FAQ

Q: How do I join a game in progress?

Click on an entry in the "Games in Progress" section in the lobby to join a game. It will then automatically switch to the in-game view showing all the islands, and then right-click inside a particular island window to take control of it. Alternatively, click on the player indicator of an island to control it (if it currently indicates a computer player is in control).

Q: How do I stop viewing a game and return to the lobby?

When you are viewing a game in progress, close either one of the island windows or the main game window to return to the lobby.

Q: When I change the island owner settings to <any-hard> or CPU Hard, why are the computer opponents created as only CPU Normal players?

The advanced AI algorithms used in Tropic Euro currently only apply to the standard set of buildings, so the CPU Hard players will only appear when the Buildings option is set to "Standard".

Q: How can I have a private game with a friend?

First, create a public game and allow one or more friends to join the game. Once everyone has joined, change the setting to "Private" and no-one will be able to join your game. Note that with private games, people can join your game once the game has started, but they will only be able to chat with you and the other players sat at the game (i.e. they won't be able to view the game in progress and take control of islands).

Q: What do the icons next to the user names indicate?

A bright green outer box indicates that the user is at a game that is waiting to start. The colour of the inner box is either grey to indicate a private game (one that cannot be viewed, and cannot be joined at all if it is yet to start), or a shade from green -> yellow -> red indicating how far into the game it is (green = just started, bright red = finished).

Q: How do I select buildings in the "Custom" buildings option?

Right-click in the main game window (on an available building slot, or outside the building area entirely), and select an available building. If you hover over a menu item, a tooltip describing the building should appear.

Q: Why are the "Hacienda" / "Forest House" and "Trading House" / "Office" combinations disallowed?

The printed expansion rules forbid the presence of these two combinations in the same game, because it can lead to an unbalanced game.

Q: How can I get translations for some other language?

The support for multiple languages is due to be added in future along with support for "theme packs" (text, images, colours). If you are willing to supply the full translations for one or more languages, please contact info@tropiceuro.com.

Q: How do I uninstall Tropic Euro?

If you want to remove Tropic Euro from a particular computer, please follow these steps:

Open the Java Control Panel: Windows location of Java Control Panel / Mac OS X location of Java Control Panel / Linux location of Java Control Panel
In the General tab, under Temporary Internet Files, click the "View..." button.
This shows a list of all installed Java Web Start applications - to remove Tropic Euro then either select it and press the red "X" remove icon in the menu, or alternatively right-click Tropic Euro and select "Delete".

Troubleshooting

1. Issue with Comodo Firewall for Windows

Each time I try to open Tropic Euro, I get the error message "Splash: recv failed".

This error is a long-standing issue involved Comodo Firewall/Comodo Internet Security for Windows and all Java Web Start applications. Until Comodo release a fix for this issue, a workaround can be achieved by the following steps:

1. Create a shortcut on your desktop (right-click -> New -> Shortcut on Windows XP).
2. Set the shortcut location to the following:
"C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\javaws.exe" -Xnosplash http://www.tropiceuro.com/play/TropicEuro.jnlp
(The above location should be valid for Windows XP and Vista, on Windows 7 you may need to edit the first part of the location to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\javaws.exe")
3. Each time you want to play Tropic Euro, use this shortcut. Running Tropic Euro will create a separate shortcut with a proper "TE" icon, but running it from the proper icon will probably result in the same "Splash: rec failed" error, so please use the newly created shortcut instead for it to work correctly each time.

2. Proxy Issues

Whenever I try to open Tropic Euro, I get an error message of the form "java.net.MalformedURLException: unknown protocol: socket".

There is a current issue involving proxy servers and Java Web Start, please try the following workaround:

1. Go to the Java Control Panel - in Windows this can be found by going to Control Panel then Java.
2. Under the General tab, click the "Network Settings..." button.
3. Click "Direct connection" and then OK a couple of times.
4. Restart Tropic Euro and then see if you can log in successfully.
5. If this doesn't work, repeat the steps above except with "Use browser settings" instead for step 3 (also try "Use proxy server" and enter the proxy details manually if you know them).

If still no joy, then please contact Chris Gibbs at info@tropiceuro.com - ideally with details of your proxy configuration - so that the problem can be investigated further.

Advanced Features

Enabling/Disabling buildings

According to the rules of the board game, the user is supposed to be allowed to decline the use of any special building power, such as the "Planter Toolmaker" ("Hospice"), the "University", the "Harbor", etc. It is possible to "disable" a building (and to reenable it later), by right-clicking on the building in the Island window.

Using the Toolshed building

The semantics of the "Toolshed" building do not exactly match those intended by the expansion rules (for "Guesthouse"). Currently the tools may be moved off the Toolshed at any time, however it is 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, the "Factory", the "Aqueduct" or the "Specialty Factory" before the "Producer" phase takes effect, or to equip the "Union Hall" before the "Shipper" phase takes effect). This behaviour is due to be corrected in a future update to Tropic Euro.

Chat commands

The "/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.