Cafe Tropico Game Guide

[Mr.P]

So as to utilise the many thousands of hours of solid research and gameplay posted here at the Cafe, I would be interested in hearing from members who have read a post or posts that they feel may be worthy of inclusion.

The archives (if trawled back far enough...ohhh say 1000 days!) can help flag up interest points, however having the key detailed reports and feedback provided by so many.....all in once place......would prove invaluable.

Feel free to post here, or IM/e-mail me and I will review the post/posts with the help of other staff members. Please mention what area of the game guide you believe the post would be of most use for.

Both the original poster and those who 'flagged' the post will be credited within the game guide.

Please note CafeDave has final editorial approval of any entries/amendments to the Cafe Tropico Game Guide.

Thanks folks.

[Coconut Kid]

From Senor Ruina:
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=5734.0
I did an experiment with tobacco and cigar factories.

6 farms growing tobacco; two cigar factories.  Presidente with no bonuses to production.  Uneducated salaries were fixed at 12, and high-school at 21.  Ran for about 20 years, then fired the farmers and let the teamsters carry off the tobacco; then shut down the factories as they emptied their in queues.

The factories, once they got some inputs, never had an empty input queue until the end.  $3300 in tobacco was shipped, but otherwise it all went to the factories.

Data

Here's the raw data wages paid and profits:

Farms:

income wages
28610  9876
40550  11400
38220  12396
36040  10680
40030  10620
31760  10720

Factories:
income wages RSRC
362784 31458 114351
310464 32886  97560

Analysis

Total tobacco grown was $215210 worth, or 215.21 loads.  Total wages expended growing it was $65692.  At $12/man-month, that means that a total of 5474.3 man-months were used.  Thus the average growth rate achieved was .0393 loads/man-month, or .472 loads/man-year.  1.9 loads/year per farm.

This rate is lower than what I expected, but most of the terrain was not dark green for tobacco.  Some of it was light green, some of it yellow, varying over time.  I had expected to have a lot of surplus relative to what the factories needed, but I didn't.

On cigar rolling: the two factories together processed 211.91 loads of tobacco.  They spent $64344 on wages, at $21/man-month.  So they used 3064 man-months.  The rate they got was therefore .069 load/man-month, or 0.83/man-year.

Conclusion

Cigars are very profitable.  If you want to maximize throughput, you may need something like 2:1 farmers per factory worker, depending on the quality of the land for growing tobacco.

Some more data.  I did another run to find out what the electrical widgets do to cigar factories.  I had 16 farms feeding 4 cigar factories.  The four cigar factories each had skylights, and then one of the four arrangements of autoroller or not, and climate control or not.

Here are the results.

The tobacco farms:
      income wages
1    34610  14604
2    54340  14964
3    57960  15756
4    64880  14892
5    42080  15276
6    64850  14952
7    58700  16008
8    55740  14976
9    46940  14964
10  40800  14748
11  40060  14796
12  59680  14832
13  42130  14592
14  38930  14748
15  52080  15696
16  51000  14304

cigar factories:
#   with   income wages RSRC
1 AR        557152 39564 198k
2 AR,CC   573724 40047 164k
3             396608 39774 123K
4   CC      406912 40695 98050

totals exported from the almanac:

tobacco: 219990
machine cigars 1127k
cigars:  806848

Analysis of that last data.

First off, let's track the tobacco.  The farms, in sum, had income of 804780, wages 240108.  So 20009 man-months were spent, to get 804.7 loads of tobacco, or  .04 loads/man-month.  (This was not great tobacco country.)

Of the tobacco produced, 220 loads went to the docks directly.  583 loads were paid for by factories.  That is all there is; these numbers add up with the total 804 loads.

At the factories, tobacco was processed then turned into loads of cigars (machine, or not) as follows:

     input  output
#1  198  193.4
#2  164  199.2
#3  123  123.9
#4   98   127.1

That's right - loads of input and output are not the same - different stuff, after all.  The climate control effect is described in the game as 'decreasing raw materials used per cigar by 20%'.  So you see that works by effectively decreasing the amounts of inputs the factory needs to get a certain output level.  

The autoroller, as advertised, increases the throughput of the factory by 50%.  This is easy enough to see in the raw data, but let's do the math with wages.  

The two autorolling factories spent 79611 on wages, that is, 3791 man-months.  They made 392.6 loads of cigars, that is, .103 loads/man-month.  That's a nice rate.

The two other factories spent 80469 on wages, or 3669 man-months.  They processed 251 loads.  That's a rate of 0.0684 loads/man-month, which is what I got in the first test of this series.

The autoroller rate as tested was 50.56% higher.

And here is another by Malovane:
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=686.0
Just got back from testing what the auto-roller and other production enhancing machines do. It was rather odd to see how the production system works, which I hadn't really watched before.

Each industry has a base conversion ratio, a base production amount, and a base production rate of speed. For cigars it is 1:1 for purposes of calculating how many tons of tobacco go into a ton of cigars. The factory converts .2 tons every work period with no workers. The work period seemed to be a couple of months.

When a worker comes into the shop, he or she starts his own work period, and then converts .2 tons worth of goods. Therefore, with one worker in the shop, .4 tons would be converted every 2 months. With all 6 working, it would be 1.4 tons every couple of months. This is without skilled workers. The more skilled the worker, the faster he or she completes that work unit. The factory itself seems unskilled

Silly me, I thought that the factories churned out the same no matter if the workers were there or not. It turns out that this is the reason behind the large industry production spikes and crashes. Sometimes they are all there working for about 6 months and then they all go to their services for about a year.

Anyway, the decreased tobacco wasteage option is great. Instead of turning 1 ton of tobacco into 1 ton of cigars, it turns 1 ton of tobacco into 1.2 tons of cigars. This equates to quite a bit of cash in the long run.

The auto-roller was interesting. It increased the output per work unit from .2 to .3. A 50% increase, just like it said. Two tobacco farms supplied all it needed to churn out cigars. Without the roller, there was quite a bit of excess tobacco going to the docks. One farm was not enough to supply one cigar factory, hand rolled.... and two overloaded it.

Adding another Cigar factory would work, but then you would have to add another two farms. This is all fine and good, and what you are supposed to do, really. I think the best ratio I have found is about 5 farms for every 3 factories. The problem happens when you start running out of space. Just the cigar factories and farms don't take a huge amount of space, but you do have to add a lot more infrastructure.

If your island reaches critical mass, and you find yourself with a bunch of tobacco left over, then you build a couple auto-rollers. It will alleviate having to bulldoze things to make room for other things. I usually play small islands and encounter this problem frequently. I really don't think 320 pesos less per load will really cause too much fiscal pressure.

[Coconut Kid]

An old post from Katkim_13:

I was struggling with this last night, don't you wish the weather pattern would just stay the same?  I had just built and staffed three sugar plantations, and set to work on the distillery.  By the time it was built and fully staffed (didn't take long, gotta love how those tropicans flock to the schools when there's a job opening) my sugar was in the red, but just down the hill my pineapple plantations are in the best spot for it anywhere on the map.  I check the pineapple plant and see that it now sucks for pineapple but will grow where the corn is, and the corn will grow great where the sugar is.  So I rotated most of my crops to get them in the best spot, dreading a possible famine in the aftermath (I play the touchy, feely Presidente).  But it didn't happen, the farmers continued to harvest the old crops while planting the new ones.

And a follow-up by Railnut:

I read somewhere from PopTop Phil that crop rotation isn't necessary. The weather pattern for the game is an average based on an eighty year model and is computed when the game starts, so the weather in any particular spot doesn't vary enough to make rotation worth the trouble. By the time your farmers can switch crops, the original setting could be back to being the best one.
Hopefully, someone can remember where this article is and post us a link.

