Tropico Moneymaking Tips?

[Gligarman2]

Hey, playgrounders!

I have just got Tropico 3, and I seem to continually all into debt. I may come out, but I fall in again. How do I make money and keep everypony happy?

Thanks!

[psilontech]

Mines, cash crops, tourism, and making sure your factories are always producing. Turn off importing on factories that have a domestic source of raw materials.

Garages to make sure people can get to work. Foreign ministry also lets you get more money out of your exports, if I recall correctly.

[Guancyto]

I always found that unless you build specifically for it, tourism doesn't generally make enough money to be worthwhile.

Now industry, that's where it's at. Oil and refining in particular will give you almost more money than you know what to do with.

[houlio]

I tend to fund myself entirely early on with tobacco. Farms are cheap to build, staff, and run. Once I have enough money and infrastructure for it, I get a cigar factory, which really gets things going. Going this way tends to also placate the enviro faction, who otherwise despise most industries. Also, try to keep the US and USSR both relatively happy, which increases the amount of foreign aid they throw your way.

As for keeping your people happy, stick to running a clinic, bar, and church to start with. Check the demands of each faction in your ledger, and try to focus on completing a demand for the unhappiest faction at a time. Once I can safely get a university built and staffed, I begin to expand into making things like newspapers and television. Also, don't forget to use edicts every so often if you need them.

[Kudaku]

As has been mentioned, farms are excellent sources of income but they take a little while to get started. Especially bananas takes a few years to start producing output.

A good option when you start off is ranches that quickly generate revenue. If you are lucky enough to start off with it close by, or not so close by - mining. Being close to an ore deposit early on is a huge boost to your early economy. If you're truly incredibly lucky you start off with a gold ore deposit. Whatever you do, don't export the gold raw, building and staffing a jewelry factory is your top priority if you strike gold. Exporting jewelry gives truly amazing income.

Once you find what your short-term income is going to be (mining, ranching, whatever) start thinking about your long-term income. For instance, check what kind of crops will grow well in the area and start planning towards that. if you want to get industry going build a high school early so you have access to a pool of skilled labour.
Sugar & Rum is a great export product (with the rum baron trait one of the best exports in the game), but sugar will only grow well in low-altitude moist areas. Tobacco is a bit more lenient and cigar factories are also big profit builders. If you're hosed on farmland, pineapple will grow just about anywhere, and exporting canned pineapple and fish isn't too bad.
The key is in general not to not ship raw materials, but a finished product.

As for building things, Houlio gives good advice for the early game. A bar/restaurant, a clinic and a church will go a long way. Start thinking about a ministry and an immigration office soon though, it can be hard to keep up with your population if you have a specific island idea in mind and access to edicts helps out a great deal.

A lot of the buildings you want to build early don't need a full staff to perform its duty, and you can save a decent amount of money by capping the employees. The palace at the start, your first high school, your first church and so on will all work perfectly well for the first few years with half (or in the palace's case, zero) staff.

Finally, there is one building I can't recall the name of at the moment (customs office?) that gives you options for increasing export income, decreasing import expenses, or shaving a percentage off all exports and putting it in your swiss bank account.
This building gives a bonus of 10-15% on export prices. Once you have a good economy and you're reliably in the green, this is a nice little source of extra income.

[ninja_penguin]

Also work on getting your educational infrastructure up to speed once you start getting everybody employed and such. I almost always end up with some sort of rum/cigar factory being how I make loads and loads of money.

[shadow_archmagi]

In addition to maximizing your income, also try to keep in mind that your outcome is important too.

[Derthric]

In addition to maximizing your income, also try to keep in mind that your outcome is important too.

Indeed, building those power plants and hospitals to keep everyone happy is a huge drain on your treasury. So check your services. Less than 100 people and you just need a Church and maybe a High School if you are trying to get an industry up and running. Throwing down Clinics, Cathedrals, Colleges, and things like armories and police stations early will kill your economy.

Don't be afraid to use the humanitarian aid edict early to cover the health and food during your early years. The nationalists are never as strong as other factions like the communists, who will like the standard of living boost it provides. So the negative won't be so bad.

My general advice is to pick one cash crop or raw materiel to start and just let that go for awhile. For example if you are near a good sugar growing area put up a few farms and let a few years pass as you sell that on the market. Then you can afford to build up the Distillery and its upgrades to sell the good stuff.

Also remember that entertainment buildings can be revenue generators without tourists.

Finally think about the housing you are putting up. Now I haven't played 3 lately but have been playing Tropico 4, which is basically 3 with some improved tweaks. And Apartments and tenements generally break even for me, but houses and country homes do not. And those small losses add up.

[Kudaku]

Ah, I missed that it was Tropico 4 instead of Tropico 3.

Most of my advice is still coherent, but disregard the stuff about the ministry and the trade office.



...Wow, Tropico 3 and 4 are really similar.