Not being able to handle industry, or economic difficulty too hard?

[Egg]

  Is it just me or does it seem that I cannot get the hang of having an industralist's paradise? I am only skilled at tourism and can never seem to get an industry up and running. In all of my games, the difficulty level is either hard or plain ludricious.

  Economic difficulty affects tourism by lowering the tourists' spending limit, but how does it effect the industry? Slower workers?

  My main problem is never having enough money to build my first factory. My mineral settings are minimal and my vegetation is set to barren (So that construction workers need not cut trees). In this way, I depend more on the farms to produce things like pineappes for me to can or sugar to be turned into rum.

  Anybody has any advice on how to handle industry?

[Brf]

Canneries dont really make that much on pineapple.... and rum is a hard one to do especially since the factory is so expensive....

Try Tobacco and Cigars, it is a much easier one to do.

Economic difficulty effects the rate at which resources are produced and factory goods are converted....

I did a good experiment on the question in this thread here:

http://dynamic3.gamespy.com/~tropico/cafe/index.php?board=7;action=display;threadid=6846

[Egg]

  Guess I've been playing at too difficult an economic level then... always falling into debt no matter how hard I try to keep the economy afloat.

[Pinstar]

Seems we're at the opposite ends of the spectrum here.
On harder economic difficulties drift more tword 1 factory for every 2 farms (more accurately, 2 factories for every 5 farms) You really need some productivity pluses for your factories, and education pluses help too...not only to get your factories staffed quicker, but also also to increase your workers' skills faster. Also always make sure to have enough teamseter's offices. For the above 5 farms + 2 factories I would reccomend 2 teamster's offices, one by the farms and one by the factories. A road connecting the two and leading to the dock couldn't hurt either.

As for what crop to do, tobacco is very easy...but with a little finesse coffee will make you more in the end. I personally avoid sugar at all costs, as it can make you millions, but bankrupt you in a bad year. Rum is for when you get those lucky islands that can actually support sugar.

Leader traits that reduce the cost of buildings are also good, since a 5,10,20% decrease in building costs are quite signifigant when building factories.

One last thing: don't be afraid to let your people's environmental score hit rock bottom, just imprison or shoot all the hippies (environmentalist faction) and you'll be fine.

[Brf]

Coffee and cannery can make alot of money, but there is a 5-year startup before coffee is ready. Try my scenerio "Busted" and have fun with coffee....

[Egg]

  1.How do we effectively lay roads? Personally I think that roads are very expensive, $100 for one square and secondly roads aren't usually being utilised because Tropicans always take the shortcuts.

  2.How do I get my graduates to become preists and bishops? I find that certain posts aren't being filled in the game and then my religous score drops. Another thing is that even though there are many jobs which require education, opened to my Tropicans, nobody wants to seem to go to school, even though there is about $6 difference in pay to entice them.

[Pinstar]

Roads are worth it when it comes to hills. If you have a big steep mountain thats growing cofee get a road up there. On flat ground since roads don't help speed much tropicans don' t alter their path to walk on them. It's faster to take a direct route at a slower rate. When a hill is involved your road will be invalueable for tropicans needing to hike up the hill...and the steeper the hill the more likely they are to take it (and the more benefit it will give their walking speed compared to walking without a road.


As for schools, I almost always set my high school to "Parochial"  for several reasons:
Everyone who graduates has at least a + in the religious faction, makeing them much more likely to become priests (or bishops if they decide to attend college)

The second reason is that the religious faction is fairly easy to please. You can directly make them happy by ploping churches and issueing edicts...if most of your population is part of the religious faction, then a happy religious faction means a happy population.

(It makes that end-game papal visit all the more potent too)

As for getting those tropicans to attend school, make sure you build plenty of buildings that offer skilled jobs. Granted this will mean your building will sit idle while your tropicans goto school, but it will draw the students in. If you have bonuses to the intellectual faction, you can safely issue the contraception ban. This puts you in good with the religious faction (see above) and creates more children. When a child grows up, they are MUCH more likely to attend school at age 13 than 33, so all those children growing up should help fill your skilled ranks.

[Coconut Kid]

Is it just me or ...? I am only skilled at tourism and can never seem to get an industry up and running. In all of my games, the difficulty level is either hard or plain ludricious.  Economic difficulty affects tourism by lowering the tourists' spending limit, but how does it effect the industry? ...  My main problem is never having enough money to build my first factory. My mineral settings are minimal and my vegetation is set to barren (So that construction workers need not cut trees). In this way, I depend more on the farms to produce things like pineappes for me to can or sugar to be turned into rum.  Anybody has any advice on how to handle industry?

Those settings make it nearly impossible to do anything. By setting vegetation to "barren," rainfall is corresponding set to a desert level - which makes it nearly impossible to grow a serious amount of crops. Barren is not just the trees!! Then without minerals, there is nothing left on which to base industry.

...  Economic difficulty effects the rate at which resources are produced and factory goods are converted.  I did a good experiment on the question in this thread here:
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=6846.0

Most of the rest of the answers in the thread are helpful.