See reply #6 which says this, in part:
Crops. One of the most frustrating things in a game is to develop a dependency on a single cash crop, only to notice later that the land devoted to the farms has turned orange, indicating that it is unsuitable for that crop.  Is crop rotation necessary, or is the change purely climatic?  Can you anticipate changes by using the info overlays for soil and rain? 
 Rotating crops has no impact.  It's purely climate related, based on rainfall.  The initial values for crop suitability are are based on the game running an internal weather model for 80 years at game start, and averaging the results.  Of course, it's a long-term average, and there are short-term fluctuations. Steinmeyer: "I usually just accept that there will be good and bad harvests, based on the rainfall... I don't typically adjust my crop patterns too much after I've built a farm."

Here is a long rationale which, based on the Steinmeyer interview, is not accurate:
Steven Otte: on distilleries, The most likely case, though, is that you'll have both low Input and Output stores. This happens when your sugar supply dries up. Sugar sucks nutrients out of the ground and ruins the soil fairly quickly. So you need to have at least 3 fields in good sugar-growing areas, but only have one or two of them growing sugar at one time; keep the others growing easy crops like corn or papayas. It takes about 2 years for the first crop to come in, so while one field is being harvested, start another one. When that one starts producing (watch its Output Store) and the first one's production starts to slow down, switch the first one to producing corn and start the third one. After a few harvests the first one should be ready to grow sugar again. Just like in the real world, you have to rotate crops.

The same technique is necessary for other industry-supporting crops, like tobacco, which can also ruin the soil.

Scott Jensen: This could be the reason. I built two sugar farms right next to the distillery. I built the distillery right next to a large deep-green area for sugar. It would explain the $30,000 spike income for the distillery and how the farm land was deep red when I checked it again to try to figure out what went wrong. If I have to keep track of the rotation of my crops then I'll not do the distillery. Just too much dadgumed work. I play games for fun and nothing else. There's enough to keep track of and figure out in the game (what to build, where, when, etc.) than to always have to come back and check up on whether the soil is no longer good for a crop.

What really happened to Scott J. (and others) is that the rainfall pattern shifted and left the two farms dry. Over 80 years they will produce again and on average as compared with other land will be high production for sugar. What is needed is to learn the rainfall patterns and place farms to compensate for the shifts. That way a relatively constant supply of crop can be produced.

The rain comes in streaks from the NE to SW and the contours of height affect where it falls more heavily. The streaks shift slowly from right to left.

Micro-management can shift Farmers from dry Farms to productive ones.

[Coconut Kid]

An old post from Guest:

I've been looking through the threads and have noticed that many people are stressing the importance of timing the hotel opening right, so that the first tourists that arrive have several attractions ready and waiting as well. Someone quoted a procedure from the Gamespot guide - stop construction of hotel at 90%, build pub, restaurant, etc., finish building hotel. None of this necessary - all you need to do is set all docks to Freighters Only. Reset so that tourist yachts will be serviced at your convenience. Maybe someone had already mentioned this in an early thread and I missed it.

Terminus Est commented that he routinely sets docks to Freighters Only (versus the default) until he is ready for the Tourist trade.

Bugsy: Bungalows are a good place to let your tourists stay while building a hotel. They go up extremely quick. MadamPresident: Bungalows are high maintence with one maid for two tourists! However, they are extremely useful for unlocking the tourism buildings it won't let you build unless you have a hotel. Just plunk one down, and build your other attractions first and then build the hotel. Its much faster. Mr.P: ... I consider them as a good source of maids, if a hotel has just lost a member of staff. Naturally the 'lesser' bungalow staff are paid less, but I look at it as an apprenticeship for a real job in a hotel. EnochF: Profit from bungalows is perfectly acceptable. Near the end of the game, I check on them, and their profit ranges from anywhere to $1000 to $10,000. If you have any spare room on your beaches and you can't fit another beach site there, just pop down three or four bungalows, it's a small investment, and it pays off.  My tourist sector is dotted with bungalows all over the place. In fact, anyplace where the "tourist" meter is in the green is a great place for a bungalow. The touristas, they like to feel important. That's why they love bungalows. They have a building and a maid all to themselves. They'll pay $50 a night for a place like that, even without electricity.

Summary: Tourist arrival is easily controlled by Port settings. Construction of Tourist Attractions is unlocked by building one Bungalow which may be left unstaffed. (That one Bungalow will also tend to silence the Capitalist complaints about industry.) Additionally, Bungalows are not an economic waste.

[Coconut Kid]

From Goatboy with the unfortunate loss of attachments, but never-the-less useful:

I just finished running a little experiment to compare various "food" farms (as opposed to cash crops for export). For your strategising pleasure, I looked at the Cattle Ranch, Goat Ranch, and Fishing Wharf. For good measure I also kept an eye on a Corn Farm to see how it compared. (Just to note, the corn farm probably got a bit of a raw deal out of this experiment because I didn't set the wages higher like with the other three. It was also located in amongst other farms so there might have been some lands use competition.)

I started a new game in sandbox mode, and used the "rapido" cheat to make sure all the farms were completed at the same time, then I set wages for the two ranches and the wharf to 9 pesos (while all other uneducated jobs remained at 6 pesos) to make sure they were fully staffed at roughly the same time. I also "rapidoed" a new downtown with housing and other amenities so the workers had roughly equal access to the things they need.

I let the simulation run for 30 years, then x'ed out the jobs at all four farms (to make sure there was no more production) and let things run for three more years (to make sure everything was picked up by teamsters and delivered to the market or the docks).

There are several follow-up posts which lack the attachments, but the summary gives good data:

Corn Farm    : Total meals 1198, -$7043
Fishing Wharf : Total meals 1712, -$16583
Cattle Ranch : Total meals 2571, +$135415
Goat Ranch : Total meals 2371, +$3273

Goats can't compare to the moneymaking potential of cattle (few things can), but look at all the food those two lonely ranchers provided, and without running a cash deficit like the fishing wharf.

I know a lot of people like to switch cattle ranches to goats late in the game, but I'm going to start including goats right at the start when I play on bigger islands. They thrive in more places and they also seem to be easier on the environment. The land around cattle ranches turns bright red within a decade (I should have grabbed a screenshot of that too), while goats seem tread a little more lightly.

MadamPresident's comment: I always try to switch at least half of the starting farms to fruit production, mailny papayas or pineapples. Improves the food quality and gives better export prices too. I don't switch them all over simply because the fruit farms take a while to get producing, whereas corn grows faster.

The wharves are definately useful, especially on smaller islands. I try to locate them near far flung population centers, where there are no marketplaces and no room for farms. They produce almost instantly, so thats a major benefit.

Ranch Economics:
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=5309.0

[Coconut Kid]

An Old Timer from an Old Timer, Olle_Petersson:

As I see it the game do have a beginning, middle and endgame.

- The beginning is roughly the first 10 years. (The time to the first demand for an election.)
Here you should set up some base for income and construction. Keep the wages down, especially for the educated. No need for any fancy entertainment, a bar will suffice. An immigrations office and diplomatic office is also good to build quickly.
Here you should have no problem winning the first election.

- The midgame is the following couple of decades.
Here you expand your economy. Here's where you start by building the first church, clinic, marketplace and housing. Then expand and develop your income sources and entertainment facilities. Increase wages slowly to roughly keep up with the Caribbean average, and let rents and fees go along with it.
The populations demands will grow slowly, but with a bit of planning and a sound economy they can be satisfied.

- The endgame is the last couple of decades.
Here you'll have a good economy with a steady flow of income. At the same time the costs to stay in power go up.
By now you should have a radio and TV station set to boost your respect ("All Presidente, all day"), as well as fair housing and affordable entertainment for the vast majority of the population.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Junta_Joe:

Actually the starting economy is the key. Focus a little less on the peons' needs the first decade of your reign. This "honeymoon" period can be well used to get the money train rolling. They might whine in '55 for a church, but, won't go starting protests until '61 or so. Same with other "needs".

