Newbie questions...

[Xain]

Hi, just fired up the game ... confused!  

1) How do I rotate buildings? I've got a horrible feeling the answer is I can't, apart from docks and such.

2) How do I build shops? Is the market the only option?

3) How do I know if I've got enough food? Do I just divide the no. of people by 30 and if I've got more farms than that, I switch some to cash crops? Does variety matter, or can I feed my people nothing but corn?

4) What about half-cash crops? Eg. Banana's, which could be exported or eaten.

5) How many jeweler's per gold mine?

6) Why is everything so placed out? My towns take 6x the room they should!

I'll probably think of more soon

EDIT: Just removed a qu about tobacco and cigers - the Autoroller thread had more than enough info

[Coffeebean]

1) How do I rotate buildings? I've got a horrible feeling the answer is I can't, apart from docks and such.

- You can't. You're right, but we've just heard that the expansion pack will enable all building rotation , not out untill Jan though.

2) How do I build shops? Is the market the only option?

-There's only the market and the souvenier shop.

3) How do I know if I've got enough food? Do I just divide the no. of people by 30 and if I've got more farms than that, I switch some to cash crops? Does variety matter, or can I feed my people nothing but corn?

- Dividing the no. of people by 30 is good. Also in the almanac under happiness - food you can see how much food is available and how much your people are eating. Switching excess farms to cash crops helps to bring in the early pesos. You can feed nothing but corn but variety ups their food happiness.

4) What about half-cash crops? Eg. Banana's, which could be exported or eaten.

- Yep

5) How many jeweler's per gold mine?

- I reckon at least 2, 3's better.

6) Why is everything so placed out? My towns take 6x the room they should!

- I don't know that I understand your question. But the environment suffers if you squish things up too much.

Hope that helps and have a good read of the boards there's loads of helpful stuff here.

[Xain]

-There's only the market and the souvenier shop.

Yeah, well, that's tourist only - doesn't really count.

-Dividing the no. of people by 30 is good. Also in the almanac under happiness - food you can see how much food is available and how much your people are eating. Switching excess farms to cash crops helps to bring in the early pesos. You can feed nothing but corn but variety ups their food happiness.

What about half-cash crops? Eg. Banana's, which could be exported or eaten - Yep.

I mean are banana's, pineapples etc eaten or exported? In general, what's eaten and what's exported? It should be the cheapest is eaten until everyone's full, the rest, (most expensive) being sold. The exception would be cigars, which aren't edible and would usually be sold.

- I don't know that I understand your question. But the environment suffers if you squish things up too much.

I mean compare a Tropico city with a Simcity city. I accept and agree that Tropico shouldn't be as tight, but they are so lose that it just looks a mess

Thanks a mill for your help anyway! Another question:

7) Is there any way to raise or lower ground? I can't get the editor to do anything  :-/

[CrAzY_fEnIx]

I mean are banana's, pineapples etc eaten or exported? In general, what's eaten and what's exported? It should be the cheapest is eaten until everyone's full, the rest, (most expensive) being sold. The exception would be cigars, which aren't edible and would usually be sold.

I haven't been around long enough to give a definitive answer on this one, but it seems that until you've established your food production (i.e. corn being harvested each season, fish being caught regularly) corn will be the main export crop.  After a couple cash crop harvests, you'll notice that corn exports are no longer dominant on you're top export sheet.  That leads me to believe that the population eats corn first, possibly moving into the next cheapest food product then (fish?).  

I mean compare a Tropico city with a Simcity city. I accept and agree that Tropico shouldn't be as tight, but they are so lose that it just looks a mess

I look at it like this, several of my friends have been stationed in '3rd world' island nations.  They tell me that the settlements don't exactly resemble a well planned SimCity.  I just think of it as PopTop making an effort to be realistic.  

7) Is there any way to raise or lower ground? I can't get the editor to do anything  

Try this:
Open game.
Open savegame/ random map.
Pause game.
Type - CTRL-editor.
Now press the 'R' key.
Should bring up the 'Raise/lower terrain' tool.
Option on left is to lower terrain to sea-level(I think, might have these backwards), middle is to smoothe slopes(hold down shift to create a plateu), right is to raise/lower.

Hope this helps!  

