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STRATEGY GUIDE FOR
Tropico 4
Game by
Kalypso
This guide written by
SOLDYNE
Version 1.00
March 6, 2013
VERSION HISTORY:
1.00 - First creation March 6, 2013.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
(TO GO TO ANY SECTION USE THE FIND COMMAND AND COPY/PASTE THE ENTIRE LINE OF
THE SECTION YOU ARE LOOKING FOR)
(DO NOT PASS GO DO NOT COLLECT $200)
I. INTRODUCTION
II. OVERVIEW
III. BUILD ORDER
[A] EARLY GAME
[B] MID GAME
[C] LATE GAME
[D] NOTES ON HOUSING
[E] NOTES ON FOOD
[F] NOTES ON THE MILITARY
IV. ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND STRATEGY
[A] FOOD
[B] RESOURCES
[C] MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY
[D] TOURISM
[E] INFRASTRUCTURE
[1] ENTERTAINMENT
[2] HOUSING
[3] MEDIA
V. SKILLS AND EDUCATION
[A] SKILLS
[B] EDUCATION
VI. TRANSPORTATION
VII. HAPPINESS, FACTIONS AND SUPER POWERS
VIII. YOUR AVATAR
IX. THE SWISS BANK ACCOUNT
X. ELECTIONS
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I. INTRODUCTION
Welcome to my guide on Tropico 4.
I would first like to give Kalypso a grand "Thank You" for creating such a
fun game with detailed graphics and great sound and music.
I would like to say that this is my 5th STRATEGY guide. I purchased the
Bundle Pack from Steam which included all the DLC and Modern Times which were
available as of February 2013. So I write this guide from that perspective.
If anyone finds that any info in this guide is erroneous, my explainations
are difficult to understand, or you just have some new info to add then drop
me a line at
[email protected] and have the subject read:
ABOUT YOUR TROPICO GUIDE!
This is because I have many filters on my email account and this will let me
know that your email is worth opening. I should not have to say this but,
PLEASE make sure you computer is clean of viruses and such before sending
me any messages. Thank You!
Now for some legal stuff:
This guide is Copyrighted under law and cannot be reproduced by others without
express writen permission from me. You may not link directly to this document
or display a copy of it on any website. I worked long and hard to get this
information and I would like to be credited for my work.
A Note About Pronouns:
I will tend to use masculine pronouns throughout my document. This is not
intended to disrespect or in any way ostrisize the female population. It is
just how I write. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.
OK, now onto the good stuff!
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II. OVERVIEW
This guide is meant to be a strategy guide which will give you advice and
analysis on how to develop a stable society and economy on any map including
the main scenarios, the Downloaded Content scenarios (Modern Times) and
sandbox. I will be talking about build order, economic strategies and general
tips and advice.
My advice is based on my own experiences with the game. I have completed all
20 of the main scenarios, 12 of the Modern Times scenarios and a few sandbox
scenarios. I have also accomplished all 70 of the achievements. A few of my
personal records (accomplished during the campaign, not sandbox) include having
a population over 1000 with overall happiness of 70% and all factions and
nations at 100%. I have exported over $500,000 worth of goods on a single
cargo ship with multiple active ports. I have made more profit from my
infrastructure alone than my entire island had in overall expenses, in
addition to profit from industry and tourism.
This guide contains my opinion based on my experiences. I know that the
advice in this guide works because it is how I finished the game. Could my
advice be improved on? Sure! The beauty of a game like this is that there
are many ways to build a Tropican society and thus many ways to play.
This guide is not a walk-through. For the most part, as long as you follow a
decent build order, each scenario map is easy to complete. Most objectives
you are given are to either spend some amount of cash from the treasury or
build a certain number of buildings. A few other objectives have you enact
an edict, destroy a few buildings or hire a certain number of specialists.
All of these things can be easily accomplished if you have a stable society
and economy. Very rarely do these objectives have time limits, so, the best
advice is just follow the build order, and complete the objectives when you
are ready.
This guide is not a reprint. I will not make lists of buildings, statistics
or anything that you can just as easily find in a tool tip or by reading the
manual. When I do make a list it is in order of preference or priority.
I will also not reprint the entire script which goes hand in hand
with this not being a walk-through. If you want the script, go through the
campaign yourself and write it all down. I may on occasion quote the game
for various reasons, so, don't be snarky!
This guide will not specifically cover achievements. Most achievements can
be accomplished simply by playing through the campaign maps or by grinding
sandbox maps. By the time I got done with the main campaign and the Modern
Times campaign I only had 9 achievements left and they were all easily done
in a few sandbox maps. I may from time to time mention an achievement or
two, but, not in a consistent manner.
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III. BUILD ORDER
This section will be focused on the overall build order I use. It can be
tweaked to your desires as you prefer.
I conceptualize the game in three stages; early, mid and late game.
Early game is all about getting started and is characterized by getting your
base industry, food and basic services set up so people don't rebel or die of
starvation and so you don't go completely bankrupt. This part of the game is
usually pretty quick and can be completed within 2-5 game years depending on
your starting treasury amount.
Mid game begins when you have a high school and is characterized by having
industry and other buildings that require high school workers. This is the
most turbulent time of the game when workers have low skill, you may have a
worker shortage, you may encounter a faction disaster or even a natural
disaster which can set you back a bit. You will also be operating in the
red quite often and will be relying on foreign aid to keep you afloat until
your industry gets up to speed.
The late game begins when you have an operational power plant and a college.
It is characterized by buildings that require college graduates. This is the
time when your city and economy are mostly stable and the focus of the game
becomes completing scenario objects rather than building your society. If
you built well, you should be rolling in the money and enjoying the humor of
the Tropico campaign and even attempting some achievements.
[A] EARLY GAME
When the game begins you should automatically be given a palace, construction
office, teamster's office, one or two garages and an industrial port. Others
buildings which may or may not be present could be one or two farms, ranches
or fishing ports, a marketplace, and 1 or 2 tenements, shanty’s or houses.
If you start a new game with any other buildings I would question them.
There are a few scenarios that start you off with all kinds of extra buildings
and then take them away through scripted rebel attacks, or ask you to destroy
them as part of an objective. Rarely, they might give you an advanced late
game building like a power plant which at first seems like a free building.
This is just a lure to make things more difficult for you. You will not be
able to pay the upkeep or staff the building in the early stages and it just
becomes a burden.