Try this:

'50 to '55
*Resource and food industries (these first)
*Extra construction office
*Market
*Immigration and Diplomatic offices
*Extra teamster office
*One or two hirings
*Soviet housing edict

'56 to '60
*Expand R & F industries a little
*Pub
*Housing for 50
*Extra construction office
*Extra dock
*Extra teamster office

'61 to '65
*High School
*Clinic
*Church
*Hotel or factory
*Build enough road to get product from factory to dock
*US power plant edict
*A few more hirings

'66 and on should show a steady income and enough peons and infrastructure to allow you to build fairly rapidly

You will go through two elections by then. The first will be a snap. The second can be had with a raise and the Mardi Gras edict.

Be sure to tweak your personality and island to the type of game you want to run. Then slash everything else down in the setup.

[Coconut Kid]

This is a really important post!

Maus' summary of Computer Games article published approx. 7/01

1) Construction Priorities. Why do workers sometimes ignore a distant high-priority project in favor of a nearby low-priority project?  The priority system is not absolute, but rather is a function of distance and priority setting.  For buildings with equal priority, workers always go to the nearest building.  Each level of "construction priority" counts as 25 cells of map distance.  Workers will still go to a low-priority building if it's at least 25 cells closer than a medium-priority building, or 50 cells closer than a high-priority building.  The "stopped" priority is absolute; a stopped building will be ignored no matter what distance it is from a worker.

2) Road Effects. Roads are enigmatic.  Sometimes people use them, sometimes they dont, and it's hard to tell if they move faster on a road.  Movement along a road is about 10% to 30% faster, with the smallest improvement on terrain that is naturally fast (dirt), medium improvement on mid-speed terrain (grass) and the largest improvement on the slowest terrain (rock, beaches, mine tiles).  Bottom line: people follow roads if it is reasonably convenient for their trip, and given the modest speed bonus, you wouldn't want them to go far out of their way to use roads.  Before you quit using roads entirely, remember that well-laid roads constructed early in the game have a long-term cumulative effect, are a great way to frame future construction so your cities aren't chaotic, and add esthetic value.

3) Airports. They take forever to build, and if you get kicked off the island, you still have to leave in a rowboat.  Further, the economic impact isn't obvious because you can get plenty of tourists from a tourist-only dock.  Are airports worth the trouble?
  Steinmeyer estimates that with two fully-staffed construction offices near the building site, on a fairly flat piece of land, you can build an airport in four years.¹ Regarding monetary impact, airports don't normally increase the number of tourists (if you already have a tourist-only dock), but they do increase the quality of the tourists.  Airports draw more upscale tourists, they pay airport fees to help defray maintenance costs, and they allow you to charge more for hotel rooms and to charge more for attractions.  They also allow you to use those nice Trade Delegation edicts. Sometimes airports are worth it.  If you're playing a long game (50+ years), are focusing on tourism and have a nice flat location, then they are worth it.  If you've only got a modest tourism industry, or your island has no suitable flat ground, then they probably aren't.

¹Before construction rate adjustment in Paradise Island add-on.

4) Crops. One of the most frustrating things in a game is to develop a dependency on a single cash crop, only to notice later that the land devoted to the farms has turned orange, indicating that it is unsuitable for that crop.  Is crop rotation necessary, or is the change purely climatic?  Can you anticipate changes by using the info overlays for soil and rain? 
 Rotating crops has no impact.  It's purely climate related, based on rainfall.  The initial values for crop suitability are are based on the game running an internal weather model for 80 years at game start, and averaging the results.  Of course, it's a long-term average, and there are short-term fluctuations. Steinmeyer: "I usually just accept that there will be good and bad harvests, based on the rainfall... I don't typically adjust my crop patterns too much after I've built a farm."

5) Citizen Expectations. Are rising expectations solely a function of time, or can they be inadvertently fueled by the types of structures you build? Are people upset if their entertainment needs aren't being met, and they can see an entertainment structure that they can't afford to use?
 Rising expectations operate at two levels: pay and political restlessness.  Over time, the average Caribbean wage rises, causing your people to want more for the same level of job happiness.  There's no individual breakout for housing, religion, etc. Only job happiness has a specifically rising expectation level.  The presence of various buildings on the island (e.g., the look-but-don't-touch case mentioned above) has no effect.  Also over time, the people become politically restless, and their likelihood to take action against you increases, even if their happiness level stays the same.  The following are affected:

• Likelihood to stage a protest, uprising, or coup;
• likelihood to vote against you;
• and likelihood of becoming a rebel.

The rate of increase is steeper if you play at the harder political difficulty levels.

6) Farm Sprawl. Is there a relationship of a farm's size and its productivity?
 Steinmeyer advises that farms will sometimes have higher productivity if they are spaced out so that farmers can pick the best cells to cultivate.  If the farms are close together, it's possible that a farm may become boxed in and the workers will be unable to plant to the fullest extent.  A farmer will plant only to a radius of five cells out from a farm, so closely-packed farms may run out of space.  This is especially true of Coffee, Papaya, and Bananas, which tend to sprawl more because of the longer growing cycle and the smaller amount of attention that each cell requires.  Steinmeyer's personal strategy:  "I usually plant Coffee, Papayas, and Bananas far from my main town.  I put the other farms close to town, and even at high densities, but then I bulldoze the close-in farms as my town expands.  Note that for the three tree-crops, after the first planting a farmer needs to work the cell only once per harvest cycle, whereas for other crops, each cell must be worked twice per harvest cycle - once to plant, and once to harvest.  So, a 4-farmer tree farm can typically sprawl to almost twice the size."
-------------------------------------------------------------

Ribaldo: Roads also seem to extend the range that police officers will patrol from their station, so it can be helpful to run one into a high-crime area.  I think that's also true for soldiers, but my soldiers mostly have problems out there in the forest.

[Coconut Kid]

Originator lost to history.

If you're willing to exploit one of the game's misfeatures, you can make a fortune with cheap hotels.  Build three or four of them.  On a rotating basis, set the rate to $5, wait for the hotel to fill up, then raise the rate to $50.  After a while the slob tourists wise up and move out -- into another of your bait-and-switch hotels.  As long as you remember to check the hotels every few months, you can make a fortune.

Of course, if Tropico had a Better Business Bureau, you might have to eliminate its chairman.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Coffeebean, Can someone just take me through how to apply this correctly? Please?

Senor Ruina: Eddy has it right.

(1) build a hotel; any hotel.  Cheap is fine.  You may also need to build at least one entertainment; I am not sure.  I had only a pub when I tested.

(2) Set the rates really low, either to $5 or something like that, or use auto-rate for 90% occupancy.

Result: lots of tourists (you don't care about the type) show up and fill the hotel up.  Filled!  Most or all slots taken.

(3) As soon as each yacht arrives, pause the game.  Go to each hotel you have.  If it is full or near full, raise the rate to $50.  If it is near empty, drop the rate to $5 or whatever.

(4) Watch money roll in.

The reason it works is that tourists "decide" to come to the island based on the hotel prices when they (the tourists) are generated -- which is probably at the moment the boat docks.  Tourists don't/can't leave when you raise the rate on them, so you get the occupancy rate of $5 rooms with the income of $50 rooms. 

Well, you don't get quite the occupancy rate of real $5 rooms, since it takes a while for the tourists to "notice" they are being robbed and leave.  And you don't get quite the income of $50 rooms since you lose some of that while you are building up tourists while the rate is low.  So it might be more like occupancy of $20 rooms with income of $40, or something like that.  It is still a huge... um... scam.

Caveat: I think it's a cheap.  So I only tested with one hotel.  I don't know if tourists can move from one hotel to another, in which case, you will have to synchronize rates island-wide.  I don't think they move, though, so you can do it piecewise.

