CHAPTER THREE
STARTING A GAME
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"It is true that liberty is precious-
so precious that it must be rationed"
Lenin |
Your rapid understanding is most impressive! Now you are ready to start a new full-fledged regime from scratch. Press the 'Game' option, and you will be taken to a large (and should I mention hand-made?) tapestry hanging on the wall. Your reign as PresidentΘ will begin with this tapestry, so please familiarize yourself with it.
PRE-DESIGNED SCENARIOS
The top, left-hand section of the seal, containing the image of a book, allows you to access a pre-designed scenario. Selecting this option will raise the tapestry to reveal a menu of pre-designed scenarios and a preview map for the selected scenario. Double-click on a scenario title to begin the scenario.
SAVED GAMES
Select the top right-hand section, with a locked box and a key, to load a saved game. If you have saved many games, you may need to pull the slider on the rope to see them all. Double click a saved game name to load that game.
RANDOM MAP SETUP
Se±or PresidentΘ, among your greatest powers is the power to create new islands from thin air (and water and soil)! The measure of a truly great PresidentΘ is the ability to create a unique island, never before seen by any other ruler, and mold it into a great nation. Therefore, you will likely spend most of your time on Tropico ruling randomly generated maps.
Once you select the random map option, you will craft your new Republic. You will create the island itself and then set the political landscape you will rule. Choose wisely, El PresidentΘ.
Physical Island Setup
You may rule on a large or small island, a flat or mountainous one -- why, most any kind of island at all! As you make changes, the Difficulty Rating for the game will adjust in response (see below for more detail on Difficulty Rating). Be aware that the choices you make here will factor heavily in your economic options in the game. For instance, a mountainous island is excellent for growing coffee, but poor for sugar. Once you are satisfied with the settings, hit the OK stamp to proceed.
Political Island Setup
The next panel sets up the political landscape. Note that different rulers might pursue different Victory Goals, and we accommodate that here. If you desire only to amass great personal wealth, choose the Victory Goal "'Tis Money That Makes The Man".
You may also set the level of economic difficulty and political difficulty independently. At lower economic difficulty settings, your people produce more and demand less economically, and it is generally easier to make a profit. At lower political difficulty settings, your political 'honeymoon' will last longer, and overall, your people will be less inclined to revolt against you and more inclined to vote for you, should you have free elections.
"Sandbox" mode: Though not a labeled option, if you simply want to play the game without economic or political cares, the lowest difficulty levels of each of these disable economics and politics respectively, allowing you to spend an unlimited amount of money and to not worry about losing political power in any way.
Game length: Finally, you can choose the game length- at the end of this period of time you will receive a score based on how well you have met your victory goals. However, if you want to keep playing beyond that time limit, you can; you just won't receive a score for the extra time.
When you are satisfied with your choices, click the OK stamp to continue your game setup.
About the Difficulty Rating: All things come easily to you, El PresidentΘ, but some games will be easier than others. The settings you make on the island setup screen determine the difficulty rating of your game. For example, a larger island gives you more room to build, thus making for a lower difficulty rating. Instead of pre-set difficulty levels, Tropico allows you to make the game as easy or as hard as you wish. As you become better at ruling you will want to increase the difficulty and challenge yourself more. Besides making a more challenging game, a higher Difficulty Rating also provides a bonus to your final score.
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"I'm not a dictator. It's just that I have a grumpy face."
Augusto Pinochet |
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TITLE: President of Phillipines REIGN: 1965-1986 RISE to POWER: Won election in 1965 in a bitterly fought campaign. POWER HUNGRY: Suspended habeas corpus, dissolved the Congress, mercilessly persecuted his political enemies.and set forth a new constitution to increase his powers. MARTIAL LAW: Declared martial law in 1972, jailing political opponents and using armed forces as his private police force. TWO PRESIDENTS: Was certified victor in 1986 fraudulent election over Corazon Aquino. Both Marcos and Aquino were inaugurated in separate ceremonies. EMBEZZLEMENT: Estimated to have stole billions of dollars from the Philippine government. |
PresidentΘ Setup
Your Excellency, unfortunately we must pry into your personal life a bit. We apologize, but consider the alternative. If you do not define yourself, your foes will, and they will probably draw on all your official photos and put horns on your head. No, we can't have that.
The folder on the desk contains a number of dossiers of people who have desired at some point to rule an island such as Tropico. Please choose the one that most accurately reflects you, My Leader. Each of these people has a set of traits that give them various bonuses and penalties in ruling Tropico - you can accept their default traits and begin your regime immediately, or you can inspect and alter them by choosing 'View/Edit Dossier'.
Editing the Dossier: If you choose to edit the dossier, there are five pages you must inspect and select from. I know, paperwork, bah! Even El Tigres such as you must resign yourself to shuffling papers now and then. They don't teach you this in PresidentΘ School, but power flows from stacks of paper as well as the barrel of a gun.
Se±or PresidentΘ, I must stress that the choices you make in setting up your reign, especially in reference to yourself, will have a profound affect on the game. They will determine your strategies, priorities, strengths, and weaknesses. Do not take them lightly.
For your convenience, Appendix C provides the list of choices and their effects for Background, Rise to Power, Qualities, and Flaws.
Background: The first page within the folder describes your Background. This is very important to the Tropican people and will sway their opinion of you. Please select one option from the list provided on the left page. In order to help you, we have provided a page on the right to explain the effects when your cursor is over an item in the list.
Rise to Power: The second section lets us archive the manner in which you came to power. Some are born to greatness, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them as the old PresidentΘ catches a fast jet to Switzerland with the Rebels at the gates. Once again, this is important to how your people and other countries think of you.
Qualities: The section after this tells us your Qualities. PresidentΘ, we know that you have dozens of admirable qualities, but the silly peasants can only seem to remember two Qualities. Again, these affect the people and the affairs of Tropico.
Flaws: It's such an ugly word. Is it a flaw to invest the funds of the Tropican Treasury in the blackjack tables? Is it a flaw to raise your voice when dealing with fools? Of course not! Nevertheless, you must select two Flaws in the fourth section. This is mandatory and will help us understand why some factions might possibly dislike you.
Summary: I, the Secretary to the President, will quickly calculate a Summary in the final section to show you how all of the previous choices add up.
When finished, click the Ok stamp to begin your game. The new island of Tropico is quickly generated and your enlightened rule beginsà.
Guards! Stop slouching! You are now in the presence of our new PresidentΘ. Welcome to Tropico, Senor PresidentΘ! We expect great things from youà.
àjust like we expected from the last seven PresidentΘs.
Se±ora Consuela de la Pluma y Escritorio Secretary to the President