I think the economy is genuinely broken in this game.(Read entire post please)

[76561198051514398]

As I've written on here before, I've put hundreds of hours into Tropico 4 and 5 and understand/love the games fully, I do great in them. And I've put a lot of time into Tropico 6, but the economy always fails. Taking from some advice that I've gotten here, I tried to make a functioning economy in Tropico 6 for what must be the 10th time.

I was told to have a lower population, essentially spam industry in multiples and condense everything as much as possible so people can get all their needs in an immediate area.

I had,
around 1000 population
Food for all and free hosuing
a fair amount of entertainment buildings
4 cannery's, 1 plastic factory, 3 rum distillery's, two steel mills, 1 weapons factory and a massive amount of mines, oil wells and plantations.

My economy still crashed, wages/upkeep and my two basic edicts cost me more than all these industries were bringing in, and trade routes didn't help.

This is ridiculous, I was producing more than the state of Minnesota and that isn't enough money to run an island of 1000 people?

In Tropico 4 and 5, all you needed was a few industry buildings, a few mines and a few farms and you could take care of 1000 people easily with huge amounts of money to spare. But in Tropico 6, you need an industry the size of the Soviet Union's just to keep your banana republic from going 100k into debt and losing you the game.


There have been matches where I've been able to get by and make it to 2018, but just barely, still with barely any money to spare.

[Baron von Tansley]

The game is just more challenging than previous Tropicos- it's an entirely different beast really. The core concepts are the same, but the difficulty is on another level- though, I actually think that's a good thing. I remember Tropico 5 was just a breeze. You could play on the highest difficulty for everything and it was still too easy.

I will say, when I first started playing Tropico 6, I struggled a lot, but now that I've played a bit more, the game isn't too tough.

As for what you posted, I actually don't think making housing and food free is necessary, as they are valuable sources of income, especially housing. It also doesn't actually make your Tropicans that much happier- the most optimal scenario has them working and able to pay for everything. This recycles their wage back into your treasury, helping you pay for further economic development. The key is to carefully curate housing so that you don't have too many empty buildings (which drain money) and too many homeless (which can be solved with bunkhouses or conventillos on the free work modes, though realistically, you shouldn't have that many of these free houses.)

I've heard that cannerys are not particularly profitable, though I do like to construct three to supply the local market and boost food happiness. They don't have negative profits, but I think there are better industries available. Boats sell for a high price, plastic is nice and can be supplied with corn which is great if you also produce electronics with gold. I personally like the metal industries such as cars and weapons. I would probably focus on these rather than canned goods. For a city of 1,000, four steel mills and as many weapon and car factories you think you can supply.

You should also see about only having one dock. In previous Tropicos, having seven or eight docks seemed fine, but I've read from some that one dock is the way to go in Tropico 6. You should give it a try- I did and it does feel a bit better honestly.

Lastly, just because you go into deep debt, doesn't mean the end of the game. Sometimes, if the line is close enough, you can just lower the wages/upkeep of certain buildings, like all of your apartments/tenements/teamsters. Then you wait for State Loans and Industrialization to come off cooldown and you try to turn it around.

Hope this helps.

[Bored Peon]

Sounds like you need to work on your alternate sources of income.
1. Prisoner labor
2. Media income (library and radio)
3. Offices
4. Bank (private banking work mode)
5. Raids (loot and treasure hunt)
6. Tourism income
7. Wealth Tax

Originally posted by Baron von Tansley:

I've heard that cannerys are not particularly profitable, though I do like to construct three to supply the local market and boost food happiness.

In order to make them profitable you need ALL the upgrades. By adding the meat and coffee it reduces the consumption of bananas, pineapples, and fish.

Canned goods also tends to show up more often for trade deals.

The other thing is for services and entertainment you really do not need as many as you think. The big thing is getting everyone rapid transport to it.

For example with 1000 people you could easily get away with just a single cathedral on max budget, do not use church fees because it reduces service quality. You should also be able to get away with only two hospitals.

Entertainment is the same way, if you can not fill the customer slots in one tavern then do not build another. If you can keep your customer slots full you should always be making a profit from them (unless you have no mass transit.)

