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TROPICO
"Señor Fox's Only Strategy Guide You'll Ever Need"
By Dennis L. "Fox" Doucette (rocketshow@hotmail.com)
Version 1.0
December 29, 2001
|============================================================================|
|This FAQ is Copyright 2001 by Dennis L. "Fox" Doucette. It is licensed free|
|of any and all charges exclusively to GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com). |
|If you find this FAQ on any other sites, be advised that they are in |
|violation of this Notice and are subject to civil and criminal action as per|
|U.S. and International Copyright Laws. Again, this FAQ is authorized to |
|G A m E F A q S Ga Me FAQ s Game FAQ s (these are here for authenticity |
|to prevent pirate sites from using a find and replace). Don't email me |
|asking if you can post this FAQ on your site; the answer's no. Any time I |
|authorize a FAQ legitimately to one site, it seems to get stolen by five |
|more. If you want to PAY me to write guides for you, then email me and |
|we'll talk. Other than that, you may download ONE copy of this FAQ for your |
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|friends of the PAPER copies only (no putting this file on disk. Send them |
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|Tropico is Copyright 2001 by Gathering of Developers. Further copyright |
|and trademark information may be found in the game's documentation and box. |
|If you don't HAVE these things because you're a dirty rotten software pirate|
|you can rot in the Ninth Circle of Hell. Developers work hard. Support |
|their efforts. |
|============================================================================|
|=================|
|TABLE OF CONTENTS|
|=================|
PART I: Introductory FAQ Stuff
1. A Note from the Author
2. Revision History
PART II: Presidente for Dummies: Basic Strategy
3. Bringing in the Dinero
A. Farming and Mining
1. Farms
A. Corn Farm
B. Pineapple Farm
C. Coffee Farm
D. Sugar Plantation
E. Tobacco Plantation
F. Banana Grove
G. Papaya Grove
H. Cattle Ranch
I. Goat Ranch
2. Mines
A. Iron Mine
B. Bauxite Mine
C. Gold Mine
3. Other Resources
A. Fish
B. Logs
gamefaqs.com/pc/…/15280 1/52
B. Industry
1. Cannery
2. Jewelry Factory
3. Cigar Factory
4. Lumber Mill
5. Rum Distillery
C. Touristas Gordas y Calientes
1. Hotels
2. Attractions
3. For Better Infrastructure
4. Maxims of the Tourist Trade
4. Keeping your Senors y Senoritas Happy
A. Housing
B. People Feeding Made Easy
C. Keeping the People Healthy
D. Spiritual Fulfillment
E. Job Satisfaction Notes
F. Other Factors Worth Remembering
5. Infrastructure: Because a Fast Build Means More Dinero For You
A. Construction Office Primer
B. Teamsters & Dockworkers: Because You Can't Sell What Ain't at the Dock
C. Soldiers and Police: Your Eyes, Ears, and Trigger Fingers
D. Schools and Colleges: Educate Your People
E. Electrify or Your Economy Will Be Muerte
F. Immigration and Diplomacy: An Island is not Built on Natives Alone
G. Media Outlets for Fun and Profit
H. Other Vital Information
1. Bank
2. Airport
3. Prison
PART III: El Presidente no es stupido: Advanced Strategy
6. Edicts: Imposing Your Will
A. Perhaps Mi Amigo Senor Franklin May Help: Bribes and Tax Cuts
B. Si, Senor Kruschev, but Won't Senor Kennedy be Angry?: Political
1. Praise
2. Trade Delegation
3. Development Aid
4. Alliance
C. ¡Los Libros Son Buenos...o En Fuego!: Literacy and Book BBQ
D. ¡Adios, Muchacho!: Arrest, Eliminate, Kick off the Island...
1. Arrest
2. Eliminate
3. Open the Jails
E. ¡Viva El Dios! : Papal Visit and other Religious Edicts
1. Papal Visit
2. Heretic
3. Contraception Ban
4. Inquisition
5. Prohibition
F. Other Edicts
1. Ad Campaigns
2. Air Pollution Standards
3. Entertainment Edicts
4. Police State Edicts
5. If All Else Fails: Martial Law
7. Keeping the Factions Happy
A. Capitalists
B. Communists
C. Environmentalists
D. Intellectuals
E. Militarists
F. Religious
8. Making Good Choices From the Start: Setting Up the Game
A. Background
B. Rise to Power
C. Qualities
D. Flaws
E. Game Circumstances and Other Difficulty Cranks
F. Report Card
9. With Liberty and Justice for All: Election Tricks
A. A Couple of Clean Tricks
B. A Couple of More Underhanded Tricks
PART IV: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap: Editing and Cheating
10. Editor Mode
A. Now, Before You Snicker About Map Editing...
B. Smoothing (or not) the Terrain
C. Pushing the Borders of the Island a Little
D. Moving the Magnifico Palace Somewhere Else
E. Really Nasty Event Editor Tricks
11. Cheating: Brute Force Methods of Mayhem
A. Mucho Dinero Falls from the Sky
B. ¿Senor Rodriguez? No, senor es muerte.
C. ¡Buenos Dias Magical New People!
PART V: Reference Guide (Because the Manual Has Bugs In It)
12. Building Chart
13. People Chart
14. Character Chart
PART VI: Odds and Ends
15. Coming Soon
16. Contact Information
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|==============================|
|PART I: INTRODUCTORY FAQ STUFF|
|==============================|
You know the drill...two chapters devoted to revision history and what this
FAQ does (and doesn't) cover. If you've ever read a FAQ before, you've seen
this technique employed, so enjoy!
|=========================|
|1. A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR|
|=========================|
¡Bienvenido! Welcome to Señor Fox's Only Strategy Guide You'll Ever Need.
Before you begin reading, I need to make a few points:
1. This FAQ assumes you've read the manual and are familiar with the controls
of the game and how to use them. I'm assuming you've all played the game
enough to have questions beyond the basic "how does this work?" This FAQ
provides strategies. The manual (and some practice) tells you how to play.
Don't confuse the two.
2. This FAQ is a work-in-progress. I don't think it's humanly possible to

"finish" a FAQ. Reader suggestions come in via email, I discover new ways to
play the games, and I realize where I've made some errors (or, more likely, my
errors are pointed out by my readers). Even if I work on this for years and
hit version 999.9, I'll never consider it "finished". So feel free to make
suggestions.
3. Whenever I use the word "load" in the FAQ, I'm referring to 1.0 load of
output store, the game's "official" measuring unit which it uses to compute
all prices and meal capacities. When I use the word "cart", I'm referring to
the fact that teamsters and dockworkers haul up to 5.0 loads of output store
at once, and you'll often be paid (base price x 5) in one shot when the
freighters show up. Since I consider the actual payment level to be far more
important than the per-unit rate for planning purposes, I decided to
differentiate.
4. Tropico is a strategy game, and as such, there's no one "right" way to play
it. If I were writing a FAQ for Final Fantasy VI or something, I could tell
you where to go, how to get there, and what to do. Not so with Tropico, since
some of you may want to build a tourist paradise, others may want to pull
every last mineral resource out of the ground and chop down every tree in the
interest of producing an industrial powerhouse, and still others may aim for
just creating the "perfect small town" with the right combination of farming,
light industry, and just enough tourism to prime the economic pump. I'm not
here to tell you how to play...although you'll notice that I favor the "mucho
dinero" method of play, and it colors my commentary. Just bear that in mind
while you read.
5. Please don't send me email asking a question that's answered in the FAQ.
It'll get deleted, and I'll get angry at you. I'm going to say this again
later in the contact section, but I'm mentioning it now so you keep it in mind
while you read.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|===================|
|2. REVISION HISTORY|
|===================|
Version 1.0 (12/29/2001): First Public Release. My Civilization III FAQ got
so much positive email that I figured I'd bring my unique style and take to
this game as well. Like any "first edition", there are going to be bugs and
errors, but they'll be corrected as the email comes in. I should point out to
anyone reading this in the near future that this FAQ does not include any info
about Paradise Island (the expansion pack), as it's not out yet at the time of
this writing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|===============================================|
|PART II: PRESIDENTE FOR DUMMIES: BASIC STRATEGY|
|===============================================|
Welcome to the island, Presidente! In order that the people won't remember
your reign as the reign of "El Presidente Muy Stupido", I offer you these
words of wisdom. Follow them, and you will reign forever, living to an age of
hundreds of years, all while the world stands still in an Orwellian time warp.
Ready to take command and start to move the island into a great, prosperous
future?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|=========================|
|3. BRINGING IN THE DINERO|
|=========================|
Money makes the world go round. If you don't have it, you don't have power.
Simple, no? This is why I favor an approach that leans toward the
capitalistic. As George F. Will once said, "Idealism is fine, but as it
approaches reality the cost becomes prohibitive." Words of wisdom, and a good
argument in favor of industry and tourism. Here's how to get it off the
ground.
|======================|
|3A. FARMING AND MINING|
|======================|
Your island's resources provide the basis for all your economic activities.
Farm the land to provide food for your people, mine the minerals to sell to
the outside world, and refine some of the products into bigger and better
things that are worth more money. Following is a list of everything you can
farm or mine, and what it fetches you (not counting industry at this point).
When I say "The Eye Says", I'm quoting the little circle window in the game.
You can see the messages by bringing up the eye icon and cycling through the
various types of crops (or you can save yourself the time and just look here).
Anyway, the farms and mines:
|===========|
|3A.1. FARMS|
|===========|
|================|
|3A.1A. CORN FARM|
|================|
SALE PRICE: $400/load ($2000 per full 5-load teamster cart)

THE EYE SAYS: Corn is tolerant of most conditions, and grows quite fast.
WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU: Corn will grow anywhere unless the soil is REALLY
bad, like a beach.
NOTES: Corn is not an export crop. Just because you CAN sell it doesn't mean
you SHOULD. In fact, teamsters will only haul to the docks what your people
don't eat, and if there's a big corn surplus, you should probably consider
switching over to richer cash crops. Corn grows like a weed, and a fully
staffed farm can feed a lot more than the 30-40 people the manual claims. If
you can get your teamsters to haul the goods to marketplaces, and keep your
farms fully staffed, the ratio is probably closer to 60 Tropicans to one corn
farm. Just remember not to crowd your farms together, or your farmers will
cannibalize each other's farmland, and overall output will be severely
reduced. Make sure your guys (and gals) have some room to work.
|=====================|
|3A.1B. PINEAPPLE FARM|
|=====================|
SALE PRICE: $900/load ($4500/cart)

THE EYE SAYS: Pineapples need good soil and plenty of rain and decent
drainage.
WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU: If you've got a small hillside that rain can run off,
on the windward side of the island, you can grow muchos piñas.
NOTES: Pineapples have three main purposes. One, they can be used for food,
and will be if you're not growing enough food. If you notice a large number
of marketplace meals emanating from a pineapple farm, it's a good sign you
need to grow more corn. People will eat pineapples if they live near the farm
but there's not much you can do about that. Consider it part of your farmers'
wages.
Two, Pineapples make excellent "cannin' fodder", as canned pineapples fetch
$1500 a load (more on that in the industry section). You can do some good
business in pineapples.
Three, pineapple farms are excellent when used in conjunction with sugar
plantations and coffee farms---more on that in the Notes in 3A.1D. (Sugar
Plantation).
|==================|
|3A.1C. COFFEE FARM|
|==================|

THE EYE SAYS: Coffee tolerates fair soil, but needs a high elevation, plenty
of rain, and good drainage. It grows slowly.
WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU: A financial reward if you're not the type of person
who plays with the map editor to flatten terrain. Or, a reward for setting
the terrain to be more rugged during the game setup.
NOTES: Coffee is the best of the "cannin' fodder" items (fish, pineapples, and
coffee). It's the most lucrative when refined, and if you've got a Flash
Freezer, you can refine it into Freeze-Dried Folger's Crystals for all the
lazy Yanquis who are too stupid to know how to use a coffeemaker, so they pour
hot water on freeze-dried coffee crystals and call it the morning jolt. Oh
well, who are you to tell the Yanquis how to make good coffee? As long as
they pay good money (about $3000 a load) for your freeze-dried crap, why make
quality java?
Coffee is part of the "chain of command" method of farming, along with Sugar
and Pineapples. More on that in the next section.
|=======================|
|3A.1D. SUGAR PLANTATION|
|=======================|

THE EYE SAYS: Sugar needs good soil, and ground that stays fairly wet at all
times (i.e., swampy).
WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU: Got some flat or slightly depressed lowland down at
sea level? Use it to grow sugar.
NOTES: Sugar is the beginning of the rum industry, and rum is quite lucrative.
Sugar is a pure cash crop with a good export price. If you're a "Booze Baron"
sugar will be the end-all-be-all of your agricultural production. If that's
your game, you'd better send out trade delegations until you get another lift
to your rum rates because it'll be WELL worth it.
I promised a discussion on "chain of command farming" in this section, so here

goes:
Note that coffee grows on high ground and requires good drainage. Note that
pineapples grow on somewhat lower ground and require good drainage. Note that
sugar likes to grow on floodplains and in basins. See the connection? If you
have a hillside and you can pretty-well predict which way the water's going to
run off (check the weather pattern to see where the "windward" side of the
island is, because rain's going to run down that hill when it falls), put your
coffee farm near the top of the hill, your pineapple grove on the next lower
terrace that your construction workers will create, and your sugar plantation
down by the sea. That way, you'll get the best possible production out of all
three farming areas, and if you terrace along the windward side of the island,
you could have a creatively produced, economically monstrous farming machine.
Put your industries on the leeward side of the island, and the teamster's
offices somewhere easily accessible to both sides, run a road over or around
the mountain, and you've got a distribution network that will be a source of
tremendous revenue. Having a dock near the industries is a plus as well...I'd
even go so far as to say you should build one (and an accompanying teamster
office) once you've got the whole thing running at or slightly ahead of
capacity.
|=========================|
|3A.1E. TOBACCO PLANTATION|
|=========================|

THE EYE SAYS: Tobacco needs very good soil, lots of rain and relatively wet
soil. It grows slowly.
WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU: A change of pace from a purely rum- and sugar-based
production cycle...or a fallback if your ground isn't quite swampy enough for
sugar.
NOTES: This isn't to say that you can't put tobacco in with a chain of command
cycle! If anything, you would do well to have many, varied industries because
(1) it thrills the capitalist faction while giving the commies little to
complain about, and (2) trade delegations are unpredictable, and if you've
spent your whole life working on rum and the Yanquis decide to pay you for
your stogies, it'll be something of a waste. Having both allows you not only
to produce two high-priced cash cows, but also some flexibility. I think that
is worth the space and time. Tobacco and sugar grow on pretty much the same
ground quality.
|===================|
|3A.1F. BANANA GROVE|
|===================|

THE EYE SAYS: Banana Trees need considerable rain and relatively higher
elevations.
WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU: Something else besides pineapples to grow in the
middle terrace.
NOTES: No, I don't know why you'd want to grow bananas when other crops
produce more revenue. I have, however, noticed that food quality ratings tend
to be slightly higher when you're giving the people more than one kind of
food. In addition, if you're pulling a pretty good food surplus, better to
make the "export" crop worth more. Bananas can be a good way to make sure
that your corn gets eaten and your bananas get sold in the event of a food
surplus. Still, I'd rather just let my people eat corn and make up the export
price difference in volume.
|===================|
|3A.1G. PAPAYA GROVE|
|===================|

THE EYE SAYS: Papaya Trees need good soil, moderate rain, and relatively
higher elevations.
WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU: A mid-terrace crop for the leeward side of the island
and a cheap, below-average export.
NOTES: This isn't Caesar III. Your citizens don't REQUIRE multiple food types
in order to be happier or become richer or higher-class. There's nothing a
papaya grove can do that a corn farm can't do a LOT better, and corn will grow
anywhere papayas will (in fact, the corn will likely grow better). If you
want a bulwark export crop and your island won't support bananas, then you can
grow papayas. Otherwise, you're probably not going to need them unless the
price gets jacked up by a trade delegation.
|===================|
|3A.1H. CATTLE RANCH|
|===================|
SALE PRICE: $1000/load ($5000/cart). Smokehouse increases the price by 20%,

to $1200/load ($6000/cart).
THE EYE SAYS: Cattle Grazing is fairly tolerant of most conditions. Heavy rain
lets the grass regrow faster.
WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU: Moo. Got a flat island? Put that prime grazeland to
good use.
NOTES: Your environmentalists will end up hating you if you ranch cattle.
Since they eat the lush grass that is critical for enhanced "beauty" ratings,
your overall environment rating will sink like a mob-hit swim club. If you've
decided to tell your environmentalists to go screw themselves, then this won't
matter. Just hope that everyone else votes for you in elections...or that
your liberal use of the "arrest" edict doesn't get you in too much trouble.
Also of note: Experiments conducted by me have shown that Beef is one of the
first items that trade delegations generally get a price increase on. For
that reason, it may be worthwhile to set aside part of your land for the
rancheros. Your environmentalists may even get over it if you keep the cattle
far enough away from the housing.
|=================|
|3A.1I. GOAT RANCH|
|=================|

