Late World War/Cold War economy tips?

[76561198051514398]

I diversify, I get foreign aid, I do pretty much everything right. I have hundreds of hours in Tropico 4/5/6 combined, I understand how you build a strong economy in Tropico 4/5.

But in Tropico 6, something is different. The same strategies just don't seem to work. In Tropico 5 I'd have $200,000, but in Tropico 6 I'm always just getting by with 10k or 20k or 30k.

What do you lads and lasses find works for you?

[jlking3rd]

Tropicans only produce when they are at work. All Tropicans are fully simulated. They wounder of for food and religion, and entertainment and health care, and sleep - and only occasionally show up for work.

The challenge is to design a city to minimize the time they spend walking off to a tavern so that they spend more time at work. I really like this game. It is a real challenge to design your city so that your citizens actually show up to work.

[76561198051514398]

Originally posted by jlking3rd:

Tropicans only produce when they are at work. All Tropicans are fully simulated. They wounder of for food and religion, and entertainment and health care, and sleep - and only occasionally show up for work.

The challenge is to design a city to minimize the time they spend walking off to a tavern so that they spend more time at work. I really like this game. It is a real challenge to design your city so that your citizens actually show up to work.

I don't mean to be rude, but I clarified that I have 100's of hours in the Tropico series, I understand how the game functions. You're just explaining the basics.

My problem is not layout efficiency or any issue with the basics, my problem is not being able to keep a stable economy going. Upkeep/Wages always outpace income it would seem.

Now I understand some people have figured out how to make millions, while others are like me and are stuck going into debt every game.

[jlking3rd]

Banks never hurt, and the immigration office is a must for me, It is one of the first buildings I build in the world Wars. By the late Cold War I am making more from rents, services and interest than I do form imports. I try to keep rents at a max. Homeless people are lost income as far as I am concerned. If you max out the houses budget, they do not make anything. I tend to keep things at the default for housing. Power stations are bloody expensive. I try to never have more energy than I need. Close jobs slots for power plants if you are producing too much.

Mostly my success comes form not having to many or too few people on my islands and taking a bit of time to let thinks play out.

[76561198051514398]

Originally posted by jlking3rd:

Banks never hurt, and the immigration office is a must for me, It is one of the first buildings I build in the world Wars. By the late Cold War I am making more from rents, services and interest than I do form imports. I try to keep rents at a max. Homeless people are lost income as far as I am concerned. If you max out the houses budget, they do not make anything. I tend to keep things at the default for housing. Power stations are bloody expensive. I try to never have more energy than I need. Close jobs slots for power plants if you are producing too much.

Mostly my success comes form not having to many or too few people on my islands and taking a bit of time to let thinks play out.

I've tried the bank strategy, but they don't get the job done.

I always has an immigration office, I'm a big fan of bureaucracy.

Having a small-ish population and infrastructure does work, but that goes against the fun of the city building, you know.

[jlking3rd]

Originally posted by ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Jones:

Originally posted by jlking3rd:

Banks never hurt, and the immigration office is a must for me, It is one of the first buildings I build in the world Wars. By the late Cold War I am making more from rents, services and interest than I do form imports. I try to keep rents at a max. Homeless people are lost income as far as I am concerned. If you max out the houses budget, they do not make anything. I tend to keep things at the default for housing. Power stations are bloody expensive. I try to never have more energy than I need. Close jobs slots for power plants if you are producing too much.

Mostly my success comes form not having to many or too few people on my islands and taking a bit of time to let thinks play out.

I've tried the bank strategy, but they don't get the job done.

I always has an immigration office, I'm a big fan of bureaucracy.

Having a small-ish population and infrastructure does work, but that goes against the fun of the city building, you know.

Yea, that is probably why I can't give much help to you, It is partly because I have such a modest computer that I have had to figure out how to make things work with a small population. But there might be a scaling option available there. Build multiple small towns connected with buses and metros. If I can make $3 M with a city of 600, maybe explore the possibility of making four towns of 600? Each industry could have it's own village connected by a teamster network of trucks and boats...

[kannkor]

I personally do logs/planks at the start. Usually 8 logging camps and 3 lumber mills. Disable exporting of logs.
Once you move on, get up 3-4 shipyards, and disable exporting of planks.
Want more money? Get more shipyards, (and more lumbermills/logging camps to support them).
This is almost always my primary source of income.
Once I get to modern era, I start adding in a lot of Sugar/pharms(on placebo effect). They are major money also.
Everything else is just filler/there for jobs/export for quests/because I like having at least 1 of every single thing.