Update: after more testing, here's how to do it.

When a yacht is just about to dock, pause.  Go to one of your hotels of each type, and shift-set the price to zero.  (Thus all your hotels will be at zero price.)  Let the yacht dock.  Pause.  Set the price back to 50.  Prices only seem to be checked when the yacht docks. 

If you only have a few hotels, then you don't need to build any entertainment for tourists.  The turnover with the yachts you get is enough to keep the hotels full.  Once I got up to maybe 5 or 6 hotels I noticed that there were vacancies.  I accidentally let one yacht dock without dropping the prices, and lost a lot of tourists.  I had a hard time recovering from that.

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=5000.msg105540#msg105540

Eddy teaching CB how to scam tourists!! Perish the thought that CB ever did it.

[Coconut Kid]

From Malovane, a bit out dated here and there, but still good.

Environment score is half pollution, half beauty. Since pollution goes away extremely slowly, if at all, it is best to keep pollution down from the very start. If your pollution is in the red, the best environment score you can get in that area will be a 50%, which is tolerable.

Being a Green Thumb (Positive Trait) is the first thing you should do to combat this, as it lowers all pollutants 50%. After that you can use the Anti-Litter Ordinance and Air Polution Standards edicts. Set your Electric Plants to gas when you build, and your island will be virtually pollution free. The only pollution created will be from mines, which cannot be pollutant controlled. As a green thumb, they will not pollute all that much.

As natural beauty of an area never hits 0 (or at least I have never seen this), your environment score will always be above 50 with all anti-pollution methods. It's a lot cheaper to do this than massive landscaping and moving your factories to less than optimal places for production.

If you do want to landscape your island to the fullest, I have learned a few things that may help.

Trees and shrubs increase the original beauty of an area by about .5% each. Therefore if the beauty of an area is in the red, the bonus will not be very much. A mass of trees in an ugly area will have a barely noticeable effect.

Fountains work differently. They seem to increase the beauty of an area by a raw number. It should always turn the area greenish. They radiate their beauty 3 squares in each direction.

So the optimal placement of fountains is to have 6 spaces between them. This should ensure that all the area has a relatively nice beauty score. Once your fountains are down, the trees and shrubs will have a much more beneficial effect.

Don't use statues unless you are in a militarist government. They raise beauty to around 50%, and decrease liberty while increasing government control. They do this quite well, and your people may not be very happy about this.

Of course, environmental benefits don't affect many people directly, until it gets bad. If your overall environment is in the teens, the weight people put in their environment gets higher. It kinda stinks this way ... but if your environment is at 90 throughout the game, no one will care ... they will all have a weight of 0 or 1 in environment. Abuse the environment, and their weights increase, as does the environmentalist faction population.

Environment does affect two things of concern however.... tourism and housing. Everyone knows about how tourists hate to bathe next to a landfill and all, but I haven't seen much on the boards about how it affects housing. I did a little research and found out that surrounding environment does have a pretty good effect on housing quality. An environment of 50% and housing quality will be at the base. An environment of near 100% and housing quality will increase about 5. I'm guessing that if the environment is around 0, the housing q will decrease 5. Basically every 10% from 50 you tack on or remove one housing quality.

An increase of 5 in housing quality may not seem like much, but considering it is (and job quality) the most common heavily weighted need, that increase does count toward a lot of happiness overall. So, while you can't make your people happy through environment directly (just content), you can do so indirectly by sprucing up the housing districts.

From Junta_Joe:

One of the best methods for keeping the enviromentalists off your back is to use some city planning. Placing all your factories and power plants on the downwind shore is vital to this end. The ocean never registers the downwind pollution.

You should build with enough space between buildings to be able to come back later and landscape. Especially save room for large fountains. These really make the tree huggers happy. Always leave a  downwind free space around mines.

Always enact the anti-litter edict in the first decade. The peon's litter is cumulative. You can never make an area cleaner later. Same goes for the smog edict and power plant conversions. If you can afford a factory, you can afford the edict.

The moral of this story is preparation and prevention. It is close to impossible to clean up your environmental mistakes. So prevent them from happening.

[Coconut Kid]

From Mr.P, an expert in oppression.

Well, I have just had my first uprising and I must confess that it was a joy to watch my Tropicans running around, burning flags above their heads.
Thankfully the island was prepared, having been in office for 60 years.
What did I learn?

• i) Well, having plenty of police really did help. 4 Police Stations were fully staffed as the uprising began. Given they were well-paid only 2 were traitors, the rest 'dealt' with the populace. Now you'll get to see the policeman use his pistol.

The army, which had recently undertaken a coup attempt were...erm...depleted shall we say and took a fairly minor part in the proceedings.

• ii) I found that even the guards in my prisons were running around shooting the protesters, so you should consider them when planning your police force size, in relation to uprising protection.
• iii) As all the Tropicans initially tried to converge on the Palace it became somewhat of a turkey shoot; thankfully (by luck) I had two Police Stations close to my residence. Certainly something to bear in mind when planning your island.
• iv) As all your workers seem to stop you cannot expect any goods to be shipped or product to be manufactured, so try your best to cut overheads, as this will prevent you sliding into the red (or at least reduce the slide if you are already there!)
• v) Be careful with your immigration policies. I watched several ships dock and over 3/4's of all arrivals were traitors and immediately set out for the Palace. Consider 'Tropicans First', to prevent new arrivals.
• vi) Once the uprising has been crushed remove the 'Tropicans First' setting, as you will need to allow as many people onto your island as you can, given half your population will be littering your streets in a corpse-like pose.

.
I have never had the experience of an Uprising when I had a Police force, so I have never seen a Policeman shooting. For all I knew, they were unarmed. An Uprising involving the entire population (in one way or another) is different from a Rebellion which involves only the Red Beret Rebels. How do you get warning?
Again Mr.P:
You'll get a few messages saying how unhappy your Tropicans are and then the threat that they are close to rising up against you.
Fairly soon after that, say 6 months in my recent cases, (I have had a few more since I started this thread! ) an uprising occurs. You get a display in the 'magic 8 ball' showing those for you, those against and the number hiding¹. All the Tropicans have symbols over their head, denoting stance, and head for the Palace where, if you have planned it well, you pepper them² with bullets. The policeman shooting his pistol is a sight to behold.

¹The "hiding" symbol is the famous Tropican Chicken.

²Actually, only the disloyal get the bullets. Some (albeit few in Mr.P's case) citizens will be loyal and brave enough to use their fists to defend the Palace.

[Coconut Kid]

From Airitha:

Build sightly more housing then you need.

Pause the game.
Set all rents to maximum.
Set game speed to slow.
Wait for everyone to move out.
Pause the game.
Reset all rents. Starting with the most expensive and working down to the cheapest, unpausing and pausing as you go. That's to keep the wealthy from taking the cheap places.

If you have well placed housing, everyone will move into a place better suited to their work. (Married couples will locate close to the man's job rather than the spouse's, but then you have probably already seen an Engineer living in a bunkhouse next to the dock because the Dockworker she married is such a handsome hunk.)

I found that respect is not hurt too much if they don't get to the point where they have to build a shack to live it. The 3-4 point respect hit is replaced by greatly increased worker efficiency... walking a lot less. But don't use this close to an election.

[Coconut Kid]

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=798.msg7994#msg7994
From Olle_Petersson:

How can you not? 

I consider myself being a Marxist as well, and I've found out that it's the very best way to rule Tropico too. 