THE EYE SAYS: Goat Herding is fairly tolerant of most conditions. They can
handle higher and harsher terrain than cows.
WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU: Got some flat patches at higher elevations, and don't
feel like growing coffee? Then you're an idiot, but you can herd goats.
NOTES: Seriously, I have yet to find a clear, compelling reason to ranch
goats. Unless you want to have a good laugh when you're being paid $3500 a
cart for Yanqui school lunchmeat, I don't see why your land shouldn't be used
either for cattle herding or high-profit crop farming. The environmentalists
hate goat herding almost as much as they hate cattle ranching, for all of the
same reasons.
|===========|
|3A.2. MINES|
|===========|
Each map comes with a certain number of mineral deposits, depending on the
mining density you selected in the setup screen. Mines come in three flavors;
iron, bauxite, and gold (they're delicious, and stay crispy in milk!)
All kidding aside, I'm a big proponent of mining. It provides high-profit

resources for minimal labor costs, and once you get some electricity, you can
have some serious fun increasing your mining productivity. On top of that, if
there's gold anywhere on your island, you can fire up the jeweler's industry,
far and away the highest-profit area in the game that doesn't involve rich
Yanqui touristas.
For those of you wondering, no, I don't know why in the world you'd want an
"All Minerals" mine since you can see just exactly what's in the ground you're
about to dig up. I suppose if you stick a mine between deposits of two
different kinds of mineral, you may want to kill two birds with one stone, but
I'm guessing you're el cheapo because you don't want to add another mine. Buy
the damn mines separately. It's more efficient.
Mining productivity can be enhanced by any of three electric gizmos, which

will be covered in each individual section. Some of those gizmos can lead to
MAJOR productivity increases (more on that as it develops).
|===========|
|3A.2A. IRON|
|===========|

GIZMOS AVAILABLE: Crusher (+15%), Screener (+10%), Separator (+40%)
MAXIMUM OUTPUT PER HAUL: 0.875 loads ($1150 worth)
NOTES: Iron's not very high-profit on the surface, but dig a little deeper
(note the pun in the description) and you'll see the true power of this little
metallic wonder. Skilled miners, working rich deposits, with electrical power
to all the gizmos, make this a high-profit, low-labor operation that can make
up for its low margin with Japanese-economy-car volume. If you've got a
couple of these babies humming, you'll need another dock to handle all the
output store. Even with dockworker and teamster salaries and maintenance,
you'll STILL make a killing. Downside? You thought the environmentalists
hated the rancheros. Let them hug their trees. The communists will fall in
love with you for creating jobs for the masses.
|==============|
|3A.2B. BAUXITE|
|==============|

GIZMOS AVAILABLE: Crusher (+30%), Screener (+10%)
NOTES: A fully staffed bauxite mine is a beautiful thing. Five guys out there
hauling back 3.5 loads of output store each time all of them make a trip. Once
again your environmentalists will hate you, but once again you'll have a
highly lucrative industry working for you that the communists will adore you
for, and once you start making the capitalists happy with your industry and
tourism, any bone you can throw the commies only serves to help your cause in
elections and common safety. Building a tenement or apartment complex (or
even a few country houses) near the mine will give your men (and their wives
and children) places to live, which will make the guys more productive since
they don't have as far to walk to get from home to work.
|===========|
|3A.2C. GOLD|
|===========|

GIZMO AVAILABLE: Screener (+20%)
NOTES: Gold isn't just valuable on its own (although it sure is nice just
having a gold trade since the price is nice!) Where gold really shines is in
the jewelry industry. Fine jewelry fetches $32000 a cart, and becomes the
most compelling argument in favor of an "Industry Ad Campaign". How's $35200
a cart strike you? Plenty of money for construction and even tax cuts, eh?
Get those men out there pulling gold from the ground. Make it your highest-
paying uneducated job. Do whatever you must to attract those workers. Once
again your commies will love you, and your capitalists won't be able to argue
with the results! Your environmentalists will complain, but you can dump them
in the gold hole for all the good THEY do you. See the point yet? If there's
gold anywhere NEAR your people's settlements, MINE IT. Obviously there's no
point in making your workers trek all the way across the island (the
infrastructure involved would be too expensive), but that's the ONLY valid
excuse for not mining gold.
|=====================|
|3A.3. OTHER RESOURCES|
|=====================|
I put Fish and Logs into their own category because they're the only resources
that have their own wholly dedicated production centers. They're not
"industries" per se because they don't have high-school educated workers
running them (that, and their products are raw materials rather than finished
goods). They won't make your capitalists happy. They're also not
particularly profitable just taken by themselves. But they are key components
in your island's economic chain, so you may as well learn how to use them.
|===========|
|3A.3A. FISH|
|===========|

NOTES: Fish are found in the deep waters off the coasts where your island is
furthest from the edge of the game map. If you have low water coverage, there
aren't going to be a lot of prime fishing waters, but they do exist, and you
don't need deep green, just anything that isn't red or orange.
Fish make an outstanding food source because you don't have to invest any land
in their production. Resist the urge to fish for thousands of fish if your
people aren't eating thousands of meals though; I've noticed that your
dockworkers will develop the infuriating habit of loading fish onto the
freighters first. If you're going to carry a surplus of fish, you'd damn well
better build a cannery. Otherwise, you'll watch your economy shrink, and pile
after pile of unsold fine jewelry, spiced rum, and cigars will sit on the dock
gathering dust rather than gathering money. Fish is food first, "cannin'
fodder" second, and an export item last...dead last.
|===========|
|3A.3B. LOGS|
|===========|

GIZMOS AVAILABLE: Horticulture Station (regenerates trees at double the normal
rate), Tool Shop (decreases cutting time per tree by 40%).
NOTES: Trees don't serve any useful purpose to your people except acting as
obstacles. Laborers have to remove them to build buildings, farmers have to
remove them to gain arable land, and livestock have to eat around them, making
them more apt to wander where they're not wanted in order to feed. Why not
get the damn things out of your way and make some money in the process? You
will still have to shovel away the stumps if you decide to use the land for
something else, but that doesn't take nearly as long as the chop job does.
Logs are, of course, of greater value when used in conjunction with Lumber
Mills. If you've set Vegetation to "Overgrown" in the setup screen, you can
run a whole economy on trees. Marvel at the astounding levels of output store
as your lumberjacks walk three steps, cut a tree down like a hot knife through
butter because of the Tool Shop, lather, rinse, repeat. Even if you HAVE
lumber mills, you'll still do decent trade in just the logs themselves.
Of note: Whenever possible, build your logging camps a little ways in to a

forest. Building them at the edge may seem like a good idea since your logs
will be more easily accessible to the Teamsters, but unless you've got a
tremendously jungle-laden island, you'll end up making a LOT of extra work for
your lumberjacks after a few game years. There's a tradeoff there.
|============|
|3B. INDUSTRY|
|============|
Farming and resource gathering are all well and good. You might even be able
to make a profit off of them, and it sure does help eliminate the need for
such silly things as education. However, your capitalists won't put up with a
resource-based economy for long, and besides, why subsist when you can PROFIT?
Your intellectuals are going to demand a high school sooner or later. Once
you have it built, those high school grads are going to need jobs, and it's
not a smart idea to put them ALL in the army. Even the most communistic
Presidente understands the need for production of things that have great worth
to Yanquis and Soviets alike. Following, a primer on how to turn your island
from humble banana republic into economic machine.
Note that I've provided "net profit" figures for the industries. This figures
in the fact that "resource expenses" are subtracted from a factory's overall
profitability for accounting purposes (taking into account the "cost of goods
sold"). You won't notice the "expense" because when your factory buys the
input, the raw material producer sells the output and is given credit for it,
so you'll know just exactly how efficient your industries are.
|=============|
|3B.1. CANNERY|
|=============|
SALE PRICES (per cart): Canned Fish $5000, Canned Pineapple $7500, Canned
Coffee $12000, Freeze-Dried Coffee $15000.
NET PROFITS: Fish $3500, Pineapple $3000, Coffee $5500 ($8500 if freeze-dried)
GIZMOS AVAILABLE: Packing House (increases production per worker by 25%),
Flash Freezer (allows the production of freeze-dried coffee).
NOTES: EVERY island should have a Cannery. One, it's the best defense against
the "surplus food problem" since you can turn pineapple and fish into
something that has actual value (especially important with fish, which is why
at least one of your canneries ---if you have more than one--- should be near
your fishing wharves). Two, if you grow coffee, it's a fool's errand not to
reap the greatest possible fiscal reward from your efforts. See chapter
3A.1B, 3A.1C, and 3A.3A for a discussion of "cannin' fodder".
|=====================|
|3B.2. JEWELRY FACTORY|
|=====================|
SALE PRICES (per cart): Jewelry $26500, Fine Jewelry $32000.

NET PROFITS: Jewelry $11500, Fine Jewelry $17000.
GIZMOS AVAILABLE: Skylights (increase job satisfaction 15%), Finishing Shop
(allows the production of Fine Jewelry), Jeweler's Guild (increases the rate
at which workers gain experience by 50%, cumulative with all other education
bonuses on the island).
NOTES: The first thing you should build when you get an Electric Plant is the
Finishing Shop. Its $16000 cost will be recouped after only about 3 teamster
carts' worth of hauls, a simple production task since by now you'll have a
full staff of highly-trained jewelers working for you courtesy of the Jeweler
Guild.
For more information on what this King of Industries can do for you, check out
chapter 3A.2C. I think I've been more than clear on the need to make your
gold mining and jewelry industries Priority One in the island's economic plan.
If you want to make friends with the capitalists in a HURRY, turn jewelry into
your #1 export. They'll ADORE you and sing your praises.
|===================|
|3B.3. CIGAR FACTORY|
|===================|
SALE PRICES (per cart): Cigars $16000, Machine-Rolled Cigars $14400.

NET PROFITS: Cigars $11000, Machine-Rolled Cigars $9400.
GIZMOS AVAILABLE: Skylights (increase job satisfaction 15%), Climate Control
(decreases raw material usage by 20% and as such increases profits by $1000
per cart), Auto-Roller (increases production per worker by 50% but produces
machine-rolled cigars instead of regular).
NOTES: Whether or not you machine-roll your cigars is a matter of how much
input store routinely piles up at your factories. If you're having a little
trouble getting rid of the stuff, machine-roll. If you have an island that is
particularly well-suited for growing tobacco, machine-roll. If you're
routinely out of input store, if you're having trouble getting your tobacco to
grow well, or if you're like me and insist on creating quality products for
maximum profit, then machine-rolling is not for you. I should point out that
the machine-rolling calculation should be made AFTER the effects of the
Climate Control have been figured in. Because you'll be using less input
store to make each cigar, there's a greater chance of it piling up, and you
might be well-served at that point to put in the Auto-Roller. But don't buy
both gizmos at the same time. You'll want to see the effects of Climate
Control before you make the machine decision. Also, don't forget that workers
gain experience, and that too must be factored in. All told, I'd probably
advise against machine-rolling unless your tobacco is being hauled to the dock
because you're not processing it efficiently.
|=================|
|3B.4. LUMBER MILL|
|=================|
SALE PRICE (per cart): $7500

NET PROFIT: $4500
GIZMOS AVAILABLE: Sawdust Burner (decreases pollution 50%), Power Saw
(increases production per worker by 30%), Log Debarker (increases production
per worker by 25%, but increases raw material usage by 10%, effectively
cutting your net profit to $4200 per cart).
NOTES: Personally, I like the log debarker. My lumberjacks tend to over-
produce their wares, and as such, I've got an export problem on my hands. The
faster I can get rid of those logs, the better, and that means jacking up the
worker productivity by 55%. Education and experience help, but a little boost
never hurt anyone. If you have several lumber mills served by a couple of
logging camps, you can get away with not using the debarker. Personally, I
think the productivity bonus for relatively little cost makes it a no-brainer.
|====================|
|3B.5. RUM DISTILLERY|
|====================|
SALE PRICES (per cart): Rum $12500 ($25000 if Booze Baron), Spiced Rum $15000
($30000 if Booze Baron).
NET PROFITS: Rum $8500 ($21000 if Booze Baron), Spiced Rum $11000 ($26000 if
Booze Baron).
GIZMOS AVAILABLE: Flavoring Facility (allows creation of Spiced Rum), Mulching
Machinery (increases production per worker by 20%).
NOTES: Want to be a Booze Baron? See why it's a good background to have if
you're after the hearts of the capitalists? This factory requires a HUGE
initial outlay of capital, though. I tend to like to finance it on the back
of the timber industry early on...once my lumberjacks and millers have earned
me enough money (or, if I'm lucky, my gold miners have), I put the money into
the production of hooch. The distillery is the greatest argument in favor of
telling the religious faction to go thump their Bibles somewhere else because
Prohibition ain't happenin' on Tropico, baby! You can throw the religious
faction a bone by building more churches and cathedrals with the rum industry
profits. Ironic, don't you think?
|================================|
|3C. TOURISTAS GORDAS Y CALIENTES|
|================================|
Ideally, you want to attract the chicas calientes, and not just because they
are richer tourists. Perhaps El Presidente would like to give this lovely
Yanqui woman a tour of the Presidential palace bedroom suite?
Enough of that. You're here to separate the Yanqui women from their money,
not their clothing. To do that you're going to need some guidelines, and
lucky for you I have them right here:
|============|
|3C.1. HOTELS|
|============|
Hotels come in three basic flavors: Cheap, Regular, and Luxury. Cheap hotels
attract poor slobs, the fat trash that aren't very particular about where they
go or what they do. You'll get the kind of slobs who like to buy cheap tee
shirts, frequent establishments that don't have a dress code, and go about
their vacation spending as little money as possible. I find these sorts of
tourists not worth attracting.
More expensive hotels (regular, luxury, bungalow, whatever) attract richer