[MadamPresident]

Try this:
Open game.
Open savegame/ random map.
Pause game.
Type - CTRL-editor.
Now press the 'R' key.
Should bring up the 'Raise/lower terrain' tool.
Option on left is to lower terrain to sea-level(I think, might have these backwards), middle is to smoothe slopes(hold down shift to create a plateu), right is to raise/lower.

You just have it backwards heh as you said.

Left is to raise and lower - press left mouse button and drag up or down. Middle is smooth - press shift while smoothing to create a plateau and last is lower to sea level(click and drag down I think)

Don't forget to turn editor OFF before playing heh.

Hope that helps

[zegoiaba]

The market won't bring money, it's just a food storage site.

I'm not absolutely sure, but i guess that the people eat the cheapest 1st. So the order is 1st fish then corn/papaya/goat/banana/pineapple and cattle as last. The rest isn't edible.

And yes, caribbean and hot seaside towns around tropical areas are quite messy. No, wait, they're spontaneous!  
Ahhhh, I guess i wanna some vacation in Dominica or Aruba... maybe Curaçao?  

[Olle_Petersson]

The market won't bring money, it's just a food storage site.

I'm not absolutely sure, but i guess that the people eat the cheapest 1st. So the order is 1st fish then corn/papaya/goat/banana/pineapple and cattle as last.

Almost right...

The market is a food storage, but more of a canteen where the population go to eat. It's good to have them close to work places.

Food transports goes first to fill up the stores in market places. Once the stores are at >10 units some food will reach the dock. (Therefore it's also a good idea not to have (m)any marketplaces to start with, but add later on.)

Goat (if available) is the #1 food, since it can't be exported.

Cheers
Olle

[zegoiaba]

Then why does goat have a price?
I've heard of people saying something about exporting it somewhere.

[Olle_Petersson]

It might be my mistake.
IIRC the (hardcopy) manual says that goat is for food only. You're correct that there is an in game export price for it though, and the manual is well known for it's many errors...

At least it seems correct that goat meat is never smoked though.

Cheers
Olle

[zegoiaba]

sabdbox mode time  

[CrAzY_fEnIx]

I have exported goat!!!  yummy  

It was in small quantities and in sporadic bursts.  I think it is mainly eaten by the islanders before it gets a chance to be exported.

[Alastar]

lovely indeed kid tastes very very nice - a good (imo better) alternative to lamb. in fact, it´s my favourite meat off domesticated animals.

[zegoiaba]

It can be exported and can be often, but as I calculated in another thread, each cattle is about ten times more profitable than each goat.


"The objective of persecution is persecution. The objective of torture is torture. The objective of power is power. - George Orwell, 1984"

Going off topic: saying in Tropico style, let's say I'm from the intelectual faction. I hate the lack of freedom, and hate the fact we're getting in a world like 1984's.
As I'm mad and have enough leadership, count on me to crush as many Big Brother's soldiers we can. Death to all the dictators, INCLUDING the western ones.
I'm not moving my butt from this chair right now, but just push me beyond the limit and you have a rebel.

[mooski]

Evenin!

   War is Peace.  Freedom is Slavery.  Ignorance is Strength.

   Ok, now that that is out of my system...  (1984 is my favorite book... )

   I've stayed away from goat farms, and have been leaning towards cattle farms.  But lately, I've been having doubts on the profitability of cattle farms versus the lumber industry...

   Happy Happy!

[zegoiaba]

BOOOO for you  .
Or should I say MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOski?

[mooski]

Evenin!

   Hey, I AM a rowdy cow ya know...

   On one of my last games, instead of going for 12 cattle ranches or so, I went for 2 logging camps, and then the rest in cattle.  Then I started kicking myself when I realized I coulda went for four logging camps, and the rest in cattle, gotten a lumber mill and made even more money.

   (The logging and the cattle were not competing for the same area)

   I've found that you can easily have two, three or four logging camps in the same area as one cattle ranch.  (Granted, the infrastructure needs are greater.  Much greater...)

   So my next game (whenever it will be) will have about a 75-25 or 60-40 split on cattle/logging initially.

   Happy Happy!

[zegoiaba]

Usually I start with 30 people, so I just can't make any use of logging.  
Besides, men are needed as fishermen later.