Before building do the following:
Destroy anything that is not an early game building. You can't afford the
upkeep yet.
Destroy any farms or ranches that are near the planned city center. Farms
and ranches should be moved to the outskirts of town if possible, they have
lots of pollution and take up lots of space. Don't worry about interrupting
production, farms take a while to get up to speed anyway. This may cost a
little extra cash, but, will be worth it later on.
Scan the island for potential resources to exploit.
In order of preference:
Gold
Bauxite
Iron
Salt
Cash Crop fertility (Tobacco, Sugar, Coffee)
Logging
Oil is not an early game resource. It will require college educated
citizens to exploit.
Pick one or two of these items dependent on availability and proximity
to the port (the closer to the port the faster it can be transferred).
In the absence of any good choices, use food as an early export (cattle,
fish, bananas, papaya, pineapple, corn; in that order).
Then start building (analysis will follow):
Ministry – Hire a Minister of Foreign affairs. This can be done before the
building is erected and they will arrive on the next ship after the building
is built.
Market Place (unless you already have one)
Starting resource – up to 3 buildings used for exports (any combination of
mines, crops and logging)
Ensure you have at least 2 buildings dedicated to food production in addition
to export buildings (cattle is best, corn is second)
At this point you will be low on cash.
You can spend in the red up to -10,000.
You will get foreign aid in January which should help keep you afloat until
your industry starts exporting.
When the Foreign minister arrives:
Enact the USSR Development Aid edict even if you are in the red. This gives
you a permanent 50% discount on Tenements! If you wait too long, the minster
may die (starvation, old age, poor health) and then it was all for nothing.
Build 1-2 new Tenements (especially now that they are half price)
Build a Church – if you need a priest you can fire one or two palace guards.
Enact general edict Humanitarian Aid. This will give free medical care for
5 years as well as free food. This prevents the need for a clinic and gives
your food industry a chance to get started.
Build a High School.
[B] MID GAME
When the High School is built you will be in Mid game.
Once Mid Game starts you want to concentrate on stabilizing your economy and
bringing overall happiness up to 50-55%.
Save up money and invest in 1 new industry by buying the blueprint for it.
The new industry should match the exploited resources you chose in early game.
Build an immigration office and set it to Open Doors policy. This will help
prevent or reduce the effects of a worker shortage. If you find you are
getting too many immigrants then set it to Tropico first as a sort of shut off
switch.
Grade school – set to Spelling Bees
Childhood Museum – this will help entertainment and make the Loyalists happy.
Clinic – (only after Humanitarian Aid building is gone)
Fire Station – Set to Cat-in-Tree
Police Station – Set to Special Training
Pub or Restaurant – If you want secret police later, then build both and use
one of them for the Secret police HQ.
Customs Office – set to export bonus
Garbage Dumps (if you have Modern Times installed you will have to wait until
late game to build the water treatment plant; they require power) – there
should be 1 near your town center, 1 near your industry and 1 near your mine
or crop areas.
Two more food buildings - different foods from what you already have to help
increase food satisfaction
Hire Other ministers – Economy, Education, Defense, Interior. Hire them from
your population when your people have the proper experience.
When ministers are hired enact the following edicts:
General – Social Security
Education – Literacy (wait for High School Teachers to become skilled)
Economy – Pollution Standards, Building Permit (only if you care about the
Swiss Bank Account) (Wait for your marketplace workers to become skilled)
Interior – Litter Control (wait for your Policemen to become skilled)
- Secret Police (use the Pub or Restaurant you built earlier); a
lot of scenarios will ask you to have 3 secret agents at some point and they
can help with random events, so its good to be prepared
Defense - no 'must have' edicts but its a good thing to have ministers for
random events. You should already have some skilled soldiers working at the
palace.
Enact other edicts at your leisure.
(OPTIONAL BRANCH)
you can either begin your tourism industry or stay with manufacturing industry.
To begin tourism:
build a dock
Build three Hotels
build 3 attractions/entertainment venues
OR
build a second industry
Allow imports for all industries
Set port to infinite imports
Upgrade industries when you have the money.
At this point you will need to let your society stabilize. Your workers will
be unskilled and slow. Buildings may take a while to get up to speed and your
high school will take some time to graduate students to fill all the open
positions and you may have a worker shortage (opposite of unemployment). Just
set the speed to level 3, deal with random events as they occur and wait. As
time progresses, you workers will become more skilled and more efficient and
you will have more immigrants to fill all the empty slots. It may take a few
years and you will go into the red a few times, but, it will get better.
[C] LATE GAME
When your treasury has a minimum of 50,000 dollars in it and you are making
regular exports on the cargo ships (for 35,000 – 50,000 each), you are ready
for the Late Game. One problem you may still have is that the upkeep for all
your buildings is nearly equal to the export value you are getting which means
that 50,000 export is all gone by the time the next ship comes in. just keep
following the guide and you will be ok. DO NOT enact the Print Money edict.
Everything becomes more expensive when you do, its just not worth it.
Late Game buildings:
College
Science Academy – set to Research Grants
Bank – set to Urban Development (if you want to invest the money for a foreign
expert you can build this in Mid Game to save more on construction costs)
Newspaper – set to Coupons 'N More – placed near housing
Power Plant – set to Natural Gas (or Nuclear Plant if you are making lots of
money, or Solar Plant if you have Modern Times after 1975)
use Electrical Substation to extend the power radius if needed
Buy all Upgrades for all industries
Radio Station – set to Opera; place this near the residential district
TV Station – set to Lucha Libre; place this near the residential district
Hospital
Cathedral
Add entertainment buildings as desired (suggestions are Night Club and Movie
Theater)
expand industry (tourism or manufacturing) as needed or desired.
At this point, you should have a stable economy, happy citizens and everyone
loves you. You can do as you please. You can finish the scenario objectives
or try for some of the achievements. You should have more money than you know
what to do with and the map belongs to you. As far as I know, in scenario maps
there is no time limit. Sandbox maps last at most to the year 2000.
[D] NOTES ON HOUSING
Housing – 1 Tenement can hold about 25 people (I think its 12 couples
technically). So the rule of thumb I always follow is to have 1 tenement
for every 25 people plus 2. this will allow your population to expand without
having a lot of shacks and will account for some people not being married,
thus causing empty spaces.
