Thanks again Eddy for dragging
the thread wildly Off Topic.
Postmaster or Crapmaster ?
The Environment is far more
important than players give credit.
... Seriously though, if you want to pick one faction you're going to piss off, they are it. They don't have the numbers to oust you (unlike the Religionists or Commies), or a big powerful friend (like the Capitalists). They aren't (necessarily) skilled, high-priced, hard-to-get labor (like the Intellectuals), and they have no fire power (unlike the Militarists). Getting 65-70% of all votes [without them] keeps you in the office, and even leaves you with some margin of error. ...
Some serious misses there. Graduates of schools set to "General Education (i.e. Liberal)" are most likely to favor the Intellectual or Environmental factions, so they are a subset of the Intellectuals. They are likely to increase faster as the educated increase, so you will find them in those hard-to-fill jobs more often than you think. When they are critical, they are actually being your friend by giving you a "heads up" about pollution going out of control.
They are not the only ones who notice pollution and ugliness. Although the Manual doesn't include it in the 'bulleted' list on pages 21 through 24,
Environment is the #7 gage on each citizen's happiness panel. If it were a bulleted entry between Crime Safety and Liberty, it would read something like this:
- Environment: No one likes to live in a pile of refuse where the air stinks. Ordinary people like to see beautiful things like the trees that nature provides, and smell the flowers that bloom in the parks your benevolence provides. You have tools to mitigate the pollution that comes with development. Your people wish for a nice setting both for their homes and their workplaces.
Besides your citizens, you may have to think about
Tourists. The island's tourism rating has three elements:
- Hotel(s) = Accommodations
- Attractions
- Crime Safety and Environment
- Crime Safety is the same as the citizen's happiness sub-factor.
Environment is based on a wide variety of factors:
- Pollution levels which are auras radiated from buildings.
- Natural Beauty which is:
- The absence of buildings and people,
- Structures and vegetation which have auras that radiate beauty.
- Absence of the detritus of daily Tropican life and of buildings which have an aura of uglyness (actually negative beauty).
It is important to gameplay that the player has an understanding of the environmental factors and tools so that s\he makes informed decisions. Otherwise, s\he is likely to feel harassed and frustrated as the game progresses. It is easy enough to develop a menu of environmental actions to take in conjunction with the various growth steps. Perhaps I'll do so some day.