tourists, the thin ones who don't cause your local Tropicans to exclaim,
"¡Ay mi Dios! ¡Las touristas son muy gordas!" Save the Gorditas for Taco
Bell. Build up your money with your industries before you even THINK about
letting a tourist set foot on your island. Once you have the money to do it
right, build your luxury hotel and high-end attractions in one sweeping build.
You'll need about $150,000 to a quarter of a million to get everything built
just right, and it will take time for your construction crews to get
everything right. In the meantime, set all your docks to "Freighters Only" to
ensure that nobody comes in before the grand opening. Come to think of it,
yachts are pointless. See what I mean in chapter 3C.3.
|=================|
|3C.2. ATTRACTIONS|
|=================|
Your tourists and locals share one key thing in common. They like a variety
of activities that cater to their particular unique interests. Like locals,
some tourists like to get falling-over-drunk, some like to indulge their
gourmet tastes with the finest Tropican cuisine, some like to gamble, and
others saw a soccer match on ESPN Deportes via satellite and thought, "I'd
like to go to Tropico and see one of those in person". Some tourists like to
sprawl out on the beach or by the pool, regenerating their mental energy for
when they get back stateside and have to go back to work. Others are somewhat
intellectually minded, and would like to take a trip to an archaeological site
or a scenic outlook and learn more about the history or geography of your
magnifico island.
With that in mind, after your hotel is built but before it's "opened" (again,
see Chapter 3C.3 for more on this), get those attractions up and staffed. Do
it as quickly as possible, because while you're dawdling, the stuff that IS
completely built is losing money to maintenance costs. Once you've got about
five good attractions near the hotel, proceed to the next step, and the next
chapter.
|===============================|
|3C.3. FOR BETTER INFRASTRUCTURE|
|===============================|
OK, so I left one key component out of the tourist picture. Namely, that you
should NEVER have a tourist trade without an airport. Cheap bastards show up
by ship, and they're useless to you. You'll need an airport, with First Class
Service, in order to ensure that only the rich people you're trying to attract
actually come to your island to play. They pay $200 a head as a ticket fee,
they frequent your luxury hotels, and they allow you to use "Upscale Dress
Code" at your tourist traps, which increases your tourism rating and allows a
strong cycle to develop.
While we're talking infrastructure, you'll want roads between the hotel, all
your tourist traps, and your hotel workers' housing. This is not the place to
lose time to travel inefficiencies. Keeping everything moving smoothly will
keep everything making maximum profits.
Don't forget the police station! Tourists, especially high-class tourists,
HATE having their belongings stolen. There's a reason that New York City
doesn't advertise the South Bronx as a tourist destination. There's a reason
why tourists coming to Boston don't stay at hotels in Roxbury or Mattapan.
There's a reason why tourists don't hang out on the South Side of Chicago, or
in South Central Los Angeles. Namely, in each of the four cities I've
described, that's the part of town that gave each city its reputation as
regards crime. I'm a Boston native, and I know that the city makes absolutely
sure that there's good police coverage in Faneuil Hall, along the Freedom
Trail, and over by the Museum of Science. They don't want visitors running
into drug dealers and gang members. Take that lesson and make sure that your
Tropican police keeps the rabble away from the rich Yanquis. Too many police
making your liberty scores suffer? Enact the Sensitivity Training edict. Just
make sure the touristas are safe.
|=================================|
|3C.4. MAXIMS OF THE TOURIST TRADE|
|=================================|
Some other things you should know before you get involved in the tourist trade
and end up wondering why things don't work:
The biggest, most important benefit to having only rich tourists on the
island? They are BIG-TIME suckers. You can charge $50 for EVERYTHING. Have
some restaurants, cabarets, and nightclubs, and make sure they're all "upscale
dress code". It's not like any of your locals would be making enough money
anyway, but keeping them away from the tourists is the whole idea. Devote a
special version of each of your island's main entertainment destinations
solely to tourism. Your tourists will love you for it.
Don't EVER crowd tourists in. Lowered environment ratings are the enemy of
high-class tourism. Give at least a few cells of space between everything.
Plant lots of ornamental trees, fountains, whatever it takes to crank up the
beauty rating...and don't even DREAM of putting anything uglier than an
electric substation anywhere NEAR the tourist traps.
Remember that good tourism tends to spread a range of influence. As you build
more and better attractions, you'll find that your range of high-class tourism
has expanded, and your base hotel quality will be on the rise. The more
attractions within easy distance of the hotel, the more likely you'll be to be
able to put up MORE luxury hotels, attract MORE rich tourists, build MORE big-
money attractions, and watch MORE money flow into your treasury.
Tourists don't mind luxury houses. If you have your "offshore banking"
employees living near work in a luxury house, it won't negatively affect the
tourism rating of the area. In general, hotel ratings tend to gravitate
toward nearby housing ratings. Cheap tourists don't mind staying in hotels
that are near tenements. Mid-class tourists will tolerate apartment buildings
but prefer staying near anything that's at least single-family housing. High-
class tourists can't stomach the sight of any but the highest-class Tropicans
anywhere near their hotels. Learn these lessons, for they will serve you well
as you plan where to put up your tourism workers.
Remember that a sprawling tourist area has another major downside: Namely that
your workers still need to eat and be entertained, so put these things either
within easy road access or at least out of range of the tourists while still
being near the workers' houses. You don't want your tourism workers
emigrating off the island, starting uprisings, or even voting against you in
elections. Keep them happy and you won't have the problem.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|========================================|
|4. KEEPING YOUR SENORS Y SENORITAS HAPPY|
|========================================|
You must keep your people happy with you. If you don't, they'll vote against
you, rise up to destroy your palace, or emigrate off the island, so all you
are left with is an island completely devoid of people and an international
community that laughs at that silly dictator ruling his imaginary kingdom in
the Caribbean. ¡Que idiota!, they'll say. Avoid that. Keep your people
happy.
|===========|
|4A. HOUSING|
|===========|
The short version: Keep your uneducated in apartments, your high-school

educated in houses, and your college educated in luxury houses. That's the
short version.
The longer version: Compare your relative pay scale to what your buildings
cost to maintain. In the early days of your island, your uneducated just
plain won't make enough money to make it worthwhile to put them up in
apartment buildings. I firmly believe that you should always strive to make
your state-run housing profitable, since it can stem the tide of economic
erosion as your wages go up to match the Caribbean average. With that in mind
I offer a handy reference table for how much money houses cost to maintain:
Maintenance costs are per year, and are in places estimated. Break-even point
refers to the amount you'd have to charge in rent (monthly) to have a fully-
occupied building cover the maintenance cost. Note that in places I've erred
on the high side because you're not always going to have full occupancy.
|=================|============|===========|================|
|HOUSE TYPE |BASE QUALITY|MAINTENANCE|BREAK-EVEN POINT|
|=================|============|===========|================|
|TENEMENT | 35| 160| 2|
|APARTMENT COMPLEX| 60| 200| 3|
|COUNTRY HOUSE | 50| 20| 2|
|HOUSE | 70| 40| 4|
|LUXURY HOUSE | 95| 75| 7|
|BUNKHOUSE | 25| 15| 1|
|=================|============|===========|================|
So in some places you can see that it's clearly not as simple as the short
version makes it out to be. But now that you can see exactly what you're up
against, you can make your own decision as to exactly what you want to put
your people in. Personally, I love apartment complexes. You can charge a
high enough rent to recoup a lot of salary, all while maintaining a very
acceptable overall housing quality and turning a hefty profit over the
maintenance cost of the buildings. If you're putting your college-educated in
luxury houses, not only do you have to maintain the electric plants to ensure
constant generation of the 2 MW of power each luxury house requires, you're
also going to have to charge a confiscatory rate and almost restrict access to
the luxury housing to the married. Charging, say, $20 a month when your
college-educated workers make $30 (combined $60 for a married couple) might be
the way to go...but keep some "regular" houses nearby for the unmarried
collegians and perhaps the married high-schoolers as well. Housing profits
will be key to "capital recycling" in your economy. Nothing is worse than
wasted resources, because it means you'll need more polluting industries to
keep your economy running, creating a snowball effect that will drag down
overall happiness.
|============================|
|4B. PEOPLE FEEDING MADE EASY|
|============================|
I've touched on this in the Industry section. The short version: If you want
to keep your people well-fed, grow a lot of corn and catch a lot of fish.
The longer version: Fish and corn don't sell for much on the export market,
and there's only so much fish your canneries can put into cans before the
teamsters see the excessive input store and start selling the fish directly.
Fishing wharves and farms also cost money to maintain (wharves cost $120 a
year and farms cost $40). My best advice I can give here is to keep a VERY
close eye on the "Food Quality" rating in the Almanac each year. When you see
people start to skip meals, or when you notice that your food production
occasionally dips below your food consumption, take that as a sign either to
check on your marketplace network (a nice cheap way to make sure the food gets
distributed...just make sure you have high-school educated women) or to build
another farm or wharf. Subsistence (whether at the base consumption level or
at the higher "Food for the People" consumption level) will help ensure
continued efficient use of space and resources.
You could also use export crops like papayas and bananas as food, but if you
need to do that, chances are you'd be better off just building another fishing
wharf because bananas and papayas are more valuable as export goods.
|==============================|
|4C. KEEPING THE PEOPLE HEALTHY|
|==============================|
Medical care has two notable effects. The obvious one is that people with
adequate health care live longer and are less likely to die before they have a
chance to have children or live out their full productive lives. The less
obvious one is that Health Care Quality is a key component of the overall
Happiness rating. With that in mind, I first note the comparative ratings and
costs of each structure:
|=========|============|===========|====|
|STRUCTURE|BASE QUALITY|MAINTENANCE|BEDS|
|---------|------------|-----------|----|
|CLINIC | 50| $120/YR| 8|
|HOSPITAL | 90| $480/YR| 12|
|=========|============|===========|====|
I'm not a big fan of Hospitals. Sure, they're efficient and effective. But
they also cost like sin to maintain. Build a few of those and sure, you'll
have excellent health care quality. You'll also have a major leech (pardon
the medical pun) on your nation's treasury. Clinics aren't as effective on
the happiness front, but at a quarter of the maintenance cost (and the same
basic effect on your citizens' health), they're a better overall value if you
need to get a few beds open for patients. Use the Preventive Medicine option
to ensure that occupancy of clinics is a little bit lower, and add more
clinics if you see that the ones you do have are frequently at full occupancy
(meaning anyone else who needs health care has to use a snake-oil potion).
I should point out one VERY important point, though: Putting Hospitals around
your richest citizens' housing has a beneficial effect on the Capitalists' and
Intellectuals' opinion of you, at least in part because the leaders of those
two factions usually live in housing that will end up close to high-quality
facilities! Make sure your elite gets the best possible care if you can
afford it, because as the game makes clear, as your faction leaders' opinions
of El Presidenté go, so go everyone else's opinions.
|=========================|
|4D. SPIRITUAL FULFILLMENT|
|=========================|
"The nice thing about religion in video games is that it's non-denominational.
If you're a Christian, imagine your people devoting their lives to the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you're a Muslim, imagine your people bowing toward Mecca and
sending their prayers to the Great Allah. If you're an atheist named Dave,
imagine that the little peons on the screen worship their Lord and Savior the
Great Lord Dave. Imagine that their lives revolve around preparing for the
Coming of the Great Dave to save them from the evil clutches of All That Which
Is Not Dave. Whatever gets you through."
---from my Civilization III Strategy Guide.
No matter what God your people worship, you're going to have to make sure they
have a place to go to read their Bible, whether it's the Bible, the Torah, the
Koran, or Dave's Big Book O' Holy Thoughts 'N' Stuff. For that you'll need
Churches and Cathedrals.
I made some points about this in the Health Care section, but in Religion it's
even more important: Don't worry about the highest-quality structures unless
you're building them to improve your elite's opinion of you or to placate the
Religious faction when they demand a Cathedral around the time your population
hits 250. Consider:
|=========|==========================|============|===========|=====|
|STRUCTURE|EDUCATION LEVEL OF WORKERS|BASE QUALITY|MAINTENANCE|SEATS|
|---------|--------------------------|------------|-----------|-----|
|CHURCH | HIGH SCHOOL| 60| $240/YR| 12|
|CATHEDRAL| COLLEGE| 95| $800/YR| 16|
|=========|==========================|============|===========|=====|
Go with Churches for the majority of your needs. Same reason as the Clinic/
Hospital debate.
|==========================|
|4E. JOB SATISFACTION NOTES|
|==========================|
Hey, Job Quality counts for a lot. So remember a few pointers for when you
need a quick boost to the rating:
---Always make sure that if a building has an option that allows job quality
to increase (skylights on Cigar and Jewelry factories, for instance), you
purchase that improvement as soon as you can afford to do so. You want your
people happy.
---Special Op Training may SEEM like a good idea, but you don't want irritated
policemen and soldiers. Not a safe way to be.
---Time your raises right and you can keep your satisfaction level high. If
the overall wage in the Caribbean has gone up by a significant amount, make
sure your workers' pay keeps pace. Likewise, if your island has begun to turn
a huge profit, don't be afraid to share the wealth with your people. Remember
that you can recoup most of the money in housing rents and entertainment fees,
which you should raise whenever you give your workers a significant pay
increase.
---Don't forget that if you have high-school and college-educated workers in

the workforce, you'd better give them someplace to work. When the game says
college-educated workers don't like to be farmers, they're not kidding. Put
up clinics, newspapers, churches...whatever it takes to make sure that nobody
has a job that's more than one education level beneath his or her station.
|===================================|
|4F. OTHER FACTORS WORTH REMEMBERING|
|===================================|
---Food for the People is one edict that I definitely recommend. Do whatever
you have to in order to make sure that your food supply is more than you'd
ever need under standard circumstances, then issue the edict. It's a
relatively cheap way to garner 30 points in one area of your rating, and
that's one big jump indeed.
---If you choose an "Elected As..." attribute in "Rise to Power", you can get
away with having more military and soldiers prowling around your island. It's
a lot easier to offset the effects if 20% of the work's already been done for
you. Don't miss out on the "Radio Free Tropico" and "BBC" options for your
radio and TV stations...just make sure that those stations are as centrally-
located as possible to reach the maximum amount of listeners/viewers. Having
the full complement of newspapers helps Liberty scores as well, as does
issuing the "Sensitivity Training" edict. Another cheap and easy way to gain
a lot of points on your Happiness scale.
---Elitism in small doses can pay off. Treat the faction leaders well and be
generous with the $1000 bribes. Overall Respect's kind of tough to raise and
keep up, but the Chosen Six have a huge influence on your island as a whole.
"All Presidente, All Day" and "Your Government, Your Friend" help tremendously
on that front as well, especially if your journalists are well-educated and
you have a good Education bonus in your background. Learning with Larry helps
as well.
---Throw down a few fountains and keep trees planted in your residential area
in order to stem the inevitable tide of environmental degradation that comes
with a thriving, prosperous island. There's not a hell of a lot that can be
done in order to preserve your environment (unless you're better than I am at
getting your tourist trade started early and making money off your farming
efforts). So try to minimize the downward slide and get it to stabilize at an
acceptable level (to all but your Environmentalists faction...)
---Once you've got some money coming in, bulldoze your Tenements and replace
them with (at least) Country Houses or Apartments. It's tough to get Housing
Quality much above 60 overall, but making sure that everyone has a decent
place to live is a good touch. And whatever you do, don't EVER let your
people live in Shacks if you can help it. A few of those around and your
whole rating will nosedive. Housing can be profitable for your regime (see
table in Chapter 4A). Make it count.
---Keep an eye on the Almanac. React to problems while they're small, not
when the voice-over tells you to. By the time someone says anything to you,
you've got a major problem on your hands that will take time and money to fix.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|=================================================================|
|5. INFRASTRUCTURE: BECAUSE A FAST BUILD MEANS MORE DINERO FOR YOU|
|=================================================================|
Just producing goods doesn't mean you'll become rich. You're going to need to
haul those goods around. Likewise, just because you decide to build a
tenement doesn't mean the tenement magically appears (unless you're using a
cheat I describe in Part IV, but never mind that now). And as if that weren't
enough, your Tropicans, at least in the early going, lack the requisite skills
to get the economy kicked into high gear by themselves. If you're truly going
to run a magnifico island paradise, you'll need a firm grasp on the basics of
good infrastructure.
To begin, I offer a chart of maintenance costs and employee counts at each of

the major infrastructure buildings:
|===================|============|===========|
|BUILDING |EMPLOYEES |MAINTENANCE|
|-------------------|------------|-----------|
|CONSTRUCTION OFFICE|LABORER 8| $40/YR|
|TEAMSTER OFFICE |TEAMSTER 8| $75/YR|
|POLICE STATION |POLICEMAN 6| $75/YR|
|PRISON |POLICEMAN 2| $120/YR|
|GUARD STATION |SOLDIER 3| $60/YR|
|ARMORY |GENERAL 3| $120/YR|
|HIGH SCHOOL |TEACHER 6| $320/YR|
|COLLEGE |PROFESSOR 8| $480/YR|
|IMMIGRATION OFFICE |BUREAUCRAT 2| $100/YR|
|DIPLOMATIC MINISTRY|BUREAUCRAT 3| $200/YR|
|ELECTRIC PLANT |ENGINEER 6| $675/YR|
|ELECTRIC SUBSTATION|NONE NEEDED | $75/YR|
|NEWSPAPER |JOURNALIST 3| $275/YR|
|RADIO STATION |JOURNALIST 2| $400/YR|
|TELEVISION STATION |JOURNALIST 3| $600/YR|
|BANK |BANKER 5| $320/YR|
|DOCK |DOCKWORKER 5| $75/YR|
|===================|============|===========|
|==============================|
|5A. CONSTRUCTION OFFICE PRIMER|
|==============================|
Laborers are the backbone of your island's expansion plans. They're

