Cafe Dave's 2003 version of Nicaragua!

[Coconut Kid]

In January 2003, Cafe Dave released a beautiful map of Nicaragua for a competition.

There are no events for this map other than briefing, almanac & final score, and instructions - just pure strategy.  But I will also post soon a scenario version with a freighter load of events based on the real history of Nicaragua and starting in 1937.

So everyone got to practice on the complicated map.

Scoring for this map is a complicated combination of Swiss Bank, Industry Revenue, US Relationship and National Guard ratio to population, so pay close attention to the formula in the briefing and plan your strategy accordingly.  The National Guard is your total of generals, soldiers and policemen.

There is the basis of planning laid out for you. Rob the treasury; export finished goods, not just raw matierials; kiss-up to Uncle Sam; power to your guns, not to the unhappy people.

Participation in the competition was a bit sparce; perhaps because of the anticipation of the release of T2.
Then in the middle of April 2003, came the full scenario with events.

The map will be familiar to anyone who played the competition map.  But the clock is turned back to 1937 and many events have been added to give a complete history of the Somoza dynasty.  I think it will be quite difficult, but many did well on the competition, so if you use those tactics, it may be easy.  I have not actually won it yet; so I will be interested to see who does.

This map is dedicated to Mr.P for his event suggestions and encouragement to do it.

I think the turn-back of the clock is only figurative. None the less, this scenario gave the hard-core a ride for its money. It still provides a "challenge" for those who enjoy this game.

More comments are coming. 

[Coconut Kid]

Here is a summary of some of Junta Joe's comments:

A winning strategy will require building a 400+ population. Don't forget to feed them.

Banks have a major weakness in game "balance." They max at $700 to Swiss Account for $100k in net profit. The expense of the Bankers is far greater than the "rake-off" to the S.Ac. Maybe Solutions: 1} Modify the 'unit file' to make Bankers HS rather than College; 2} Make & use a scenario event like "hotel fix" to double the transfer to the S.Ac. One or the Other - not Both. [GSExpSpecSentToSwissBank] ^{per CK}

Don't rush to build houses for the peons (uneducated) - concentrate on housing the priviledged. Instead use entertainment, religion & health care to placate the masses (as much as possible).

Exports of manufactured goods MUST exceed exports of raw goods after the first ten years. You need to start building factories ASAP. Forget Furniture Factories; Lumber Mill does the job for Logging Camps.

MAP MODIFICATION: If you experience ships/freighters wandering across land from the north "channel": try removing a two-tile strip of the land, converting it to level water and making the new edge rock.
Something new to think about -- I hope. 

[Coconut Kid]

Text file included in the ZIP file with the game version 2:
Title                   : Nicaragua 1937
Filename                : Nicaragua1937.zip
Game version required   : 1.5 or higher (Paradise Island or Mucho Macho)
Scenario Version        : 2.0
Release Date            : April 21, 2003
Author                  : CafeDave
Email Address           : cafedave@strategyplanet.com
Home Page               : http://www.strategyplanet.com/tropico/index.shtml
Misc. Author Info       : Webmaster of Cafe Tropico!
Description             : It is January 1, 1937, the dawn of the rule of General Anastasio Somoza García in Nicaragua. General Somoza started a dynasty that ruled Nicaragua with an iron fist for over 40 years.  Can you duplicate their success in this politically charged Central American country?
Updates                 : Changed goals from $200k Swiss Bank to $100k, ratio from 20% to 15%
Rated Difficulty        : Ridiculously Hard
Additional Credits to   : MrP for his excellent suggestions for events and his love of Nicaragua history!
Base                    : Nicaragua pcx image
Editor(s) used          : EventAdd / Wordpad
Events                  : many scripted events
Build Time              : 6 months
Known Bugs              : None
Playtesters             : Myself

* Copyright and Permissions *

Authors (MAY) use this map as a base to build additional scenarios.

You (MAY) distribute this scenario, provided you include this file, with no
modifications. You (MAY) distribute this scenario in any electronic format
(BBS, Web Site, etc) as long as you include this file intact.

* Where to get this scenario *

http://www.strategyplanet.com/tropico/
OR
http://dynamic3.gamespy.com/~tropico/cafe/index.php?board=7
The only difference from the text file included with the original is the "update" line.

