Gameplay

Creating the game

Whatever kind of game you play, first you must create your character - the leader of the nation. You choose his background (Harvard or Moscow University? Commoner or born rich?), a pair of flaws, a pair of good qualities and the way he gained power. All these options affect your relations with the various factions of your people, and the attitude of the superpowers to you.

Hello Padre!

See? They never stop demanding more

These character traits have a permanent effect in the game, and make switching to a different path more difficult. For example, if you are an industrialist educated in Harvard and have flaws and qualities that endear you to Capitalists and the USA, then it will be difficult to maintain support among local Communists and Russia - even if you embrace their methods. The capitalists and Americans might be more lenient should you steer towards communist methods, but their patience won't last forever.

I tried, but you can't execute, arrest or excommunicate children

My government control is awful

The nation

You start out as the ruler of an island nation, but islands come in many forms. Some are mountainous and formed from volcanoes. Others are relatively flat. Levels of vegetation and minerals vary as well, and decide how much you can live off the land. The size of your island, how mountainous it is and how many people you start out with determine the level of difficulty. A small, mountainous island with no resources and a low population has a very high difficulty score - succeed on it and you will truly have proven your mastery of Tropico. That is, unless you're playing in Sandbox mode where politics and economy do not affect your regime!

There are some idiosyncracies with the level of difficulty, however. For example, it seems easier to start out with a large, robust population - but those quickly become unmanageable. In fact, in the long run population problems are the main concern of the game. As your population grows, you have more people to care after, and discontent among all the factions grows. People - even those who don't care about the environment - become sick of living in cramped, dirty cities. Income gaps widen as the population grows, displeasing communists. It becomes difficult to find space for various luxury buildings, displeasing the capitalists. Both sides become unhappy as unemployment and crime rates rise in tandem.

Liberty = bad! Good thing it's low

He's fuming

The Intellectuals demand more and more freedoms, education and liberty for the people, while the religious demand restrictions and more churches. Militarists constantly complain about low wages - sucking your coffers dry within years - as their complaints about a small military begin to pile up. If you already have a large military force, it is difficult to cut down without creating dissenters. If you do not have a large force and your island population is displeased, then rebels can take the palace down. A small, overcrowded island is hardly a draw for those money-spending tourists either. Population control is your number one concern - it is what makes maintaining a balance among the factions a major priority.