uneducated, you can pay and treat them like dirt, and as the game goes on,
their ranks will be composed primarily of immigrants as your native Tropicans
get an education, but they're the backbone of your expansion.
Construction Offices are cheap to maintain, and having a few extra laborers
around helps in a big way when it comes to building the larger, more
complicated improvements to your island, stuff like Airports and Luxury Hotels
that take a long time to build and require the clearing of a lot of jungle.
Watching a horde of construction workers working in tandem is one of the
game's cooler sights.
A warning: You can easily end up with a labor shortage if you build too many
of these. Remember that you're only going to get so many people to immigrate
to the island, and those people will need to be fed and housed. All this
costs money, plus you're going to run into difficulties with runaway wages as
the game goes on. If stuff is being built virtually instantly, that's
probably a sign that you may be overdoing it a little with your construction
crews. It may even be smarter to space your offices around the island a
little, as workers tend to work on the nearest project, and this method offers
you more flexibility in build designs.
|============================================================================|
|5B. TEAMSTERS AND DOCKWORKERS: BECAUSE YOU CAN'T SELL WHAT AIN'T AT THE DOCK|
|============================================================================|
If laborers are the backbone of your island's expansion plans, then Teamsters
are the lifeblood of your very economic livelihood. They make sure food is
hauled to marketplaces, raw materials are hauled to factories, and finished
products are hauled to the docks to be sold. These are some valuable people
indeed to have in your employ!
There's a pretty easy method to the madness of making sure you have enough
Teamsters. Check the "Output Store" at your major buildings. If the stuff's
beginning to pile up (more than 10 of something is in storage), you'll want to
build another Teamster Office, preferably relatively near where the output
store is piling up. Teamster Offices are a little pricey to maintain, so you
may want to opt for maximum efficiency with them.
Sometimes output store piles up not because the stuff can't be hauled, but
because there's nowhere to put it. Either that, or your dock ends up with
three boats waiting to be loaded and 60 or more loads of output store sitting
around! In that case, you're going to need more docks! Once again, you're
aiming for maximum efficiency between low output store and minimizing the
number of employees you need to hire. If output store is piling up at one
dock, build another. If your industries, farms, and mines are WAY too far
from the docks you have, build another one closer by in order to allow for
efficient transfer and sale of goods. It's actually quite cool when three
docks all load their wares onto freighters at the same time; you get to see
your treasury leap by about $100,000 almost instantly if the goods are pricey
enough. Talk about some happy capitalists!
|=============================================================|
|5C. SOLDIERS AND POLICE: YOUR EYES, EARS, AND TRIGGER FINGERS|
|=============================================================|
Crime happens. So does rebellion, if you're not careful. Even if you never
see a rebel in your life, there's still the matter of your Militarist faction.
To keep these trigger-happy maniacs from giving you a swift coup in the état,
you're going to need generals, soldiers, and policemen.
Almost as soon as you have a high school, you should think about building your
first police station. They're relatively cheap to maintain, and Crime Safety
is a big component of the Happiness rating. Of course, too many police make
your Liberty score suffer, but liberty doesn't fall by as much as safety rises
so it's a fair trade. Your elite in particular hate the notion of having to
dodge the poor criminal street urchins almost as much as your luxury tourists
do. Having your educated citizens seek the relative calm and safety of the
South Bronx is not exactly the way to keep your infrastructure strong. Keep
some cops on patrol so everyone's safe...and pay those policemen well so that
your young boys will want to grow up and become cops.
Police alone can't solve all your problems. You're going to need Armories and
Guard Stations so the people are constantly reminded of what will happen to
them should they decide to slink off to the woods and foment rebellion. For
every General you have working at an Armory, you'll be able to build three
Guard Stations. So your military capacity will always be 4x+4 soldiers
(counting Generals as soldiers since they are perfectly capable of fighting
like soldiers should the need arise), where X is the number of armories on the
island (it's 4x+4 because of the four soldiers you get with your Palace.) With
that in mind, you can budget for a strong military presence on your island,
since you'll know your profit margins and have a good handle on your wage and
maintenance costs for the buildings and their staff. A strong military will
make liberty scores suffer, but Sensitivity Training will alleviate that in a
big way. Just try not to pick the "Paranoid" character flaw if you're even
thinking about running a police state.
|=============================================|
|5D. SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES: EDUCATE YOUR PEOPLE|
|=============================================|
Maybe you like paying an absurd amount of money every time you need an
educated worker. Maybe you think the Yanquis will send all of the educated
workers you'll need. But if you're not building Schools and Colleges, you're
more likely just an idiot. You didn't REALLY pick "Moronic" as a character
flaw, did you?
High Schools require high-school educated women to be the teachers. Colleges

require college-educated men to be the professors. The beauty part of this is
that as more people graduate from your educational institutions, more of them
will end up teaching in the very schools they graduated from. Those extra
slots can be great "placeholder jobs" while you're building more things for
your educated workers to do. Just remember that if there's nothing for an
educated person to do on your island, your islanders will see right through
the ruse and not bother going to school. After all, if you knew that the best
job you could get didn't require an education, why would you bother to get an
education?
Maintenance costs on these things get pricey in a hurry, but the good news is
that if you need more than one of them, you've probably got a giant population
that's very well-employed and producing a lot of high-priced merchandise or
tourist trade. In that case, it won't be a big hit on your treasury to shell
out another grand or two a year in order to maintain that high level of
education. I've always found that an island full of intellectuals is, in
general, more stable than an island full of uneducated Communists. That, and
the fact that a high level of education also correlates to rapid skill-gaining
in jobs. You ARE selecting character traits that correlate to a high
Education bonus, RIGHT Presidente?
|============================================|
|5E. ELECTRIFY OR YOUR ECONOMY WILL BE MUERTE|
|============================================|
Got College? Good. Give the women something to do after graduation by

building an Electric Plant. U.S. Development Aid will help in a big way on
this front, since it halves the cost of production on Electric Plants. Once
you've got the Aid and the college-educated women (or the potential to put
women through college), build away. You'll be able to build the electric-
powered gizmos on your factories (which help production and profit), you'll be
able to build Luxury Houses (but watch out since those 2MW power bills add up
FAST), and you'll be able to attract the highest caliber of tourist since
you'll be able to build everything from Luxury Hotels to Casinos.
Electric Substations are a big help on the Electric front. They allow you to
clump your power plants together in some obscure corner of the island where
few people dare to tread (you can house your Engineers at a safe distance if
you build a road to the plants), thus keeping the massive pollution that power
generation produces OUT of the way of your citizens. I'm pretty sure that
smog gets carried on the wind, so if you keep your power plants downwind from
your people (watch the clouds overhead for an idea of general wind direction),
you'll lower the pollution effect even further. But my point is that you can
put Substations down in order to extend the power grid out to where your
people dwell without having to stick big belching smokestacks in their
backyards. That's more than worth the seventy-five bucks it takes each year
to maintain them.
Make sure your power grid grows along with your demand for electricity. Ask
the people of California what happens when power consumption exceeds power
generation...but don't hold the phone too close to your ear when you do. It
seems like some of the people out there have VERY strong opinions of whose
fault it is. It's an eternal battle between environmentalists who don't want
the Earth's resources exploited for power generation vs. capitalists who think
that if the tree huggers ran the world, we'd all be living in caves with
campfires and torches to light our homes. On Tropico, it's no contest. Tell
the tree huggers to Think Globally, Act Locally, and Kiss My Ass Totally.
If anyone out there has a strategy wherein you can make an island work well
with minimal (or no) power expenditure, I'd love to hear it. My island
(population 1150 at last count) uses about 1,000 MW of electricity to keep
itself running. In case you're wondering: lots of mines in the residential
area, and lots of tourist traps away from the hustle and bustle.
|======================================================================|
|5F. IMMIGRATION AND DIPLOMACY: AN ISLAND IS NOT BUILT ON NATIVES ALONE|
|======================================================================|
Tropico does not exist in a vacuum. You've got the United States and the
Soviet Union to think about. You've also got countries all over the world
from which immigrants can make their way to your magnifico island. In order
to get the most bang for your foreign buck, you'll need immigration offices
and diplomatic ministries. My advice is VERY straightforward here. I've
tried a few methods of mayhem with these vital government buildings, and the
advice I present here is probably the most concrete advice I'll give in the
whole strategy guide, so heed it well.
You should have a two-pronged approach to Immigration. First, you should set
the priority to Skilled Workers Welcome, and raise wages above normal high-
school-educated wage. That will help ensure that what few high-school
educated women you can attract at this point in the game will become
bureaucrats, keeping your office fully staffed. This will also provide the
necessary schoolteachers to get your high school up and running.
Once you've got enough high-school educated workers to have a good go at

creating a self-sustaining educational infrastructure, change the setting to
"No One Gets Out Of Here Alive". That'll keep your intellectuals from taking
off for greener pastures and leaving you high and dry. I've noticed that some
people just can't be pleased with your backwards society, but a little
coercion will keep them around for a longer haul. Last thing you need is a
labor shortage on the high end.
In order to staff the high-school-educated buildings properly, keep a close

eye on the Almanac, specifically the "All Residents: Education" selection. If
you see high-school (or college) educated workers working in low-end jobs when
there are high-end jobs available, locate them and fire them from every job
they take until they take the one YOU want them to have. Later, you can
snicker at all the "March 27-28, Farmer. April 1-2, Laborer. April 3-4,
Showgirl" remarks on their resumés. Talk about a multitasker, eh?
As regards the Diplomatic Ministry, I recommend Neutral Policies until the

Yanquis come around and reach the "Very Close" required for a military base
and alliance. This will keep Russia from getting too mad at you in the early
going. Once you're getting "Close" to the Yanquis, choose Pro-American
Policies to push you over the top. It's a tough order to keep the Russians
happy once you start becoming an industrial nation, since your Communists are
very difficult to please. You really have to be trying in order to get Russia
to like you after about the first five years of the game. It's easier (and
more profitable) to suck up to Uncle Sam.
|====================================|
|5G. MEDIA OUTLETS FOR FUN AND PROFIT|
|====================================|
This one's pretty easy really. You're going to want improvements to your
society, profits from foreign media companies, and a healthy dose of El
Presidente. Thing is, you're going to have to leave one format out from each
type of media outlet because of the limit on how many of each you can build.
Have I completely confused you yet? Don't worry. It gets easier. Following,
a priority list of the best media outlets money can buy:
The one I recommend leaving out is in parentheses, but use your own judgment
based on your island's situation. Note that percentages are either with a
complement of workers with average skills (BBC) or base for workers with no
skills at all (everything else). Your actual results can and will vary
tremendously, a huge argument in favor of Learning With Larry!
|=============================|====================================|======|
| TV STATIONS | EFFECT |RATING|
|=============================|====================================|======|
|Your Government, Your Friend |Respect +13% or more in Range | B+ |
|BBC |Raises Liberty 33% in Range | B+ |
|Learning With Larry |Doubles Rate of Experience Gain |A+++++|
|Yanqui Sitcoms |$1.00+ per Adult Tropican | B |
|24 Hour Sumo Wrestling |$3.00+ per Uneducated Adult Male | (C+) |
|Russian Soap Operas |$2.00+ per Adult Female Tropican | B |
|=============================|====================================|======|
| RADIO STATIONS | EFFECT |RATING|
|=============================|====================================|======|
|All Presidente, All Day |Respect +9% among All People | A |
|Radio Free Tropico |Liberty +21% in Range | B- |
|Menudo's Greatest Hits |$2.00+ per Tropican age 4-25 | A |
|Baja Bachata |$1.00+ per Adult Uneducated | C |
|Ossified Opera |$4.00+ per College Educated | (D+) |
|=============================|====================================|======|
| NEWSPAPERS | EFFECT |RATING|
|=============================|====================================|======|
|Coupons N More |$1.00+ per Adult Tropican | A+ |
|Voice of the Worker |More People in/Respect by Communists| (F-) |
|Financial Times |Raises Capitalist Faction | A+++ |
|Soldado De Fortuna |Raists Militarist Faction | B- |
|The Word of God |Raises Religious Faction | B+ |
|=============================|====================================|======|
Note that again I've got a strong bias against the Communist Faction. Anything
that keeps your people from turning into indignant leftists while you're
trying to make money is, in my view, a good thing. America will love you for
it, and they're the ones with their hand on the spigot of your tourist flow.
|===========================|
|5H. OTHER VITAL INFORMATION|
|===========================|
There are a few infrastructure buildings I've left out. I cover them here:
|==========|
|5H.1. BANK|
|==========|
Useful for Urban Development. Get three of these up and running and your
building costs will drop by 60%. Put the extra money you save into your Swiss
Bank account with the Presidential Slush Fund Option (or not, if you've
decided to be "Incorruptible"). Or, rip off tourists for forty bucks a month
with the Tourists' Offshore Banking option. Five banks will take care of all
your island's needs...unless your tourist trade is so impressive that you need
more than one bank to handle all the offshore accounts!
|==============|
|5H. 2. AIRPORT|
|==============|
Serves two purposes. One, it helps you to attract higher-quality tourists

(see Chapter 3C). Two, it allows you to send out Trade Delegations to the
United States. I haven't even mentioned Russia...for a reason, namely that
you should have Perfect Harmony and a military base from the Yanquis before
you go to Washington begging for handouts...Russia will just turn you away and
laugh at you. Even if you never attract a single tourist, the Airport will
pay for itself in the form of 65% increases in price on a lot of your export
goods, 15% building cost subsidies (almost like having an extra bank...I've
managed to drop construction costs to 10% of their original amount with a
little help from my Yanqui amigos), and shipments of skilled workers,
specifically bankers and engineers, who can be retrained into anything you
need college-educated workers for, from generals to journalists.
|=============|
|5H. 3. PRISON|
|=============|
Personally, I never arrest anyone. I prefer more peaceful methods of

coercion, largely because I value my Liberty score. That, and nobody on my
island has ever caused me enough trouble to merit incurring the wrath of his
family and any bystanders who witness the arrest. But if you have people
actively trying to undermine your regime (or if you see someone who has both
the courage of a lion and the leadership skills of Julius Caesar and you're
feeling paranoid), it helps to throw these types into jail. If you can round
up eight potential troublemakers, throw them in jail all at the same time,
then use "Open the Jails" right near the end of their seven-year sentences,
not only can you get rid of some vile elements, you can make a pile of money
off license plates besides. Just remember that it'll tick off the Yanquis if
you put your prisoners in rafts and give them a good hard shove toward Florida
and a can of shark repellent. Expect a little blow to your diplomatic
standing for a few years as the people of Miami lodge protests against the
newcomers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|========================================================|
|PART III: EL PRESIDENTE NO ES STUPIDO: ADVANCED STRATEGY|
|========================================================|
Basic strategy is muy bueno and all, but it's a little, well...basic. You
could use everything you've learned up through Chapter Five and have a pretty
good run at things. But why stop there? Why be just good when you can be
completely godly? By the time you get done with these four chapters, you'll
be running islands so big and prosperous that the Yanquis will be offering to
make Tropico a US State...or waffling on the issue for decades like they've
done with Puerto Rico...either way. If anyone out there is from Puerto Rico
and knows anything about that island's bid for statehood, I'd love to hear
from you...contact info's at the end of the FAQ...but I digress. Back to
Tropico.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|=============================|
|6. EDICTS: IMPOSING YOUR WILL|
|=============================|
Ever played SimCity 2000? Or SimCity 3000? Or any other game where there are
little rules tweaks that can be played like cards in order to mess with the
game mechanics a little? Then you understand Edicts. You've got a couple of
dozen things you can do in order to run your island more (or less, be careful
with these!) efficiently. They're divided into categories, namely Personal,
Diplomatic, Economic, Political, and Social. Want to know what they do and
how to use them? I figured you would...Read on!
|=================================================================|
|6A. PERHAPS MI AMIGO SENOR FRANKLIN MAY HELP: BRIBES AND TAX CUTS|
|=================================================================|
Want to make your people love you without spending a lot of time improving
social conditions? Throw some money at them! I like to call this one Señor
Presidente's Profit-Sharing Plan.
With a Bribe, you throw 1,000 Yanqui dollars at anyone on the island, making
that person very happy. If that person is a Faction leader, you'll have a
nice trickle-down effect as the faction leader expounds on Presidente's
magnifico generosity to anyone who will listen. The leader doesn't seem to
lose any credibility with his or her followers, as the faction doesn't seem to
realize that their leader's on the take. So use bribes whenever you have a
thousand bucks and a palm to grease. Bribes are also useful when given to
people who have a spouse and a lot of children. The immediate family effect
is such that you get more bang for your buck.
With a Tax Cut, you pay $200 (not $100 as the game claims...this is a bug and
I hope PopTop fixes it either by lowering the tax cut cost or changing the way
the information is presented, preferably the former!) per citizen in order to
buy their respect for three years (so think of it as $67 per citizen per year
for budgetary purposes). You see the most obvious practical application for
this...or at least I hope you do. It's called "buying the election". Tax cut
can also be thought of as "the cost of running a campaign". Viva El
Presidente!
|===========================================================================|
|6B. SI, SENOR KRUSCHEV, BUT WON'T SENOR KENNEDY BE ANGRY?: POLITICAL EDICTS|
|===========================================================================|
Or is that the other way around? You can issue a Diplomatic Edict every 2
years, so choose wisely. If you play these right, you'll be able to rip off
the Yanquis and the Kremlin for valuable goodies. If not, you'll have a huge
waste of resources. You've got four basic choices here:
|=============|
|6B. 1. PRAISE|
|=============|
Want to give a boost to your diplomatic relations? Use the Praise Edict, a
colossal waste of the two-year window. There's nothing this edict can do that
sound policies and a Diplomatic Ministry can't do a hundred times better.
Save your money and energy to cast a wider net in the diplomatic fishing
waters. I mention this one only because if you're REALLY hard up for a way to
blow your cash, this might be an option. Either that or if you're still a
level or two away on the diplomatic scale from an Alliance, you can
accelerate the process a little bit...but I still think this is a huge waste
of money and time.
|=======================|
|6B. 2. TRADE DELEGATION|
|=======================|
Oh, the joys of having an Airport and an amigo! I covered everything along
these lines in Chapter 5B.2, but it bears reiteration: If you've got Perfect
Harmony with the Yanquis (and you should know by now why I'm restricting this
discussion to the boys in Washington), send a trade delegation and you'll get
a 65% increase in the export value of certain goods, a 15% subsidy to your
building costs, or a freighter with six college-educated workers (three male
and three female) on board. It's up to you how often you decide to send these
delegations, but personally I send one as often as the game will let me, which
is to say every two years once I have the Yanqui alliance and the Perfect
Harmony relationship level. I'm shameless about it, acting like Tropico is a
US state.
|======================|
|6B. 3. DEVELOPMENT AID|
|======================|
First thing you should do when you build the Diplomatic Ministry is apply for
Russian Development Aid. You'll get the chance to build Tenements and
Apartment Complexes for half-price. This will make the Diplomatic Ministry
pay for itself almost instantly, and you don't even need any employees in the
building in order to issue the edict. The lowered building cost will aid you
tremendously as you begin to get your workers out of shacks and into real
housing.
Second thing you should do, two years later, is apply for US Development Aid.
You may need to have a few industries up and running in order to get the
Yanquis to respect you enough to have the "cool" relations necessary to issue
the edict, but since the result of the edict is that you get Electric Plants
and Airports for half-price, it stands to figure that by the time you need
those things, you've got enough on your plate to impress Uncle Sam. To boil
that horrible run-on sentence down to its essence: By the time you need US
aid, you'll be able to get it.
Once you've got these two edicts passed, you'll be in good shape...and I would
never even think about trying to run my island without them.
|===============|
|6B. 4. ALLIANCE|
|===============|
Make it official with this edict, once you've got Very Close (or better)
relations with the United States. The Yanquis will put a base on your island,
pay you a thousand dollars a year for the base, and pay you a lot more in
foreign aid each year in order to protect their interests. You'll also see a
sharp rise in tourism, as more and richer tourists come to your island. All
told, your economy will go into overdrive once you have the Alliance with the
Yanquis. Enjoy the spoils.
|===============================================================|
|6C. ¡LOS LIBROS SON BUENOS...O EN FUEGO! LITERACY AND BOOK BBQ|
|===============================================================|
There are two types of Tropican Presidentes. Those who like books and those
who hate them. The former type is popular with the intellectuals; the latter
type is popular with the Religious zealots. If you really hate education, or
you're trying to engineer a society toward theocracy, by all means let the Ray
Bradbury references flow like sacramental wine. But if you want happy,
productive people, enact that Literacy program and watch the experience and
education levels soar. The more experienced your workers become, the faster
they work, and (in general) the happier they are in their jobs, because people
enjoy doing things they're good at. I've also noticed that the Literacy
Program tends to increase attendance at high schools and colleges (as long as
the job requirements are met...see Chapter 5D). If you have a theocracy that
works, please email and tell me about it so I can throw it into an upcoming
Reader Submissions section.
|=============================================================|
|6D. ¡ADIOS, MUCHACHO! ARREST, ELIMINATE, KICK OFF THE ISLAND|
|=============================================================|
I mentioned it earlier...I don't like to rough my people up. But there are
certain cases in which it's necessary.
|=============|
|6D. 1. ARREST|
|=============|
If someone's causing so much trouble that they're a real threat to bring up an