There is also some debate about whether to use Tenements or Apartments.
Tenements have lower living satisfaction but offer more space and are cheaper
to build (made even cheaper with the USSR development aid edict). The
apartment offers much better quality of living but it has less capacity for
the cost and size.
When you get to mid game you can build the fire station set to Cat-in-Tree
which will raise the living conditions of all surrounding housing by 10 points
(in addition to responding to fires). In late game you can provide air
conditioning to each tenement which raises the living conditions even more.
With these two effects going on your tenements will have a rating of 60 for
living conditions which is more than enough to make people happy. Sure the
apartments can go as high as 80, but 60 is enough for most scenarios and you
will need to build more apartments to accommodate the same population size
which means more construction costs and more land area. Tenements also make
the early game easier, so keep that in mind.
My suggestion is to build tenements in early and mid game and then switch to
apartments or modern apartments in late game. Keep at least 4 of your old
tenements and set their rent to 0 which will give your students, elderly and
unemployed a place to live which reduces the number of shacks on the island.
Ultimately, its up to you. I spent the first half of the main campaign
building apartments and the second half building tenements and I had no real
issues with either one.
All the other housing options are pretty much worthless unless you have a
specific objective or are going for an aesthetic look in a sandbox game.
If you have Modern Times you will have access to the Modern Apartment Building
which is superior to the Apartment Complex. It does cost a little more and
requires power to start with, but, it holds the same amount of people as a
tenement and has extra features which makes it a superior building for late
game residential growth.
There is also the Ziggurat in MT which is a ginormously huge building that
requires a ton of power but it houses 50 families (100 people) and has the
highest housing quality to start with (better than a mansion I believe).
The footprint actually makes this a bad choice because you can fit more Modern
Apartments in the same space which will actually house more people. There is
an achievement for filling a Ziggurat however, so its worth building at least
one.
[E] NOTES ON FOOD
After building your initial two food industries in the early game, you
can, when you have the money, workforce and space add 2 more food buildings
in mid game. Try to make them different foods as that will increase food
happiness. There is no magic formula to say that 1 food building will
feed X people as it is very dependent on the type of food, the fertility of
the ground, the experience of the workforce and many other factors. I find
that 2-4 food buildings is enough and can sustain about 500 people easily
with an experienced workforce. Also, Corn is automatically set to import.
If you are running low on food you will import corn and it will go to your
marketplace. Corn is cheap and you probably don't even know you are
importing it. If you are worried about food, click on the marketplace
and check its output. If it is below 500 then you may want to build another
food building, otherwise, don't worry about it. Of course if you over produce
food, the excess is automatically exported for profit, so its a win-win
situation either way you go.
[F] NOTES ON THE MILITARY
You have probably noticed that my build order does not include any military
buildings. this is because the military is essentially a late game mechanic,
as generals require college education, and the military does nothing for
your economy or your tropican's satisfaction levels.
I never really put much effort into the military and only built most
buildings when the militarist faction asked me to. Your army starts at a size
of 5 (4 palace guards and 1 avatar) and can be extended by 2 guards
with the Mausoleum (which is also needed for an achievement). Generals are
needed to expand the army further and can be acquired with an army base or
armory.
If you have Modern Times then the armory will be replaced with a SWAT HQ.
SWAT members count toward your total army size, do need generals
and will respond along with your soldiers and generals when needed.
If you get your palace renovated your 4 palace guards will be replaced with
6 SWAT team members. The missions to renovate your palace require Modern
Times and begin when you have a population of about 200. there are 4
optional missions that pop up in sequence.
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IV. ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND STRATEGY
There are 5 categories for earning income which I personally recognize.
Food
Resources
Manufacturing Industry
Tourism
Infrastructure
some people might lump Food, Resources and Industry into the same lot, but,
I think they deserve individual attention.
[A] FOOD
Without a marketplace, your people will walk or drive to the nearest
food producing building which has available output in order to get fed.
They will actually take enough food to feed their spouse and children for a
couple of days or a week which reduces the amount of traveling they have to
do. If a marketplace exists your teamster's will deliver excess food from
the food producer to the marketplace, up to about 1000-2000 units. If a
marketplace with food is closer than a farm or ranch, then people will go
there for meals instead. This is one advantage of a marketplace. It makes
feeding your people more efficient and provides a place to store extra food.
Your teamster's will deliver excess food to the port for export (after the
marketplace is full). Without a marketplace, you will not have that 'blanket'
of extra food stored up . This extra food storage in the market place is
what allows larger populations to survive on fewer food producing buildings
and can help weather disasters, unless of course the marketplace is destroyed
and then so is all the stored food.
The marketplace also allows you to import corn if you are running low. Like
other industry buildings, if your marketplace has less than 1000 units you
will import corn and it will be delivered to the marketplace.
You can make money by exporting food, but, food has a very low profit margin
as farms tend to hire a lot of workers. Also, you can't rely on food as a
stable source of income because your people keep eating your profits. It can
be useful in the early game if you have an ore poor map, but, it is not a
viable long term strategy.
The best foods are cattle and fish. Cattle ranches only need 2 workers
compared to farms which need 6. Farms also take up a lot more room with
all the fields they plant, whereas the cattle roam around randomly in
different spots while they graze. If you delete or build over a field, the
farmers have to replant it and wait for it to regrow slowing production.
If you build over a grazing area, the cattle herd just moves to another area
and the production is not interrupted. Cattle can also be upgraded to
Smoked Beef for a fee. This will not affect the quality of the food, but,
will get you more money if exported. I never bothered with goats or llamas
except for scenario objectives, so I have no comments on those.
Fish only use 4 people and has a very small footprint on the ground,
however, it obviously needs access to the sea and you can't put many fish
docks next to each other or you will over fish the area. I would only
suggest at most 2 fish docks per beach, spread widely apart.
Corn, Pineapple, Papaya and Banana are only suggested if you have plenty of
fertile land available and lots of extra workforce to spare.
Coffee, Tobacco, and Sugar are not food crops and are treated as resources.
