The first thing you should do when you start your reign is get an idea of the crop potentials of your island. Since there are never any options to import food in the game this will be an important step. There is no hard fast rule here but consider a couple very important points.

 

1. Each farm can support approximately 30-40 people with food.

 

2. Not all crops have food potential. Sugar Cane, Coffee & Tobacco are all cash-only crops

 

3. Food crops begin producing in about 1.5-2 years (don't worry you're people will survive.) Cash crops are from 3-5 years.

 

4. Fishing Warf produces food very dependably but has very low cash value. Still, if you find your people starving it's the fastest way to get food on the table.

Mining is profitable but is much more dependent on location of the deposits. Iron is generally a low profit item but most deposits can support 2 mines. Generally speaking, don't mine iron if it is located right next to your city center (current or future) since it's value is heavily offset by the pollution it causes and terrain deformations make movement and building placement troublesome. Gold is a different story, pollute like it's the 1980's, just get that mine built. Bauxite close to the city center should only be done if you can NOT generate a good cash crop or logging is not an option.

An important fact about paying rent. Tropican's will pay approximately One Third of their combined family income on housing! If you are paying decent wages you'll be able to raise the rate on your housing and recoup the building costs in short order.

One more point. If you choose Diplomat as a character Quality you will start the game with a Foreign Ministry. This will allow you to make a deal with the USSR that will let you make Tenements for half price. It will be worth it in the long run.

Paying your people well is a good thing. Not just to make them happy, but to also allow you to get more money OUT of them in housing and entertainment. Since payment for these things is based on the amount of money they actually earn, a decent income is necessary to get decent profits from things like pubs and restaurants. However, maxing out a farmers pay at the beginning of a game is just asking for trouble in the long run since this is the best way of making them happy directly. It's advisable to adopt a process of Cost of Living raises semi-annually to keep ahead of the Tropican's tendency to get crabby as they get older. Beware the CHEAPSKATE Flaw, it's salary cap can be devastating.

You already know how to fire people but the question is when to fire them? In most cases you only need to fire people when you're having BIG money problems and can't seem to get enough cash to build the next thing to get you out of the RED. The best thing to do here is avoid the problem. Don't always allow ALL of a buildings worker slots to be open. Close some BEFORE buildings are finished so you don't need to generate any hard feelings when you fire someone that jumps that job the instant the building is open. The Teamster's Office is the first place to be keeping an eye on worker numbers. Also, factories which are constantly out of INPUT items are best kept at a minimal staff.

Waste not want not.

The Market Place. Location, Location, Location.

Here's a hidden little gem. The market place is the one building that can really cut down travel times and thus time away from work. Since it only employs ONE worker it is often a good idea to build a Market Place close to where MANY people work. This way they have the opportunity to get food while they are going to or from work and keeping them on the right track. All good Tropican's should work. Working is good for Tropico. Make it easier on their shoes.

Building a high school within the first 10 years of your island is a must for a variety of reasons.

First, you'll always have some intellectuals on your island and a high school will make them reasonably happy for quite some time.

Second, educated Tropican's learn their jobs faster than uneducated ones. While high school educated Tropicans will want better jobs they will still take manual jobs without a huge hit on their happiness. This is not true for most college educated Tropicans however.

Third, you'll need a fair number of high school educated workers if you are skewed towards a tourist economy. You'll need a large number of high school educated workers if you are going to do a lot of heavy industry. Hiring one to three high school workers for your island isn't too expensive but by the time you are hiring your fourth you'll be spending way too much cash.

Finally, High schools employ a large number of people and this can be a useful buffer for educated workers without a job at least temporarily.

When do you need entertainment for your people? Well that varies; however generally you should have a least a pub within the first 5 years of your administration.

A Pub gives you one of the cheapest and most effective overall methods of upping the happiness of your entire island. I'm not talking about it's normal function which ONLY addresses entertainment. I'm talking about the Mardi Gras Edict that the Pub allows you to enact. This will up your people's happiness for about 2 years. The amount varies but it can make a huge difference if your in an election year… hint, hint. The location of a pub is not all that important but you'll want it where people don't have to travel too far to enjoy it.

At around a 100 person population you should add a Restaurant. You don't need more than one unless you decide to make one restaurant exclusive for the tourists. This adds enough variety to your peoples entertainment happiness to keep it health for quite a while.

When you can afford it, a News Paper will provide you with a very powerful tool with which to manipulate your people's will. It is the single fastest and most direct way to affect Liberty in a POSITIVE manner, just be sure you select the right news paper to print. You'll have a lot of options here so read them carefully and tailor your journalism to your needs. Radio's and TV's are also VERY powerful but because of the electrical requirement they are difficult to get up and operational in a timely manner.

What can you say about the Cabaret? Well, a little I guess. This is very popular with your soldiers and oddly, your priests. Generally speaking, it is a reasonably attractive destination for most of your male population and tourists. However, you should only build this to make people (certain) happy since it rarely makes much if any money for your treasury. Remember, soldiers are difficult to make happy, all soldiers are MALE. Get it?

Tending to the soul of the Tropican is a touchy subject. At first glance the Religious faction looks very powerful. Then as you look at it again, it's strength seems to diminish. Now, look once more when you understand the over all workings of religion on Tropico and you'll finally see it's a very powerful tool in SOME instances but in NO instance can it be completely ignored.

It can't be ignored because it is a very common faction for your people to be active within. So simple numbers say you MUST provide at LEAST a church. No problem. Well, as people go to church they become more interested in religion. The more interested in religion they become, the more frequent they need to visit, and so on and so on. This isn't immediately apparent but on islands where religion is a perhaps a game parameter you'll notice it even more. The point is that religion can't be ignored, get that church built early enough to keep the religion faction out of your hair.

There are a few other things to consider about religion. It has a few VERY, VERY powerful edicts that can affect ALL Tropicans, not just the religious. However, these require that you have good standing with the religious faction. Getting the Pope to visit your island has LONG lasting positive impact with your people and even more with those that are strong in the religious faction. Enacting a contraception ban can boost the lagging work force without having to rely on stinking foreigners, and non-stinky ones too. Religion requires a bit more thought and manipulation than most factions to get what you want. Steer clear of it if you don't want what it can offer and just do what little they need.

Let's now take a look at the Military and the Rebels.

The making of a Rebel.

When rebels are born they check a variety of things. The same is true when a rebel decides to become a citizen again.

 

• Happiness. The worse this is the more willing they are to go to the hills.

 

• Courage. If they are very courageous they are likely to rebel with push comes to shove, rocks and bullets.

 

• Young men. This is a trait that young men seem to exhibit in generally greater numbers. THIS IS NOT A Politically Correct simulation. Deal with it.

 

• Democracy Satisfaction. Have you been playing with votes or denying the demands for free elections? Then you may be a dictator.

 

• Small army or suppression is low. If you ignore it, it will come.

 

• The Tropican has no underage children. No kids, no guilt and more power to the people!

 

• Any Edicts. Some edicts directly target rebels or personal liberty. If you are dancing on this pin head then you should consider how it effects the previous points.

What rebels do most often is disrupt your daily life. They like to hit targets of opportunity, low risk and high irritation factor. If you have lots of rebels don't build airports out in the middle of nowhere trying to cut down on the overall pollution. This is like rebel candy, they can't resist. At least they can't unless you have a means to defend it. So, to keep the rebels away from the candy be prepared to build a guard post near such places. The farther a building is from an area of military control, the greater the likelihood of incurring a rebel assault on the unprotected building. Remember that to build Guard Posts you'll need some Generals. More Generals mean greater risk of Military Coups. No, it's not easy but that's the challenge of being El Presidente.

Police stations don't help in rebel conflicts. Rebels fight soldiers, police fight civil disturbances and reduce crime.

Your people are lazy. It's the truth. It's not the heat it's the humidity, makes them sleepy and tired. No, wait. They have headaches, the dog ate their work clothes, the fish made them sick or the programmers made them do it. Whatever excuse you choose to accept it is a fact of life on Tropico. You can't just coral a bunch of factory workers and say go to this cigar factory and work till you drop! It's not going to happen.

So, what's a dictator to do? You could pass an edict like marshal law, that'll limit the amount of wandering they'll do but that really won't make things better on an island that just needs a bit more productivity. The answer is there are NO magic bullets. You may be saying " HEY now! This is a strategy guide. What gives?" Well, it is a strategy guide but it's not a walk through. You'll have to consider what job is being neglected to create a solution. Generally speaking jobs will fall into one of 2 categories:

Money Motivators. This means that the primary work incentive is the money being paid in wages. Upping this will improve their happiness and willingness.

Special Options. This means that you can use an option within the function of the building to squeeze more work out of them. This is a particularly noticeable option in Factories, Teamster Offices and Construction Offices. This doesn't mean that cash doesn't help, it's just easier to qualify improved performance through these in-building options.

Another way for you to improve productivity and output at factories is to invest in factory upgrades. While this will not necessarily improve worker attendance it will improve worker productivity when they are on the job. Factories upgrades can dramatically change your world and should not be ignored.

On that note I'll point out an important aspect to the Logging industry on Tropico. If you rely on logging as a staple industry you should invest in the horticulture upgrade as soon as you can afford it. It can really change the value of your logging industry in the long run if not save it out right, but it needs to be done EARLY.

This also leads to multiple building question. The most obvious is when do I need two docks? Two docks are a good thing when you tend to have more queue items stacked up at your dock than can be consistently moved to a single ship before it leaves. Here is the problem with perhaps the laziest person on Tropico with a mission critical job.

You can expect the USA and USSR to occasionally mettle in your affairs during a 50 year reign. This doesn’t have to cause you any undue stress when you understand that much of what they think of you is directly under your control.

After building a Foreign Embassy you'll be able to pass super power-effecting edicts. If you check your current standing in the almanac under the POLITICS tab you'll get your first indication of where you stand with the USA and USSR. Your next choice is to decide if you want to side with either? The most lucrative stance is to be nice to both. Simple, they give you money and improve things in general. Unless you skew things drastically, you never really LOSE anything that you can not do with out.

The biggest affect that can be generated is the Tourism bonus associated with the USA. This is because if handled correctly you'll be able to generate great sums of money, this is a good thing.

Tourism is an interesting aspect to Tropico. Because it relies on all of your abilities as a dictator it is not the easiest economy to develop and even once established it is no simple matter to maintain.

Tourists come in three flavors.

Low Class. This has more to do with interests and total money they have available to spend than true class structure. Economy Class may be a little more politically correct, but you know how we feel about being PC by now? These tourists are much less demanding and far more accepting than their opposite, the High Class tourist. Getting your tourism industry started using these people as your target is relatively simple and you'll need little more than a Cheap Hotel, A Beach and a Pub to give them a REASONABLY good time. Remember, the happier they are with their vacation the more people will want to visit your island.

Middle Class. They look like either class of tourist but their pocket book is a bit bigger than the Low Class tourist and their expectations take a significant jump over Low Class tourists as well. You'll want a Medium Hotel, a Pub, a Restaurant, a beach and a Pool. However, the only minimum requirement is a Medium Hotel and some sort of other attraction. MINIMUM is none too good in building up the industry.

High Class. These snobs are carrying more cash than the total cash your population has, probably. You must build amenities that these people are willing to spend their cash on. They also are much more sensitive to pollution, violence and the military on your island than either of the other tourist classes.

All tourist classes like variety in the attractions they go to visit. Multiple restaurants are good; however, if the tourist is not interested in FOOD as a primary interest they will not enjoy your island as much if you provided a stadium if they had a greater interest in sports. You follow the logic here? More to visit the more they visit. More they visit the more cash they spend.

In the end, you'll probably want to be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor? This will come in the form of your Swiss bank account. A good portion of you score can be earned through this "retirement fund." If you chose to skew the score towards the Swiss bank account then it will account for an even larger portion of your overall score.

The fastest way to do this is to institute the edict Special Building Permit. Without constructing a bank this will get a small amount of cash trickling into your Swiss account with the construction of each building on your island, accept shacks.

Building a Bank as early as you can afford it is also a good idea. This should not necessarily be the first building but it can help cut the costs of ALL the buildings on your island as well as generating cash for the Treasury or your Swiss account. Improve your island first but then consider Banking.

A Revolting situation.

When your people decided to stage a popular revolt there is little you can do to stop the carnage. However, quickly up the pay of your soldiers and police at least, they have GUNS! This may have just enough effect to turn the tide in your favor.

In a military coup, upping the pay is also a good tactic and pretty much your only one.

If you have a Rebel invasion, well, just be sure you're paying your soldiers well and hope the god of averages is taking a nap or that the Rebels overestimated their chances of success.