Originally posted by Baron von Tansley:

You should also see about only having one dock. In previous Tropicos, having seven or eight docks seemed fine, but I've read from some that one dock is the way to go in Tropico 6. You should give it a try- I did and it does feel a bit better honestly.

I used to use two just to speed up my freighters income. However in the big picture, it is the SAME income, only you added the expense of another dock. Now I only do it depending upon the map size.

Also do not forget financial aid and swiss bank accounts either. Both are easy sources of income.

[Marquez von Hinten]

> In order to make them profitable you need ALL the upgrades. By adding the meat and coffee it reduces the consumption of bananas, pineapples, and fish.

Thats is not how it's works, this is not Tropico 5 anymore.

[76561198051514398]

Originally posted by Baron von Tansley:

The game is just more challenging than previous Tropicos- it's an entirely different beast really. The core concepts are the same, but the difficulty is on another level- though, I actually think that's a good thing. I remember Tropico 5 was just a breeze. You could play on the highest difficulty for everything and it was still too easy.

I will say, when I first started playing Tropico 6, I struggled a lot, but now that I've played a bit more, the game isn't too tough.

As for what you posted, I actually don't think making housing and food free is necessary, as they are valuable sources of income, especially housing. It also doesn't actually make your Tropicans that much happier- the most optimal scenario has them working and able to pay for everything. This recycles their wage back into your treasury, helping you pay for further economic development. The key is to carefully curate housing so that you don't have too many empty buildings (which drain money) and too many homeless (which can be solved with bunkhouses or conventillos on the free work modes, though realistically, you shouldn't have that many of these free houses.)

I've heard that cannerys are not particularly profitable, though I do like to construct three to supply the local market and boost food happiness. They don't have negative profits, but I think there are better industries available. Boats sell for a high price, plastic is nice and can be supplied with corn which is great if you also produce electronics with gold. I personally like the metal industries such as cars and weapons. I would probably focus on these rather than canned goods. For a city of 1,000, four steel mills and as many weapon and car factories you think you can supply.

You should also see about only having one dock. In previous Tropicos, having seven or eight docks seemed fine, but I've read from some that one dock is the way to go in Tropico 6. You should give it a try- I did and it does feel a bit better honestly.

Lastly, just because you go into deep debt, doesn't mean the end of the game. Sometimes, if the line is close enough, you can just lower the wages/upkeep of certain buildings, like all of your apartments/tenements/teamsters. Then you wait for State Loans and Industrialization to come off cooldown and you try to turn it around.

Hope this helps. :cozybethesda:

Okay my friend, thank you for concise and polite run down of things. But let me reply with the problems I still find in this(Not your analysis, but of the game)

1: Personally, I always go for a Socialist-style country, so food/housing happiness is always my focus and shacks really do ruin the aesthetic of whatever style you're going for.

If we're being honest, food/housing happiness not being a big deal is ridiculous, as these are really the two most important things to people in real life. You can keep a population very subservient as long as they have some food and a warm bed.


2: I've heard that boats sell for high prices. Now the idea of wooden boats being a highly sought after good is silly enough to begin with lol, but it's also silly that having boat manufacturing is a key industry considering some islands don't have large forest reserves.


3: I've had car/weapon plants on some of my islands, and while they bring in money, they don't bring in enough unless you have several of each. And as I said previously, it's kind of bizarre to have a Banana-Republic island exporting 10,000 cars a month.

4: At max, I've only been having two docks. Which is sad, because this kind of goes against the massive map-size/island hopping mechanic they're going for.

5: I've used the state loans and saved myself from failing many times, but it becomes a game of just staying afloat, and that's not very fun in a city building game where your people have constantly rising demands.


I appreciate your advice, and it is useful. But it still holds true that the economy in Tropico 6 is really over-expecting of the player.

[Kunovega]

You have to do things exactly how the game wants you to do it. If you follow the instructions in the mission, keep the population small and do only the tasks assigned you will win without effort.

If you attempt to get creative, everything breaks and you fail.

There are less paths to victory than most previous Tropico games, and there's a variety of ways the economy can break from bugs and glitches as well which make it even more difficult to be creative.

I won't even get into how many bugged ways the economy can fail just from cars and buses alone if they get stuck and plug up teamster or production movement.