If you have Modern Times and you are playing a MT scenario or sandbox, then
the Bio Farm, Bio Ranch and Fish Farm are upgrades to the standard farms and
ranches. They cost more to build, but are well worth the investment. The
Bio Farm can be set to Corn, Food or Cash crops. On food it will grow all
three of the fruit crops at the same time. On Cash, it will grow all three
of the cash crops at the same time. They also employ fewer people and
produce food faster. The Bio Ranch is similar in that it will produce all
three animal products at the same time at a faster rate. The fish farm is
also an improvement, will produce more fish and has extra settings which you
can play around with if you choose. I also think these building make the
Environmentalists happier, but, that is not verified.
[B] RESOURCES
include the following:
Gold
Iron
Bauxite
Salt
Logging
Oil
Coffee
Tobacco
Sugar
Resources are not used directly by your population and so all output is
initially exported. Ore is worth quite a bit and in the early game will
make up the bulk of your income. Oil is a late game resource as all the
buildings require college educated workers. I rarely used oil. Oil (on land)
and Ore are limited resources and will run out eventually. This is OK since
they are mostly used to get your economy started. After you have manufacturing
industry up you can import the ore you need. Oil out at sea is unlimited as
far I know.
Mines work by being near a deposit. They do not need to be directly on a
deposit. If multiple deposits are near a mine and the mine is set to the
proper work mode, the workers will extract from all the deposits.
Unfortunately, I don't know what 'near' means in the game, so, use your best
judgment. Land oil must be directly on top of the deposit to work properly.
Salt is mined just like ore and oil, but, its unlimited. It also has a
decent profit margin. The salt mine is relatively cheap and only needs 4
workers. I always get excited when I see salt near my port because I know
it will make decent money. Unlike other mines, salt mines must be directly
on top of the deposit in order to work, but, it is unlimited. Salt is also
interesting because salt mines will increase productivity of nearby fish and
cattle ranches without using any of the salt!
The cash crops are decent on profit but require a lot of room, workers, and
fertile ground just like the food crops. If you have the Plantador DLC then
you can use the Plantation building which uses the same number of workers but
has a much higher production rate. If you have lots of fertile land I suggest
1-2 cash crops, even if all you do is export them raw. Coffee is the best.
Logging is the worst of the resources as it has very low profit margins.
Logging camps also use lots of workers which can cause an early game worker
shortage very quickly if you try to spam them. They also chop down trees
quickly which means they have to go further and further to gather resources.
In order for logging to be viable you also need to have a lumber mill followed
by a furniture factory as well as a horticulture station set to reforestation.
All these buildings combined makes anything dealing with wood very low on the
total profit scale. Also, environmentalists hate logging camps. My
suggestion is to avoid logging unless you have no other choice or it is part
of an objective.
[C] MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY
This is your mid to late game income generation
machine. All Manufacturing Industry has high profit potential, but, they all
require high school graduates in order to function which is why they are mid
game buildings. All industry buildings (except the cement factory) will also
require an initial investment by buying a blueprint in addition to the high
construction cost which makes starting industry very expensive. A suggestion
would be to buy the blueprint and then wait for another export before building
the building.
If you have the Quick Dry Cement DLC the first industry building you should
construct after the high school is the Cement Factory. This will increase the
speed of all construction projects on the island and you can export cement.
Also, it requires no inports so the cement export is almost pure profit.
If you don't have the cement factory then the first industry to invest in
would be one that matches to your current resource production.
Gold –> Jewelry (Electronics with MT)
Iron –> Weapons (Cars with MT)
Fish, Coffee, Pineapple –> Cannery
Sugar –> Rum Distillery
Tobacco –> Cigar Factory
Logs –> Lumber –> Furniture (the only industry with 2 prerequisites which
makes it less desirable)
Bauxite has no industry match unless you have Modern Times installed and you
will have to wait for Electronics and Cars to become available. Bauxite ore
is still a profitable export however.
Each industry is quite profitable so I am not going into too much detail on
them. Jewelry has a high value, but, gold is an expensive import. Weapons
are good, except that they can cause foreign relations problems. Rum is
profitable, but, requires more workers than other industries. So, each one
has positives and negatives.
Furniture is the only industry to require a 2 part resource chain.
Technically, lumber is an industry to itself and the mill requires high school
workers to function. Personally, if I use furniture, I just import the lumber
which makes it easier.
If you have Modern Times then you will have access to the electronics factory
and the car factory. Electronics requires bauxite or gold which makes it
flexible. The output is not worth much but, the upgrades can greatly increase
production so the profit comes from volume. Many people, including myself
seem to have trouble getting cars to get delivered from the factory to the
port (which could be a bug). While cars are worth the most per lot, the fact
that they don't export regularly makes them just as profitable as all the
other industries. They also come late in the game and are just not a very
popular choice.
When you have the money you should purchase all upgrades for all industries.
Concentrate on upgrades that increase production and skill level before job
quality (jewelry factory has an upgrade to increase worker skill by 50%!).
Some upgrades will require power which is a late game mechanic.
There industries that have no imports, but, they require power or college
educated workers which make them good late game industries. This includes
the Oil refinery and chemical plant.
To Import or Not to Import?
This is a question many people have. Importing will cut into your exporting
profits, this is true. But, consider that to produce the resources locally
will cost you in other ways such as taking up space, angering the
environmentalists, paying for upkeep and wages and increasing traffic as the
teamster's have to deliver the extra product to the manufacturing plants.
Overall, when all aspects are considered, importing your resources if far
more cost effective than to produce them locally. This is especially true
of the Furniture factory.
My suggestion for all manufacturing industries is to allow imports even if
you are producing locally and (when you are making decent money) set your
port to No Limit. This will allow each ship that docks to import up to 500
units of each resource per industry. Imports will stop when you have no
money (in the red) or when the industry has more than 1000 units of input
resources. Even if you are producing locally, if your industry has 1000
units you can export the excess resource and make your money back. The
biggest benefit of importing is that your industry will always have plenty
of input work with. If you industry runs out of input, it just sits idle
and burns money in the form of wages and upkeep.
Keep in mind that when a ship is docked, it will export first which could
give a huge boost to your income but, then it will calculate imports based
on your new treasury amount. If you have a new industry available the
imports could equal your exports. Don't worry about it. The imports will
get less and less as your industries fill up on input resources. Just think
of it as an investment.
The answer to the question then is “Import, Import, Import!”
My personal favorites for manufacturing are:
Cement (only 1)
Jewelry
Weapons
Electronics
Cannery (mostly for fish)
Furniture
Cars
I have a personal distaste for tobacco and alcohol in real life so I never
build the other two unless it is called for in an objective.