How to do it:
1) Low income disparity. I usually start at income levels 4/6/8 for respective education level, and end 50 years later somewhere at 12/16/20.
2) Fair housing for as many as possible. Keeping the vast majority of the population in apartments, a few in tenements and houses. (Free housing for those who need.)
3) Free elections as soon as there's a demand, and every now and then in-between. (You can't have Marxism without democracy!)
4) Free, and good, education and healthcare. (Mandatory for the game, but also a requirement for communism.)
5) Low unemployment. (Best supported by low immigration. I typically run with "skilled workers welcome" policy.)
6) Keep all production, housing and entertainment facilities under government ownership. (Also mandatory for the game, and a requirement for communism.)

My military force is usually very small (<10 soldiers and generals in total, plus some police officers, all with sensitivity training) and there's no real need to increase it since there are very few unhappy citizens and low crime rate.
------------------------------

The real question is "How do I run Tropico in a capitalistic fashion?"
a) You can't have any private corporations (and no tax from them to bring money for the government).
b) It's impossible to have fees for education, (religion, food,) and healthcare.

Point a) is of uttermost importance for capitalism, there's no way you could claim to be capitalistic without private corporations. For ultra-capitalism there should be nothing owned by the government (possibly with the exception of the presidential palace).
Point b) should at least be an option.

The only way I can think of to run Tropico in a capitalistic mode is to claim that the entire island belongs to Tropico Inc.
El Presidente is chairman of the board and a majority shareholder of the company. The citizens are merely employees...
(Still it seems to be a cooperative company, owned by the employees who can fire the boss almost at will...)

If you really wish to try it;

• Income Ratio 1/3/8¹ for no/high school/college education.² (Use 3/9/24 as a base for ease of computation of rents.)
• Regular housing affordable for high school, good housing for college and shacks for the rest.
• Lots of banks and some industry.[/i]
• Almost all entertainment priced above the "no education" people's limit, especially drinking establishments.

[/b]
This very often leads to an unhappy population (except for the few rich persons). This in turn makes it necessary to have many soldiers to repress the people, and free elections become very hazardous.