[Dr. Jekyll]

My strategy was to get the US alliance before 1945 to be able to milk the annual 1000$ into my swiss bank and a additional 5k into the treasury. Noticed that the US relation always dropped in 45.
Issued the Russia Aid eddict and buildt a gold mine and a couple of sugar farms as my first projects. Choosed to confiscate the goldmine during the war and built a Army base before the end of the war. Also switched the newspaper to Financial Times early on.
Issued the Martial Law right after the alliance was secured and closed my borders so I did not have to worry about the elections and to many emigrants.
There was a few desperate people that slipped through my defences even with a fully staffed Immigration office. :/   

[Coconut Kid]

I have never benefited from building a bank for slush-fund. With the money you are paying the bankers, you could build more buildings and get the cash from the special building permit.

If I am remembering correctly, this scenario lets you drain money from certain businesses. That can increase your Swiss Account a lot too.

I need to look to see what may have been posted about actual measurement tests on Slush-Fund Banking. I wonder what should be a reasonable return to the Swiss Account over/ above the cost of the Bank.

Perhaps we need "an event-fix" like >>hotel-fix<< to make the Bank work correctly for all scenarios.

 

[Coconut Kid]

Here is Senior Ruina's Tropicology: Banks:
http://tropico.strategyplanet.gamespy.com/cafe/index.php?topic=5679.0

First, embezzlement by a single very highly skilled banker seemed to top out at $81/month, from the $500k treasury level that is found in sandbox mode.  This suggests that yearly rates max out at 0.2%/year per banker.  ... I have not tested multiple embezzlers carefully, though I have used them in play and it seems to scale up.

However, there is a big problem with embezzlement: it is an attendance-based job.  So in reality you will never get near .2% per year, since a banker is unlikely to work more than 4-6 months/year.  If you plan to embezzle, make sure there is a house for each embezzler near their bank.  Micromanage him into it.

WOW! Attendance-based job! I had thought that all such were those where the workers were visible outside the employing building. Whilst the 'indoor' workers were performing their duties 24/7. It didn't seem logical; but it was hard to show otherwise.

Under "Money Makes the Man", If you can get 15 bankers working 1/3 of the year, you will be moving 1%/year to Switzerland.  With a treasury of size N, you get 10x as many points for Swiss Money as you do for "Economic Powerhouse" cash/buildings of that value.

When you switch banks between uses, there is always a lag of several years while the bankers get up to speed on the new use.  So don't expect to quickly switch on "urban development" for a building spree, and then back to "embezzlement", at least not without a penalty.  (I still think it may be a good idea.)

On urban development: first off, it is not attendance based.  The rate does max out at 60%, but this does not seem to be by bank, but rather the number and skill of individual bankers doing it.  I found that 9 highly skilled bankers can get the full 60% after a few years.   It does not seem to matter how many banks are doing it, just how many bankers, their skill levels, and for how long.

I did not do much research on offshore banking, but it does not appear to be attendance based.

Special Banking [Building] Permit is a fairly effective way to move money to Switzerland.  It can be extremely effective, depending on how you use it.
I regard fake building and unbuilding as a cheat/exploit.  Why?  Because using it completely removes the reason for an important game feature (using bankers to move your money), and the scoring system clearly rewards the difficulty of getting money to Switzerland.  If you want to use it, fine; clearly in that case you should never use bankers to move money.
By my calculation ..., 5 bankers embezzling for 6 years should get on the order of 2% of your treasury moved.  That's not hard to afford.

Copper Maniac: It does not turn out that you can move 1% or some other fixed percentage per year of your treasury to Switzerland. ... Building maintenance on a bank is 64 per banker per year.  If banker wages were 20, then that is 240 per year.  So there are 304 expenses per banker per year.  A profit can be made off the housing and entertainment for the bankers, but other overhead exceeds this, so the expenses are greater than 304 per banker per year. ... since the treasury amount seems to have no effect on the effectiveness of the bankers, you want to be using both Swiss banking and the special building permit as much as possible if you have a thriving economy ...

Well the issue is how much it costs to skim money.  In which case, what you want to know is the marginal cost of a banker.

