Any help is appreciated!
Polite and informative, but all he gets is childish prattle between a couple of regulars. The "postmaster general" running off as usual.
... Anyways, lately I've been wanting to try out some other El Supremos so I need the opinions of more experienced players on what would constitute "fair" settings for all the presidentes to give it their best shot and have an even chance of outdoing the others with equal conditions.
Firstly, I believe that it can only be fair if it is very tough to make it to voluntary retirement because if it is relatively easy to stay in power, the economic presidentes have a huge advantage over the presidentes who have "respect" advantages or are able to crack down on dissenters instead.
I'm not quite sure that I follow that reasoning precisely, but the generality seems O.K. What is a good, standard setting for the preliminary stuff so that any mix of presidente attributes will NOT have an advantage? Sadly, it is not much of an intellectual exercise because that's what the defaults are in almost all cases.
Here are my own views on what might constitute "tournament settings" and I hope to get any opinions you might have!
Vegetation: No presidentes seem to be affected by this, so I would put this setting to "overgrown" to make my island a real jungle! Agree?
No, I don't agree.Too many players are overly literal whilst also quick to assume that the game world is their real world. The developers did not make it explicit that the quantity of rain is parallel to the quantity of trees, so too many players are unable to link vegetation with rain. Overgrown comes with enough rain to make swamps almost anywhere. It gives a great advantage the agricultural exploiters while disadvantaging the miners and tourism specialists.
Minerals: The "Miner" background makes it important that this setting be "fair", so I would put this setting in the middle. Agree?
Yes.
Water Coverage: I feel that there is no reason for the island to be anything but as big as possible so that presidentes who can manage decent expansion don't run out of room. On the other hand, there should be some fishing available for the sake of the canneries. I would put this on the second highest setting. Agree?
No, because there is more to it. "As big as possible" lowers the difficulty\scoring. The variable sea under control of the island is an artifact of a planned but not included feature -
Offshore Oil to be leased to foreign oil companies. The size of the offshore area would determine the potential for Oil Drilling (remember - '50s technology). Water coverage has nothing to do with fishing, see 'elevation'. Probably water coverage does have something to do with maneuver room for freighters, yachts, and the boats from the Manina. For your purposes, use the middle setting; I prefer the second from the left.
Population: 70 Tropicans! High starting population and good length of game insures that it is feasible to take advantage of the midgame "electricity age" and just in general "gets the game going" faster. Agree?
Agreed, but not for your reasons. Starting population is not really connected with game length. A larger starting population has only a very minor effect on the "getting going" speed; early immigrants can be attracted in droves. The free farm buildings may help, but their stupid random placement is often counterproductive. The real use of the variable is to match story lines for scripts. BTW, the 'electric age' is not midgame.
Elevation: I need help here. I know that elevations are necessary for some crops, and thus crucial for presidentes like "Booze Baron". I am inclined to put this low simply because elevations ruin careful municipal planning so often. Any ideas?
UGG! The childish building cities on the flat playroom floor rears its head with the great U.S. myth that only rigidly grid based cities are beautiful cities following closely behind. Please forget the rigid grid of roads as a requirement of the
"city beautiful" !! The actual islands of the Caribbean are of two basic types, volcanic with high elevations and drown land crusts with moderate to low elevations. So picking one elevation for your
"tournament settings" is rather arbitrary. For
elevation, I suggest the fifth point from either the top or bottom since that is as close to the midpoint as you can come. That is the recognize that very flat and very high islands are also realistic Caribbean islands.
Map size: Maximum! Presidentes who can manage the feat of developing the whole island deserve to do so, because they probably have stability issues which are a constant danger. Since I am unable to do this, it simply insures that expansion doesn't come to a halt due to simple lack of space. I think that maximum is therefore best. Agree?
I agree, but once again not for your reasons. I think it is desireable in your
"tournament settings" to use the maximum because using less is typically justified because it increases the difficulty\scoring so that the ending score is a bigger number. I think too many players come from the city building clique and are driven to cover the whole island with wall to wall buildings as fast as possible - typically in conjunction with a cheek to cheek, bulging population. My observation is that in this game they are unable to cope unless the size is restricted or they are able to play on for centuries. Unless a scripted story line is built around something smaller, I know of no reason to use less than the full sized map.
Victory Conditions: A place in history! <snip> Agree?
I agree because it is the default and measures for score all of the basic, non-scripted goals. The others measure only one of the goals.
- Don't Worry, Be Happy measures\scores only citizens' happiness level
- 'Tis Money that Makes the Man measures\scores only the embezzled Swiss Account
- Economic Powerhouse measures\scores only value of treasury and buildings
to be continued
