Hidden Agenda

[SultanFatih]

If you have never played it. Play it. Go to DOS game archive, and play it.

It is one of the few DOS games that are not broken. And it is a very interesting story driven game about a island nation off the coast of Ecuador in the late 80's.

I'll only give one spoiler. Let's see how soon the civil war starts for you.

[SultanFatih]

It's a fictional island. Quite realistic in how its politics work, more so than just "unlocking" a ministry that already exists then declaring the government is run by "leaderism" and implementing whatever law you want with no one to stop you, because hell you built a space station on the moon how can anyone question you? Try it out.

[InsertWeirdNameHere]

Originally posted by SultanFatih:

If you have never played it. Play it. Go to DOS game archive, and play it.

It is one of the few DOS games that are not broken. And it is a very interesting story driven game about a island nation off the coast of Ecuador in the late 80's.

I'll only give one spoiler. Let's see how soon the civil war starts for you.

I just played it. Thank you, that was an awesome game

[ponpon]

I would like to see a remake of this game

[SultanFatih]

Ponpon, Anyone who has ever played it would honestly. Apparently for a while it was used by the US Secretary of State's department to train new recruits on Latin America politics. As the game is a general stereotypical South American nation.

[SultanFatih]

InsertWeirdNameHere, What ending did you get mate? What did the US history book write about you? Which leaders did you pick?

[DasMudPie]

Tropico is technically the spiritual successor of Hidden Agenda since it was inspired by the DOS game's atmosphere and setting.

Here's how I did as Compañero Presidente de Chimerica :)

https://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=612757HiddenAgenda1.png
https://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=468527HiddenAgenda2.png
https://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=916003HiddenAgenda3.png
https://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=896600HiddenAgenda4.png
https://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=711090HiddenAgenda5.png
https://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=615398HiddenAgenda6.png
https://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=509058HiddenAgenda7.png
https://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=977545HiddenAgenda8.png
https://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=761664HiddenAgenda9.png
https://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=206422HiddenAgenda10.png
https://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=360149HiddenAgenda11.png
https://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=623483HiddenAgenda12.png

Thanks to the people's support, I survived two coups attempts launched by Popular Stability reactionaries and boldly carried Chimerican socialism forward... At least until the USA lead an embargo against Chimerica and pressured the IMF to interfere. Rising coffee export profits were funding everything until IMF loan extensions were abruptly halted.

The only good thing that came out of the right-wing terrorists funded by the USA is that it allowed me to "temporarily" shut down that awful lies spreading anti-left Chimerica Ahora newspaper.

Long live the Chimerican Revolution!

[InsertWeirdNameHere]

Originally posted by SultanFatih:

InsertWeirdNameHere, What ending did you get mate? What did the US history book write about you? Which leaders did you pick?

I established a socialist republic with the NLP winning 60% of the vote. I picked Fleming of NLP for land reform, Iglesias of NLP for External Affairs, Oberon of Christian Reform for Defense, and Espinales of Popular Stability for Internal Affairs. I united the country successfully, kept the R-army together for about 2 years before the pro-US was eventually deported, I never had a civil war, I greatly improved healthcare and infrastructure, I empowered the Barrios, I armed popular militias, I balanced the influence of the US and Soviets enough that I could be independent of either influence though I continued to take economic assistance from both, my land reform was somewhat successful though it did have a few downfalls, I lowered malnutrition by providing card rations, and overall built a successful country. My only shortcoming was that I still didn't manage to make the country unreliant on loans and economic assistance.

Do you know how to get out of debt? I haven't managed yet to not end in debt in any of my playthroughs after that first one.

[ponpon]

Originally posted by DasMudPie:

Tropico is technically the spiritual successor of Hidden Agenda since it was inspired by the DOS game's atmosphere and setting.

I think tropico and hiddenagenda are different things from the difference between its reality and the topic being handled.
Anyway it is strange that there is no remake of this game

[SultanFatih]

DasMudPie you have built a nation where the people yearn for the return of Fasante. 10/10, true Socialist revolution.

Good God dude, I have never seen someone fail that hard. But thanks for sharing. :D

[SultanFatih]

InsertWeirdNameHere, You started a civil war by not keeping the army united. When the army becomes disunited the faction that lost control and has to flee comes back and starts a guerrilla war on your country. The Populists burn down your villages and shoot down the school and hospitals. The National Liberation bombs the cities and kidnaps people for ransom. The game refers to this as a civil war.

It is impossible to not rely on foreign aid and not go into debt. What you should try to do is have debt go down over time and have foreign currency in treasury go up over time. Export more than you import. Chimerica relies almost 100% on the world market for everything including basic food. Or at least in the beginning it does.

[SultanFatih]

I'll give you guys some tips on how to win.

1. Get a diverse cabinet from all three factions. For easy control and ministers that make rational decisions get Central politician for Agriculture and Interior, get Right for Exterior and Left for Defense.

2. Increase government rationing of food until you get to a card system for basic goods, and make sure to increase corruption investigation to further make sure that more food output increases. Do not make land reforms other than what will satisfy the people so they don't whine about it. Land reforms make US angry like nothing else, and the rich cotton producers leave the country, thus eliminating your second highest source of income. And you do not need to give land to the peasants to increase food output or decrease malnutrition. So there is nothing positive that will come out of it.

3. Do not have any contact with Communist governments. The USSR foreign ambassador literally tells you in the beginning, "We can hardly subsidize our own economy, we can only provide you old tractors from Comrade Stalin's era and oil to run them." Having any contact with Communist forces cuts off all relations with USA, USA can over time give your people free education in their Ivy League Schools, give you machines to mechanize your agriculture and export industry, hook up your villages to electricity for free, give you intense amounts of cash. The Communists will not be able to do anything for you except Cuba providing healthcare and education not anywhere close to a degree that USA can. And USSR providing you with old tractors, where as USA can mechanize your entire industry.

4. Every single person in the game has their own agenda, hence the name "hidden agenda". Half of what they say is always true and half is always wrong. Also people that never lived a certain type of life style know nothing of that. For example, the National Liberation really does not know a damn thing about how to run the economy, you should never listen to them when it comes to economy. And the Populists don't know a damned thing about poverty or the average citizens life. Don't listen to anything they have to say when it comes to matters of state funding services or infrastructure.

5. Your greatest ally is Europe. This is seen as the French newspaper and the "Other Aid" in the aid tab. Do not make enemies with Europe under any circumstances. Banning right wing newspaper, allowing the right wing to kill Communists, not giving the workers rights to strike, or anything else you can easily think of that will go down as a "not cool move dude" will anger Europe and have them not give a damn about you. This basically gives USA the full ability to make Chimerica their colony. Other than militarily invade you they will do everything to control you. CIA will literally come to your country and blow your stuff up.

6. Just be realistic, and you should do better than not. And be more in the center than anything else. The biggest issue is the army. Because who ever wins control of the army basically controls Chimerica, you no longer become the leader, just a figure head. The army starts calling the shots. So whatever happens, make sure to limit power of both parties in the army.

Have a fun time, El Presidente.

If you get any notifications that state that your country is in massive debt, USA has cut off trade, the Populists have killed more civilians than all the civilian casualties except for USSR casualties in WW2 combined. You know, such things. Then you can pretty much assure yourself that you have lost.

Elections really don't mean much. Who ever has the army will win the elections. The people support Nationalists apparently. But if you do one play through where you give in to each of their demands you will see that the average citizen quickly regrets forcing you to make such policies.

So sometimes what the people want is not what the people need.

Your most important task is increasing exports and maintaining stability of the army.

If you increase healthcare and education but don't worry about exports quite quickly you'll have none of the three as your economy will collapse with all the debt you've taken on.

If you support one side of the army over another. Quite quickly your citizens will start dropping like flies from all the cross fire in the civil war.

[DasMudPie]

Originally posted by ponpon:

Originally posted by DasMudPie:

Tropico is technically the spiritual successor of Hidden Agenda since it was inspired by the DOS game's atmosphere and setting.

I think tropico and hiddenagenda are different things from the difference between its reality and the topic being handled.
Anyway it is strange that there is no remake of this game

Of course, Hidden Agenda is more realistic than Tropico and has a wider range of economic and political choices, but the latter does borrow the general skeptical and cynical atmosphere of the former.

Political simulators aren't the most popular genre, so not having a remake doesn't seem so surprising...

Originally posted by SultanFatih:

DasMudPie you have built a nation where the people yearn for the return of Fasante. 10/10, true Socialist revolution.

Good God dude, I have never seen someone fail that hard. But thanks for sharing. :D

What can I say? Unlike Correa, Erlich just seems so... untrustworthy. I was always under the impression that he would LOVE to pull a Pinochet given the right circumstances, hence why he and LIMPIA were dealt with as soon as possible. The USA immediately cut all foreign aid, so I had to turn to the USSR for economic and military help. From this point on, I had no other choice but to go further and further down the road of socialism.

I wouldn't be so sure that the people yearn for the Farsante years... After all, they prevented two coup attempts and defended the revolutionary government!

Anyway, I tried not bothering with elections the second time with a mixed government (PS agriculture, CR defense, NL interior, CR exterior) and it turns out not allowing elections actually makes it possible for both Correa and Erlich to keep cooperating together indefinitely, which prevents civil war from ever happening!

[InsertWeirdNameHere]

Originally posted by SultanFatih:

InsertWeirdNameHere, You started a civil war by not keeping the army united. When the army becomes disunited the faction that lost control and has to flee comes back and starts a guerrilla war on your country. The Populists burn down your villages and shoot down the school and hospitals. The National Liberation bombs the cities and kidnaps people for ransom. The game refers to this as a civil war.

It is impossible to not rely on foreign aid and not go into debt. What you should try to do is have debt go down over time and have foreign currency in treasury go up over time. Export more than you import. Chimerica relies almost 100% on the world market for everything including basic food. Or at least in the beginning it does.

By not having a civil war, I was referring to ending the fight very quickly through a series of decisive actions and building of the military.

Also, I know that bringing exports up is the logical way to not keep losing money. The problem is that I can't balance exports against living standards.

[SultanFatih]

DasMudPie, I wish political simulations made a big hit as a genre. But especially these days when action and graphics are the biggest sellers I sadly don't think there will be any made. And those that are made such as HoI4 are just make an army draw a line good job you won.

Erlich is the twin of Pinochet, your instincts were right. If you build up a relationship with USA before getting rid of Erlich they start supporting you. They will give some aid to Erlich but you would be able to easily beat them, and USA increases foreign aid over time rather than cutting it even though Erlich is gone.

The National Liberators whenever they win a battle they state "the people supported us!" the people certainly would prefer them over Erlich but it is the army that fights, the people don't ever take up arms unless you enable conscriptions. In which case they quickly start hating you for forcing them to become soldiers. Chimerica is used to private armies. Fight a few foreigners to come and fight. The idea of a national army is alien to almost all and many do not like it after they get a taste of it.

Bloody hell MudPie! How the heck do you figure out games so quickly? It took me a month to realize not calling for elections enables some sort of stability in the army as they are not in a hurry to destroy one another, as the elections will decide which route the country will take. A month! How many times did you play this game? Twice?

[SultanFatih]

InsertName, Oh, well then a short civil war? :D Don't hurry to increase spending. First sell all state estates to coffee growers, build the national exporting bureau for aid to small producers, build up the economy, start exporting, then consider any spending. Other than rations, enable those when they come up. And make sure to increase aid and IMF loans whenever you can. Except for aid from Communist countries.

There are three ways to make money basically. Sell coffee, sell cotton, sell agricultural foods.

You sell more coffee by selling coffee growers state lands, and building the bureau, and giving exporters loans.

You cannot increase cotton all that much, other than selling estate lands to coffee growers also sells some to cotton producers, you can sell estate lands to only cotton producers if you want, but coffee is worth more. But make sure the cotton output is not reduced, it can be reduced if you give land reforms.

Agricultural food can be increased by giving them land or aid. But both of these are bad ideas as coffee and cotton is worth more, also such tactics make USA angry. Over time if you get the final rationing option they will slowly increase. And with US aid that's when they start being exported. For "US winter market" as the ambassador states.

That's how you make money. Also better relations with countries increases aid.

You can decrease debt by not increasing too much spending. Total cost, and length of time payed both matter. So get the first state of education and healthcare later on in the game. And don't get the second stage. If you do care about the people consider this, if the state runs out of funds they'll have nothing. Better that we teach reading to only kids and not try to teach to whole population and inevitably fail to teach anyone in the long run.

Make sure to look at the graphs accurately. Income/expenditure graph gives income in millions and debt in billions. That can trick some people if they don't pay attention.