The customs office is a building that does not directly make money through
exports, but, it can enhance your exports. The customs office has 4
settings. It can increase export revenue, decrease import cost, increase
tourist spending or siphon money to your swiss account based on export
profits.
The best setting is to Stimulate Exports. Mathematically, the 20% boost to
exports is far more profitable than the 30% discount on imports. In a
generic example, you might be exporting 100,000 and importing 30,000 for a
total of 70,000 average profit on each ship. if you reduce import cost by
30% this would be make the total profit 79,000. but if you increase exports
by 20% your total profit is now 90,000.
There is also an economy edict which requires a TV station which will
increase profits on exports for 3 years. Its worth the investment, but, by
the time you have a TV station, it may not be needed.
[D] TOURISM
Many people will say that industry is superior to tourism. I say
it is equal when you set it up right. Manufacturing and Tourism are
fundamentally different kinds of industries but have the same profit
potential. Lets compare them:
Industry brings in money in large chunks with a pop up message that informs
you when it occurs and how much. The large chunks could take anywhere from
4-8 months to occur.
Tourism brings in money continuously in small increments and there is no
message about how much you are making unless you look at the charts which
makes it seem like it is doing nothing.
Industry requires few buildings, but, those buildings require lots of high
school educated workers and are very expensive to build.
Tourism requires more buildings, but, those buildings only require a few
uneducated workers and they are usually inexpensive to construct.
Industry has a bottleneck; the port. If the port has no dock workers, the
dock workers are stuck in traffic or they are on strike (which seems to happen
more often than other buildings) you can't import or export.
Tourism can make money from your tropicans as well as tourists, can make
tropicans happy with increased entertainment options, and has multiple routes
of getting more tourists (dock and airport) and they can spend money in
multiple venues at the same time.
Industrial products have uncontrollable values set by system generated
events. (commodity prices going up and down). The customs office can help.
Tourist income is set manually at each attraction and is determined by
tourism rating and tourist spending limits. The more tourists are willing
to spend, they higher you can set the entry fee. A Customs office can also
help with tourism.
Industry buildings are often very expensive to replace after a disaster or
rebel attack and when destroyed they also destroy all the input and output
resources stored there.
Tourism buildings are cheap to replace when destroyed, are targeted less
often by rebels and have no stored resources to lose.
I believe that most people prefer industry because it is simpler to
construct and operate and there is that very satisfying message every few
months that says how much you exported. Seeing that message that says you
just exported 200,000 is quite fun. Tourism has no such visual queue and so
seems much less satisfying.
So, how does one build a tourism industry that can rival manufacturing?
The key is to build hotels and attractions in a 1:1 ratio. Understand that
each hotel can only hold so many tourists. Each attraction can only hold
so many tourists. While the capacity of each building is slightly different,
the overall average is that hotels and attractions can accommodate about the
same number people.
When you build a hotel lets say you attract 10 tourists. When you build a
restaurant, those 10 tourists can all go to the restaurant at the same time
and they are all spending money. If you then build a pub, the tourists have
more options and they are more happy, but you still only have 10 tourists
spending the same amount of money. The difference now is that you spending
more money in upkeep. Your tourist rating is slightly higher, but, you
income is less.
The other way is just as bad. If you have two hotels with 20 tourists and
only 1 attraction, then that attraction will most always be full but you will
have tourists walking around with nothing to do and they go home unhappy, your
tourism rating falls and you have fewer tourists which means you have an empty
hotel later on.
The key is to build hotels and attractions on a 1:1 ratio which will ensure
that you always have enough space for all the tourists to be doing something
all the time.
Why Hotels? Hotels are inexpensive and have the highest capacity other than
the skyscraper hotel. You can only have 1 skyscraper and it requires power.
I suggest building it when you can because its cool. Motels are just ugly
and low quality and the other options are just too low capacity to be worth
the space the take up (and it throws our 1:1 ratio off). The luxury hotel is
a nice option if you want to add a little color to your tourism, but,
usually, only wealthy tourists can afford it.
You can place you hotels and your attractions in any configuration you wish.
I usually put all my attractions together and all my hotels together. That is
mostly an aesthetic choice though. I don't know if there is any advantage to
mixing the two.
When I start my tourism industry I build one dock and 3 hotels followed by 3
attractions. I usually choose different attractions each time just to keep
things fresh. Its important to build different kinds of attractions because
that is what increases your tourism rating and thus the spending limit of each
tourist. My suggestions for early tourism would be:
Beach Site
Spa
Restaurant
Pub
Souvenir Shop
When these buildings are erected and operational you will have to wait for
the first tourists to arrive. When all the hotels are full and the tourists
are spending money build 1 -3 hotels and the same number of attractions at a
time and wait for those to fill up.
Remember that you can enact edicts which will attract certain types of
tourists to the island and increase tourism and entertainment. You will need
specific kinds of attractions and a minister of economy for different edicts.
In late game when you have power, you can build all the tourism buildings and
I suggest you do. Diversity is key to a high tourism rating. Just remember
to build a hotel for each attraction. The sky scrapper hotel can probably
accommodate 2-3 attractions on its own. If you have Modern Times installed
the 7-Star Hotel can definitely attract enough tourists for 3-4 attractions.
Most of your tourism buildings will be located in Entertainment, Attractions
and Luxury Attractions. Some less obvious tourist buildings are in the
economy and welfare section; the bank and the shopping mall. The bank
requires college educated workers and must be set to off shore banking in
order for tourists to use it (the National Back in Modern Times automatically
allows tourist use regardless of work mode). The shopping mall will begin to
import luxury goods which are very expensive and could cause a large drop in
your treasury for the next few export cycles. Shopping and Banking are two of
the categories that affect tourist rating.
Crime can also have an effect on tourism rating and I suggest building a
police station near you tourist area.
One question you might have at this point is if you should try to attract a
certain kind of tourist. There 4 different kinds: Wealthy, Eco, Slob, and
Spring Break. Children can also be a category for specific buildings but I
think that only applies to Tropican children. I have never seen a tourist
child, but, I could be wrong.
I don't bother specializing in tourist types, its too restricting. The times
that I have, I specialized in Wealthy. Early on the Spa, Marina and Luxury
Liner are great Wealthy attractions that don't require power. Also, many of
the regular attractions have a work mode called Dress Code which only allows
wealthy tourists to use the establishment. Wealth tourists obviously spend
the most money, but, they also are the hardest to please.
