The communists are complaining about the lack of low income housing, while
capitalists are unhappy that your island lacks any real industry. You'd like to
keep them all happy - especially with an election coming up - but you've been a
bit short on funds ever since the rebels attacked your papaya farms. What's the
leader of a small Caribbean island to do?
Tropico opens on a mythical Caribbean Island in 1950. You've just come to
power and are now in charge of Tropico's destiny. You'll need to choose the
course your island will follow - an agrarian workers' paradise, a tourist haven,
an industrial powerhouse,... - and steer it in this direction. However, there
are many factions on your island and no matter which course you choose, some
will be happy with your choice while other swill be left fuming. Ignore the
disenfranchised elements for too long and you could have a revolution on your
hands.
At the start of a game of Tropico, you must select the leader you represent
and how you came to power. This is an important decision, because it will affect
the tone of your game. For example, if you are a student radical and a
womanizer, you'll score big points with the Soviet Union and the communists on
your island, but lose popularity with the female population. Tropico supplies
its leaders with a large variety of possible traits (both good and bad) and
backgrounds, allowing for a wide variety of leader personalities.
Once the game begins, you will need to begin to build your island's economy
and make choices about the direction you will take. You have a large selection
of buildings that you can build and each will have different positive and
negative effects with your island's various factions. A good portion of Tropico
is spent trying to both keep your economy going and keeping your people happy.
You'll also be able to exert some control over your population via the use of
edicts. These are proclamations that have an effect on your entire island. For
example, you can please your religious faction by extending an invitation to the
pope to visit, bolster tourism through an anti-litter campaign, or appease your
intellectual faction through a literacy program. You also have the option of
issuing covert edicts such as padding your Swiss bank account with inflated
building permit fees and ordering the assassination of the leader of a faction
that has been giving you too much trouble.
Your people like to have some choice in their future, so they will generally
ask for elections every eight years. You can grant these elections and run the
risk of being voted out of office, or decline and anger your population. Of
course, you could always put the fix on and guarantee that you come out ahead in
the next 'free' election...
Your goal in Tropico is to remain in power for fifty years and retire with a
nice fat Swiss bank account. The higher your popularity and the better off you
island at the end of these fifty years, the higher your score.
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