¹Could be more extreme, but one runs out of the top range available too soon.
~~~~~~~~~~~

²To convert this to a quintile scale, use 3/6/9/18/27 for steps divisible by 3 to aid computation of rents. There is the risk of bumping the top of the scale if one uses too many raises.

[Coconut Kid]

From Olle_Petersson:

I've seen some postings from players that like to do some management by cheat codes, but without really cheating.

Here's a tip for those:

Situation:
- It's fairly early in the game, and your cash level is sub-zero.
- Now you realise "if I could only afford to build that building right now, the cash would start flowing in".

Old solution:
- Type PESOS to get $20,000 now.
- Repay $20,000 sometime later (using EXACTO).

My suggestion:
Take a 10year loan at 6% interest.
- Type PESOS to get the $20,000 loan now. (Or use EXACTO to get another amount.)
Note what date it is!
- After five years; use EXACTO to repay 30% of the loan sum (= $6,000 for a $20,000 loan).
- Repay another 30% each year for four more years. (5 x 30% total.)

This is more realistic than not paying any interest, and still cheap enough to make it worthwhile.

[Coconut Kid]

From Railnut:

I did a little testing and have some hard data on this matter.

My first test was on a simple map with no adjustments to building costs based on dictator characteristics. I was only testing the effect of having five fully staffed banks set to Urban Development. I monitored the cost of an Apartment Building to gather data.
                             
Initial cost      5000     Reduction
After 1 year    2206       55.88%
After 2 years   2014       59.72%
After 3 years   2000       60%

As the Urban Development setting states, the maximum reduction in cost is 60%, and it took a full three years to achieve that savings. I did notice that some buildings reached the maximum savings sooner. But I wasn't paying close attention to them and so cannot draw any further conclusions.

On the same test map, but with only one fully staffed bank the the rate of change was much slower.

Initial cost      5000     Reduction   
After 1 year    4056       18.88
After 2 years   3978       20.44
After5 years    3858       22.84
After 7 years   3561       28.78

And that is where I stopped.

In setting up the final test I used a random map with default settings. I also chose the following characteristics which had the listed effect on building costs.

Developer   -20%
Administrator  -10%
Cheapskate   -5%
Total    -35%

I also chose Religious Appointee which saved an additional 25% on churches. This made the cost of the church 2925. So the 25% was not added to the 35%, but factored in after the 35%. The cost of the church was
(Full price * 65%) * 75% or 48.75% of the full price.

And chosing Financial Genius for 25% on banks and shops had the  same effect on the cost of the bank. The bank cost 3900 or 48.75% of the full original cost.

In this final test the effect of having five fully staffed banks was the same as in the first test, and additional savings of 60%. By the end of the third year, the buildings cost only 40% of what they cost at the beginning of the test.

Apartment   1300
Church        1170
Bank           1560

I did not test the effect of having understaffed banks. The Dictator Characteristics adjust the root cost of the buildings. The in game adjustment for banks then affects that root cost. The effect of the banks mimics that of a scripted event in that it only makes adjustments as a percentage of the root cost.
I also did not test the affect of trade delegations or subsidies. However, I would be willing to bet that they will adjust the root cost before the banks' adjustment is figured in, or they will adjust the most recent value. And since multiplication is associative, either one will result in the same final product.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tropicology - Banks from Senior Ruina:
http://tropico.strategyplanet.gamespy.com//cafe/index.php?topic=5679.0

I got interested in banks because "money makes the man" seems like a good way to get high scores.  So I wanted to know what banks can actually do.

Here's some results.   Mucho macho edition, patched to 1.5.3.

First, embezzlement by a single very highly skilled banker seemed to top out at $81/month, from the $500k treasury level that is found in sandbox mode.  This suggests that yearly rates max out at 0.2%/year per banker.  (If this is in true, in theory one might see up to $83 embezzled by a single banker in a month. I did not test that long.)  I have not tested multiple embezzlers carefully, though I have used them in play and it seems to scale up.

However, there is a big problem with embezzlement: it is an attendance-based job.  So in reality you will never get near .2% per year, since a banker is unlikely to work more than 4-6 months/year.  If you plan to embezzle, make sure there is a house for each embezzler near their bank.  Micromanage him into it.

Strategy wise, it does seem that in a longer scenario "money makes the man" is a good idea.  If you can get 15 bankers working 1/3 of the year, you will be moving 1%/year to Switzerland.  With a treasury of size N, you get 10x as many points for swiss money as you do for "Economic Powerhouse" cash/buildings of that value.  Therefore you need to move 10% of your treasury to Switzerland for the same score.  Of course, the total value of the buildings + treasury will be many times N for a typical game, especially early on.  So in practice more than 10 years will be needed for this strategy to pay off, and it will only pay off when you are no longer growing the economy.  But it does seem that on an island large enough to fill up with stuff, within about 15 years after filling it MMTM will be superior to EP.  This is probably the way to go with longer games and/or smaller islands.  (Special building permit will also go a long way towards making MMTM superior to EP.)

More results:

When you switch banks between uses, there is always a lag of several years while the bankers get up to speed on the new use.  So don't expect to quickly switch on "urban development" for a building spree, and then back to embezzlement, at least not without a penalty.  (I still think it may be a good idea.)

On urban development: first off, it is not attendance based.  The rate does max out at 60%, but this does not seem to be by bank, but rather the number and skill of individual bankers doing it.  I found that 9 highly skilled bankers can get the full 60% after a few years.   It does not seem to matter how many banks are doing it, just how many bankers, their skill levels, and for how long.

I did not do much research on offshore banking, but it does not appear to be attendance based.

[Coconut Kid]

IDon'tHaveAName's answer to a question:

Q: "I am struggling to understand what tropicans are doing to multiply their money.  Let's say that average tropican on my island earn $12 monthly.  He will not spend more that $4 on apartment, and more that $12 on entertainment.  However when he spends $4 each month on housing he got no more that $8 left for fun, and he is still sitting drunk in the bar."

Tropicans don't go to the bar every single month. Maybe they go to the bar more like once or twice a year. If a Tropican makes $12 a month, and spends $4 a month on rent, and spends $12 twice a year on bars and restaurants, his cash flow is 144 - (48 + 24), he isn't going into debt to pay his rent and buy beer. In fact, he has $72 left over. My guess is that the extra money goes into buying imports. Tropico probably doesn't make many consumer goods like radios or toothbrushes or light bulbs or any of those other little amenities. It makes export commodities. This explains why tropicans are happier about getting a $12 salary, paying $4 in rent, and getting charged $12 at bars than getting a $6 salary, paying $2 in rent, and getting charged $6 in bars (in Tropico's case, a "dollar" has some form of fixed, international purchasing power). Also, it says in the manual that Tropico is import dependent, so it must get dollars from exports.

At least, that's my take on Tropican finances. Unless a Tropican goes to an entertainment place eight months a year, (s)he shouldn't have any trouble paying.

[Coconut Kid]

From Cluk:

When I browse the almanac, I often find that, to my suprise, most resources aren't directly involved in making money, even though my island is a prosperous econmic powerhouse.  Therefore, I've developed this little analysis of Tropican sectors and their use.  It assumes that productivity and profitability, not happiness or a bank account, are paramount.

Ok, every island has a number of basic resources:
Land (including specialized areas like beaches)
Environment
Crop conditions (like soil quality, rainfall, etc.)
Minerals
Vegetation
Fishing quality
Population
Money
I consider things like respect and happiness secondary because they are products of the deployment of these basic resources.
Some of these are easily renewable (i.e., vegetation), while some must be jealously guarded (land) - one they're gone, they're gone.  You might start with a lot of some resources (minerals) or have to develop your small starting supply (population).

These resources allow the use of sectors of your economy.  Of course, this is subjective, as there are no definites in economics.  The sectors and their uses:

Construction
Construction Office
The CO is its own sector because it is the unifying factor of all islands; no island can survive without it.  Its use is both the means and the end for the pursuit of resources.  That is, it allows economic development by building the buildings that use resources and it is also the way to reinvest the resources earned from buildings.
Resources used: Land (little), Population (moderate & uneducated), Money (lots)

Light Industry
Farm (usually on higher-profit crops)
Ranch
Wharf (for canning)
Logging Camp
Mine
The Harvesting sector is the group of industries that produce materials.  Most can be sold directly; some can be further refined.  A rural-agrarian economy uses mostly Harvesting buildings and even a more advanced industrial economy needs many to produce raw materials. 
Resources used: Land (lots), Crop conditions/Minerals/Vegetation/Fishing (varies by building and crop), Population (large employer of uneducated), Money (moderate)

Heavy Industry
Lumber Mill
Cigar Factory
Jewelry Factory
Rum Distillery
Cannery
The Heavy Industry sector takes the goods produced by Harvesting and adds a great deal of value by refining them into finished goods.  An advanced industrial economy has many of these factories.
Resources used: Land (moderate), Population (large employer of high school grads), Money (tons)

Industrial Suport
Teamster's Office
Dock (for frieghters)
Roads
Electric Power Plant (can help w/ upgrades to increase profits, allows TV)
TV Station (for Industry Ad campaign)
The Industry Support sector provides services that any export-based economy requires.  Without the first three items, the economy would be paralyzed.  Also, the Power Plant is highly recommended because it provides important factory/mine upgrades that can dramatically increase the return on an investment and the Ad Campaign can mean a dramatic boost in income as well.  This sector is vital to industrial success and must grow with the Light and Heavy Industry sectors.
Resources used: Land (low), Population (fairly low), Money (fairly low, especially compared to what it supports)

Tourism
All Tourism and Entertainment category buildings
Arc. Site
Bank (Off-shore banking)
This sector is comprised of the buildings that directly profit from the flow of tourism, including hotels and attractions.  A mix of hotels and attractions optimally will have both full hotels and full attractions.  Obviously, an economy that focuses on tourism needs a large Tourism sector.
Recources used: Land (tons), Environment (must be high), Population (many uneducated, a few higher), Money (lots)

Tourist Support