As always, my suggestion is to diversify.
For the most part, you can just build your tourist trap and let it work for
you. Every building for tourists can be profitable except the dock (which
is free for people to use). The Customs Office on the right work mode can
make the dock profitable as well. The Tourism industry does not really
require any tweaking in order to make money, but, if you want to then you can
manually adjust the fee for each attraction based on the spending limit for
the average tourist. The spending limit is determined by the tourist type
and the tourism rating, as well as any other modifiers your Presidente or the
scenario may have in effect. I usually don't bother tweaking and my tourism
industry often rivals my manufacturing industry in yearly profits.
[E] INFRASTRUCTURE
I define infrastructure is all the buildings we have not discussed
yet. It includes housing, media, the palace, government buildings, garages,
construction offices and anything that is not related to the other
categories. So how can infrastructure make you money? While all
buildings will incur expense in the way of wages and upkeep, some buildings
will charge visitors a fee for its use. Other buildings have special settings
which will generate income based on certain conditions.
There are three main building types to focus on:
Entertainment
Housing
Media
[1] ENTERTAINMENT
Entertainment buildings are technically part of your infrastructure even
though they can be used for your tourism industry. I believe that if a
tropican spends money at an entertainment building it is classified as
infrastructure income, if a tourist spends money it is classified as tourism
income.
Generally, in the early and mid game you want to use pubs and restaurants.
But, in late game these buildings are overshadowed by Night clubs and gourmet
restaurants and your pubs and restaurants actually become a burden on the
economy because no one visits them anymore. When you get power added to your
city, you might want to destroy the old entertainment buildings and replace
them with more sophisticated counter parts. Or pick one of the older ones and
turn it into a Secret Police HQ. Unless you have a large tourism industry,
your tropicans only need 2 or 3 entertainment buildings to keep them happy.
[2] HOUSING
Housing can be a burden or it can be a source of profit. It all depends on
how much you are paying your people, how much you are charging for rent, how
many people live in specific buildings and if you have free housing edict
active. Assuming that housing isn't free, people will live in a location that
has the highest living conditions and a rent that is 1/3 their pay or less.
So if you pay a citizen 9 dollars a month, he will live in a tenement that
costs 3 dollars a month.
A strategy I use starting in early game is to pay all uneducated workers 9,
high school workers, 12 and college 20 (default for college). I then set all
my Tenements to 3. At this level, a full tenement will essentially pay for
its own upkeep (no profit yet). In mid to late game when I have decent income
I give everyone on the island a raise to a minimum of 21. then I can raise
the rent on all tenements and apartments to 7. At this level, all residential
buildings will generate about 500 a month in profit. With 10 of these
buildings that is 5000 a month generated by my housing alone. If you have
Modern Times you should set the maximum rent to 6. there are two buildings
in Modern times that set the wage to 20 and can't be changed. If you keep
rent at 7, then all those people will have to live in shacks!
[3] MEDIA
If 5000 extra dollars per month does not get you excited, well, it shouldn't,
its not much in late game, but, its better than breaking even. The real money
in your infrastructure is from media; newspapers, radio, TV. All of these
buildings require college workers and two of them require power, so they are
late game buildings. Each of these buildings has multiple work modes. One or
two work modes will increase liberty or increase respect from certain
factions. Some of the work modes will generate income based on the
surrounding population!
At first these incomes seem horrid and won't even cover the cost of the
building itself. However, the incomes are highly dependent on the population
density in the nearby area and the workers skill level. Until you see it for
yourself you will just have to trust me.
First build your media buildings in the very center of your residential
district and make sure to surround these buildings with tenements and
apartments when you expand later.
Set the Newspaper to Coupons N' More.
Set the Radio to Opera.
Set the TV station to Lucha Libre.
At first the income will be 100-300 (depending on surrounding population).
After a few years the income will jump to 1000-3000. the more skilled the
journalists the more income you can make. The largest income I have seen
from these buildings is about 50,000 (on a long sandbox map). On a scenario
map I routinely see 20,000 income from each. with 3 of them running I was
gaining 60,000 income per year just from three media buildings. Combined with
the income from entertainment and housing, my infrastructure was generating
more income then all of my island expenses combined!
And you can have multiple TV and Radio stations set to different work modes.
I find that to be overkill and I get along just fine with 1 of each.
Yes, you read that correctly, with media buildings set to right work mode,
your infrastructure will actually pay for all the upkeep and wages for your
ENTIRE ISLAND including all the expenses from tourism and manufacturing
industries. This means that in late game, it is entirely possible to run your
island purely off your infrastructure. You just need to give it time.
Radio Dishes can generate a small amount cash when set to Sell Spy
Information, but, it is quite abysmal and does not cover the upkeep of the
building itself.
The Museum of Modern Art can generate entry fees like other entertainment
buildings, but, when set to Sell Tropican Art, it will randomly sell a piece
of art work for 1000-6000 dollars depending on who visits (wealthy tourists
will pay more for artwork).
If you have Modern Times this becomes even more ridiculous. The National
Bank has a setting that will generate income for all employees in the area
that have a salary above 20. since I set all salaries on my island to 21,
this means my National Bank will generate 2000-3000 income per month, and I
can have multiple banks. The Business Center also has three work modes that
generate income based on the surrounding population, its not as good as the
national bank, but, its more money and employs a lot of people which is good
for late game employment options.
Something you have to watch for with MT is that the Business Center and Babel
tower have a preset wage of 20 which cannot be changed. This was done
intentionally so you can't spam the National Bank with wages over 21. This
also means that you have to set your rent on all housing to 6, because at 7
no workers in the towers can afford to pay rent.
The sanatorium is a MT building that can be used in place of a clinic or
hospital. It has a higher service quality than a clinic and it charges an
entry fee. At the base fee of 5 it will still incur a cost, but, if you raise
the rate to 10 or so, it can start making a profit while providing health care
to the masses.
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V. SKILLS AND EDUCATION
This is a very important aspect of the game which can make or break your
city. They are explained to a degree in the tutorial scenarios but they are
worth discussing again here (thats how important they are).
[A] SKILLS
Every tropican that works for a time in a job will gain skill in that job.