[76561198051514398]

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

Sounds like you need to work on your alternate sources of income.
1. Prisoner labor
2. Media income (library and radio)
3. Offices
4. Bank (private banking work mode)
5. Raids (loot and treasure hunt)
6. Tourism income
7. Wealth Tax

Originally posted by Baron von Tansley:

I've heard that cannerys are not particularly profitable, though I do like to construct three to supply the local market and boost food happiness.

In order to make them profitable you need ALL the upgrades. By adding the meat and coffee it reduces the consumption of bananas, pineapples, and fish.

Canned goods also tends to show up more often for trade deals.

The other thing is for services and entertainment you really do not need as many as you think. The big thing is getting everyone rapid transport to it.

For example with 1000 people you could easily get away with just a single cathedral on max budget, do not use church fees because it reduces service quality. You should also be able to get away with only two hospitals.

Entertainment is the same way, if you can not fill the customer slots in one tavern then do not build another. If you can keep your customer slots full you should always be making a profit from them (unless you have no mass transit.)

Originally posted by Baron von Tansley:

You should also see about only having one dock. In previous Tropicos, having seven or eight docks seemed fine, but I've read from some that one dock is the way to go in Tropico 6. You should give it a try- I did and it does feel a bit better honestly.

I used to use two just to speed up my freighters income. However in the big picture, it is the SAME income, only you added the expense of another dock. Now I only do it depending upon the map size.

Also do not forget financial aid and swiss bank accounts either. Both are easy sources of income.

1: Prisoner labour is not profitable, I've tried htis.

2: I find its better to use media for propaganda.

3: Offices don't come until the modern age, and even then, they really don't bring in as much money as they should. In Tropico 4 or 5, I'd need 4 of them, in Tropico 6 you need to build one in every neighbourhood.

4: I've always had two banks on all my islands, once again, sure it gets you some money, but it's not a life saver.

5: I don't mean to be rude, but of course I'm always raiding, it's a key part of the game.

6: Tourism is not valuable in Tropico 6, you'll more often than not lose more money than you make.

7: I have not tried the wealth tax, I will though, thank you.


I don't overdue entertainment and services, I have about one building per neighbourhood and it doesn't meet the peoples needs but at least it's not losing me money.


I don't think your Religion theory holds true, I've had 6 churches and a cathedral for a population of around 1600 before and the people are still low in Religion happiness.


Financial aid I rely on heavily, same with foreign offices, it still doesn't bring in the money I need to do more than just stay afloat.

[76561198051514398]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

You have to do things exactly how the game wants you to do it. If you follow the instructions in the mission, keep the population small and do only the tasks assigned you will win without effort.

If you attempt to get creative, everything breaks and you fail.

There are less paths to victory than most previous Tropico games, and there's a variety of ways the economy can break from bugs and glitches as well which make it even more difficult to be creative.

I won't even get into how many bugged ways the economy can fail just from cars and buses alone if they get stuck and plug up teamster or production movement.

See, this is what I'm talking about.

In theory, the advice that everyone gives should work. But in the reality of the game, the games economy is broken. The game craps itself once you get above 1000 people and enter the late World Wars or Cold War.

And I don't mean " Craps itself " FPS wise, I mean gameplay/economy wise. Your peoples AI just isn't efficient and their behaviour/a handful of bugs end up ruining your island.

[76561198051514398]

Keep in mind, I love the game, I love Tropico 6. It just badly needs fixes.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by JohnTheGreat:

Originally posted by Kunovega:

You have to do things exactly how the game wants you to do it. If you follow the instructions in the mission, keep the population small and do only the tasks assigned you will win without effort.

If you attempt to get creative, everything breaks and you fail.

There are less paths to victory than most previous Tropico games, and there's a variety of ways the economy can break from bugs and glitches as well which make it even more difficult to be creative.

I won't even get into how many bugged ways the economy can fail just from cars and buses alone if they get stuck and plug up teamster or production movement.

See, this is what I'm talking about.

In theory, the advice that everyone gives should work. But in the reality of the game, the games economy is broken. The game craps itself once you get above 1000 people and enter the late World Wars or Cold War.

And I don't mean " Craps itself " FPS wise, I mean gameplay/economy wise. Your peoples AI just isn't efficient and their behaviour/a handful of bugs end up ruining your island.

