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Category Archives: Let’s Play

Some kind of “Let’s Play”. Maybe it’ll be X-com with Friends (where all the soldiers get named for my friends), or Dwarf Fortress. Suggestions certainly welcome.

Let’s Play Tropico 4: XXII

January ’55

A new trip, a new island. Surely this time I’ll create the perfect utopia. I think I’ll start with a little bit of tourism to get things going, and then we can really start to make some money!

July ’55

The tourist dock, and our first hotel are finished. Let’s hope we can attract some wealthy tourists, as the treasury is already practically empty.

September ’55

Our decision to pursue tourism has apparently angered the communists. I suppose things are going to get interesting.

May ’56

Our first batch of tourists have arrived. Only tourists would go to the effort of going to a foreign island only to spend time at the local pool. Hopefully Penultimo can convince the Communists that the tourism thing is all a front of some kind.

Let’s Play Tropico 4: XXI

February ’73

With the hiring of our Third General we’ve achieved another meaningless milestone, and the UN has begrudgingly awarded us an award.

May ’73

With all of our well earned revenue we’ve constructed several more apartment blocks throughout downtown. Many people are still choosing to live in Shantys and Shacks just because they are free. I’ve ordered them all demolished. Once people have no choice but to live in a nice apartment with air conditioning I”m sure they’ll be much happier. They just don’t know it yet.

June ’74

With all of the ugly Shacks torn down, nearly a dozen houses have had their foundations laid, and soon the area around my palace will be so much more posh. Additionally we’ve finally settled on the spot for my Mausoleum, just behind the Zoo and Schools. It will make it easier for the schools to have field trips to the future (far future) resting place of their dear leader.

December ’74

The upscaled housing for downtown is finished, and the area looks so much nicer. The area has come quite a long way since I first moved in and took over running this beautiful island.

January ’76

We’ve reached market saturation as far as media outlets go! Time to finish off all these awards and get the record for most records! Well, let’s get that Mausoleum finished first, just in case.

May ’76

A Petite Rebellion. We were able to easily put down the rebellion and assure my victory. This island shall stand as a testament to my skill, courage and leadership. Now, into my time machine for the next challenge!

 

Let’s Play Tropic 4: XX

March ’70

Our magnificent Cathedral is finally finished. It’s my understanding that the Ruskies hold the record for most vodka drunk, however embarrassingly enough their record is higher than our record for most rum drunk. I’m hoping that building this Cathedral right on the other side of the distillery will allow us to surpass their considerable achievement.

January ’71

Pollution is starting to be a major problem, however the construction of three strategically located garbage dumps should help curb the destruction.

January ’72

Another election is coming up, and I am of course still monstrously popular with the people. I’ll give a speech, because everyone loves speeches.

April ’72

The Zoo is finally finished, and with it we are one step closer to achieving the world record for having most exciting animal? I’m not sure, I’m not really an animal person so I kind of just smiled and nodded and signed all the relevant paperwork on this one. They tell me though we’ve had ample coverage and the bank account reflects it. Also, apparently there’s a record for having the most records! Achieving that would surely garner some publicity allowing me to further pad my Swiss account.

January ’73

Construction of our first Army Base is complete, and the Armory is nearly done. With all the attention we are getting on the national scene due to our record number of records achieved in record time it’s a miracle we haven’t been attacked yet. If there was a record for longest time without being attacked (or without a military force) we’d probably have it, but there’s not so instead Penultimo has a scheme to hire some mercenaries to stage an attack and get us a record that way… However I know Penultimo, and there is any chance it’ll end up being a real attack, so I’m going to make sure we have a proper military before beginning the attack.

Let’s Play Tropic 4: XIX

October ’65

The plant a flag on Mars program is going very slow. Who knew nuclear science was so hard. I mean… that’s what we hired the scientists for right?

January ’65

With the election coming up I feel that it’s important to give a speech. I mean, I have never lost an election because I am such a great leader, but not everyone knows this so it is best to make clear what the future has in store. And this year I plan to build a Cathedral, improve relations with Russia, and continue to improve housing on the island.

May ’66

I said I’d build us a cathedral, and I will, but first I’m going to build a fabulous mall to bring luxuries to the island and improve the life of all of my constituents.