The skill they gain will remain with them until they die. So a tropican
could be a fisherman for a year, then become a teamster for a year and then
graduate high school and become a factory worker until they retire. This
tropican will have three skills listed for fisherman, teamster and factory
worker. You can even use this as an indicator to see how stable your
workforce is. If tropicans seem to have lots of low level skills then this
is a bad sign of instability and it slowing down your progress.
Skills are transferable. A tropican who gains skill in a jewelry factory can
use the same skill in a weapons factory. A doctor can gain the same skill
in a clinic then use that skill in the hospital.
Skills are used by buildings to determine how effective the building is at
what it does. It affects production levels of industry, satisfaction levels
for entertainment, tourism, and services, and effects of special work modes
(like the media buildings or power plants). The longer a worker stays
employed in that building the more skill they get and the better that building
becomes. In early game, a church may have a satisfaction level of 60, but, </pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
in late game, that same church may have a satisfaction level of 90 because the
priests are more skilled.
Any trait, ability, bonus, edict or upgrade that can increase the speed of
skill gains is probably the most important investment you can make in the
game. The jewelry factory has a upgrade that increases factory skill gain
by 50%. the TV station has a work mode that doubles the skill gains for all
workers near by. The literacy edict increases skill gains. There are a few
avatar traits that increase skills as well.
The grade school is paramount to skill gains. When set to Spelling Bees,
all the children in the grade school will graduate with higher overall
intelligence. Intelligence is a tropican statistic that affects the rate
at which the tropican will learn skills. Higher intelligence means faster
skill gains.
Skill levels of teachers and professors also affects the speed at which new
students graduate. Grade School graduates are based on age. The skill level
of the grade school teacher affects the intelligence bonus applied at
graduation. The key to a fast and more stable mid game is getting your
tropicans educated and working in the industry as quickly as possible.
[B] EDUCATION
New students will arrive at the high school or college if proper conditions
are met. First they have to have enough intelligence to become a student
(Grade School helps with this but is not required). Second there has to be
enough open positions available for high school or college workers. If you
build a high school and no one shows up to learn, its probably because you
have no open high school positions on the island. If you build an industry
or high school level building, students will start to arrive in order to fill
those new positions. Another condition is that you must not have a worker
shortage. If you have more open employment positions than tropicans, then
this will affect high school and college attendance as well.
Also, keep in mind, that 'student' is a job which has no pay. With no pay,
the student is taking a risk and if you have rent on all housing they will
be forced to live in shacks, even if there is space available. The Social
Security Edict will give all students and retired tropicans a base wage of
2/3 of the average island wage which encourages new students to take the
risk.
Finally, the Literacy edict will help speed up skill gains and graduation
rates across the board and should be enacted as soon as you have a high school
and education minister.
It should also be noted that tropicans can die for various reasons; old age,
starvation, bad health, rebel attack, natural disaster. This means that your
trained and skilled workforce will need to be renewed. So, even if you have
all your buildings fully staffed, you will still need your high school and
college in order to train replacements when the others die (or leave, become
rebels, criminals, etc). I have never needed more than 1 of each education
building. Some people like to have two grade schools when the population
gets large (over 500) but it isn't required.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
VI. TRANSPORTATION
Your transportation network is essential for your economy to function.
If your network is clogged or poorly designed then the goods simply won't
be delivered on time, people will be late for work and reduce productivity
or the docks won't have dock workers and your ships will leave without any
exports on board.
There are really only two buildings that affect transportation within the
city:
the Garage
the Metro Station (only available in Modern Times).
Technically, your individual tropicans do not need roads in order to get to
the buildings they want to get to. They will walk through the jungle if they
have to in order to get a meal, go to church or just go home to sleep.
Walking is very slow and can take a tropican all month long just to get to
work. Even teamster's don't need a road in order to make deliveries, but,
without a delivery truck they will have to cart the goods with a wheelbarrow!
The garage is a building that allows everyone to have a free ride to any
place on the map so long as a road goes there. If a road does not go directly
to a building then the tropican will drive to the closest point on a road
and walk the rest of the way. Many buildings have built in garages but they
are only for people who work in that building and for teamster's to make
pickups and deliveries. For a tropican who works in a mine for example, he
will need to find a garage to drive to the mine to go to work or he will need
to walk because housing does not come with a built in garage. But, when he is
done working he can use the mines garage in order to drive home later.
Buildings with built in garages can still function if they are not connected
to a road but the garage becomes unusable until a road is connected.
The best way to set up a good network is to ensure that there is at least 1
garage in every residential area (if you have multiple residential areas) and
at least 1 garage at all possible destination areas such as the entertainment
district, farms and ranches, the industry, the port and the tourism area. I
usually build my industry next to my port to make deliveries faster. Remember
that people need a garage to get to their destination and then another garage
to get home. Otherwise they have walk back.
When I build in a new area that is sufficiently far from my construction
office or residential area I always build a garage and set the garage to high
priority build. When construction workers finish working for the day, they
will be forced to walk all the way back to the office from the site, unless
there is a working garage nearby, including the one they just finished
building. This will increase your construction efficiency by letting your
workers return to the office faster.
When you have resources spread all over the island or if the port is on the
other side of the island, you should try to build a road that bypasses the
city center so that the teamsters do not have to drive through the downtown
section. In mid to late game your city center will become jam packed with
people trying to drive everywhere and this can really slow down teamster
deliveries.
Some people have noticed that building a garage right at or near an
intersection can cause more traffic with all the cars pulling in and out
all the time. Try to put garages on dead ends or far from intersections
if it can be avoided. Also, try to design your city with fewer intersections.
Remember that tropicans can walk between buildings to get to their destination
so not every building needs perfect road access.
In mid to late game, try to add more teamster offices. I like to put one
near the port and one near my farms and ranches (if they are bunched together).
Once you've done that, you can demolish the one in your city center which
should improve traffic and increase delivery efficiency.
If you have Modern Times installed, you can eventually build the Metro
Station. This is essentially a subway system which works without you needing
to build the actual subway rail lines. All you do is build the access points
above ground. Tropicans can then enter one access point and “magically”
teleport to any other access point on the island instantaneously. When
coupled with a garage, this can really reduce the amount of traffic in a
city by a substantial amount. The same rules for placement apply to metro
stations as they do to garages and are highly recommended.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
VII. HAPPINESS, FACTIONS AND SUPER POWERS
Most of what you need to know about these things you will learn in the first
few tutorial scenarios. If you follow my build order you should have no
problem attaining 70% happiness, 100% faction support and 100% foreign power
respect by the end of any scenario.