uprising, that's a crime against your state, so by all means throw the bastard
in jail. Let him make license plates for seven years...or try to rehabilitate
him and make him less likely to become a repeat offender (which brings up an
interesting philosophical discussion about the ability of convicts to BE
rehabilitated...but never mind that for now). If someone has exceptional
Courage and Leadership (thus making him a potential threat), a paranoid
Presidente may want to stop the problem before it starts. Or, if you just
plain don't like someone (and that someone has no immediate family to turn
around and undermine you), throw him in jail. Just remember that you're going
to lose a hefty amount of respect, not only from that person (who will
probably emerge from jail bent on revenge), but from that person's family, and
from anyone within ten cells of where the arrest takes place, who will witness
the policeman doing his brutal work and who will think ill of your regime.
There's also the issue of possible resistance. Some people have a "You'll
never take me alive, copper!" approach to getting arrested, and will end up
getting themselves killed rather than be taken prisoner. If this happens, the
net result will be exactly the same as if you'd used the Eliminate edict. Not
a pretty sight at ALL.
|================|
|6D. 2. ELIMINATE|
|================|
Speaking of Eliminate, this is the preferred method of taking care of people

who are such a big threat to your island that only the death penalty will
suffice. Trouble is, their extended family (brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles,
and the family dog) will swear vengeance against your regime, and you'll end
up with a slew of mortal enemies. In addition, bystanders who witness the
slaughter will see their liberty score plummet to zero. Kill someone only as
a last resort. The fallout could get ugly otherwise.
|=====================|
|6D. 3. OPEN THE JAILS|
|=====================|
If you've got a stash of prisoners, and you don't mind angering the Yanquis a
little, you can give your prisoners an inner tube, a can of Shark-B-Gone, and
a push in the direction of Miami. You can only do this once, but deporting
your worst elements could prove to be an effective way to restore stability to
what may be becoming an unstable island otherwise. Personally, I've never
seen anything a police edict could do that a regular patrol of cops and
soldiers couldn't do a thousand times better...and a lot more safely for your
regime as well. Those liberty scores can be fixed up by TV and radio. Let
your cops and soldiers take care of the rough stuff without being so damn
overt about it.
|==========================================================|
|6E. ¡VIVA EL DIOS! PAPAL VISIT AND OTHER RELIGIOUS EDICTS|
|==========================================================|
Want to get your Religious Faction to like you more? Want your people to bow
to you, their button-pressing, mouse-clicking overlord? Then you'll need some
Religious edicts. You've got a few choices here, so I'll give you the rundown
and let you decide for yourself how you want to enforce the word of God.
|==================|
|6E. 1. PAPAL VISIT|
|==================|
Can you make your Religious Faction cordial (or better) toward you? Then you
too can have the Pope come say a big ¡Buenos dias! to your people! Your
people will love you for it, and your overall respect will rise for about
three years (another great "around election time" edict if you meet the
conditions). The even bigger upside is that this is the only edict that will
thrill the Religious types without annoying the Intellectuals.
|==============|
|6E. 2. HERETIC|
|==============|
If your zealotry truly knows no bounds, you can brand someone a Heretic. It's
kind of like arresting someone, except the penalty from the immediate family
is a little lower...and the effects are permanent. That person will be
FOREVER barred from leading any kind of protest or uprising against your
regime. It won't stop him from joining any existing attempt at revolution,
but if you use this edict right, that won't be a problem. Just save it for
people with a high level of dissatisfaction, Leadership, AND Courage. Everyone
else can be left to their own devices, since they're less of a threat.
|========================|
|6E. 3. CONTRACEPTION BAN|
|========================|
Want to grow your population on an island with the "Immigrants Out" Special
Circumstance? You'd do well to enact a Contraception Ban. The Intellectuals
HATE this edict (to the tune of an automatic 30% penalty in respect), but if
you combine this edict with "Obstetrics" at your Clinics and Hospitals, you'll
have an ungodly (excuse the ironic pun) amount of children nattering around
the island. Give 'em "The Word of God" to read and a parochial education at
school, and you'll offset the penalties from your Intellectuals with a big
boost from your Religious wing nuts.
|==================|
|6E. 4. INQUISITION|
|==================|
"The Inquisition! What a show! The Inquisition! Here we go!" I love Mel
Brooks movies...
Anyway, Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition! If you want to get your
people to spend more quality time reading their Bibles, you'd do well to enact
this edict. It'll scare the pants off of everyone on the island, causing a
lot of them to join the Religious faction. It'll also cause them to go to
church 50% more often, which makes me hope that the Church is supplying
everyone with new pairs of pants to replace the ones the people were scared
out of! Your Intellectuals will be miffed in a big way, as they see science
subverted to the needs of a zealous madman calling himself Presidente. Your
people don't like living scared, and Liberty scores will drop tremendously.
But if you have a bunch of churches, a couple of Cathedrals, and a few God-
oriented character traits that up your religious respect, having religious
zealots for followers on the island might not be so bad. Combine it with the
Book BBQ...well, now that I think of it, why are you working so hard to suck
up to the Religious zealots? They don't believe in education, so your people
will be mired in the depths of stupidity. They're not particularly productive
because of their low education, so they won't make you any money. Churches
and Cathedrals are expensive to maintain...¡ay mi Dios! Of course, if you
want to take the screws to your island even more, you could try:
|==================|
|6E. 5. PROHIBITION|
|==================|
Let's for a moment ignore the fact that Rum is a highly profitable industry.
Let's for a moment ignore the fact that Pubs and Nightclubs are high-quality
entertainment sources, and that some of your citizens REALLY love to drink.
Let's even leave the sharp rise in the crime rate that comes with Prohibition
out of this discussion for a minute.
Now then, you were saying...? Your Religious faction will love you if you ban
the production and consumption of alcohol on your island. But as mentioned,
your people and your tourists don't like a place where fun is outlawed. The
tourists will stay home (or go to New Orleans or Las Vegas for their sinful
pleasures), and your people will turn to crime in order to slake their thirst.
You don't want to pass this edict...unless you're doing it VERY temporarily to
give your religious faction a shove toward Cordial...but even then, there are
much better ways to accomplish that. Try a Tax Cut if you want a quick fix.
|================|
|6F. OTHER EDICTS|
|================|
Everything I haven't specifically mentioned elsewhere:
|===================|
|6F. 1. AD CAMPAIGNS|
|===================|
Simple. Advertise your Industry for a quick 20% boost to your export prices
that lasts for two years. Advertise your Tourism for a quick boost to your
Tourism rating (but make sure you've got something on your island that's worth
coming to see or you'll just make those tourists mad). Easy, right? I highly
recommend having the Industry campaign active at all times once you've got the
industrial base to recoup the $8K cost (which doesn't take much, just a couple
of factories, which you need anyway if you're to enact the edict). As for the
Tourism campaign, it's a wash. If you have a massive number of hotel rooms
available, by all means advertise in order to fill them. But I find that I
usually have enough tourists and a high-enough rating as is, so I don't need
a campaign to boost anything.
|==============================|
|6F. 2. AIR POLLUTION STANDARDS|
|==============================|
Another sweet quick fix. Lowers factory pollution by half. Increases factory
maintenance by 40%. Worth it? It's up to you. Are you producing enough
output to be able to eat the cost and remain profitable? Does the voice-over
plead with you to do something about the environment? If the answer to either
of these questions is "yes", then consider the edict. If the answer to BOTH
of these questions is "yes", then DEFINITELY enact the edict. You'll be glad
you did either way.
|===========================|
|6F. 3. ENTERTAINMENT EDICTS|
|===========================|
The Headliner, Mardi Gras, and Pan-Caribbean Games all have roughly the same
effect. They increase entertainment value and enhance tourism. Mardi Gras
comes with a slight increase in the crime rate, so have enough policemen on
duty. The Headliner brings with him a nice boost to US-Tropican relations,
sometimes to the point where you can turn Close into Very Close for the
purpose of getting an alliance forged, or turn Very Close into Perfect Harmony
so you can get a fat assload of foreign aid and Trade Delegation goodies.
Pan-Caribbean Games is the strongest of these three edicts in terms of Tourism
Rating and Entertainment Quality, but it's a one-time only thing, so use it
when you feel it can do the most good. It can be another one of those
beautiful "election year" tricks that further establishes your position as
ruler of the island.
|==========================|
|6F. 4. POLICE STATE EDICTS|
|==========================|
These ones are very simple. Amnesty can coax the rebels out of the woods. You
need to have improved overall happiness by five points before rebels will come
back. Sensitivity Training lowers the Liberty penalty associated with Police
and Soldiers, and as such is a good way to give a quick boost to Liberty score
(although free press and free elections do this a lot more effectively). If
you enact an Anti-Litter Ordinance, people don't pollute the ground around
them, but Liberty suffers because of the enforcement of the anti-littering
laws.
|=====================================|
|6F. 5. IF ALL ELSE FAILS: MARTIAL LAW|
|=====================================|
If you really want to prevent your people from rising up against you, you can
enact Martial Law. The net results are frightening in some senses: You
virtually eliminate the chance of protests and uprisings against your regime.
Crime rate also falls by 40%. That's the good news. The bad news is that
overall productivity drops by 20%, liberty score drops by fifty points,
tourism is cut in half, and there's always the possibility that your own
military may turn against you in a coup d'etat. You'd better hope your
military is fiercely loyal to you, because they're going to be the true rulers
of the island since they have all the guns. If you're at the point where only
Martial Law can save your regime, you're at the point where your regime is
most likely WAY beyond repair. In other words, you're in BIG trouble.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|=============================|
|7. KEEPING THE FACTIONS HAPPY|
|=============================|
While it's true that you can't please everyone, you can certainly try to
juggle the conflicting interests of six different ideological forces on your
island. Everyone on Tropico belongs to at least one faction, and some people
belong to as many as three, so focusing exclusively on one group of people
won't keep you in power for very long. Following, the six Factions, and as
many tips as I can cram into this space on how to keep them happy and on your
side.
Take note that automatically on the list of Flaws to Avoid are any flaws that
reduce Overall respect. Remember, Overall respect can be as powerful (in fact
more so) than the traits that increase one faction's opinion of you. If you
want a pure Overall Respect approach:
|==================|======================================|
|Background |Fortunate Son |
|Rise to Power |Heir Apparent |
|Qualities |Charismatic, Empathy |
|Flaws to Avoid |Ugly, Paranoid, Tourette's Syndrome |
|------------------|--------------------------------------|
|NET RESULTS |+35% Overall Respect |
|==================|======================================|
That will certainly help boost your standing by quite a bit!
|===============|
|7A. CAPITALISTS|
|===============|
Character traits you can select to maximize the Capitalists' opinion of you:
|==================|=============================================|
|Background |Silver Spoon |
|Rise to Power |Capitalist Rebellion |
|Qualities |Financial Genius, Empathy |
|Flaws to Avoid |Kleptomaniac |
|------------------|---------------------------------------------|
|NET RESULTS |+45% Capitalist Respect, +10% Overall Respect|
|==================|=============================================|
If you want the respect of the Capitalists to increase during the game, be
sure to keep your island profitable, and be sure that your elite has the kind
of treatment that you'd expect rich people to enjoy. High quality of life,
housing, and entertainment for the better elements of your society will go a
long way. You'll also do well to create a Financial Times newspaper. If you
play it right, you'll have Perfect Harmony with the money-grubbers.
|==============|
|7B. COMMUNISTS|
|==============|
OK, so maybe I lied a little. It is (in theory) possible to get the Commies
to respect you. You can start with the Character Traits:
|==================|=============================================|
|Background |Man of the People |
|Rise to Power |Elected as Socialist |
|Flaws to Avoid |Cheapskate |
|------------------|---------------------------------------------|
|NET RESULTS |+30% Communist Respect, +15% Overall Respect |
|==================|=============================================|
If you want to keep them happy throughout the game, shoot for a lot of equity.
Keep everyone in the same type of housing (a rare case where an island full of
tenements is a good thing, and you can build apartment houses for your married
couples). Keep salaries fairly equal across the board (you'll have to either
underpay your educated workers or overpay your uneducated ones to make this
work). Don't keep a lot of tourist traps on the island. Communists hate
tourist traps. It reminds them of how much better off all the other countries
of the world are. If you want to build a farm- and mine-based economy, you
may be able to please the Commies. But I wouldn't bother if I were you.
|=====================|
|7C. ENVIRONMENTALISTS|
|=====================|
Want to build a little slice of paradise so beautiful that even eco-weenies

like it? Begin at the beginning with your Character Traits:
|==================|====================================================|
|Background |Naturalist |
|Qualities |Green Thumb, Empathy |
|Flaws to Avoid |Any that damage Overall Respect |
|------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
|NET RESULTS |+35% Environmentalist Respect, +20% Overall Respect |
|==================|====================================================|
Keeping Environmentalists happy is a function of ecology, and as such, you're

going to want Fountains and ornamental trees prodigiously planted throughout
your residential centers. You'll want to keep residents in single-family
housing with a reasonable degree of spread. You'll probably want to avoid
anything electrical, you can forget about mining, and industry that doesn't
have pollution-reduction gizmos is probably out too. Don't forget to pass the
Anti-Litter Ordinance and Air Pollution Standards in the Edicts menu. In
order to please the Environmentalists, your only major industry will probably
have to be tourism, which means you'll need at least one or two Electric
Plants. Just keep them as far out of the way as possible and use Gas as your
fuel. Running an environmentalist's island isn't exactly easy, but I think
it's easier than catering to the Commies...never mind the fact that the
Environmentalists make up the smallest faction on most islands.
|=================|
|7D. INTELLECTUALS|
|=================|
My kind of people. They advocate the advancement of education, which in

