now orange

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 08:52:58 GMT

The "Create Game" button behaviour has been improved, with the created game now being displayed immediately below (it previously appeared on top of the button). A status box has been added next to the chat input box to show whether you are chatting in the lobby or at a particular game. The colour of the role box in the island window for the current governor has been changed to bright orange, so it should now be much clearer who is governor.

Rubber colour altered, new music added

Tue, 17 May 2011 10:22:52 GMT

The green/grey colour used for the rubber good throughout the game has been made lighter, to improve the clarity and distinction of the five goods for people with colour blindness. The built-in music player also now includes the latest new piece from Inner Version called "Reflection #5 (Tail Flowers)".

Please contribute towards Tropic Euro server running costs

Tue, 17 May 2011 10:22:50 GMT

Tropic Euro is now run as a donation model to fund the dedicated server running costs and further development of the game. It will remain free to download and try out, but please contribute what you can, either via a PayPal donation or by downloading Inner Version music (either is fine).

New music added

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 12:22:52 GMT

The built-in music player now includes the latest new piece from Inner Version called "Reflection #4 (Pink Rose)".

Music player bug fix

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:15:44 GMT

An issue involving the built-in music player that prevented music from being played on the most recent version of Java has now been fixed.

2v2 "team" mode added

Sun, 19 Sep 2010 08:44:22 GMT

A new 2v2 "team" mode has been added for the four player game, which puts islands 1 & 3 (Team A) up against islands 2 & 4 (Team B).

Receive Tropic Euro news updates by email

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 10:44:22 GMT

You can now subscribe by email to this news feed of new features and updates for Tropic Euro.

Play offline mode added

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 08:52:22 GMT

Tropic Euro now features an option to play offline on a local private server, useful in situations where you are without the internet or if you have a slow connection to the public server in London, UK.

New ship animations, hard AI player improved

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:58:44 GMT

At the end of the shipper phase, any boats that are full now show a fade out animation to make it clearer that they are leaving with the goods and being replaced with new empty ships. Improvements have also been made to the hard difficulty AI player, especially for the two player game.

Hard AI player added, game balance fix

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:52:25 GMT

A new hard difficulty AI player has been added called "CPU Hard", whilst the existing AI still remains in the game as "CPU Normal". All players that start with a banana plantation now start with $100 less, to improve the balance of the game (confirmed during testing over a very large number of games for the hard AI player, see this forum post for a full discussion).

New feature, bug fix, new music

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:22:52 GMT

The island windows now indicate which plantations and buildings were chosen during the current planter or builder role. An issue which occasionally caused the login window to have a black background should now be fixed. The built-in music player includes a new piece from Inner Version called "Reflection #3 (Blue Rose)".

User list visual issue fixed

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:44:25 GMT

A slight visual issue for the user list involving users "flickering" to/from the lobby when moving between games has been fixed, by introducing a small delay before indicating that the user is back in the lobby.

Lobby view shows users sat at each game

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:28:22 GMT

The lobby view of the games waiting to start and in progress now shows the users sat at each game underneath the summary information.

Chat messages improved, difficult AI player in development

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:25:11 GMT

Chat messages now show an animated fade effect to make it clearer when new messages are received. The server and connection architecture has also been redesigned for improved performance and in anticipation of the next major feature currently in development: a difficult AI player for the standard set of buildings.

Toolshed behaviour improved

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:44:28 GMT

When the Toolshed (expansion) building is equipped, it is now possible to move the tools onto buildings and plantations at any time - it previously was only possible when the server was waiting for the player with the Toolshed to make a move. However, it is still currently not possible to move a tool after another player chooses a role, but before the role actually takes effect (e.g. to equip production buildings or the "Factory" before the "Producer" phase takes effect). This behaviour is due to be corrected in a future update to Tropic Euro.

Connection issue fixed

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:25:28 GMT

An issue affecting a small number of users that resulted in immediate disconnection has now been fixed, plus some further connection performance improvements have been applied.

Scheduled maintenance

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 10:58:52 GMT

The Tropic Euro dedicated server is due to be upgraded on Tuesday 6th July and will be down for up to an hour at some point during the day.