Pretty much. You have to navigate the glitches, quickly hit the target missions and win before everything breaks

I've seen a bus driver go to a bus stop to get to work: problem, there's no bus coming because he's the driver everyone is waiting on

By the time I noticed, half my population was standing on that bus stop and no one was at work

Garages for cars can only handle around 10 at a time, if you have 100 people waiting for cars, there will be 90 of them stuck in the building and your economy stops

You have to watch your construction workers, they can get stuck "building" a building that was complete for years after it was done, just there next to it digging forever. If you don't fire them and hire new workers, you will have no construction workers

Teamsters can get stuck making left turns for months if intersections are too close together.

I could go on....

All I can say is that it used to be worse, there's been several hundred fixes in the months I've been playing....

[Baron von Tansley]

I agree with the sentiment of wanting to create a banana-republic. It is very odd to me that Tropico 6 excluded that option. If I recall correctly, Tropico 3-4 had backgrounds for El Presidente, one of which would increase the price of raw resources. In Tropico 5, I believe it became a Constitution option.

As far as I know, no such thing exists in Tropico 6, which really does push the player towards a heavily industrialized playstyle. Tourism ended up in the same boat- it seems just as ineffectual.

I think if the developers do want to tackle this issue, they should look at the personality trait customization. This could be the key in which players can choose how they want to rule their island- whether by endless fields of crops, inviting mobs of tourists, or the current playstyle of industrialization. In the past Tropicos, certain background traits would even give free buildings, like free hotels to jump-start tourism. Perhaps they could bring that back.

I think one of the largest obstacles to a change like this would be game balance, which seems to actually be a priority this time around for the developers.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Baron von Tansley:

I agree with the sentiment of wanting to create a banana-republic. It is very odd to me that Tropico 6 excluded that option. If I recall correctly, Tropico 3-4 had backgrounds for El Presidente, one of which would increase the price of raw resources. In Tropico 5, I believe it became a Constitution option.

As far as I know, no such thing exists in Tropico 6, which really does push the player towards a heavily industrialized playstyle. Tourism ended up in the same boat- it seems just as ineffectual.

I think if the developers do want to tackle this issue, they should look at the personality trait customization. This could be the key in which players can choose how they want to rule their island- whether by endless fields of crops, inviting mobs of tourists, or the current playstyle of industrialization. In the past Tropicos, certain background traits would even give free buildings, like free hotels to jump-start tourism. Perhaps they could bring that back.

2, 3 and 4 all let you do this and customize your background. 5 replaced it with a dynasty system where you get combined traits from an entire family. 6 doesn't bother to use either system.

[Baron von Tansley]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Originally posted by Baron von Tansley:

I agree with the sentiment of wanting to create a banana-republic. It is very odd to me that Tropico 6 excluded that option. If I recall correctly, Tropico 3-4 had backgrounds for El Presidente, one of which would increase the price of raw resources. In Tropico 5, I believe it became a Constitution option.

As far as I know, no such thing exists in Tropico 6, which really does push the player towards a heavily industrialized playstyle. Tourism ended up in the same boat- it seems just as ineffectual.

I think if the developers do want to tackle this issue, they should look at the personality trait customization. This could be the key in which players can choose how they want to rule their island- whether by endless fields of crops, inviting mobs of tourists, or the current playstyle of industrialization. In the past Tropicos, certain background traits would even give free buildings, like free hotels to jump-start tourism. Perhaps they could bring that back.

2, 3 and 4 all let you do this and customize your background. 5 replaced it with a dynasty system where you get combined traits from an entire family. 6 doesn't bother to use either system.

I didn't count Tropico 2 because it's the pirate one, though you're right. Off topic, but I actually really liked the housing system in that one, with privae home ownership. It was neat seeing the pirate houses improve as they gained wealth and notoriety. It would be interesting to see a similar system implemented in the main series.

Tropico 6 does have a trait system, which I suppose is most similar to the backgrounds, but they are currently very lackluster. . . which I suppose may have been their intention. I hope they take another look at it.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Baron von Tansley:

Originally posted by Kunovega:

2, 3 and 4 all let you do this and customize your background. 5 replaced it with a dynasty system where you get combined traits from an entire family. 6 doesn't bother to use either system.