Personally, I would not put such a fine point on it. The cost of the Bank Building's maintence and the Bankers' pay is enough complexity for me. I do remain confused about how the skim/embezzlement is computed. Is it on the total treasury or only on the the net or gross additions to the treasury.

 

[Dr. Jekyll]

I have personally noticed that bankers have taken some of the income from export and put it directly into the swiss account, atleast in some of the scenarios/randoms I have played.
I do also suspect that they put away some of the income from hotels and entertainment aswell.
Have not tracked the bankers or swiss account to close, but they seem to affect more than the treasury as far as I can see. I have also seen my swiss account growing when my treasury are in the red.

But there can be a difference between v1.07 and v1.53 and I have mostly played the original version because of the hotel bug/feature.

[Coconut Kid]

I have personally noticed that bankers have taken some of the income from export and put it directly into the swiss account, at least in some of the scenarios/randoms I have played.

I do also suspect that they put away some of the income from hotels and entertainment as well.

Have not tracked the bankers or Swiss account too close, but they seem to affect more than the treasury as far as I can see. I have also seen my Swiss account growing when my treasury are in the red. ...

My question was:

I do remain confused about how the skim/embezzlement is computed. Is it on the total treasury or only on the the net or gross additions to the treasury.

I think Dr. Jekyll's answer is that the skim/embezzlement is applied to the gross revenue from off-island sources, i.e. dock to ship exports and various tourist income. The point of application to tourism income is yet to be clarified.

The point is to know where to apply a corrective script event, if there is a consensus that the embezzlement bankers are not efficient enough. Now if anyone cares to go forward about that ~~~?

 

[Coconut Kid]

Junta Joe's comment:

But nothing compares to the $200k swiss requirement.  A full stocked bank will put only $700 in your account every year if you make over $100k in net profits.  Banking will not make a dent.  The special deals help somewhat, but, only a grand or two a year.  The only way to fill the swiss account is with the 'building permit'.  Unless you want to turn the island into a cathedral factory, this won't fill the bill.

Just to survive until the end, I went with a Rapido game finally on the 3rd try.  Nothing I did could get the $200k.  I had 6 cathedrals to match my 5 army bases.  I had fountains everywhere.  I still only managed $150k in the swiss account.

Unless you modify the special deals, that $200k won't be met.

It seems to me that the embezzlement bankers should be at least as efficient as the 'Special Building Permit.' But we need to evaluate the how the two compare, eh?

[Coconut Kid]

It seems to me that the embezzlement bankers should be at least as efficient as the 'Special Building Permit.' But we need to evaluate the how the two compare, eh?

Special Building Permit: 1.2 x BC¹ = NBC² x .1 = increment to Swiss account for building start order. Occurs per event. Cost to treasury is twice Swiss account increment. Political cost is only to Intellectual Faction.
¹ = building cost per standard/manual
² = new/augmented building cost

Embezzlement Bank: ~%³ x gross national revenue annually = increment to Swiss account for embezzlement. Occurs annually. By Assumption: Cost to treasury is the increment to Swiss account + nominal cost of embezzlement bank & bankers (variable). Political cost is unknown, but seems to be none in the Tropico world.
³ = a highly variable figure depending on the number of staff and their skill level as Bankers (not just embezzlers ; in Tropico there is no difference).

This is a very difficult comparison. The 'Permit' is reliable and quick to observe. The 'Embezzlement Bank' brings a number of variables into consideration. Here one has to rely on the developer's play-testing to be assured that the cost of operation (perhaps at 75% efficiency) of the bank will not exceed the increment to the Swiss account. The two figures should be ~=.

Overall, the 'embezzlement bank' requires more attention, perhaps to the micro-management level, but avoids the political cost - so far as is known.

Then the follow-on question is, does anyone desire to make changes with scripted events?

[Coconut Kid]

It is a very nice representation at the Tropico scale. There only a couple of "nit-picks" to mention.

You have seen Junta Joe's comment about the north edge in this thread.

Personally, I would like the northern mountain ranges to be somewhat more specifically defined.

I think the 'Costa de Miskitoa' could be better defined as swamp land. The entire eastern sea area should be shallow.