Pricing/wages/rent

[PoetryForAnimals]

Hello people.

I've been trying to find the perfect balance between pricing (entry fees for bars, restaurants, other entertainment ect.), rent for the different type of accomodation and wages, that'll make my tropicans feel somewhat satisfied with their job.

Any of the game pros who wanna share some insight on what you do?

I haven't got poblems at all, I just want to optimise my economy and make my people happy at the same time :)

[Kunovega]

1. Workers can pay up to 1/3 wages to rent. Always keep that ratio in mind. If you have social security on then pensioners and students can pay 1/3 their social security into rent. For married couples it is 1/3 their combined pay.

2. When a persons entertainment need drops, they select the highest rated entertainment building with a current open slot that does not exceed their pay. If the building they would have picked was full they pick the next rating down that has a currently open slot.

3. Quality of service is effected not just by type of building but also some of the settings options (like better napkins) and of course by workers skills in the entertainment building.

4. Don't forget to put trees and parks near entertainment, hospitals/clinics and churches. Places people will actually be going, don't just spam them in the middle of no where. People need to be near those things for the beauty to effect their happiness ratings so surrounding your services areas with beauty helps. (you can also put them near ugly work places but far fewer people go to any one work place where as your service buildings are visited by everyone)

I'll give you a general sample of my pay/rent setups:

uneducated pay: 6
highschool pay: 12
college pay: 18

housing built to accomodate them:

bunkhouses: 1 (placed near schools for students ~ with social security turned on)
tenements: 2 (1/3 the uneducated wage)
apartments: 4 (1/3 the highschool wage ~ or an uneducated married couple)
condominiums 6 (1/3 the college wage ~ or a highschool person married to any working person)
mansions: 8 (this is a college person married to anyone or 2 highschool wages married)

There are obviously other ways you can set this up and it scales if you increase everyone by ratio. I never bother to increase pay unless I'm willing to go up by 3 which lets me increase the housing by 1

9/15/21 pay becomes 2/3/5/7/10 for rent (the mansion can get bumped +2 instead of 1 since it's aimed at married college(to any wage) or two highschoolers)

Scale as high as you want.

As for entertainment this is entirely up to you how happy you want to make your people. But remember with a big island and a high population, if you don't have an expensive place for your richer workers to get away from the poor, everyone will be trying to get into the same high rated locations and your cheaper places will be empty.

To facilitate this be sure you have at least a few places the uneducated can go. Then add more expensive places based on how many educated you have at each tier.

I also personally like having the prices staggered for entertainment something like this: (assuming your pay scale is 6/12/18)

pub: 3
restaraunt: 4
childhood museum: 5
cabaret: 6

That's the main 4 and will get you through a huge portion of any mission before needing more. Mid game:

Shopping Mall 5
Casino 6 (nickel slots)
Movie Theater 9
Night Club 10
Gourmet Restaurant 11 (or ship-o-rant)

Late game:
Museum of Modern Art 18 (set to tropican art)
Night Club 18 (dress code)
pub 12 (dress code)
cosmic pin 6 (or 9 with unlimited food/drinks depending on which tourists you prefer)
sports complex 9
Shopping Mall 9 (shoe outlet)

Don't forget many of the attractions (though not all) that you would build for tourists can also be visited by tropicans and tourists can visit your normal entertainment, not just attractions. If you are going heavy tourism be sure you scale pricing high enough that your good attractions are not flooded by poor tropicans. Look at the tourist pricing cap listed on each entertainment building, the tourists who can afford it will spend that much on each visit compared to the tropicans who will only spend the entry fee.

It's up to you how much you want to micromanage entertainment fees

Also, I'm kinda weird about the Zoo, it's one of the easiest entertainments to get a high rating in so if you were going pure profit you would put it on 4 color brochure and set it at your college wage range for entry. But I like the idea of everyone going to the zoo so I have a habit of making it cheap to get in, or even building more than one because it's such a people pleaser with it's high entertainment value (surround it by trees for even more happiness from beauty score)

Beyond that just try to keep a good balance of things available. Everyone appreciates variety and that goes for available food as much as it does entertainment. (having each food type available makes people happy)

Just as a general ratio the minimums you need to function are:
1 clinic
1 church
1 entertainment building
1 food farm/ranch

Per 100 tropicans. Realize that's absolute minimum. Your goal should be closer to 1 of each per 50, that creates less complaints and will get you through. But if you want them to be blistering happy get closer to 3 of each per 100 people and with variety.

After your first 2 clinics you should be doing hospitals. After your first couple of churches some of them should be cathedrals (space permitting). Farms/ranches you can go heavy on corn but try to get in at least 1 of each other food type (or more) as you add food supplies. Don't forget GMC horticulture later in the game to increase corn production without needing more farms (great in the mid game as you transition from 400 people to 800 people you will likely be focusing on more profits and don't want more corn farms at that moment)

Be sure entertainment, churches and hospitals are clustered nearby each time you make a new hub of housing + garage. Consider the pricing on the houses and the type of entertainment price that goes with who will be living nearby.

The game is as deep as you want it to be and with proper planning; populations of 1500+ can be kept blisteringly happy if that's your goal.

[PoetryForAnimals]

Thank you so much for such an indept answer :) I'll go directly back to the game to try to perfect my strategy ;)

[Skybreaker]

Hi everybody.
@Kunovega
Awesomeness!
Keep it up!
El Presidente appreciates!

-cheers

[Hessian]

Just bought the game & was struggling on housing. The 1/3 ratio helped a lot, thanks.

[Fly]

Personally, I always leave it where it is. The real money is in import/export anyway, not in the pocket change that I pay my slave... subject... beloved citizens. Generally it works pretty well, but then again, I'm a pinko commie and give them free housing and social security and everything else they could dream of... except wages higher than 5/10/15 and 20 for the soldiers (you want happy soldiers!!!).

[aqvarivs]

Work is freedom. Give them plenty of work to do and a nice walk in the forest should be all the entertainment they need. Keep them from western influences and all that happiness claptrap. If you want to get all uber liberal build a tavern and sell cheap booze. Just build a Police Station beside it so your people understand there are limits on your bow to "western freedoms". Dam hippies!