July ’67

I just received a report that 3 people died last year due to lack of proper healthcare facilities… It is a good thing then that back in February I set out plans to build a hospital.

May ’69

The hospital, mall and several new apartment buildings have been completed. Our college and high school are turning out brilliant minds so fast that half the time the halls are empty.

July ’69

Our Island now has a nuclear deterrent!  Not only that, but the amount of money we can rake in publicizing every new record we achieve is ludicrous! I’ve built two more newspapers, and we’ve got plans for another radio station and TV station in the works!

Let’s Play Tropic 4: XVIII

November ’61

The saltmine is complete. Soon we can start exporting this and hopefully raking in the money hand over fist. I’m not sure what that means, but someone said it and it sounds good.

April ’62

With the newspaper in full swing, the next step is Radio! Invisible Airwaves of the future. Or so they tell me. They’ve built it right next to the palace so I can hear it better… I don’t think that’s how it works, but we’ve only just appointed a minister of education so and I don’t want to burden her with silly questions so soon. With all of these improvements, surely it won’t be long before all of the protests stop.

April ’63

And our first “real” record, most rum drunk! Thanks to religion, we have achieved a dubious honor, but it is an honor indisputably. Building both churches right next to the distillery was genius.

April ’64

And now Tropico has Television. I’m not sure how much good it’ll do, but every little bit of publicity helps. Besides, the more cameras we have focused on every achievement, the harder it’ll be for the bitch from the UN to denounce our achievements as fraudulent.

August ’64

I’ll let Penultimo’s report speak for itself; Noelia Chavez, our minster of economy, is a genius.

December ’64

The college is done. Once we hire a few professors we can stop having to hire educated folks from off the island. A new age of knowledge dawns.

Let’s Play Tropic 4: XVII

October ’58

The High School is finally done, but not nearly soon enough as so is the Rum Distillery, however the latter needs someone with at least a HS education to operate. Short term I think we’ll have to hire some foreign workers until we can complete our first education cycle.

August ’59

Here’s my latest money making scheme, a couple of Tobacco Farms (still under construction) and a Cigar Factory. It’s like money grows on shrubs as they say! Yet again though we need employees with at least a High School Education! This is why it’s so important to start them young. Literacy for everyone; I’m sure that will be one of my campaign pillars once the people get smart enough to demand an election. Education is a double edged sword after all.

November ’60

The newspaper is finally done. Apparently our High School is not enough and we’ll need to hire someone with a college degree, in the meantime we’ll print coupons for local businesses; this should help invigorate the local economy and make the people happy (who doesn’t like discounts?) The electrical infrastructure has also been expanding. Two apartment complexes have Air Conditioning, and it won’t be long before we can get electricity out to the mines and can really ramp up production there. Still costs keep cropping up faster than we can earn money. I don’t know when I’m going to have time to start padding my Swiss Bank Account.

June ’61

With this electrical substation in place our Gold and iron mines should really be able to ramp up production. We’ve also built a salt mine near the harbor district in order to secretly provide the Russians with salt for a perfectly legitimate purpose.

Let’s Play Tropic 4: XVI

A new island, and new challenge! This time, to get our island membership in the united nations. To do so, we’ll need to be #1 in at least 6 categories. As a tropical island, growing big Papaya’s should be easy, I’m not really sure why they’d even make that a qualifying criteria, but don’t look an easy horse in the mouth as they say.

January ’54

Plans for a papaya production facility have been laid out. Oh, who am I kidding, it’s just 4 farms in a row. Probably should get some other infrastructure up whilst I’m at it. I’ve located some nice deposits of Iron and Gold deep in the island near the old ruins  and spent most of my initial money building a couple of mines out there.

September ’54

The final farm is finally finished being constructed and lo, terrible news: The UN has canceled the award for biggest Papaya! At least my people will be well fed.

March ’55

I’m beginning to think the UN has it out for me. They’ve made it difficult to get important building materials, increase the cost to build. It’s a good thing I ordered all the stuff for the mines last year.

July ’55

There’s no such thing as Bad Publicity as they say. The UN’s attempt to stymie us has not only failed, but brought support from other nations, and even God! The first two records we’re going to bust are Most Rum Drunk, and Largest population. The first should be fairly easy the second might require accepting citizenship of everyone in China but should be fairly simple as well. What could go wrong?

February ’56

Plans for our infrastructure are developing nicely; we recently had a large donation from several countries who were pleased by how much we annoyed the UN Representative.  Penultimo has come up with a great idea, and if we can get Journalists on the island we can do a better job of publicizing our achievements. I suppose we’ll need to build a Newspaper and Television station before we achieve any of the records.

February ’57

We’ve completed a Church and Elementary School. With our World Famous Papaya business starting to bloom we need to make sure we’re getting the best price for our products and to that end I think we’ll have to look away from World Records for a bit and focus on the import export business. Everything is easier to accomplish when you’re flush with cash after all.

February ’58

Education is important. Now that the Elementary School is finished, a High School has been started. The people of this island are brave, but soon they’ll be smart as well! The future is bright indeed!

Let’s Play Tropic 4: XIV

December ’59

Our cigar factory is finally finished, however the workers are threatening to strike unless more entertainment is provided. To that end a Cosmic Pin (basically a restaurant on a super tall tower) has been planned, however I accidentally signed the papers giving the go ahead before talking to the budget committee and now we are in the red again. Downtown is really shaping up, and would be quite nice if we could get everyone out of shacks and into the nice new apartment buildings we’ve built for them.

 

January ’60

Congratulations to me, I won the election, and by a landslide! No, there wasn’t an actual landslide, but the final tally was 105 to 27 in my favor! And Penultimo was worried that I should try and influence the vote.

 

August ’60

Our space needle … ahem, Cosmic Pin is done. What a glorious monument, though we’ll definitely have to improve housing conditions, that shack filled slum is totally visible every time the view swings around.

 

Jaunary ’61

The middle school is finished, and highschool is nearing completion. The next generation of islanders will have an education and we will be able to stop hiring foreigners for our more complex jobs.

 

Let’s Play Tropic 4: XIII

September ’58

Things have been very busy, and yet, kind of boring at the same time. Construction is finished on a hotel so that tourists will have a place to stay. Downtown keeps growing, with plans far outstripping the capabilities of the construction crews. The police station is finished, if unstaffed, one and a half of the 3 new apartment buildings have gone up, and foundation for a shopping mall has been laid. Meanwhile in the harbor district basically no progress has been made on the Cigar Factory, Furniture Factory or Rum Distillery. Unfortunately we don’t have the funds left over after planning all of this to bribe the works to rush build anything.

January ’59

The lack of natural resources on this island has obviously affected my constituent’s pride. The current prediction for the upcoming election breaks down the votes at about 84 for me and 61 for my rival Ciriaco Vega. Surely a rousing speech and some stirring campaign promises will bring the populace around. Plus that shopping mall should be done any day now, which should greatly distract them from whatever woes they may have.

February ’59

A tsunami hit, damaging a few buildings, and stranding an oil tanker deep in uninhibited territory, fortunately no one of consequence was injured or killed and rebuilding only cost a couple of grand. Already scaffolding has gone up to dismantle this huge ship.

Let’s Play Tropic 4: XII

March ’56

We’ve got our first Rebel, Aloise Rios! I guess we didn’t get the church built fast enough for her.

June ’56

Keith Preston, the American Investor who helped set me up here, has sprung his trap, and I need to export at least a hundred grand in the next 8 years or he’ll be able to take over operations on the island. I guess it’s time to fire my lawyer and ramp up the export business.

October ’56

This island doesn’t have a lot of natural resources, but there are some trees. So let’s cut them down, and make furniture. Genuine bespoke hand crafted by natives, artisanal  antique furniture. I’m sure the americans will eat it up. The last shipment brought in $60k, however I’ve already spent forty of that, and it’ll be many months before the next cargo ships come, I’m going to try and keep the treasury over 10k so we can get a faster turnaround on the ships when they do arrive.

Feb ’57

In addition to the new logging camp, we’ve spent a bit extra to refurbish an old colonial fort as a tourist trap. Tourism is definitely a secondary concern, but hopefully it can get us a little be more cashflow. It would be nice to only be losing a little money every money while we wait for the next cargo freighter to arrive.

June ’57

Rumours of a Pirate convention on a nearby island have been surfacing. The next time we get an export payout we’ll have to build a rum distillery and start making rum to sell them.