Hard Economy!?!?!

[El Presidente de la Repulica de Tropico]

Hey people!
I was just wondering how on earth you get through games with a hard economy. I nearly always set political difficulty to hard (which isnt too bad if you are generally a generous ruler like myself  ) but the hardest i ever set economic difficulty to is Moderate. Any tips on how to get through a hard economic game would be GREATLY appreciated.

[Egg]

  Playing with the political level to the hardest is almost impossible, but I've played the game with the hardest economic difficulty level.

  Personally, I think that the trick to it is in tourism, since most of the other industries would have hell of a time taking off, I find tourism cheap and easy. Heres the catch, they only bring in about $3-$5 per person!! So the solution is in the quantity, have more cheap hotels, set the rates to about $7 a room and have more attractions! Good luck!

[Coconut Kid]

A reply has been posted to a topic you are watching by Rebel-Yell.
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Quote from: Coconut Kid on Today [01/31/10] at 04:11 PM

Quote from: Egg on 03/28/04 at 08:40 AM
  Playing with the political level to the hardest is almost impossible, but I've played the game with the hardest economic difficulty level.
  Personally, I think that the trick to it is in tourism, since most of the other industries would have hell of a time taking off, I find tourism cheap and easy. ...

I think at that time no one was yet apprised of the BUG which doubles the revenue from accomodations.
It would be interesting to know if the opinion would be the same with half the hotel fees.

IMO, it is - though the difference between industry and tourism isn't as big with the fix anymore of course. As posted elsewhere, Tourism provides a steady income (my main beginner error was overestimating the money which comes out of the industry - you get your occasional large chunk and then you think that you are done -- until the steadily climbing yearly maintenance kills you. I can't say how many games I have lost because of that trap, before finally realizing it) - you get the first bit when tourists arrive, you get every month the room rent and you get again when they visit entertainment facilities. Compared to that industry is a lot more then just providing buildings and manning them - you need time for every step of the chain of value-creating. Harvesting/Mining/Logging/ --, transporting, processing, transporting, loading on the freighter. Still not counted in that a teamster might die on his route (I'm pretty sure his cargo is lost then) and many of the involved occupations are ones where people need to actually "work" (room maids do their duties in comparison even when they pray in the church)  If one part of the chain fails, the entire thing is dead in case of industry. If an entertainment facility closes up, tourists choose another or get in the worst case slightly unhappy. The only danger really to tourism is frequent political instability - that's why the combo of both hardest levels is so insane.

Unfortunately, RY did not know that the maids were more efficient when they were actually in the building.