Best DLC?

[Your Majesty Padded Gamer]

So I've already beaten all 20 missions *almost twice now*
And I just wanted to know witch DLC's are the best ones for tropico 4 since I'm considering buying some of them.
I personally just want the DLC's for extra missions and levels and stuff just to have a bit more to put into.

[Arkandos]

Modern Times is a must. Other than that, opinion varies

[Delnar_Ersike]

Well, if you don't have Modern Times, get it first.
The DLC's are all of varying quality, but if it's missions you're looking for specifically, certain "pointless" DLC's are actually quite enjoyable.
Pirate DLC and Plantador DLC are both excellent in almost every way, so be sure to pick those up. Plantador's mission is especially fun.
Propaganda DLC and Apocalypse DLC are both fairly bad on their own, but their missions are pretty enjoyable.
Junta DLC's mission is quite interesting to play, especially if you're not usually the militaristic type, and it's the only mission that's actually challenging for Tropico veterans (Plantador's is only challenging early on, Junta stays challenging because no immigrants are allowed and the island isn't well suited for the usual low-manpower tourism strategy).
Quick Dry Cement DLC's mission is fairly unique, but the building it adds is game-breakingly overpowered, and you're pretty much forced to use it in the DLC's mission.
All the other DLCs' missions are either lackluster or flatout bad (looking at you, Academy DLC, you worthless pile of junk).

[Your Majesty Padded Gamer]

thanks for the info so now I know witch ones to get since I din't want to waste my money and only use half the DLC's

[Uzi Master]

Quick dry cement is actually pretty useless once you get better at the game, you'll be quick building most of your stuff later on and cement sells for very little. Plantations are incredibly useful though, with propagana towers, shelters, and smugglers all being helpfull. Bunkers make certain missions easier, labour camps I haven't tried so I'm not sure how the productivity matches up. Conventillo's, East Point Academy, and Voodoo Manor are all pretty useles. That's just buildings though, you might still enjoy the missions if that's your thing.

Modern Times is of course a great DLC, well worth the price. A lot of the missions actually force you to play differently than you normally would when it comes to starting out and all that.

[admiral8q]

I like the plantations. Good profit early on.

[admiral8q]

I bought the boxed set of "Tropico Gold" I also bought "Modern Times". I was stupid, didn't realize the gold edition included "Modern Times". Ah well,

[Mossman]

I bought the whole game with 7 euros when it was on sale. I had no clue it was going to be among the best games I've ever tried. Some bought it for 1usd I hear. Wait for a sale and buy them all. Cool stuff.

[Mossman]

Yea... steam is bad that way that it doesnt really tell us what we already have, on the store pages anyway.

[aqvarivs]

Originally posted by Star Fire:

So I've already beaten all 20 missions *almost twice now*
And I just wanted to know witch DLC's are the best ones for tropico 4 since I'm considering buying some of them.
I personally just want the DLC's for extra missions and levels and stuff just to have a bit more to put into.

The value of individual DLC's imo aside from the missions, is the extra buildings. To follow on with [quick dry cement] for example; if you build two cement factories early in the game, like asap, then your contractors build faster and faster to a maximum rate long before their experience kicks in, and I never feel the need to quick build. I only usually have two construction buildings and I generally overwhelm them with stuff I've laid out. With the two cement factories and only two construction buildings things go up in good time. Though I suppose "in good time" is a relative term. :-)

The Pirate Heaven DLC adds smuggling to your game and can take some of the pressure off the costs of imports. Especially if you run a nuclear power plant. One pirate hut can keep that running on the cheap for the entire game. It's also good for maximumising the stocks at your shopping malls and taking up the slack in your corn production. Five pirate huts can bring in a lot of goods.

The VooDoo DLC brings in a new building for tourism that has several ways of running it to accomodate your tourism set up, and if you select the new trait for El Presidente you can lower the need for your citizens to visit clinics.

Probably none of the little ones are necessary but are fun add-ons just the same. Modern Times takes you from a pretty, say 19th century "50's" construct into a 21st century construct of colorless, ugly buildings of glass and steel that pollute your skyline. :-)

[Gator Bodine]

Modern Times is the best by far, it pretty much doubles the campaign missions. I prefer Plantador for the OP plantations, Quick Dry Cement for the OP early industry that requires no input goods and makes building faster, and Vigilante for the labor camps which are a vast improvement over prisons. All the rest are pretty irrelevent.

[Eadrick Tudoria]

As a community service, I first want to say don't even consider buying Tropico 5. It's the horribles.

As for the DLCs, I agree with what has been said above.

1.Modern Times (expansion) Must Have

2. Plantador - Awesome, Must Have, especially if you have Modern Times (MT overwrites a building that the Plantador "brings back"... in a way)

3. Cement - Awesome, almost too overpowered. Optional due to it being TOO good.

4. Pirate -Awesome, overpowered as well, but not as much as cement.

5. Junta - Good. Useful, but not vital, it does add a few cool decorative items that are neat.

6. Apocalypse. Alright. It's really useful to set the building to a faction you don't like to make them hate you less. It's overpowered in that way. If a faction hates you, you can just set the building to that faction, and it improves their approval greatly.

7. Acadamy - not great. It technically is better than the college, as it gives college education AND also gives fighting skills. It converts graduates to Militarist faction, which can be a really good thing, or a minor annoyance.

8. Propoganda - useless. If things are bad enough on your island that you think you need this DLC, then too bad. This DLC is too weak to be effective. I only build it for decoration around my base.

9. Voodoo- worthless. I've yet to build it more than a few times as it seems to do next to nothing.

10. Megalopolis- Annoyingly worthless. The building isn't great and the housing quality is poor, it degrades in quality over time. I so no point in building it unless you like to annoy yourself with trivial "repair" costs. Why this DLC was ever made, I don't know.

11. Vigilante - broken. I ALWAYS have an abundance of Teamsters on my island to transport goods. RARELY does any production building have the "overloaded" symbol above it on my island. And when it happens, it is resolved quickly. NOT SO with the Vigilante DLC. The Labor Camp will have the "overloaded" icon above it FOR YEARS. The Teamsters don't see it for some reason. But, let's say it does work. It still isnt great. I suppose it is a farm that has no wage cost, and it fits into the game design, if you want your island to be a tropical North Korea. So it has novelty value, but it is broken. I suspect it may work if the Work Camp was the ONLY farms you had.

[MaGicBush]

Thanks for the great thread, as it helped me pick out my DLC. I ended up only getting MT for now though. later on if I like the game enough I may get a few more listed here(I have not played any of the Tropico games). I was deciding between this and some DLC or 5, and went with Tropico 4 as every thread I read comparing them makes 5 look like crap lol. So I will hold off on that one if I ever get it.

[admiral8q]

Plantations are awesome. You can make alot of dinero early in a game.

[admiral8q]

Smugglers are by far the most useful. They get the exact resources you need for super cheap.