Cafe Tropico Game Guide: Elections

[Mr.P]

On a similar note, exactly the opposite is true during an uprising. Ensure you do not let anyone onto your island as the bulk will join the uprising.

Once you have crushed the uprising (you did have enough troops and police right?!) open the doors, as you will likely have killed about half your population.  

[Peron]

 I have found that this is easier said than done.

 For the duration of an uprising I once had immigrants coming regularly even though there were no dockworkers!  Setting docks to "yachts only" stopped this from happening.

[Mr.P]

Sorry to ask this Peron, I know you are an old timer, but did you set the Immigration Office to Tropicans First?  

[Peron]

 

  You know I can't tell you because I don't remember what the setting on the Immigration Office  was  for that particular uprising.  I have only ever had two.... and the peasants WON both times!



 Tropico first would sure make sense.

  I will have to play with creating an uprising and experimenting with this now.

  Both times were caused by me when I knew that I wasn't going to save the game so I was just playing around with it.


 

 

 

 
   

[qubie]

Hey guys, first time I write here.
I have to say you're doing a great job here
This guide is really helping me out.

If you have a bank, you can issue a bribe for $1,000.  This costly method can radically shift the individual voters position.  Due to the high price tag and low return, this method is largely ineffective.

I have one remark on this one
I've read somewhere (don't ask me where it was ) that a bribe can be usefull if you use it on a faction leader. If that faction leader is happy the other people that support this faction will also be a little bit happier.Sounds like in real life

Don't know if it's true haven't tested it yet but it sounds reasonable.

Hope this is of anny help.
Greetings, qubie  

[Mr.P]

Hi qubie, welcome to the Cafe and thanks for your input.

Sticking with the bribery theme, another valued post by one of our members pointed out that if you bribe an elderly person - with a large extended family - you will likely get a greater return on your investment, given a bribe influences the whole family. Worth bearing in mind if you only have a few $1000 to spend.

[MadamPresident]

I  never realised that!! Great information to have!

Also does anyone know how the bankers locate the person to  be bribed. Whenever I mark someone to be bribed, the bankers just trot all over the place and accidentally find the person. I don't see them homing in on the person.

Am I missing something here?

[Mr.P]

I have found a similar thing Em. When I tested it out I found that Tropicans who were still, such as those sleeping in their shacks houses, or tending to crops would be honed in quickly by the Banker. However when a Tropican was walking they had one hell of a problem shifting their bulk, so it took an age to catch em' and complete the bribe.

Now I only bribe someone when they are not moving, unless I fancy giving the Banker a bit of a workout.

[Cluk]

Oh, the bankers actually go to the bribees!  That explains a lot.  I always figured that it took a while for Tropicans to notice the bribes (like with pay raises).

[Michael Rymaszewski]

I've been playing Tropico on max difficulty settings only (keep a DC 3 gassed up, ludicrous economy, 70 years). I've won having free and fair elections every time they're called for (with maxed out respect - Fortunate Son, Heir Apparent, Empathy + Scholarly to balance intellectual hit). I've also won without holding elections even once, so this statement in the guide is untrue. No elections does not necessarily lead to revolt! As long as you keep people's happiness above 40, and handpick your military, you'll be all right. Remember to bribe every general you hire as soon as he steps off the ship, too.

My favourite 'nasty' strategy is to pick the 'Installed by KGB' rise to power (cheap soldiers), then kick off the game by lowering all wages to $1 for uneducated (but $2 to labourers and farmers), $8 for soldiers and high school, $10 for college. Increase salaries after the first couple of years to $4 for the uneducated after the first couple of years, or you'll lose too much through emigration (the immigration office takes some time, due to the fact you have to build that diplomatic ministry first, then pay for the alliance edict). You have to build a diplomatic ministry fast to ally with Russia, or the US will barge in! After that, build immigration office quickly and set policy to 'no one gets out of here alive'. The main problem in this approach is runaway population growth in the later years (as I said, I only play 70 year scenarios - shorter ones are too easy to win). You'll have to create many jobs every year in order to keep the commies happy, who of course will be your main supporters with this approach.

Of course you have to keep a very close eye on your military -retain only those soldiers who are commies/militarists to minimize coup danger. If a coup does take place, fire all revolting soldiers immediately and maybe up the soldiers' salaries so that new recruits show up quickly - but monitor those guys for respect and need fulfillment levels, firing all those that are suspicious.

Note that you'll still be getting new immigrants at the beginning of the game as long as you set the wage to $4 minimum, then you can lower it again. You won't want any immigrants in the later years - reserve employment slots in new buildings to accomodate all the 13 year olds. Oh, and you'll need to build numerous newspapers etc to get some sort of liberty rating; 4 newspapers will keep even intellectuals happy in spite of not holding any elections and paying them relatively low salaries (in the twenties, after 60 years of rule).

To max out your score using this approach, choose 'Tis Money Makes the Man, although I still got around 800 using A Place in History - lost many points because of all the unhappy idiots. I also choose the Rebel Yell option, since it lets me have a bigger island while keeping the difficulty rating at 100% or higher, and it's lots of fun too. Of course, you're going to need a couple of prisons...

BTW, I've noticed a discussion entitled pesos or dollars? The $ sign was originally a peso sign - USA adopted it later. It evolved from a simplified '8', which was used to denote pieces of eight - a popular coin in the sixteenth/seventeenth centuries. Incidentally, $ is still used as a peso sign in countries such as Mexico.

[Cluk]

BTW, I've noticed a discussion entitled pesos or dollars? The $ sign was originally a peso sign - USA adopted it later. It evolved from a simplified '8', which was used to denote pieces of eight - a popular coin in the sixteenth/seventeenth centuries. Incidentally, $ is still used as a peso sign in countries such as Mexico.

I think the $ sign is used for dollars, and when it has 2 vertical lines, it's for pesos.

Hey, I'm a peasant!

[Slamin Sammy]

in my first couple of tries, the same for me

[Egg]

  I say to hell with elections and eliminate all who oppose you..

[Coconut Kid]

Democracy Expectation
Democracy Satisfaction

... if you look in the Almanac you will see that people have both democratic expectation and satisfaction scores. If a player starts holding too many free elections then their expectation (and of course satisfaction) rises, thus meaning they will demand and expect a free election next time. When this is cancelled or rigged they will even more furious than if you had just bumped them along on a low score such as satisfactory (by denying and rigging most elections). ...

Lachrymologist and flagator_ cover the essentials well in the early posts - except for Democracy Satisfaction which they lump in with liberty and respect. So there needs to be some clarification.

Liberty and respect are measured numerically and reported individually (in each person's dossier), and accumulated as averages for reporting in the Almanac. Conversely, Democracy Satisfaction is NOT an individual characteristic; it, along with Democracy Expectation, is a community outlook reported in words rather than numbers and only in the Almanac (under the Politics Tab).

These two community outlooks are derived from the elections algorithm. The initial setting of the Democracy Expectations come from the "Rise to Power" characteristic of El Presidente - part of the initial game setup. Unfortunately, the terminology is not consistent; under Rise to Power the term Democratic Expectations is used. Then during the course of game play, they change according to how the player uses or abuses elections. The level of the two community outlooks are among several inputs to the algorithms which determine individual's levels for liberty and respect.

As Mr.P says, if they are high and the player denies or cheats an election, the response will be very adverse. On the other hand if they are low, the response to denial or cheating will be only mildly adverse.