[kannkor]

Oh, I like to add in fish farms (like 10) and cannerys (like 10 of those also). Fish go to the cannery and you make very good money, and you know there is more than enough food for your entire island that way also. (Make sure to check allow local consumption on the fish farms, it's super annoying it's off by default)

[based af]

Boats and rum (later pharma) is the key to victory

[76561198051514398]

It seems I'm just not building enough.

To me, 3 cannery's would seem like overkill, but you guys are saying you build 10, I'll try it out.

[based af]

Canneries aren't an effective source of income, bear that mind.

Canned goods pay around 5,5K/1000 units if my memory serves me correctly. I always buy three of them and run them on supply local market mode to boost my groceries. Rum, boats and pharma is what keeps my economy going, and if there are minerals placed in a good way, I like have some steel mills to supply a couple of vehicle and weapons factories.

You should always diversify your economy so that you can fulfill any trade demands foreign power throw at you, but there always better and worse ways of making money in this game.

[iicycube]

Pineapple with its work mode for 10% addup 5-10 will boost you 50-100% on each other..
Its will generate much faster than other as well, it can make into canned/local foods as well....

[76561198051514398]

Originally posted by based af:

Canneries aren't an effective source of income, bear that mind.

Canned goods pay around 5,5K/1000 units if my memory serves me correctly. I always buy three of them and run them on supply local market mode to boost my groceries. Rum, boats and pharma is what keeps my economy going, and if there are minerals placed in a good way, I like have some steel mills to supply a couple of vehicle and weapons factories.

You should always diversify your economy so that you can fulfill any trade demands foreign power throw at you, but there always better and worse ways of making money in this game.

I always have almost every industry on my island operating, it still doesn't make enough money.

Like some people are suggesting, it seems building multiples is the way to go.

[based af]

Originally posted by ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Jones:

Originally posted by based af:

Canneries aren't an effective source of income, bear that mind.

Canned goods pay around 5,5K/1000 units if my memory serves me correctly. I always buy three of them and run them on supply local market mode to boost my groceries. Rum, boats and pharma is what keeps my economy going, and if there are minerals placed in a good way, I like have some steel mills to supply a couple of vehicle and weapons factories.

You should always diversify your economy so that you can fulfill any trade demands foreign power throw at you, but there always better and worse ways of making money in this game.

I always have almost every industry on my island operating, it still doesn't make enough money.

Like some people are suggesting, it seems building multiples is the way to go.

Can you share a saved game?

[VayneVerso]

I'm getting a little frustrated with the economy, honestly. Clearly, I've got a lot to learn, but I feel like I'm just lacking the statistics I need to make complete sense of profitability of the various industries. And it bothered me a bit that my economy was humming along just fine through the World Wars and then went completely off the rails during the Cold War. Yes, I had a bunch of plantations and ranches, but they were all placed strategically where they were getting 90-100% efficiency even at medium support levels.

Hides I was turning into leather, logs I was turning into planks, milk I was turning into cheese, wool I was turning into cloth. Admittedly, these are not high-value items, but it was something. I know everybody just keeps saying rum and cigars, but I didn't have any good fertile land for tobacco or sugar.

I think the thing was that during the Cold War, people just started expecting a whole lot more. My peasant utopia wasn't good enough anymore--they started expecting all of these additional services, and I just could never quite figure out how to make a profit on them.

[based af]

You need to have intimidate neighbors on repeat if you are to survive Cold War on highest difficulty. And in order to keep your people happy, you need to finance it. Again, we come back full circle to the importance of the economy.

Cloth is one of the better processed goods you can create. Always go for logging camps into lumber mills into shipyards if you have the opportunity - Boats are the single highest paying industy as measured in dollar revenue per 1000 units. Granted, you use I think 5 or 6 planks per boat. But then again, the lumber creates 4 planks out of 1 unit of log.

I try to have a ratio of 3:2 in terms of raw resource producing buildings to industry, meaning that I try to have 3 sugar plantations per rum distillery (and same applies for the other buildings that process a single resource).

Always keep your faith, food and entertainment buildings on max budget. A happier Tropican works more effectively, and the happier they are, the longer time they take between visits to the church, circus and grocery.