Docks - Limited Use

[belbincolne]

When you're well on in the game and need a second dock I can see there could be advantages to a tourist only one but early on with no hotels or perhaps where you never intend to build any is there any advantage to making your dock freighters only?  I've done this a couple of times but dont know if it makes any difference.  Looking at the boats arriving doesn't seem to help much as the screen action doesn't appear to tie up with the results recorded - i.e. freighters dock and go on screen but they often dont bring the paid for extra bodies or reduce the amount of goods waiting to be taken away.  Also if you've no hotels no yachts seem to arrive although, of course, you're not looking all the time. Very aggravating!
I know that increasing dockers (and their pay) definitely helps but that's a different factor.

[Bulletsponge]

making a dock "freight only" only means freight ships will be the only ships docking at that port. if you have no tourism it wont matter, cause no yatchs will arrive anyways. the only atvantage of "freight only" is to keep tourist from arriving at that particular dock. it doesnt increase efficancy or speed of the turnaround or spped of workers.

you need a hotel for tourist to arrive, hotel first, then yatchs with tourist. an island can easily survive with only being a tourist trap, ive done it. mucho hotels with all the attractions is a cash cow

[Junta_Joe]

Freighters Only is handy when you seem to get a waiting line of ships at the docks.

Tourists are nice, but, waiting while your economy goes down the tubes for the waiting freighter can be a real pain.

It's simply a good traffic control device.

Set up a dock out of the way with one dockworker for the tourists and set your working docks free to handle your exports and immigration.

[Eddy]

If you don't have tourists, then the freighters only setting is moot.  Tourists won't come if there is nothing for them.

Now if you build a hotel way on the other end of the island, then you might want to build a dock near it and make it yachts only and the original freighters only to keep the two separate.

[Dark Shinji]

I always set my docks for "Freighters only," no matter what.  If I choose to build hotels I just slap down an airport and use that only for first class service and trade.  I don't like the low-end tourists, so my docks always stay on "Freighters only."

[Junta_Joe]

Though you don't make the same money on entry fees, 2 "yachts only" docks will keep 8 luxury hotels filled.  This is a handy tactic on small islands or short games.

As nice as airports are, the take up a lot of valuable space, money, and building time.

If any of these constraints are squeezed, the docks are quite handy.

Tourist docks are also useful when you have slow economy growth.  By the time you "slap down" an airport, your tourism trade could collapse under mounting maintenance fees.  A tourist dock will keep those hotels paying while you are building that airport monstrosity.

[Dark Shinji]

Though you don't make the same money on entry fees, 2 "yachts only" docks will keep 8 luxury hotels filled.  This is a handy tactic on small islands or short games.

As nice as airports are, the take up a lot of valuable space, money, and building time.

If any of these constraints are squeezed, the docks are quite handy.

Tourist docks are also useful when you have slow economy growth.  By the time you "slap down" an airport, your tourism trade could collapse under mounting maintenance fees.  A tourist dock will keep those hotels paying while you are building that airport monstrosity.

Now that's why I play with a huge island and an open-ended game.

But before I start my tourist trade I make sure I have enough from industry.  Green Thumb trait really helps keep things clean while the Financial Genius, Capitalist Rebellion (or Election), and Self-made Man cancel out the negative effects of Green Thumb.  But if I want workers, I choose the Professor background.  I never want to start a tourist trade without a good financial foundation from industry, so tourism comes late in the game usually when my industry is hurting from internal problems such as lazy teamsters and dock workers.

Usually I build the airport and than build the hotels, pubs, nightclubs, etc.  But the trade benefits from the airport are very nice before the hotels get built.

[Junta_Joe]

You are discussing only one form of playing style, Doc.

Most people try many different game styles and settings to challenge themselves.

And giving advice on open-ended games is waste of time.  Why bother with strategy if you are not being graded with a score?  There is no way to test your effectiveness.

Strategy is for people trying get a good score or finish a scenario.

[che timoteo]

I was playing Mount Sucio for the first time last night and the other dock at the other end of the island (past all the lava) had a freighter docked there and for some reason it had 5 units in it's output. There was no one working there. Then a couple of yachts turned up. But becasue there is no one loading there, all three boats just sit there. Mean while no boats are going to my other dock for several years and the output store got up to 50! and my treasury went way into the red!

 So..this means I either have to send over my precious construction workers to dismantle the unwanted dock, or staff it and somehow feed them over that side of the island! grraagh! This strikes me as a real flaw with the design of this scenario - how has anyone else dealt with this?

[Senor Ruina]

You don't need construction workers to dismantle a dock (at least not w/ PI).   After you pay for a building to be demolished, set the priority of the demolition on "halted".  You can mothball buildings indefinitely in this manner.

[belbincolne]

You dont actually have to demolish anything.  If you demolish and then put the urgency factor down to zero it will stop your maintenance charges.  You could still have some idiotic teamster depositing goods (I've only ever had this happen once).  Personally I've never had boats queuing in these circumstances - although in Succio I have had long delays without any boats arriving at my main dock, and, from queries elsewhere, so have a lot of other people - could be you've spotted the reason.

Incidentally if you later decide not to demolish you can then click the cancel construction x and reinstate (you dont get your demolition fee back though).  I found this dock quite useful for yachts only in the later stages of Succio when you've got the bungalows (and extra hotels?) to fill and your main dock is heaving with goods. Only needs one worker.

[Copper Maniac]

When I cancel demolitions, I get the money back.
1.5.3

[Coconut Kid]

I opine that the default settings for buildings should NOT be regarded as the most useful.

They are just that, and the players need to understand what all the settings do, and then use them accordingly. Just going with the default may "lead you down the 'primrose path'."

Firstly (for this thread) - it's PORT, not 'dock'. I think the difference is significant.

While a Port may be used for both freight\immigrant traffic and tourist yacht traffic in economically tight situations, it is definitely better management to keep the two kinds of traffic in separate ports.

There have been a lot of posts about yacht only Ports not requiring any employees to be fully functional. I wonder if it hasn't been clear because the test reports never made clear references to the optional settings.