New two-player mode options

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:52:25 GMT

New options have been added for when the game is played with two islands, including an option to choose the number of roles per round (the default value is six), and an option to disallow the library if the buildings option is set to "Random" or "Custom".

User list shows a country flag of each connected user

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:44:28 GMT

The user list now displays a country flag next to each user that has selected "Share my country" on the login window. Several other visual improvements have been made which should make it clearer which users are in the lobby and which users are sat at a game.

New "Expansion" buildings option

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 08:58:44 GMT

A new "Expansion" buildings option has been added, which selects all of the expansion buildings plus three random large buildings from the standard set of buildings.

Improved chat box and user list

Sat, 29 May 2010 17:28:44 GMT

The in-game chat box now features multiple colours to provide a clearer distinction between chat messages and other update messages from the server. The user list has been improved by grouping the users into those sat in the lobby (white background) and users sat at a game (light grey background).

Guide / Rules page expanded

Sat, 29 May 2010 08:52:25 GMT

The Guide / Rules page on the Tropic Euro website has been expanded to include a full description of each available role in the game.

New "/shout" command and modified lobby chat behaviour

Fri, 28 May 2010 10:02:21 GMT

A new "/shout message" command can be used in the chat box to send a message to everyone currently logged in to Tropic Euro, useful for example if you want to invite other people in the lobby to join your game. The up arrow key can be used to repeat the last command entered, whilst the down arrow key clears the chat box. The commands "/ping username" and "/boot username" can also be used which do the same thing as right-clicking an entry in the list of currently connected users.

The behaviour of chatting in the lobby has been corrected so that you are only chatting with other users in the lobby (the users who are not currently sat a game).

AI improvements

Mon, 24 May 2010 16:48:42 GMT

Several small improvements have been made to the computer player behaviour, with a few more minor tweaks to be added before the end of May. There is also a separate very difficult AI player planned in future as a separate option along with the existing difficulty setting. This is just one of several upcoming features you can vote for to be implemented next at the Tropic Euro Facebook page.

Inner Version music player added

Wed, 19 May 2010 15:51:25 GMT

A compact music player has been added to the bottom of the main window, which plays music by Inner Version - another project also by Chris Gibbs. Tropic Euro will remain a free game, but you can contribute towards development and server running costs by downloading the music.

Mac OS X layout tweaks and server update

Tue, 18 May 2010 10:52:55 GMT

Several small visual changes have been made for Tropic Euro when it is run on Mac OS X so that it now looks (almost) identical on all platforms. The server has also been updated with some performance improvements and another tweak which should make the roles change more smoothly.

Help page added to website

Sun, 16 May 2010 08:44:48 GMT

A new Help page on the Tropic Euro website has been created, including a FAQ, common troubleshooting issues and advanced features. It also includes a section on how to configure Tropic Euro if you connect to the web via a proxy server.

Connection performance improvements

Sat, 15 May 2010 16:28:25 GMT

Some major improvements have been applied to the part of Tropic Euro which communicates with the server, which should result in faster connection speeds, improved stability and compatibility with a wider range of firewall and filtering software.

For the technical amongst you, Tropic Euro now communicates with the server (www.tropiceuro.com) exclusively on port 443, so if you have a restrictive firewall or filtering software in place then it should just be one simple rule to add.

Land Registry renamed

Tue, 11 May 2010 08:58:58 GMT

The Land Registry building is now known as its original board game name "Residence", in anticipation of a future "Land Register" building to be included when Tropic Euro supports the "noblemen" expansion.

Black Market bug fix

Tue, 11 May 2010 08:58:52 GMT

The VP box now correctly shows an orange highlighted border when the Black Market building is used, to indicate that a VP can be sacrificed.

New feature

Mon, 10 May 2010 16:45:54 GMT

The island window title bars now give an indication of what the player needs to do (e.g. Choose Role, Apply Builder Role).

New feature

Sun, 09 May 2010 11:45:12 GMT

The main Tropic Euro window now shows the current username when connected. The next time Tropic Euro is started it will automatically download the latest update.

Tropic Euro website live

Thu, 06 May 2010 10:58:52 GMT

The Tropic Euro website is now live.