Attractive Housing (no shcks near hotels)
Founatains, Statues, Landscape (improve Environment)
Police Station (improve crime around hotels)
Airport
Dock (yachts)
Electric Power Plant (for hotels, attractions, TV)
TV Station (for Tourism Ad Campaign)
Tourists' Tourism Rating is comprised of 4 items.  The Tourism Sector only deals with Hotel and Attractions, so Tourism Support must handle Crime Safety and Environment.  Tourist Support also deals with the way to get tourists to the island.  Power is required for the better tourist facilities and an Ad Campaign can help you fill those facilities.  Again, it is important that Tourist Support expand as Tourism does in order to mainatin a high Tourism Rating and constant flow of Yanqui boats or planes.
Resources used: Land (moderate), Population (fairly low), Money (fairly low)

Free Money
Newspaper (Coupons)
Radio (Menudo/Bachata/Opera)
TV (Sitcoms/Sumos/Soaps)
Diplomatic Ministry (for aid and edicts)
Airport (to issue Trade Delegations)
Foreign Military Base
Bank (on Urban Development)
Free money is avalible for those who want it, so the Free Money sector takes advantage of media and foreign income and Urban Development savings.  This is a sector that needs little or no outside support and is quite profitable on a larger island.  Building an Airport merely for Trade Delegations might be a little much, but they are quite lucrative...
Resources used: Land (low), Population (low, but highly educated and skillful), Money (fairly low)

Population Control
High School
College
TV Station (on Learning with Larry)
Clinc/Hospital (on Obstetrics)
Immigration Office
Dock (for immigrants)
The Population Control sector can make your population larger, more trained, and more skillful - and ultimately better.  Clever use of this sector can mold your population the way you need it for maximum productivity and yield.
Resources used: Land (fairly low), Population (fairly low, but educated), Money (moderate)

Happiness
Farm, Ranch, Wharf, Market (for Food motive)
Housing (Housing motive)
Church, Cathedral (Religion)
Entertainment
Clinic, Hospital (Health Care)
Police Station (Crime Safety)
Radio, TV (set to improve Liberty or Respect)
Make-work (work for work's sake to improve Job)
Fountains, Landsacaping (Environment)
Statue (Environment, Respect)
The Happiness sector has no direct economic impact.  It takes resources that would otherwise be put into economic development and instead uses them to increase happiness.  It should be given the minimal sustainable investment - keep the people as happy as you have to.
Resources used: Land (variable, but usually lots), Environment (high for max. happiness), Population (large employer, including many educated workers), Money (lots)

Political
Palace
Armory
Guard Tower
Prison
Police Station (when used for arrests)
Statue (for govt. control)
Bank (slush fund)
Diplomatic Ministry (when used to placate foreign powers)
ANY building placed to satisfy a faction
Political sector buildings are unproductive and a large draw on resources.  Unfortuately, they're often needed to maintain power.  Because these buildings are basically dead ends for your resources, use them only as you must.
Resources: Land (moderate), Population (moderate), Money (moderate)

[Coconut Kid]

From Sleeping_Dragon:

When you bulldoze a building and it turns red that building no longer has to pay any building maintainance.  You can pay the bulldoze fee then set the 'build' priority of the red building to halt construction. The building will just set there and not have any upkeep, later on if you want to reopen the building you can just cancel the bulldoze command. I 'X'ed out all the (worker) slots before. Of course if you want to do this make sure the maintainance fees in the long run while the building is unoccupied are going to more then the bulldozing fee.

radzman's comment:

The workers seem to work indefinitely without maintainance costs (if you do not 'X' out the worker slots). Of course the bulldoze fee has to be balanced against the maintainance saving.

[Coconut Kid]

From calm_blue_sea:

You can place multiple mines. I play open ended games and always place multiple mines (usually 2 or 3 on one deposit). In fact, I have had 6 mines on a really large deposit. When the population begins to exceed 700 (as mine usually do) keeping people employed is a problem and mines are a welcome solution (although there must be housing and ammenities nearby).

Even after 100 years, mines don't appear to "mine out", although, as was stated, the deepening does slow the miners down considerably (to the point where the mines almost stop making money).

I find that if you place them touching the outer yellow edge of the deposit, your miners will go for the green (i.e. the richest part - you'll make money faster). You can always start a new mine a little further back later and buldoze the first if you have to. If the mine is placed further away however, the miners dig where they first cross the deposit at the edges (i.e. the yellow part). When they do finally get to the green there is already a considerable pit. Of course, do NOT place your mine directly on the deposit as they cannot dig under it.

When placing the mines, consider the shape the hole will take. If you put a mine upslope from a large deposit, the slope the miners cross will get steeper and steeper.

Another idea. If you have deposits of different minerals right next to each other and you can only afford one mine, you can set it to "mine all", however, it is better just to go after the more valuable of the two.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tropicology on mining (and jewelry) from Senior Ruina:
http://dynamic3.gamespy.com/~tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=5862.0

This has some important information on the area a mine "works."

[Coconut Kid]

From caddet:

I try to cluster my buildings around the resources.  That creates the look of several small towns.  I'll usually have a construction office with housing and a lumber camp about half way across my island from my main area, and the game automatically gives it a new town name.  That's the base from which I'll build my "tourist trap".  This central town will also house the electric plant as soon as it's completed.  Out from that base, I'll build my mines and factories, with housing close to where the resources are.  Those often have their own town names, also.  When I get to the point where one of these small "towns" needs an apartment building, I'll start adding things like a market, clinic, and entertainment buildings, too.  With the game I'm playing now, I have 3 little towns, in addition to my capitol city and tourist area.  Each one has a logging camp, because I use them to clear the land for later buildings.  And at the rate things are growing this time, each one will probably have its own armory and guard posts soon.  All the other buildings (high school, college, diplomatic ministry, bank) are in the capitol city.  There will be a bank for the tourist area, too, as soon as the construction workers get caught up!

[Coconut Kid]

From Dreamweaver:

Please take these numbers with a pinch of salt.

The following are the period between an average person's visit to the various structures and the duration that they typically stay there:

Food      3 years   instantaneous
Rest       1 year    1 month
Health     4 years   2.5 months
Religion   6 years   1.5 months
Entertain 6 years   2.5 months

Based on these numbers and allowing for a geneorus travel time of 2 months, (Once a person needs to go church, his icon will show up in church. If he leaves on the other side of the island, that space in the church is reserved for him until he gets there. So it is better to build well spaced out facilities.) the following are the average number of people that a facilitiy can serve:

Church: 180 people
Cathedral: 250 people
Health Clinic: 80 people
Hospital: 120 people
Pub:
Nightclub: 250 people
Restaurant:
Gourmet Rest: 200 people
Sports Complex: 400 people
Casino: 400 people
Cabaret: 150 people
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From MrManganese:

Let's say on average people spend 2 months walking to a church, and then they typically spend 2 months in church. That's four months each person spends occupying a church slot, of which there are 12. So, if people needed to visit church once a year then a church running at optimal efficiency would serve 12 (seats) x 12 (months) = 144 (seat months) / 4 (seat months per person per year) = 36 (people sustained by each church).

This is an optimal figure; this would be if your church were kept constantly full and as soon as someone leaves another person would take his place. That's not realistic at all; when someone leaves, it's probably going to be a while before that space is filled, and we're going to need a good number of empty spaces to ensure that people who happen to need religion at this moment will find an empty seat. So let's assume it will serve 75% of that number of people, i.e. 27 people per year.

Now consider that not everybody requires church attendance once a year. Only die-hard religious faction supporters require church every year. Strong faction members only require it once every two years, moderate supports require it every four years, and detractors require it every eight years. To convert those people into the equivalent of die-hard supports, we shall divide their numbers by the number of years it is before they need religion.

So let's say your population is like mine, with 1.7% die-hard supporters, 6.1% strong supporters, 22% moderate supporters, and 70.2% detractors.

1.7% / 1 = 1.7%
6.1% / 2 = 3.05%
22% / 4 = 5.5%
70.2% / 8 = 8.775%
Sum total = 19.025%

So the population of my island only uses 19.025% of the religious demand from the figure we calculated when we assumed that everyone needs access once a year. So in theory we can serve about 5 times the number we figured out earlier.

27 (people sustained per church assuming a visit each year) / .19025 = 141.91 (people sustained per church on my island)

You'd have to do the calculations a little differently for your island, considering that your religious faction makeup is probably different. Also, to assume that the church is only 75% efficient is totally arbitrary, I drew that number from the approximate usage I see in my churches. The assumed two month transit time is also variable.. it wouldn't be the same if your church were on the opposite side of the island. Two months is a fairly safe estimate though.

Note: the "efficiency" of the church is related to the skill level of the Priests, so it may vary considerably from the illustrative 75%.

[Coconut Kid]

From El_Politico:

While of course it would be wrong to keep secret files on people's political leanings and exercise of freedom of speech in a free country, in a restive dictatorship a little paranoia and use of the rename function go a long way in identifying targets for special measures and quickly reviewing your population for security risks as well as for those deserving special favors.

Renaming:  click on the name in most of the personal info displays and type a new name.  Being an unimaginative dictator, I almost always leave the name intact (if there is room) and add special characters to tag various attributes.  Thus by passing the mouse over characters on the map or in the lists I can more quickly focus my attention on the most deserving. El_P provided a fairly long list. Suffice it to say that it is best to use just plain letters (1 or 2), and each player can better work out their own simple or more elaborate list to suit their own purposes.

Mr.P's comment:

Following El_Politico's good work, I also do the following:
   Any and all rebels are tagged, but I do not keep original names. 'Rebel1', 'rebel2' etc. are used.
   Links are then made to all family members, who are tagged 'mother of rebel4' or 'father-in-law of rebel2'.
   It's amazing how many rebels/protesters stem from only a few family groups.