practical Tropican terms means an abundance of highly-skilled workers who can
turn out expensive export goods. It also means solid quality of anything that
requires educated workers to function, like health care and religion. Get
these guys on your side, because they're valuable allies. Your first lesson
in making the Intellectuals like you is to start with your Character Traits:
|==================|=====================================================|
|Background |Professor |
|Qualities |Incorruptible, Scholarly (note you can't Swiss Bank) |
|Flaws to Avoid |Compulsive Liar, Short Tempered, Religious Zealot, |
| |The Great Schmoozola |
|------------------|-----------------------------------------------------|
|NET RESULTS |+50% Intellectual Respect, +10% Overall Respect |
|==================|=====================================================|
Remember not to pick the "Tis Money that Makes the Man" Victory Goal at the
game setup screen, since you'll need the Incorruptible virtue to generate
respect from the Intellectuals. If you ignore my advice on that one, then
choose Charismatic instead of Incorruptible. But if it's riches you're after,
you should probably be kissing up to the Capitalists, not the Intellectuals.
As for the game itself: Build a high school and a college ASAP. Make sure
that everyone has a job that's commensurate with their educational level. If
you see that your schools are constantly full, then don't miss the opportunity
to build more. Making sure that everyone who wants an education can get one
(and find a good job that makes use of the skills) is key to keeping the smart
set on your side...and on your island. Intellectuals are the first to
emigrate if you give them half the chance. For that reason, the Immigration
Office should probably be set to ensure that the Intellectuals stay on the
island. Don't be afraid to use "No One Gets Out of Here Alive" to your
advantage.
|===============|
|7E. MILITARISTS|
|===============|
Character Traits you can choose to get the trigger-happy madmen to like you:
|==================|=============================================|
|Background |Generalissimo |
|Rise to Power |Military Coup |
|Good Flaws |Paranoid |
|Flaws to Avoid |Coward, Short Tempered |
|------------------|---------------------------------------------|
|NET RESULTS |+60% Military Respect, +5% Overall Respect |
|==================|=============================================|
Downside? Police will be resented like Soldiers. Don't expect your people to
feel a lot of personal liberty if you set your island up to be an army-
oriented police state. The more freedom-loving element on your island will
probably seek any opportunity to leave. You can use as much force as you have
to in order to convince them to stay, though...that's the beauty part about
having amigos with big scary guns.
|=============|
|7F. RELIGIOUS|
|=============|
Your people worship whatever God you tell them to. (see my comment in Chapter
4D) If you want them to believe that El Presidente has the same devout nature
then you'll need a few character tricks up your sleeve:
|==================|====================================================|
|Background |Biblical Scholar |
|Rise to Power |Religious Appointment |
|Qualities |Incorruptible, Empathy |
|Good Flaws |Religious Zealot |
|Flaws to Avoid |Kleptomaniac, Womanizer, Compulsive Liar, Alcoholic |
| |Compulsive Gambler |
|------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
|NET RESULTS |+40% Religious Respect, +10% Overall Respect |
|==================|====================================================|
Good advice for getting the Religious Faction to like you even more can be
found in Chapter 6E. Remember that the biggest criterion in the Religious
faction's opinion of you is the ratio of people with religious needs to
available spaces in churches and cathedrals. Make sure you've got a church
close to every major population center. If you can afford to eat the cost,
put up more than one cathedral (but watch the expenses!) Also, try to
minimize the number of pubs, nightclubs, and casinos on the island; the Church
hates them. Add a newspaper spreading the Word of God, and you've got all
your ingredients in place. You should be able to strike a good balance
between your citizens' need to have a good time and your priests' pleadings
for moderation and temperance.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|==========================================================|
|8. MAKING GOOD CHOICES FROM THE START: SETTING UP THE GAME|
|==========================================================|
Perhaps more so than most strategy games, the strategies you decide to use in-
game are almost solely determined by the choices you make at the very outset
of the character selection process. Choosing a professor or a diehard
capitalist will make the game easier by allowing your Tropicans to be educated
more quickly or work more productively (or, sometimes, both). Choosing a
chief of police who came to power as a Fascist will do wonders to lower the
crime rate, making more of your high-school educated workers available for
either soldier duty if you're going the "oppressive" route or factory work if
you're going the more traditional capital-production route. You can modify
your standing with the various factions to suit your play style. Or, if you
like, you can choose rewards like higher rum revenue that will have a VERY
major effect on your play style (as you gear your island's economy to milk the
cash cow).
Following, a dissertation on each of the possible character attributes and

what they can do for you:
|==============|
|8A. BACKGROUND|
|==============|
How did El Presidente get to be "el hombre muy swell"? Your answer to that
question will determine quite a lot:
MOSCOW U.: Amusingly, the Education bonus is lower for the commie college than
for Harvard. A dig at the Soviet "education" system, perhaps? Choose this
one if you're trying to get Moscow to like you, and if you intend to do a lot
of farming and mining to keep the commies happy.
HARVARD U: Everything Moscow U. does for you, except better (a 20% bonus to
Education instead of ten), and for America. Don't expect the Soviet Union to
think very highly of you if you went to Harvard.
MINER: This one actually bears exploring. Get that ore out of the ground 50%
faster and you'll get it sold or refined into jewelry faster. Since mining
can generate a ton of money, this may end up being a good choice. Your
commies will like you because iron and bauxite are raw material exports. Your
capitalists will like you because gold and jewelry are highly profitable. Your
environmentalists will despise you because your island will be full of holes
dug by the miners, wrecking beauty and contributing to pollution. It's up to
you.
FARMER: Useful in a variety of circumstances, from basic feeding of the people

to increased rum, cigar, and canning revenue. Your commies will like you,
your farmers will work like men and women possessed, but your intellectuals
will think you're some sort of agrarian tofu-munching dumbass, and they'll
respect you a bit less.
BIBLICAL SCHOLAR: A student of the Book of the Great Dave, you'll garner
increased respect from both the Bible-thumpers and the learned ones, a rare
combination indeed. You'll also have faster-educated, more law-abiding
citizens, since your scholarly nature with a twist toward the holy will
inspire your people on both fronts. This is an above-average choice.
MAN OF THE PEOPLE: Communists love you. Religious types aren't too thrilled
with you. Your choice whether the tradeoff is worth it.
BOOZE BARON: Ah, yes, ultra-specialization. What fun. Religious types won't
be thrilled by the idea of the blind drunk leading the blind drunk, but when
your hooch costs twice as much and allows you to build pretty religious
buildings, the fanatics will come around and start serving sacramental rum in
the churches! If you're planning on building an island that's well-suited to
sugar production, you might want to give this background a look.
LEFTIST AUTHOR: So your books had all the flavor and readability of a bad Karl
Marx-meets-Dennis Miller rant. That shouldn't stop you from becoming
Presidente! You'll get a nice bonus to education, and your commies and
intellectuals will both think quite a bit more highly of you. For my money,
there are better ways to generate education and intellectual respect, but this
way allows you to do it while pleasing the commies.
FORTUNATE SON: "It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate son". Pick up
a round boost to respect from everyone except the intellectuals with this one.
It's a nice, bland, vanilla choice.
SELF-MADE MAN: I've used up my lyric ration, so I'll leave the Stealer's Wheel
quote out. Get a boost to capitalism in the form of capitalist respect, U.S.
relations, and factory productivity with this one.
SILVER SPOON: "Here we are, face to face, a couple of silver spoons..." Argh.
Maybe I had some lyric lameness bullets left in the gun. Let your Ricky
Schroeder streak show through, and you'll get a fat boost to capitalism, plus
an extra $2000 to start the game. You'll hasten the decline in relations with
your communists, but accelerate the rise to power of your pro-American element
that would otherwise take a lot longer. You'll also get tourists to like your
island more, and that will save you a bit of effort and allow you to pack them
in a little more tightly and still maintain your tourism rating.
GENERALISSIMO: On the other hand, you could go for a might-makes-right

approach. Your military will like you a LOT more (30%), your soldiers will be
15% more effective at spreading government control (and at shooting people),
but your citizens will be yelling "Come see the violence inherent in the
system! Help! Help! I'm being repressed!" 20% more often.
CHIEF OF POLICE: Militarists like you a bit more, your citizenry commits 40%
fewer crimes, and liberty suffers about half as much as if you're an outright
soldier. A compromise of sorts between the repressive and the free.
DEVELOPER: This would be a great pick if not for the 50% higher pollution it
generates. Pollution's hard to keep in check as it is, and as much as I hate
coddling the tree huggers, choosing this one will probably get them to riot
against you. If you DO pick it, you'll get a big boost to capitalism and a
20% lowering of building costs. It's up to you just how money-grubbing you
want to be, though.
NATURALIST: If, on the other hand, you WANT to coddle the tree-huggers, this
would be the choice for you. Buildings are 10% more expensive to construct,
but your intellectuals and environmentalists will like you quite a bit more,
and pollution will be curbed substantially. Keep Tropico Beautiful with the
Naturalist choice (and possibly make the money back with interest when the
tourists come calling!)
PROFESSOR: 50% higher Education. 20% higher Intellectual respect. And oh

yeah, did I mention the 50% higher Education? I almost always choose this one
when I play my own games. I like highly-skilled, productive workers. Try it
out for awhile and I bet you will too.
POP SINGER: Good for increasing tourist revenue and improving your locals'
entertainment quality, Pop Singer is a sweet niche choice if you want to get
the Yanquis off the cold, boring mainland and out to Tropico for a "Wild On
Tropico" E! Network special.
|=================|
|8B. RISE TO POWER|
|=================|
COMMUNIST REBELLION: Very low democratic expectations make life easier in the
early going. Russia will adore you, your farmers will be a bit more
productive, and your commies will like you more. Decent choice for those
going the socialist-utopian route.
CAPITALIST REBELLION: Low democratic expectations, and similar bonuses to the

commie rebellion, except it's factory-workers instead of farmers, U.S. instead
of Russia, and capitalists instead of commies.
ELECTED AS SOCIALIST: High democratic expectations, so consolidate your power

early. Communists and Russians like you more, though Russia would rather have
seen you seize power with more force. All the "Elected as..." choices grant a
20% bonus to Liberty.
ELECTED AS FASCIST: Moderate democratic expectations, lower than with any
other Elected rise to power. Lower the crime rate and impress the militarist
faction, all while raising liberty. I rather like this choice, and have used
it on many an occasion to keep my people in check.
ELECTED AS CAPITALIST: Very High democratic expectations mean elections early

and often, and a lot more rebellion and protest if you refuse. Be ready to
treat your people well, and they'll reward you with much better (20%) factory
productivity, improved relations with the United States, and a slight bump to
the capitalists' opinion of you.
ELECTED FOR "FAMILY VALUES": Your religious faction likes you more, and
tourists like coming to a place where the people are a little less barbaric
than most Third World natives. A good way to offset some of the religious
penalties that certain other choices bring.
MILITARY COUP: Near Nil democratic expectations. Cancel elections whenever

you like, beef up the army, and get ready to fight. Your militarist faction
will like you 20% more, liberty will be 20% less, people will commit 20% fewer
crimes, and you'll be able to build armories and guard stations 25% cheaper.
Want to try and prove Chairman Mao's adage that "power grows from the barrel
of a gun"? Here's your chance.
RELIGIOUS APPOINTMENT: Low democratic expectations, since the church has

basically stated you're some kind of divine entity. Religious faction will
like you 15% more, and churches and cathedrals become 25% cheaper to construct
so you can build more of them (if you've got the staffing).
INSTALLED BY KGB: Soviet Union ADORES you, communist faction plays along, and
everyone else loses 30% off their liberty score. The upside is that your
palace will always be well-staffed because the uneducated are allowed to be
soldiers. You'll still need college-educated generals for your armories,
though. Democratic expectations are predictably very low.
INSTALLED BY CIA: Turn the KGB appointment around to the capitalist side. You
get the idea. Instead of having uneducated soldiers, you'll get a flat $2000
boost to your economy (in addition to foreign aid) every year, a payoff that
becomes utterly useless once your economy's in full swing. This one's just a
flat-out waste...and you'll never get your citizens to trust you because of
the liberty penalty. Democratic expectations are low, but not as low as the
KGB appointment (after all, you were installed by the Land of the Free).
BOUGHT THE ELECTION: Want to cheat your way to the top? Take the 5% hit to
intellectual respect, and you can commit greater election fraud with lower
consequences. Low democratic expectations and a nice safety net.
HEIR APPARENT: Low democratic expectations, and a vanilla 10% boost to every
citizen's respect for you. A round choice for those of you who don't like to
overspecialize.
|=============|
|8C. QUALITIES|
|=============|
CHARISMATIC: A quick 5% "vanilla boost", and your radio and TV dogma works
50% better for a bigger vanilla boost later on. This one can be quite
effective in offsetting the penalties to some people's respect of you brought
on by certain flaws.
HARDWORKING: Everyone works 10% faster. A nice touch of grease on the gears
of your economic machine.
FINANCIAL GENIUS: Capitalists like you more, factory workers work 20% faster
so you'll get more revenue in less time, and banks and shops are 25% cheaper,
allowing urban development to get underway sooner. A nice one if you're going
the money route.
GREEN THUMB: Environmentalists like you more, and pollution is cut in half,
meaning that if combined with the Naturalist background, you can turn your
environment into a Timex watch that takes a licking and keeps on ticking.
Trouble is, you'll lose 10% off your factory productivity, and that's just no
way to make money. Tree-hugging costs money...and the Tropican treasury foots
the bill.
ADMINISTRATOR: 10% boost to Education. 10% discount on buildings. Simple.
DIPLOMAT: I like this one. You get a free diplomatic ministry and a high-
school-educated woman to staff it. You get to apply for Soviet development
aid right at the outset, which instantly makes apartments and tenements cost
half as much to build. You could, if you wanted to, fire that bureaucrat and
put her to work in your immigration office once you build it, so you'll end up
attracting a bunch more skilled workers to staff your other buildings. You
could fire her and turn her into a high-school teacher. The possibilities are
endless. You also get a 5% boost to US AND Russian relations, which is always
a good thing.
EMPATHY: 10% boost to respect from everyone except the Intellectuals. They're
immune to mass psychology.
ENTREPRENEURIAL: Cha-CHING! Instant 10% boost to export prices. Combine this

with industry ad campaigns and trade delegations and watch your prices soar.
An all-around great choice, all from a single effect!
INCORRUPTIBLE: So you'll have nothing in the Swiss Bank. Big deal. Your
Religious and Intellectual factions will both like you 10% more, and crime
will be reduced by 30% as the people follow the lead of their honest, morally
upstanding Presidente. Imagine. An honest politician! Only in video games.
Just remember that this choice will be unavailable if you choose "Tis Money
that Makes the Man" at the outset, because otherwise what would be the point
of honesty?
SCHOLARLY: At the top of every Presidente's wish list should be this choice.
Take a 30% boost to education. Combine it with Professor. Mix. Let stand in
warm, moist environment. Recipe for smarter Tropicans. Cook and eat if your
Idi Amin tendencies decide to show themselves.
|=========|
|8D. FLAWS|
|=========|
KLEPTOMANIAC: Capitalists and Religious both dislike this one. Factory

workers work 10% slower because Presidente keeps pinching their tools. Shops
cost 100% more to maintain because Presidente's been listening to too much
Jane's Addiction. Thou shalt not steal. This flaw sucks.
WOMANIZER: Religious faction doesn't like this one, and women are so annoyed
that you treat them like objects that they all respect you 10% less. This one
can be offset by Empathy or by kissing up to some of the factions, so it's not
quite as big a penalty as some of the other flaws.
COMPULSIVE LIAR: This is a great flaw because everyone respects you 100% more,
factory workers work 100% faster, and...America throws you a parade! Yeah!
That's the ticket! Seriously, though, this is the biggest religious penalty
of 'em all, and your intellectuals detest a fraud. It's a LOT harder to
offset the penalties on this one.
UGLY: Barry Bonds has clearly been using the Ugly Stick to take batting
practice on your face. The result is a 5% drop in overall respect and a 10%
drop in tourism. I'm sure you're a swell guy...just look...that way...over
there, please. *retch*
ALCOHOLIC: Big religious penalty, workers work 5% slower, but hey, Russia
likes you! Seeing the world through booze-colored glasses might not be so bad
if you're ugly enough...they really ought to combine the two flaws into a
"Last Call Special".
FLATULENCE: Poot. US hates a flatulent Presidente, and Russia wouldn't mind