Tropico 6 does have a trait system, which I suppose is most similar to the backgrounds, but they are currently very lackluster. . . which I suppose may have been their intention. I hope they take another look at it.

3, 4 and 5 have a "full background" system

5 has a dynasty system where in each member gets 1 trait but as you play, you gain access to all of them simultaneously

6 has the single trait system of 5 (with far less traits to choose from), none of the background depth of the full background systems of 2, 3 or 4 and no dynasty system to offset the fact you only get 1 trait instead of a background with several

I didn't count Tropico 2 because it's the pirate one, though you're right. Off topic, but I actually really liked the housing system in that one, with privae home ownership. It was neat seeing the pirate houses improve as they gained wealth and notoriety. It would be interesting to see a similar system implemented in the main series.

I've always believed they should have had both systems going forward. You could prebuild what you want in certain places and design the inner cities with exactly the buildings you want and then you could place a "homestead" as a blank piece of land somewhere that let a citizen build their own and upgrade it like in Tropico 2. Defined areas that would grow more naturally as a citizen gained wealth.

Also, the raiding system in tropico 2 is better than 6. Some people may right it off as "the pirate one" but it's really the first time we get to see the colonial era. Tropico 1 is just the cold war. Tropico 2 is a reskin of the engine in the colonial era. Tropico 3 is a reboot of 1 in 3D and then 4 and 5 try to grow the series in new ways

6 seems to be a remake of 3 but with simplified systems from 5 and a lot of missing parts, but I guess that's what happens when you replace the dev team and all the new people are more experienced with social media and city building games rather than the dictator sim that tropico used to be

[Fellow.Canadian]

Tropico 6 is the hardest one I think so far. It's not a bad thing, once you start to figure things out. The best way I've found so far is to establish a sustainable supply chain with agriculture to feed a large factory sector. A farm grid of 5x3 or 6x3 on multi-culture with ranchers supports like a 8-10 canneries, 4-5 textile mills, 2 rum factories, 4-5 cigar factories. The hardest part is the huge upfront cost of getting the factories and infrastructure up.

Boats are the best export, but the sheer volume of stuff produced from farm grids makes for a reliable stream of income for early game.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Marquez von Hinten:

> In order to make them profitable you need ALL the upgrades. By adding the meat and coffee it reduces the consumption of bananas, pineapples, and fish.

Thats is not how it's works, this is not Tropico 5 anymore.

That IS how it works, it does not consume one of each good when producing one canned good. You can literally feed only one type ANY of the items and it still functions.

So you can have it with just Fish and Pineapples with a 5k storage or you can have nearly a 20k storage by adding meat and coffee.

You are confusing two part factories like Cars, Steel, Weapons, etc with ones with additional inputs.

Originally posted by JohnTheGreat:

I don't think your Religion theory holds true, I've had 6 churches and a cathedral for a population of around 1600 before and the people are still low in Religion happiness.

I am sitting at 48 faith with a 2400 population. I have 2 Cathedrals and 1 church.

You should look into why it takes 6 churches to 1000 people.
1. You need a mass transit system
2. They need to be max budget to fill the customer happiness bars and they leave faster allowing the next workers in.
3. If all your slots are full the worker will wait for one to open. This prevents a worker from going to the far end o the island because it has a free slot.

Originally posted by Kunovega:

I've seen a bus driver go to a bus stop to get to work: problem, there's no bus coming because he's the driver everyone is waiting on

There is multiple buses if your worker slots are full. However I seen what you are talking about with only one worker, after that I made sure my bus garage sits in town instead of in the country.

Originally posted by JohnTheGreat:

6: Tourism is not valuable in Tropico 6, you'll more often than not lose more money than you make.

It is profitable if done right.
1. Focus on a wealth class (Rich, Flithy Rich, or Well Off)
2. Build the proper means of island entry for that class with the right work mode.
3. Make sure you have at least one tourist housing of that wealth class, tourists will stay in lower wealth but not in higher wealth.
4. Make 2-4 attractions for the target wealth class. Place them as close to the housing as possible. Max their budget and set them to tourist only.

The only tourist item I have not been able to get make a lifetime profit is the Cruise Ship.