first impressions of PI

[skeebercat]

I am know sitting down to play my first full scenario of PI, I haven't yet experience all that it has to offer, but I did play about 10 years of a open ended scenerio just to check it out.  I set random event occurance to high.  Now, this made for an interesting few years as I had 2 hurricanes and a tropical storm come through.  Hurricanes are bad!!  They wiped out practically every building on the island 'cept the palace of course, and then the world kicks out 20000 for recouping your losses.  That works well if you have just started but the hit on food and having no dock is bad - think is also took all but one construction office.  Give y'all more updates as my game goes on!!

[Morticcia]

I would seriously like to know what you do when you have no construction offices?  Does the game just spiral down into mayhem?  Or does the rehab feature provide the option for you place one in rapido mode?

[el_malo]

... so far, I have not lost all my construction offices, as the result of a hurricane or storm.

[Junta_Joe]

Hurricans make an excellent case for Rapido.

[skeebercat]

It's always left me with one so maybe that's a default or something similar...  if i find different I will certainly let everyone know, and I failed repeatedly at an easy scenario but now on a hard one I am thriving...

[Strider]

maybe that's a default

i would agree, maybe a question for breakaway mac unless he's broken away somewhere else...Morticcia, are you speculating or did that happen to you? also,  i would guess you won't get the foot and mouth event unless you have a cattle ranch or maybe it effects those steaks the generals eat!

just wanted to add did anyone notice you can play your saved games and all the new features are there?   nice...

[skeebercat]

I did have a foot and mouth outbreak with 1 cattle ranch and lots of export flux too

[skeebercat]

Dec of '63, hurricane Helena comes through and wipes out tourism, docks, houses and mines....  random events are something else!  Has anyone had a good random event except for trade percentage increases?

[Strider]

quick question.  i never really noticed this until looking thru the "manual" for PI.  what is Quality of environment that shows up in the Notes section for tourist attractions?  in Tropico only the pool and beach site have it but there are several more in PI.   which way do they effect the quality, good or bad?  thanks

[skeebercat]

It just crashed on me... 45 years in, about 350 people living on island, Hurricane Floyd came through, took out docks, electric plants, pool, spa, a few houses and then it crashed...

[Junta_Joe]

As a person who loves building and resource games, this random event generator is for the birds. My strategy is based on using a 50 to 70 year term.  To have to rebuild it every 15 years would drive my sense of order nuts. Who would like to spend 4 hours on something and have it destroyed? I can understand when it's your fault that it failed. All one has to do is try harder and problem solved. To be slapped by the winds of fate is enough like TRW to leave that generator alone!

[skeebercat]

I might have to disagree with you on that one.  This is a Carribean simulation so tropical storms are viable, as are price fluxuations.  But,  I'm setting the randomness to high...  no Island gets hit like mine have!!  Price flux is one thing, but tell me an Island in the Carribean that gets hit every 5 years by some type of storm....  That's like a Tornado coming through Omaha every 5 years... it just doesn't happen.

[Batchman]

Sounds like you are having a lot of fun with it, Skeebs ... though I've got to admit, I'd be closer to Joe's side of things ... I want to build, not rebuild where everything has fallen to pieces!

To each their own!

Still look forward to giving it a try, when the time comes. A question ... has anybody been trying the furniture shop, yet, and seeing what they thing of it? I know you can get premiums on wood from the US/Russia ... but will that push up what the poor furniture shop has to pay, to be able to get their materials?

[skeebercat]

haven't even thought about the new furniture shop yet!!  enough other new stuff to keep me busy so far.  All in all, I dig it -- very nice job!  But, it is harder as it should be... haven't used any of the new martial law controls or dungeon features yet though

[Batchman]

I want to get in and try the miniature golf course!

If I can ever find an investor or two, that's where I'll make my money in life. (In real life.)

Now if only SimGolf were available for the Mac!

[Morticcia]

Strider, no, I haven't had a random event take out all of my construction buildings.  I was just asking skeeber if he had had to deal with that and postulating on how the game might handle situation when, and if, it occurred.  

[Blackrook]

Just made it through a game of PI at moderate levels of difficulty.  The game is actually easier to win because of certain features:

* Game tells you your chance of winning BEFORE you decide whether to call elections.

* Martial law: My happiness was in the low 30's and everyone was angry. Relunctantly, I called for an election hoping I could appease the people.  I then cut taxes, held a mardi gras, and built fountains and trees to improve the environment.  The people still hated me.  So I arrested my opponent in the election and that just made things worse.  As a last resort, I slapped down martial law and no election! SWEET!  I had to raise soldier's salaries to sky-high levels to pull it off though.  After that I breezed through the last 10 years and got a score above 2000 points.

* Always implement social security first thing.  It keeps retirees and students out of shacks.

* I built the dungeon early in two games but so far I haven't used it.  It's a nice option though because you can have it in the early game as an alternative to eliminating people which is very messy.

Here's some tips I have from playing last night:

* Ironically, if your liberty is low, the soldiers are unhappy too, even though they're part of the "problem" when they patrol the streets.

* If you want to be an oppressive dictator, then use the swiss bank account victory option.  Concentrate on making lots of money and then build like a wild man in the last ten years of the game.

* I always use the very fast speed now because it makes the money come in faster.  At normal speed I build faster than I make money and always end up broke.  Slow down or pause when you have a crisis to deal with or something special you need to do -- i.e. bribe, capture, eliminate, etc.

[Coconut Kid]

I never really noticed this until looking thru the "manual" for PI.  What is Quality of environment that shows up in the Notes section for tourist attractions?  In Tropico only the pool and beach site have it, but there are several more in PI. Which way do they effect the quality, good or bad?

There are not several - it shows only on the Conservatory in the PI booklet. It very likely is supposed to be a positive value for the "Beauty" aura (radiated effect) as shown on the bldg.dat spread sheet. Most of those values are negative. Unfortunately, there is no, zero collelation between the note in the manuals and the positive values on the spread sheet. Those buildings are:

• Beach Villa 2
• Archaeological Site 12
• Colonial Fort Artifact Dig 10
• Beach Site 5
• Colonial Fort Museum 12
• Palace 5
• Church 5
• Cathedral 10
• College 5
• Statue 5
• Fountain 9
• Large Fountain 21
• Colonial Fort Undeveloped 10

So - Beauty and Quality of Environment seem to have meant the same thing to the developers.

... has anybody been trying the furniture shop yet, and seeing what they think of it? I know you can get premiums on wood from the US/Russia - but will that push up what the poor furniture shop has to pay to be able to get their materials?

It was discovered that something or other is broken about the Furniture Factory. One thing - it has a maximum input queue, but the Teamsters will try to deliver more and then dump the load - losing it. However, I have seen no reports which examine the issue of changing input costs.

<<snip>>
* I always use the very fast speed now because it makes the money come in faster.  At normal speed I build faster than I make money and always end up broke.  Slow down or pause when you have a crisis to deal with or something special you need to do -- i.e. bribe, capture, eliminate, etc.

That's crazy.    The money does NOT come in faster -- it just comes in faster than you can point and click new buildings. In relation to the calendar, money comes in the same no matter the game speed. Changing the game speed changes how fast the calendar passes.