so much except your repeated requests to Khruschev to "pull my finger" caused
an international incident when Nikita fainted from the smell and had to be
equipped with a gas mask at your latest summit meeting. The palace guard also
has to be paid double in order to achieve the same level of job happiness.
COMPULSIVE GAMBLER: Religious faction doesn't like you much, and you'll blow
anywhere from $300 to $1500 of the Tropican treasury every year on an all-out
gambling binge. You may also win, and it's not as rare as the manual states.
Once your economy's in swing you can easily take the hit, so don't worry too
much about it unless you've already made a bunch of anti-religious choices.
PARANOID: Everyone except the military likes you 10% less. Police officers
have a drastic negative effect on liberty (since there are usually so many
more of them than there are soldiers). Not a very good idea to choose this
one unless you've got so many crime-reducing attributes already that you just
plain don't need many cops.
COWARD: A mild inconvenience if you keep everyone happy...suicide if you have

any trouble with rebels at all. The 5% hit to the military faction isn't so
bad, but when danger rears its ugly head, they bravely turned their tail and
fled...leaving your palace wide open to the slaughter. Use it in conjunction
with some of the milder political difficulty settings...or if you're committed
to having a free democracy, free press, and pleasing your factions.
MORONIC: 50% lower education level and no colleges? Deadly. Don't even THINK
about it. This one shouldn't even be available to you, since you chose the
Scholarly or Administrator traits, RIGHT?
SHORT TEMPERED: Intellectuals don't like someone who resorts to shouting and
name-calling during a debate. Militarists don't like someone who shoots first
and asks questions later unless it's them. You'll take a penalty with both.
POMPOUS: America hates a pompous ass, and edicts cost more to enact,
particularly bothersome when you want to enact a Tax Cut. Hang on to your
money and your potential for alliance with the Yanquis. Leave this one alone.
TOURETTE'S SYNDROME: $1,000 Pay-per-View revenue. That's just cruel...but I

admit, I'd pay to see a politician with severe Tourette's deliver a State of
the Union address. THAT'S comedy. It'll cost you 5% overall respect and 15%
relations with US and Russia in order to get that grand every year. This one
is pretty damaging.
CHEAPSKATE: $25 salary cap. That's bad. But you get a 5% bonus to lower
building costs. The other notable point here is that commies like you 10%
less, but keep in mind that the tight salary cap will lend itself well to
income equity, thus pleasing the communists. So don't worry about the commies
too much. Worry about your inability to keep your elite workers happy since
you can't pay them the money they'll want.
RELIGIOUS ZEALOT: Ayatollah Presidente? You'll get a 5% boost to Religious

faction respect, but at a cost of 50% more church visits and 25% less respect
from the Intellectuals. Hey, it's up to you. If you've got the religious
infrastructure and don't mind having people with free will opposed to you,
go ahead.
THE GREAT SCHMOOZOLA: 10% bonus to respect from complete morons. US and
Russia, moronic though their leaders may be at times, respect you 10% less,
and the Intellectuals hate your lowest-common-denominator pandering to the
tune of a 20% respect penalty.
|==================================================|
|8E. GAME CIRCUMSTANCES AND OTHER DIFFICULTY CRANKS|
|==================================================|
You already know that the amount and quality of land available to you is the
chief determinant of difficulty rating. Political and Economic difficulty are
big factors too, but remember that you can choose your own victory goal here,
and that can factor in as well. Following, a score breakdown of each type of
victory goal:
LEGEND: HC: Happy citizen, CC: Content citizen, UC: Unhappy citizen
TR: Treasury size (points per $1000), BV: Buildings value (pts per $1k),
SB: Swiss Bank (points per $1K)
|============================|====================================|
|VICTORY GOAL | EFFECTS |
|----------------------------|------------------------------------|
|A place in history |HC +2 CC +1 UC -2 TR +1 BV +1 SB +5 |
|Don't worry, be happy |HC +4 CC +2 UC -4 |
|Tis Money that Makes the Man|SB +20 |
|Economic Powerhouse |BV +2 TR +2 |
|============================|====================================|
Which one do I like? I like Open-Ended because I'm not a fan of "goals" in
a building sim, but when I'm playing for points I go for Economic Powerhouse.
Special circumstances can alter the game in interesting ways. Immigrants Out!
has the highest effect on difficulty rating because, well, it makes the game
ludicrously difficult, at least in the early going before you get your
educational system built. It also makes the game tough because you can't even
build an Immigration Office for "No One Gets Out Of Here Alive". Rebel Yell
has a minimal effect on difficulty rating but a potentially major effect on
the actual game. Honest Elections shouldn't be a problem if you know what
you're doing, and as such makes a good choice for a quick boost to difficulty
rating without much actual boost to difficulty. If you're not planning a big
tourist trade, you won't have much to fear from "A faraway place", and you'll
have the added benefit of having the Yanquis become less likely to interfere.
If you're planning on being pro-Russian, A Faraway Place might actually work
for you!
|===============|
|8F. REPORT CARD|
|===============|
All the possibilities, ranked and graded:
|==========|=====|=============|=====|===============|=====|===========|=====|
|BACKGROUND|GRADE|RISE TO POWER|GRADE|QUALITIES |GRADE|FLAWS |GRADE|
|----------|-----|-------------|-----|---------------|-----|-----------|-----|
|Moscow U | C |Comm. Rebeln.| C- |Charismatic | C+ |Klepto | F- |
|Harvard U | B- |Capit. Rebel.| B+ |Hardworking | B+ |Womanizer | B+ |
|Miner | B+ |Elect-Social.| D |Fin. Genius | A |Comp. Liar | D- |
|Farmer | B |Elect-Fasc. | A- |Green Thumb | D |Ugly | B |
|Bible Sch.| A- |Elect-Capit. | A+ |Administrator | A |Alcoholic | B+ |
|Man of Ppl| C- |Elect-Family | A |Diplomat | A- |Flatulence | C- |
|Booze Brn | B- |Milit. Coup | D+ |Empathy | B+ |Comp. Gamb.| A- |
|Leftist | A- |Relig. Appt. | C+ |Entrepreneurial| A- |Paranoid | B+ |
|Fort. Son | A |Install-KGB | F |Incorruptible | A+ |Coward | A |
|Self-Made | A |Install-CIA | D- |Scholarly |A++++|Moronic | F- |
|Sil. Spoon| A |Bought Elect.| C- |---------------|-----|Short Tempr| B- |
|Generlismo| D- |Heir Apparent| A | | |Pompous | B |
|Police Chf| C+ |-------------|-----| | |Tourette's | D+ |
|Developer | D- | | | | |Cheapskate | C |
|Naturalist| B | | | | |Rel. Zealot| A- |
|Professor |A++++| | | | |Schmoozola | C- |
|Pop Singer| B+ | | | | |-----------|-----|
|==========|===================|=====|===============|=====|===========|=====|
Of course, you'll want to modify these to suit the way you play. I just put
them here as a rough guide based on my personal opinions and experience.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|====================================================|
|9. WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL: ELECTION TRICKS|
|====================================================|
I've made this chapter short on purpose, because there's not really ALL that
much you can do about elections. Either you run your regime well and people
like you, or you run your regime poorly and they hate you. That's about the
size of it. But some ideas:
|============================|
|9A. A COUPLE OF CLEAN TRICKS|
|============================|
By "clean", I mean "without the use of cheat codes". Chapter 9B (upcoming)

deals with the ways you can cheat, and leads in to the section on Editor and
Cheat mode (Part IV).
Anyway, the easiest way to sway the vote is to issue the Tax Cut edict. A
couple hundred bucks in every pocket will sway the vote.
The next easiest way is to take six $1,000 bribes and issue them to each of
the six faction leaders. Not as effective as Tax Cut, but certainly cheaper.
You can also hold things like Mardi Gras and other edicts that raise happiness
for a short-term period, since that "short term" will include the election,
and voters have short memories of past transgressions if you give them
something nice.
Of course, if necessary you can cheat on the voting a little bit, but remember
that your intellectuals hate it royally, and to a lesser extent, so does
everyone else. Use as a last resort.
I'd like to know if the following trick works in close elections (I've never
had more than 25% of the vote go against me); Arrest your eight strongest
enemies. Maybe you can build a second prison and arrest your sixteen
strongest enemies. Once there are sixteen people in jail who favored your
opponent strongly, use the "Open the Jails" edict to send them off the island.
Instant eight- or sixteen-vote swing. What I want to know is if the effects
on the prisoner's family is enough to turn more of them against you than would
already have voted for your opponent. Someone figure out a good way to try
this experiment and email me the results. They'll go in the Reader Submission
section next update.
|=======================================|
|9B. A COUPLE OF MORE UNDERHANDED TRICKS|
|=======================================|
Using cheat mode, you can crank your theft of the election to the next level.
Click on someone who strongly opposes you in the next election. Hold Ctrl and
type MUERTE on the keyboard. Works like "Eliminate" without all that nasty
family hostility. Acts of God can be funny like that.
Use REMOVEPEOPLE, then repopulate your island with Ctrl-U-generated units.

Warning, this may cause the game to crash...and I don't know how the new
people will vote...mostly this is a comic device. 'Tis better to just make
someone appear in the stead of the deceased. Cleaner that way, and you don't
have to take a census in order to know who to replace and how.
If you really want a brute-force method, use CONTENTO a few times. It's a
cheapo way to raise happiness short-term. It doesn't last, but you can punch
buttons, right? If you're cheating, what the hell do you care?
Just a few ideas, and if you use them, bah on you.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|==========================================================|
|PART IV: DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP: EDITING AND CHEATING|
|==========================================================|
Editor Mode is great fun. You can raise or flatten your island, deepen your
oceans, and make buildings appear out of nowhere. Now that's what I call God
power. It's not all for underhandedness, either; you can do some worthwhile
things with the editor that aren't all cheese. Take this stuff at face value,
and remember that you'll need the Tropico Editor (it can be downloaded off the
Internet at www.poptop.com). I'm using tedit103.zip for all my FAQ research
(and for actual play). Bear that in mind, those of you who have an older
version of the editor.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|===============|
|10. EDITOR MODE|
|===============|
Presidente, your powers are so great that you can even move mountains and
bring them to the very level of the sea! You can place grasses, rocks, and
anything else your heart desires to create any number of wondrous landscapes.
Here's how (and how to use that information to fullest effect).
|=================================================|
|10A. NOW, BEFORE YOU SNICKER ABOUT MAP EDITING...|
|=================================================|
I can see some of you shaking your heads like "Cheater..." Hey, listen. Map
editing is not always a form of cheating. Say you want to flatten a hill in
order to create flat land for people to walk on. All well and good, except
stuff that used to grow well on hillsides (coffee, for example) now doesn't do
so well. Flatten the entire island and you may get good sugar production, but
a lot of crops that require good drainage just plain won't get it. You'll
also have a lot more trees to clear away since the dense thickets of jungle
that are both the lifeblood of logging and the bane of construction and
farming grow best on flat, moist land.
Map editing becomes cheating when you use the "Place Minerals" tool to cover
the entire island in a thick blanket of gold. It becomes cheating when you
use the editor to restore a forest that had otherwise been depleted by your
loggers. It's cheating if you use the ocean-depth tool to make the entirety
of the water around your island swim with school after school of fish. If
you're using the editor to do something that exists solely for the enhancement
of your island, that's cheating. If you're messing with the mechanics of the
game, or smoothing out something the auto-generator created that you didn't
particularly like, that's a different matter since you have to adjust your
strategy to the new conditions. And of course if you're using the map editor
to make things more difficult (creating steep cliffs along the shore, fjords,
that sort of thing), then it's a difficulty enhancer and not a cheat.
|===================================|
|10B. SMOOTHING (OR NOT) THE TERRAIN|
|===================================|
Making your entire island flat seems great in theory. People will walk
farther without getting tired. Crops that need wet lowland will grow better.
You can graze cattle and goats from dusk till dawn. But you'll also have to
forget about growing coffee, a particularly annoying prospect if a Trade
Delegation suddenly raises the price of the stuff. Tourists are more likely
to wander into places they're not welcome. And your rainfall patterns will
get quite strange with nothing to stop them from dumping water all over your
island, rather than "windward and leeward" if there were a mountain there.
Remember that changing the topography of your island changes the strategy of
your farms and mines.
|===============================================|
|10C. PUSHING THE BORDERS OF THE ISLAND A LITTLE|
|===============================================|
This is one part difficulty cheat, one part matter of preference. Got an
inlet where the water comes twenty cells inland and makes it hard to get
around that part of the shore? Use the "place beach" tool to draw a "bridge"
across the mouth of the inlet, then fill the water and inland beaches in with
grass. Land reclamation made easy. Want to set up your map to have a tiny
mass of land surrounded by water? Build outward from the center and take as
much of the map as you like without choking off the waterway so no boats will
come. You can use the beach tool to draw an outline of your "new" island then
use the grass (or other land) tool to fill in the space. Just remember to
move your city (instructions are in the EDITOR.TXT file) once you get your new
borders drawn up, because it's sure to be someplace inconvenient.
|===============================================|
|10D. MOVING THE MAGNIFICO PALACE SOMEPLACE ELSE|
|===============================================|
Examine your map for gold deposits. Use the appropriate buttons to remove
your palace, farms, and dock and re-place them where the gold is. Play on.
Use this method anytime you don't like your starting location. Yes, this
counts as cheating unless you're moving away from the archaeological site and
the gold deposits. But it can be a good boost to your economy if you're not
very good at getting the most out of your starting resources.
|=====================================|
|10E. REALLY NASTY EVENT EDITOR TRICKS|
|=====================================|
If you read the instructions for creating events, you know what I'm talking
about. I'm not very familiar with the syntax and programming of events, so
I'll leave it to the readers to submit detailed instructions, but it works
like this:
Create an event that always evaluates to true. For a condition, AddTo All
Revenue, say, 200. Use eventadd.exe. You've just created a scenario where
whatever you sell is now 3 times as expensive. Get the idea? Take a blank,
just-started island, use the instructions to make it into a "scenario" map,
then use events to make it way too easy (or a lot more difficult). Again,
"event programming" isn't my strong suit (unless it's REALLY hands-on like
in Railroad Tycoon), but I know some of you out there get what I'm driving at
with the event editor tricks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|===========================================|
|11. CHEATING: BRUTE FORCE METHODS OF MAYHEM|
|===========================================|
This isn't a chapter so much as it's a code list, but here goes:
Note that I don't advocate cheating, but hey, who am I to stand in your way?
This just keeps me from getting annoying email asking for cheat codes. If you
suck so bad at video games that you have to email FAQ writers for cheats, get
off the Internet and get some more practice playing the game. This obviously
doesn't go for those of you reading this FAQ looking for legitimate strategies
because that's part of what the Internet is for...exchange of information.
|====================================|
|11A. MUCHO DINERO FALLS FROM THE SKY|
|====================================|
Want instant money for the treasury? Try these!
PESOS: Adds $20,000 to the treasury

EXACTO: (requires editor mode enabled) Sets treasury to an exact value
($20,000,000, perhaps?)
|============================================|
|11B. ¿SENOR RODRIGUEZ? NO, SENOR ES MUERTE.|
|============================================|
"People cheats":
MUERTE: Instantly kills person selected.