In the early game you will have some issues but that is only because you are
still starting out. Mid game you may find that some factions have been
ignored. If they are ignored for too long then you might have a faction
disaster. For me, the environmentalists have always been the worst, probably
because of all the mines I like to build. When they get angry they will
blockade one of your mines or industries for a year, which can put a big
dent in your mid game income. I have actually not experienced any other
faction disasters during the scenarios which is one reason why I know my build
order will work well.
I have also never been invaded by the super powers. Your relations with them
will deteriorate when you have a negative balance which will be often in mid
game, but, I have never had a problem with it, so I can't comment on it.
One thing I will discuss is the difference between happiness and faction
respect. It is quite possible for a faction to have high respect for you but
for your tropicans to have low satisfaction in a related area. Each faction
is only concerned about the absence or presence of certain buildings or
conditions. The factions are not concerned about the quality of those
buildings or conditions.
Lets look at religion as an example. The religious faction is only looking
for the presence of a church and a cathedral on the island somewhere. They
don't care if it has a road near it, if they are staffed or even if they are
on the far end of the island. This means that you can have high Faction
respect but low religion happiness.
On the converse, if you have a cathedral but no church, the religion faction
will be displeased with you, but, if the cathedral has high service quality
and is visited frequently by people who value religion then it is possible
to have low faction respect and high satisfaction.
Knowing what conditions and buildings trigger each faction and keeping your
buildings easily accessible and well staffed will ensure that you have both
high satisfaction and high faction respect. Of course my build order does all
of this eventually and should keep rebels, emigrants and faction disasters to
a minimum.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
VIII. YOUR AVATAR
I will not list all the traits and skills that your avatar can have. You are
free to mouse over them and read their descriptions and tool tips. What I
will talk about are the general abilities that the traits and skills give
access to and which ones to look for and to avoid.
Any modifier that affects faction or super power respect is pointless. This
bonus is only going to be applied for about 5 minutes at the start of the
game. Respect fluctuates wildly in the mid game due to any number of reasons
including scenario objectives. I have had 100% respect with negative
modifiers and I have been at 0% respect with positive modifiers. This means
that faction and super power modifiers are pointless and should not affect
your decision.
Traits which affect crime, criminals and liberty are mostly pointless.
Liberty will be the last thing you give your population because you need
media buildings which are in the late game. Once you have 1 of each media
building active liberty will be through the roof even with negative
modifiers. Crime and Criminals can be easily taken care of with 1 or two
extra police stations or jails. Neither negative nor positive modifiers for
these three will have much of an effect on your game so should not affect
your decision.
Traits which give one free building or some kind of yearly income are also
not very useful. 2000 per year is laughable even by early game standards.
One free building is also bad because if that building is destroyed or you
place it wrong, the free pass is gone. Think of a free building as saying,
“here is 1000 extra dollars to start the game with!” really?
That kind of sucks.
So what traits are good?
Any trait that will increase the speed at which your people learn skills or
graduate from high school or college are excellent. These are the best traits
and should be stacked as much as possible. Faster skills means more efficient
production which means more money. It also means higher service quality for
all buildings everywhere which means happier people, more productive industry
and higher tourism across the board.
Any trait that gives an across the board discount on construction costs,
even if its is only a few percentage points, will be well worth it. If a
trait gives a discount on a sub set of building types then you have to think
ahead to know if it will be of benefit to you. A discount on housing sounds
ok, but, a discount on souvenir shops is kinda pointless.
Any trait that gives increased production is similar to increased skill
progression. More production means more money, but, it will only affect your
buildings that actually produce things. Skill gains will affect production
levels and service quality of all buildings everywhere which makes it better
overall.
If there are any traits or qualities which I did not cover then they are
probably bad or just not worth talking about. I will say, that there is an
achievement for maxing out all of your skills, so you will have to play with
every skill for some time at some point if the achievements are important to
you. If you follow the build order, bad traits will hinder you, but, you can
still succeed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IX. THE SWISS BANK ACCOUNT
The Swiss Account is just a fun little side thing that really has no affect
on the game mechanics. It can increase your score if that means anything to
you.
Other than scenario objectives there are a few buildings that can help you
funnel funds from your treasury to your personal account.
Building Permit Edict – This is an economic edict which raises the cost of
all buildings by 20% and sends half of that increase to your swiss account.
When enacted early on you won't notice the increase in cost and after
building up your empire all the little charges will add up to quite a bit.
Other then scenario rewards, this is the main way to pad your account.
Childhood museum - set to Retirement Fund this building will make the
loyalists happy, provide entertainment for tropicans and tourists and all
entry fees will be sent directly to your account. Build this as early as
possible.
Mausoleum – this is a decorative building that automatically sends the
entry fee to your account. Its an expensive building and is a magnet for
rebels (but that is point I guess).
Custom's Office – Set to Duty Evasion will send a percentage of all export
revenue to your swiss account. The percentage is small, but, when you are
exporting 200k worth of goods, it adds up fast.
Bank – set to Slush Fund will funnel money directly from the treasury into
your account dependent on the skill level of the bankers. Usually 100-200
per month. Its not much, but, you can have multiple banks on this setting
at the same time.
During scenarios, when I am in the late game with a very stable economy I
usually set all of these buildings to swiss account mode. I sometimes end
up with 100,000 or more in my swiss account by the end of any random
scenario. This may be a lot or not so much, but, I never really concentrated
on the swiss account because it doesn't really do anything!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
X. ELECTIONS
Elections are really the only way to lose the game with the exception of
certain scenarios and sand box games which have a time limit.
Before you have the chance to allow elections or not you are told what the
current political landscape is. Most of the time I had about 80-90% of the
vote and I always allowed elections. During those scenarios where the people
were against me by default I just banned elections outright.
Giving speeches does not seem to do much so its up to you if you want
to do so or not.
even if the vote is close you can also perform fraud to sway the vote in your
favor just to keep playing. Most of this time this is not required. I only
played around with fraud when I had nothing better to do.
ultimately, just follow the build order, keep people happy (above 60%) and
you should never have any trouble with the elections process.
and no, you cannot kill or imprison your opponent. I've tried...