I also mentioned the above in a little more detail at now broken link.
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From Mr.P:

I have found a nice little trick for finding where a rebel is headed to, even when they cannot be seen in the magic 8-ball.

Go into the Alamanac and select jobs, then click on your rebel(s) and then 'lock' the 8-ball. Zoom out for a general view of your island and you should find a green arrow pointing to his next destination. Once he gets there a new green arrow will appear elsewhere, often a fairly close spot. After watching for some time you will then see the arrow move to one of your buildings, signifying that is the up-coming target.

Granted, it is not as if you can 'send' your soldiers there, but at least you know where you need to watch sooner. Almost as good as an undercover policeman.

[Coconut Kid]

From El_Politico:

This is American style which means no shooting, deporting, election fraud, or declaring people heretics.  Seems to have worked well in swinging the election from initial odds of more than 4:3 against me to a substantial majority for me on a number of times.

• 1. Use the Media.  Switch radio and TV to pro-govt. and pro-liberty themes to convince voters they have a real choice and you are the best one.  In a close contest this can do the trick by itself, though you lose adv. revenues. Have newspapers switch policy to the factions favoring you (or maybe one that you can swing, if you can figure that out).
• 2. Basic decrees: Mardi Gras (helps tourism too) and Double Food (if you can).
• 3. Find faction leaders, give them (and family, if necessary) consulting fees (bribes) and ensure they have nice houses.  The problem is that it sometimes takes over a year for the bribe to be delivered (unskilled or too few Bankers) and I believe some may be insulted by the offer.   I make nice even to the opposing candidate -- good sportsmanship and all that, plus it improves their personal attitude and that affects their faction favorably.
• 4.  Humanize industry early in the campaign: shorten the work week to Easy Does It, choose pollution-reducing settings, and raise wages where appropriate (it helps to start a pilot high-wage policy where the faction leaders and their families work). Don't forget the factory upgrades which improve job satisfaction.
• 5.  Discontinue unpopular decrees, at least temporarily (like anti-litter, 55 mph speed limit etc. <humor>).  Consider sensitivity training for troops and pollution control decrees. You are trading money for votes -- if short of money, you have other options.
• 6.  Change immigration policy to "love it or leave it" to encourage the bad apples to move to Florida or Cuba. (Though I prefer to leave immigration on.)
• 7.  Papal Visit, if seriously behind and you qualify.
• 8.  If a close one in the polls (the red & green graphs in the circle window), check out the list of voters (in the Almanac) to see if any "leaning" to the opponent have been thinking about their bank account, or have housing below their income level, and act to change their minds.
• 9.  If close, and at least a month ahead of the election, pad your payroll by hiring a couple of foreigners who will arrive and probably vote for your proven wise leadership (in hiring them, of course).
• 10. Tax Cut (last minute resort). [/i]

Election Guide: http://dynamic3.gamespy.com/~tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=750.0

[Coconut Kid]

From Wez:

If the World Bank caps your maximum worker wage, there is ONE job I've found where you can ignore this. Any banker where the bank is set to "off-shore accounts" can have ANY wage, not limited by the World Bank. Useful to keep the yanqui dollars rolling in by (il)legitimate means.

El_Bruno's comment:

I made the same experience with the banker's wages. If you chose 'cheapskate' as a negative attribute, there is a restriction on all the wages, making 25$  the max. But when I checked on my bankers, I noticed, that I could still pay those greedy guys the full 50$ wage. It seems that they always find ways to cheat the government.

[Coconut Kid]

From Kilgaard:

Lots of people have said that Airports are not economical, so I thought I'd try something.

Because I couldn't be bothered with the editor yet I started the Mi Corazon scenario, and for the three free buildings, took an Airport, a Power Station and a Luxury Hotel. I then imported 4 engineers (two each for the airport and powerstation). I built nothing else ... just tinkered with the farms to get a bit better crop yield, set the Aiport to First Class, and set the dock to Freighters Only.

Over the 8 years that I let it run (before I got kicked out) my airport turned a profit of $2000 per year, servicing just one lux hotel. This means that after those 8 years it would have paid for itself (if I had actually paid for it). Remember, you get $200 per tourist from airfares (or $400 per couple) and guarantee that all your tourists are High Class. Also, my Lux Hotel turned a profit ... even if the rating was slowly heading down due to no attractions.

This does not factor in the other benifits of airports ... like trade delegations or not having your high class tourists tromp past your factories/tenements down near the docks.

Page 2:

The key to making your Airport profitable is that you have to force your tourists to use it (and you need lots of tourists). This means:

1. Make sure all your docks are set to Freighters only. Any tourists that arrive by yacht pay only $10 dock fee as opposed to the minimum $100 airport fee. Additionally, all those yachts just get in the way of your freighters, resulting in slower exports, and loss of cash flow.

2. Make sure your airport is set for First Class Only. This immediately raises the airport fee to $200 per tourist.   Of course it does also mean that you only get high class tourists, but the're the only ones with money anyway.

Now, a standard Hotel holds 12 couples, a Lux Hotel even more. When that first plane full of Yanquis lands, you can expect to pocket up to $2400 just from the landing fees. They then proceed to spend money just like they normally would.

If you are running your Hotels on autofee so that they always stay reasonably full the turnover rate of tourists from a single hotel is enough to keep the airport profitable breakeven (including labor and electricity costs). Two or more hotels and you start to rake in the cash. Of course by this time you should be getting lots of cash from other sources also.

Ironically, if you have less attractions then your tourist turnover rate is higher, and you earn more from the airport. This is probably not a good idea when looking at the big picture. 

The key point that I was trying to make is that the airport does not have to be a static drain on your economy. It does have the potential to not only pay for itself in a fairly short period, but also to provide supplemental income.

Junta_Joe: One way to avoid the "island stoppage" that occurs when you build an airport is to use timing.

Just about the time you have the money to branch out into industry and tourism, you tend to have your greatest influx of immigrants.

Try this: After the schools go up and before factories, power plants, and hotels you should go to building that airport. Build a few extra contruction offices (more than one at the airport construction site is a must). The immigrants will pour in to these new jobs. When the airport is completed, start on your industry building. Slowly demolish the construction offices and watch those immigrants start school to fill these new emerging jobs. This should stop that gap where you have too many or too few workers.

If you are concerned about spending big money on an airport, remember that the build time will let you recoup money with agricultural exports.

[Coconut Kid]

From Loverevolutionary:

The three things most important to making money in Tropico.  Tourism, industry, it doesn't matter.  Location of the buildings matters MOST.

The single greatest waste of time and money in the game is travel.  It takes YEARS for people to get all the way across a big island.  You can't make them sleep less, but in most games, the amount of time they spend sleeping simply doesn't compare to the amount of time they spend going here, going there.

Pollution: obviously, put polluting things on the downwind side of farming and housing.

Transporting goods: put factories in a direct line between source and dock. Put teamsters offices on the same line.

Tourism: Put ALL your tourist attractions between your hotels and the port or airport.  That way, all tourists will walk near all attractions at least twice.  I have several islands where almost every tourist visits four or more attractions.

Human services: put them in between jobs and houses.

I have heard people say to put guard posts far away from military housing so the soldiers will walk more, making more squares green.  This only works if you have no reason to make squares green in the first place.  If it takes your soldiers a year to get to that power plant to defend it from actual rebels, it won't be there when they arrive.  Put housing and guard posts near what you want to guard.  If you want more green squares on the gov control overlay, build more guard posts, don't make your soldiers walk further.

For police, use the magic "eye" to put the stations in the high crime area.

Universities and schools.  I used to think it mattered where they were placed, like maybe you would get more students enrolling in a closer school.  But it doesn't seem to matter.

Radio stations: height is absolutely crucial for radio stations.  TV goes so far, height doesn't matter as much, but for radio, building on mountain tops can make a big difference in transmission range.

Army bases: Build a guard post near them.  An understaffed army base in the middle of nowhere is a tempting target for large rebel forces.

Sports stadium.  There is no single building in the game for which location is more important.  Sports stadiums have such a high maintenance cost, it's very hard to make any money with them unless they are constantly full.  But when they are, oh boy!  Don't build one too early, but save space for it in the entertainment district you've built in between your airport and hotels.  A dock won't cut it for traffic, it needs to be in between an airport and at least six hotels.  Prime the "sports-lover" pump by building a tennis court first.  I've made over $100,000 with a stadium in the right location (I had two airports: one first class, one coach; twelve cheap hotels, six regular and four luxery when I built the stadium.  It made well over $100,000 in twenty years.)

madmanbc: I'd like to point something out that hasn't been pointed out often.  Your plant workers skill (or lack of) does not change the range of the power plant.  Even with only one worker the range will be the same as a full plant with experienced workers.  So you shouldn't have to build power plants next to buildings, just click the power plant with the eyeball open and it will show you where the end of the power available is.  If you aren't producing enough power the area of effect will be yellow instead of green.  It's actually a bad thing to build buildings next to power plants because of the pollution.

caddet: I have found that having tons of teamsters is not as important as having teamsters everywhere.  There is great benefit in having a teamster office near each export producing area of your map.  But in most cases, you don't need to allow them to fully staff each office.  Having 4 teamsters at each of 2 teamster offices can be much more efficient than having just one office with 8 teamsters.  The added export efficiency more than makes up for the maintenance costs for the second building, if you place them properly.
The same works well with construction workers.  When there's nothing left to build but roads, fire the extra construction workers so they will staff the factory (or whatever) you just built.