REMOVEPEOPLE: Gives all people the Survivor treatment and votes them off the
island.
CONTENTO: Raises happiness (temporarily) by 10%.
|=====================================|
|11C. ¡BUENOS DIAS MAGICAL NEW PEOPLE!|
|=====================================|
In Editor Mode, press Ctrl-U to instantly staff any new building you build. If
you find there's a shortage of skilled workers on your island, you can create
them! Just press Ctrl-U, select any high-school-educated worker from the menu
and click to place. They'll come with an education and find their way to any
place they're needed. Useful for staffing a high school or college in
"Immigrants Out!" mode without spending a lot of money. Of course, spending
the money isn't CHEATING. Bah.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|===========================================================|
|PART V: REFERENCE GUIDE (BECAUSE THE MANUAL HAS BUGS IN IT)|
|===========================================================|
The manual's crawling with typos and errors. Use this reference guide to get
actual in-game information that's pulled directly from the screens of the game
interface...unless the information wasn't readily evident, stuff like "base
ratings" which are heavily modified by game circumstances being a prime
example.
|==================|
|12. BUILDING CHART|
|==================|
Base qualities and costs for all buildings ("Gizmos" and such can be found in
the appropriate chapter of the text. This is a straight reprint of the game's
basic quality and cost values, unmodified by setup choices.)
(Housing "holds" can be single people or families.)
|=============================================================|
|HOUSING |COST |HOLDS|BASE QUALITY|MAINT (MO)|ELEC (MW)|
|---------------|-----|-----|------------|----------|---------|
|Shack |Free*| 1| 5| Free| 0|
|Country House | 500| 1| 50| 1| 0|
|House | 1000| 1| 70| 3| 0|
|Luxury House | 2000| 1| 95| 6| 2|
|Tenement | 4000| 12| 35| 13| 0|
|Apartment Cmplx| 5000| 6| 60| 16| 0|
|Bunkhouse | 350| 2| 25| 1| 0|
|=============================================================|
*---Shacks are built by people with no place else to live.
|========================================|
|INDUSTRIAL |COST |WORKERS|MAINT (MO)|
|---------------|-----|-------|----------|
|Lumber Mill | 5000| 6| 16|
|Cannery |15000| 8| 50|
|Cigar Factory |10000| 8| 33|
|Jewelry Factory|13000| 6| 43|
|Rum Distillery |22000| 12| 73|
|========================================|
|=======================================|
|FARMS AND MINES|COST|WORKERS|MAINT (MO)|
|---------------|----|-------|----------|
|Farm |1000| 4| 3|
|Ranch | 750| 2| 2|
|Fishing Wharf |3000| 4| 10|
|Logging Camp |1000| 8| 5|
|Mine |3000| 5| 10|
|=======================================|
|====================================================================|
|TOURISM |COST |HOLDS|WORKERS|BASE QUALITY|MAINT (MO)|ELEC (MW)|
|--------------|-----|-----|-------|------------|----------|---------|
|Bungalow | 400| 1| 1| 7| 1| 0|
|Cheap Hotel | 4000| 10| 2| 30| 10| 0|
|Hotel | 5000| 12| 3| 50| 16| 0|
|Luxury Hotel |10000| 12| 6| 70| 40| 15|
|Pool | 4000| 16| 2| 60| 13| 0|
|Beach Site | 500| 10| 1| 50| 1| 0|
|Spa | 5000| 9| 3| 90| 16| 0|
|Scenic Outlook| 1000| 6| 1| 50| 3| 0|
|Arch. Site | 2000| 10| 2| 70| 0| 0|
|Souvenir Shop | 1250| 10| 2| 35| 4| 0|
|====================================================================|
|===================================================================|
|ENTERTAINMENT|COST |HOLDS|WORKERS|BASE QUALITY|MAINT (MO)|ELEC (MW)|
|-------------|-----|-----|-------|------------|----------|---------|
|Pub | 800| 8| 2| 35| 2| 0|
|Restaurant | 2000| 10| 2| 40| 4| 0|
|Cabaret | 4000| 9| 3| 60| 13| 0|
|Nightclub | 4000| 16| 4| 70| 13| 8|
|Gourmet Rest.| 3000| 12| 6| 80| 7| 5|
|Sports Complx|25000| 24| 6| 60| 83| 20|
|Casino |10000| 24| 4| 55| 33| 25|
|===================================================================|
|=================================================|
|INFRASTRUCTURE|COST |WORKERS|MAINT (MO)|ELEC (MW)|
|--------------|-----|-------|----------|---------|
|Dock | 2000| 5| 6| 0|
|Airport |16000| 2| 50| 0|
|Teamster Off. | 2000| 8| 6| 0|
|Construct. Off| 1000| 8| 3| 0|
|Electric Plant|17000| 6| 56| 100*|
|Substation | 2000| 0| 6| 0*|
|Bank | 8000| 5| 26| 0|
|=================================================|
*Electric Plants ADD 100 MW, rather than using it. Substations draw no power
themselves, but spread the electrical grid out so more buildings can use it.
|===============================================|
|GOVERNMENT |COST |WORKERS|MAINT (MO)|ELEC (MW)|
|------------|-----|-------|----------|---------|
|Palace |Free*| 4| 16| 0|
|Diplom. Min.| 5000| 3| 16| 0|
|Police Sta. | 2000| 6| 6| 0|
|Prison | 3000| 2| 10| 0|
|Guard Sta. | 1000| 3| 5| 0|
|Armory | 3000| 3| 10| 0|
|Immig. Off. | 2500| 2| 8| 0|
|Newspaper | 5000| 3| 23| 0|
|Radio Sta. |10000| 2| 33| 10|
|TV Station |15000| 3| 50| 15|
|===============================================|
Your palace, of course, comes pre-built.
|====================================================================|
|HUMAN SERVICES|COST |HOLDS|WORKERS|BASE QUALITY|MAINT (MO)|ELEC (MW)|
|--------------|-----|-----|-------|------------|----------|---------|
|Health Clinic | 3000| 8| 2| 50| 10| 0|
|Hospital |12000| 12| 4| 90| 40| 15|
|Church | 6000| 12| 4| 60| 20| 0|
|Cathedral |20000| 16| 4| 95| 66| 0|
|High School | 8000| 12| 6| *| 26| 0|
|College |12000| 16| 8| *| 40| 0|
|Marketplace | 500| NA| 1| NA| 1| 0|
|====================================================================|
*Education Efficiency is a function of worker experience and quality along
with your island's base education level (as modified by your setup choices).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|================|
|13. PEOPLE CHART|
|================|
Simply put, this is a list of jobs broken down by education level and gender.
M=Male, F=Female, N=Neuter (men or women can have job)
|===========================================================|
| UNEDUCATED JOBS | HIGH-SCHOOL JOBS | COLLEGE JOBS |
|------------------|-------------------|--------------------|
|Farmer N|Factory Worker N|General M|
|Laborer N|Priest M|Bishop M|
|Miner M|Soldier M|Professor M|
|Dockworker M|Pit Boss M|Banker M|
|Lumberjack M|Athlete M|Doctor M|
|Teamster M|Policeman M|Engineer F|
|Fisherman M|Teacher F|Journalist F|
|Attendant M|Shopkeeper F| |
|Maid F|Bureaucrat F| |
|Barmaid F| | |
|Showgirl F| | |
|Cook F| | |
|===========================================================|
Other people not part of the labor force include Tourists (slob or rich),
Students (male or female, high-school or college), Unemployed (look for a job,
any job, that their gender and/or education allows for them), Retiree (walks
around until dead), Mother (has a child under 1 and doesn't work), Baby (whom
you never see onscreen), and Child (walks around until they turn 13 and have
to find a job or go to school).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|===================|
|14. CHARACTER CHART|
|===================|
Following, a complete list of what each character attribute does, since the
manual's got major bugs in it:
|============================================================================|
|BACKGROUND | EFFECTS |
|-----------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
|Moscow U. |Commnists +10 USA -15 Russia +25 Education +10 |
|Harvard U. |Capitalists +10 USA +25 Russia -15 Education +20 |
|Miner |Commies +10 Capit. +10 Environ. -20 Miner Prod. +50 |
|Farmer |Commies +10 Intellectuals -10 Farmer Prod. +50 |
|Biblical Scholar |Religious +10 Intellect. +5 Crime -15 Education +10 |
|Leftist Author |Communists +10 Intellect. +15 Education +20 |
|Fortunate Son |Overall +10 Intellectuals -10 |
|Self-Made Man |Capitalists +15 USA +10 Factory Prod. +15 |
|Silver Spoon |Comm -10 Capit. +25 Trsm +10 Fact. +20 StartCash +2K|
|Generalissimo |Milit. +30 Liberty -20 Soldier Effic. +15 |
|Chief of Police |Milit. +10 Liberty -10 Crime Rate -40 |
|Developer |Capit. +20 Environ. -10 Pollution +50 BuildCost -20 |
|Naturalist |Intellect. +15 Environ. +25 Poll. -30 BuildCost +10 |
|Professor |Intellectuals +10 Education +50 |
|Pop Singer |Overall +5 USA +10 Tourism +10 Nightclub +50 |
|-----------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
|RISE TO POWER | EFFECTS |
|-----------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
|Communist Rebellion |V. Low: Comm. +10 Russia +25 Lib. -10 FarmProd +10 |
|Capitalist Rebellion |Low: Capit. +10 USA +25 Lib. -10 FactProd +10 |
|Elected as Socialist |High: Comm. +10 Russia +15 Lib. +20 |
|Elected as Fascist |Moderate: Milit. +15 Lib. +20 Crime -10 |
|Elected as Capitalist |V. High: Capit. +5 USA +15 Lib. +20 FactProd +20 |
|Elected for Family Val.|V. High: Religious +15 Lib. +20 Tourism +10 |
|Military Coup |NearNil: Milit. +20 Lib. -20 Crime -20 Mil. Bld. -25|
|Religious Appointment |Somewhat Low: Relig. +15 Religious Bldgs. -25 |
|Installed by KGB |VLow: Comm. +10 Russia +40 Lib. -30 Unedu. Soldiers |
|Installed by CIA |Low: Capit. +10 USA +40 Lib. -30 CIA Stipend $2K/yr |
|Bought Election |Somewhat Low: Intellect. -5 More Fraud, Less Penalty|
|Heir Apparent |Low: Overall Respect +10 |
|-----------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
|QUALITIES | EFFECTS |
|-----------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
|Charismatic |Ovr. Respect +5 Radio/TV Dogma +50 |
|Hardworking |Overall Productivity +10 |
|Financial Genius |Capit. +10 FactProd +20 Bank/Shop Cost -25 |
|Green Thumb |Environ. +10 FactProd -10 Pollution -50 |
|Administrator |Education +10 Building Cost -10 |
|Diplomat |USA +5 Russia +5 Free Diplomatic Ministry at start |
|Empathy |Overall +10 Intellectuals -10 |
|Entrepreneurial |Export Prices +10 |
|Incorruptible |Religious +10 Intellect. +10 Crime -30 No SwissBank |
|Scholarly |Intellectuals +20 Education +30 |
|-----------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
|FLAWS | EFFECTS |
|-----------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
|Kleptomaniac |Capit. -10 Relig. -10 FactProd -10 ShopMaint +100 |
|Womanizer |Religious -10 All Women -10 |
|Compulsive Liar |Religious -15 Intellectuals -15 |
|Ugly |Overall Respect -5 Tourism -10 |
|Alcoholic |Religious -15 OverallProd -5 Russia +10 |
|Bad Case of the Farts |USA -20 Russia -10 Palace Guard 2xPay |
|Compulsive Gambler |Religious -10 Annual Gambling Binge (300-1500) |
|Paranoid |Ovr. Resp. -10 Milit. +10 Police Resent like Soldier|
|Coward |Milit. -5 Soldiers/Supporters 2x as likely to run |
|Moronic, Dumb as Toast |Education -50 No Colleges |
|Short-Tempered |Intellect. -15 Militarists -10 |
|Pompous |USA -20 Issue Edict Cost +30 |
|Tourette's Syndrome |Ovr. Resp. -5 USA -15 Russia -15 PPV Revenue $1K/yr |
|Cheapskate |Commies -10 BldCost -5 Salary Cap $25/month |
|Religious Zealot |Relig. +5 Intellect. -25 Church Visits +50 |
|The Great Schmoozola |Int. -20 USA -10 Russia -10 Stupid People Resp. +10 |
|============================================================================|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|======================|
|PART VI: ODDS AND ENDS|
|======================|
Here you can find methods by which you can contact me and find out what I'm up
to, when some of my FAQs will be released, and (if you're young, cute, female,
and single) how to get me to like you. A self-employed 24-year-old doesn't
get to meet many people at work!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|=======================|
|15. CONTACT INFORMATION|
|=======================|
E-Mail: rocketshow@hotmail.com
GameFAQs Message Boards: SimuLord
Messenger Services: Only if I like you. Otherwise you'll probably just annoy
me. I have enough trouble getting work done as it is.
Snail-Mail or Phone: Ha. Funny. Last thing I need is another stalker.
If you're from a gaming site, don't bother. This FAQ is exclusive to GameFAQs
so don't even ask. I don't care if you're a little freesite, I don't care if
I've granted you permission to use any of my other stuff. It's EXCLUSIVE. No
exceptions. I'm tired of spending more time surfing the Web enforcing my
copyright than I do working. It's inefficient and unproductive, and I have
deadlines to meet.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|===============|
|16. COMING SOON|
|===============|
In the pipeline on the video game front:
January 4, 2002: Railroad Tycoon II: Platinum Edition Strategy Guide, a

completely reworked version of my original RRTII FAQ that covers the expansion
pack in full detail.
January 30, 2002: Civilization III FAQ Version 3.0. My big monolith gets
another shot of reader submissions and editor tricks.
February 2002: Tropico: Paradise Island will be part of Version 2.0 of this
FAQ, or spun off into its own separate strategy guide. I haven't decided yet,
since I want to get the pack and play with it before I start pontificating.
Other things in the pipeline: Ask me again in a few weeks.
This concludes Señor Fox's Only Strategy Guide You'll Ever Need. Thank you,
and drive through.
------------------------------------END---------------------------------------
Tropico: FAQ/Strategy Guide by SimuLord Hosted by GameFAQs

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Tropico: FAQ/Strategy Guide by SimuLord Hosted by GameFAQs

2. This FAQ is a work-in-progress. I don't think it's humanly possible to

Anyway, the farms and mines:

SALE PRICE: $400/load ($2000 per full 5-load teamster cart)

SALE PRICE: $900/load ($4500/cart)

SALE PRICE: $1300/load ($6500/cart)

SALE PRICE: $800/load ($4000/cart)

I promised a discussion on "chain of command farming" in this section, so here

SALE PRICE: $1000/load ($5000/cart)

SALE PRICE: $800/load ($4000/cart)

SALE PRICE: $600/load ($3000/cart)

SALE PRICE: $1000/load ($5000/cart). Smokehouse increases the price by 20%,

SALE PRICE: $700/load ($3500/cart)

All kidding aside, I'm a big proponent of mining. It provides high-profit

Mining productivity can be enhanced by any of three electric gizmos, which

SALE PRICE: $1300/load ($6500/cart)

SALE PRICE: $1600/load ($8000/cart)

SALE PRICE: $3000/load ($15000/cart)

SALE PRICE: $300/load ($1500/cart)

SALE PRICE: $600/load ($3000/cart)

Of note: Whenever possible, build your logging camps a little ways in to a

SALE PRICES (per cart): Jewelry $26500, Fine Jewelry $32000.

SALE PRICES (per cart): Cigars $16000, Machine-Rolled Cigars $14400.

SALE PRICE (per cart): $7500

More expensive hotels (regular, luxury, bungalow, whatever) attract richer

Don't forget the police station! Tourists, especially high-class tourists,

The short version: Keep your uneducated in apartments, your high-school

---from my Civilization III Strategy Guide.

---Don't forget that if you have high-school and college-educated workers in

To begin, I offer a chart of maintenance costs and employee counts at each of

Laborers are the backbone of your island's expansion plans. They're

High Schools require high-school educated women to be the teachers. Colleges

Got College? Good. Give the women something to do after graduation by

Once you've got enough high-school educated workers to have a good go at

In order to staff the high-school-educated buildings properly, keep a close

As regards the Diplomatic Ministry, I recommend Neutral Policies until the

Serves two purposes. One, it helps you to attract higher-quality tourists

Personally, I never arrest anyone. I prefer more peaceful methods of

If someone's causing so much trouble that they're a real threat to bring up an

Speaking of Eliminate, this is the preferred method of taking care of people

Everything I haven't specifically mentioned elsewhere:

That will certainly help boost your standing by quite a bit!

Want to build a little slice of paradise so beautiful that even eco-weenies

Keeping Environmentalists happy is a function of ecology, and as such, you're

My kind of people. They advocate the advancement of education, which in

Following, a dissertation on each of the possible character attributes and

FARMER: Useful in a variety of circumstances, from basic feeding of the people

GENERALISSIMO: On the other hand, you could go for a might-makes-right

PROFESSOR: 50% higher Education. 20% higher Intellectual respect. And oh

CAPITALIST REBELLION: Low democratic expectations, and similar bonuses to the

ELECTED AS SOCIALIST: High democratic expectations, so consolidate your power

ELECTED AS CAPITALIST: Very High democratic expectations mean elections early

MILITARY COUP: Near Nil democratic expectations. Cancel elections whenever

RELIGIOUS APPOINTMENT: Low democratic expectations, since the church has

ADMINISTRATOR: 10% boost to Education. 10% discount on buildings. Simple.

ENTREPRENEURIAL: Cha-CHING! Instant 10% boost to export prices. Combine this

KLEPTOMANIAC: Capitalists and Religious both dislike this one. Factory

FLATULENCE: Poot. US hates a flatulent Presidente, and Russia wouldn't mind

COWARD: A mild inconvenience if you keep everyone happy...suicide if you have

TOURETTE'S SYNDROME: $1,000 Pay-per-View revenue. That's just cruel...but I

RELIGIOUS ZEALOT: Ayatollah Presidente? You'll get a 5% boost to Religious

All the possibilities, ranked and graded: