Tropico 4

[Sjofn]

Anyone actually buy this? I tried the demo and it seemed almost exactly the same as Tropico 3, down to the graphics, so I'm wondering ... what the point of it is, I guess? Like maybe there's hidden Different New Shiny in the actual game?

[Bann]

I picked it up. I've never played a tropico before and I was bored yesterday. Only made it to the 2nd island so far, seems allright.

[Tannhauser]

The trailer showed new graphics, so I'm not sure.  I enjoy the series, but the devs don't exactly rock the boat on innovation.  I admit the way they seem to be handling buying and selling goods has me interested, but I don't know if I want to plunk down two Andys for it.

[Sjofn]

I guess they did have some new stuff, like the ministry. I didn't really get into the import/export stuff either, maybe that's deeper than I thought. The graphics didn't seem any different buuuut perhaps I am not discerning enough?

[rk47]

1. Fire stations. Means random fires may break out.

2. Ministry. You need College Educated Ministers (YES THEY ARE ACTUAL CITIZENS THAT MAY DIE OR LEAVE) to take up respective departments before you can issue specific edicts. Need Development Aid? Foreign Minister. Want to bolster education? Education Minister. What a pain in the butt.

3. Construction. You can now double the money to have the buildings auto build. Very good way to quick start a far away expansion.

4. Importing raw materials may cover up and shortfalls that your factories may have, although I am not sure if it's worth it in the long run.

5. Traits of your presidente may level up over time, conferring additional bonus.

All in all. The additions aren't much and the game isn't worth the full price.

[Ulysees]

Been playing it this weekend and if you like Tropico 3 you'll like Tropico 4 though the additions don't warrant a full price game in my opinion but since I stumped up anyway who's the fool here? Main issue is the same as all the games, they start out the same each and every time as you try to stabilise yourself enough to grow and acheive the mission goals but once you have the start out strategy sorted once it works on all the maps there after (at least upto map 7 so far). The humur is still there and I like the Tropico games so I am enjoying it for what it is but do feel there is not enough innovation to make it worth a full price release.

[Sjofn]

Thanks for the input, guys! It just occured to me that I haven't actually played through the Tropico 3 expansion yet, so I'll do that for now and wait for Tropico 4 to go on sale. 

[Modern Angel]

The reviews are pretty universal in their "this is Tropico 3.5" tone. I was eyeballing it today, too, but decided to hold off.

[Raguel]

Hey. Just bought this game awhile back on sale. I like the game but some things bug me:

1. They show the radius of effect for things like hospitals but not for churches and clinics
2. I got an error message ("farm unable to place field" or something like that) but no clue on what's wrong

General question: is it a good idea to get a concrete factory going before getting things like a church or clinic?

[Reg]

I always get the concrete factory as soon as I can.  It doesn't require any input material, it speeds up the construction of your other buildings and whatever's left over is sold as an export for half decent money in your early days.

[Maledict]

Churches and clinics don't have a radius because they don't operate on an area basis. They service a certain number of people and that determines how much they provide. When people need their faith or health dealing with they will travel for miles to an empty church if they have vehicles available. (Same with entertainment venues).

Facilities lik churches etc are less about how many you have covering a geographical area, and how many you have near you active population centres and can people reach them easily and do they have enough staff to support the population.

[Tannhauser]

For farms, be sure to check the crop overlay so you are building the right kind of farm for the area.  You can of course change the farming type.  Raguel, the error might mean there are rocks or not enough space to drop the farm. 

I've never built a concrete factory.  I go offshore oil a lot and mines in land.  Industry frees the masses!

[Raguel]

For farms, be sure to check the crop overlay so you are building the right kind of farm for the area.  You can of course change the farming type.  Raguel, the error might mean there are rocks or not enough space to drop the farm. 

I check to make sure I always have the right crop in the right area. I can make the farm, and generally speaking when I get this error message it's from a farm that's been there since nearly the beginning.

I've never built a concrete factory.  I go offshore oil a lot and mines in land.  Industry frees the masses!

I mine as well. The reason I brought it up is that concrete seems to generate revenue faster than things like tobacco and sugar and early on I'm always suffering from cash flow issues. The problem though is that IIRC the factory requires high school workers so one would  think for this to be a successful strategy one would need a HS built early but I did play a map where the factory spots filled up nicely even though I didn't have an HS at that point.

Churches and clinics don't have a radius because they don't operate on an area basis. They service a certain number of people and that determines how much they provide. When people need their faith or health dealing with they will travel for miles to an empty church if they have vehicles available. (Same with entertainment venues).

Facilities lik churches etc are less about how many you have covering a geographical area, and how many you have near you active population centres and can people reach them easily and do they have enough staff to support the population.

Good to know

Thanks all

[calapine]

I check to make sure I always have the right crop in the right area. I can make the farm, and generally speaking when I get this error message it's from a farm that's been there since nearly the beginning.

A Farm will have several field 'patches', as many as there is space and workers to support. If you get that message mid-game it means that
a) the farmers have exhausted all available space and can't place a new patch
b) the soil quality has lowered due to over-farming (below yellow) and thus the usable amount of land has lowered. Solution to B is crop-rotation: switch your farm to some other crop for a few years to let the soil recover.

Edit: Little 'trick' for the beginning. The 'Humanitarian Aid' edit allows you to instant-construct a aid camp for free. Aid camps fullfill the role of both healthcare and food supply, thus replacing a clinic and farms/market in the firsts years. Great if you are low on cash/doctors to build a clinic, allows you to free up workers to start up and industry (no farmers needed for food, any food exisiting farmers produce can be used for export because your citizen eat the free aid meals!)

[luckton]

Better idea: Screw farms, build Marketplaces, import all your damn food.

Build plantations if you have excess uneducated and all of your ore, salt, and oil nodes are tapped full/out.

[Pennilenko]

Better idea: Screw farms, build Marketplaces, import all your damn food.

Build plantations if you have excess uneducated and all of your ore, salt, and oil nodes are tapped full/out.

Spoken like a true republican....I kid, I kid.

[luckton]

 

Seriously though, get your people educated, build factories, import all your raw resources and export everything.  I have zero problems keeping all of the factions and global powers in my favor at 90%+.

[Pennilenko]

Seriously though, get your people educated, build factories, import all your raw resources and export everything.  I have zero problems keeping all of the factions and global powers in my favor at 90%+.

How do you make sure enough food gets imported? Build only marketplaces and make sure imports are allowed?

[luckton]

Yeah.  If I start getting complaints about low food, I drop a couple marketplaces around the housing areas.  That usually fixes it.  You'll never be able to boost food quality without growing your own stuff or using the Food for the People edict, but I've never had that cause the people the revolt and drop into the red.

[Maledict]

Personally I prefer being more self sufficient on my islands - that way I have lots of jobs for the uneducated who turn up due to my immigration office and weather station beaming happy messages to the poor of the world constantly. Plus there's something fun about building the mines & farms to feed the factories - also allows for a more natural 'ramp up' effect as you play. Start with raw materials and then as your population and cash grows you develop industry and maybe a bit of tourism.

[Paelos]

I like farms and ranches especially in the early game. As they build up, I like to transition into canneries and cigars. Then I add mines and weapons factories.

At that point, you're officially printing cash.

[PalmTrees]

Game is a bit too easy. Have never had any trouble with rebels or the super powers that weren't scripted by the campaign missions. I choose my industry based on whatever farm/mine I have. Get a nuclear plant and have all the electricity you need with just a few college guys rather than a regular power plant with its huge crew. Tourism is nowhere near the money machine that industry is, but I find it helps the upkeep bleed between freighters.

Enjoying it and I'll probably play through all the campaign missions eventually.

[rk47]

Do you know why it's too easy?
It's because Normal is the new easy.
Push that slider to the right and watch...

Really.
I played on normal, and shot elderly on sight cause they contribute zero to the economy and guess what? No fucking problems.
It's too easy on normal.

[Tannhauser]

When I felt like really micro-managing, I'd find and shoot the most unhappy citizens.  Don't need these Negative Nancy's bringing everyone down.  Oh and becoming rebels.

[Maledict]

It is intesting reading complaints of the game though. People complaining about having shacks everywhere despite lots of housing, or construction teams never building anything. There's a lot more 'depth' to the game than immediately meets the eye, and whilst its co platelet possible to have islands with 1000+ people, full employment and no homeless people it takes slightly more than just dropping down housing constantly.

But like all sim games, once you get past the initial curve at the start it is pretty hard to 'lose'. Think the game would be better if it forced you to diversify more with bigger random events - a complete crash in a particular market, or a massive rise in the price of imports etc would help ensure you couldn't follow one path to victory all the time.

[Raguel]

It is intesting reading complaints of the game though. People complaining about having shacks everywhere despite lots of housing, or construction teams never building anything. There's a lot more 'depth' to the game than immediately meets the eye, and whilst its co platelet possible to have islands with 1000+ people, full employment and no homeless people it takes slightly more than just dropping down housing constantly.

do tell cuz I have those problems   

Is there a way to make global changes like apartment rent, worker pay w/o having to click on a building/farm?

[Thrawn]

It is intesting reading complaints of the game though. People complaining about having shacks everywhere despite lots of housing, or construction teams never building anything. There's a lot more 'depth' to the game than immediately meets the eye, and whilst its co platelet possible to have islands with 1000+ people, full employment and no homeless people it takes slightly more than just dropping down housing constantly.

do tell cuz I have those problems   

Certainly my biggest (and almost only) gripes behind the game being too easy as well.  Have a bunch of shacks and homeless, turn on "free housing", dump a bunch of apartments with air conditioning around, almost no change. 

Ran into an odd issue last night playing a campaign map.  I had to arrest/eliminate someone as a major plot quest.  I issue the order but months later I still have the objective up.  I look at the person again to find that between the order being issued and carried out they became a rebel!  So I can no longer arrest or eliminate them, but am still stuck in my mission until I do.  Thankfully eventually I was able to get happiness high enough that when I issued amnesty they came back and I immediately had them eliminated by my secret police. 

[luckton]

Is there a way to make global changes like apartment rent, worker pay w/o having to click on a building/farm?

Clicking on those things is how it's done. 

For worker wages:
- If you want to adjust the wage for a particular building, click that building the adjust the slider.  Done.
- If you want to adjust the wage for all of the same type of workers, click one one of the buildings that employs the type, adjust the slider, click the first button to the right of the slider.  For example, if you want to raise the wage of all farmers together, click a place that employs farmers (farm, plantation, labor camp), adjust the slider, click the button.  Done.
- If you want to adjust the wage for all of the same education of workers, click one of the buildings that employs the education, adjust the slider, click the second button to the right of the slider.  For example, if you want to raise the wage of all College educated workers, click a place that employs college peeps, adjust the slider, click the button.  Done.

For building fees:
- For one building in particular, click the building, adjust the slider.  Done.
- For all buildings of the same type, click the building, adjust the slider, click the button to the right of the slider.  Done.

[PalmTrees]

Yeah, I get stubborn shack people too. Have to put clusters of stuff around garages so people can drive and not take three year treks across the wilderness. I've watched my guys take some really odd routes because a garage wasn't within two or three buildings. Tropicans are apparently immune to fall damage as I've had guys walk right over cliffs.

[Raguel]

It is intesting reading complaints of the game though. People complaining about having shacks everywhere despite lots of housing, or construction teams never building anything. There's a lot more 'depth' to the game than immediately meets the eye, and whilst its co platelet possible to have islands with 1000+ people, full employment and no homeless people it takes slightly more than just dropping down housing constantly.

do tell cuz I have those problems   

Certainly my biggest (and almost only) gripes behind the game being too easy as well.  Have a bunch of shacks and homeless, turn on "free housing", dump a bunch of apartments with air conditioning around, almost no change. 

I've done free housing but I've been too lazy to click on every single apartment/tenement to turn on AC. wish there was a global for that but I didn't see one.

Yeah, I get stubborn shack people too. Have to put clusters of stuff around garages so people can drive and not take three year treks across the wilderness. I've watched my guys take some really odd routes because a garage wasn't within two or three buildings. Tropicans are apparently immune to fall damage as I've had guys walk right over cliffs.

I'm playing a map where the garage is on the opposite side of my mines. I think the construction guys get there fine and all but if they need to get to the clinic and such (which I have near the garage) they have to walk back. I'm going to restart and make a garage near the mines.

[luckton]

I generally keep my populace consolidated to one area.  When it comes to mines, I just build the mine and let it be.  The miners can drive there, no garage needed.

[Raguel]

I generally keep my populace consolidated to one area.  When it comes to mines, I just build the mine and let it be.  The miners can drive there, no garage needed.

I didn't think that was possible lol. I've been playing this game all wrong.

[Stokowski]

If a structure has a driveway it handles its own "from here" traffic. You still need garages in the right places to create "to there" traffic.

e.g., A mine doesn't need a garage next to it to export its goods, but it requires a garage in the place where its workers commute from.

[Tannhauser]

Yeah the shack situation bugs me.  They keep popping up beside my shiny new malls.  Also, has anyone ever lost to a rebellion? 

[Morat20]

I generally keep my populace consolidated to one area.  When it comes to mines, I just build the mine and let it be.  The miners can drive there, no garage needed.

I've found it's worth it to build at least a teamster's shop near any big cluster of stuff (mines or industry). Helps keep from piling up.