Lazy Saturnday

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!

October ’62

The tourists’ habit of throwing their trash anywhere has lead to some bad habits from our beloved natives. As such we’ve built a dump on the outskirts of town. There were a few complaints from some of the residents of the nearby apartment complex, but we assured them that this is the most modern of dumps, with recycling and trash incineration and the smell should be very minimal. Plus we offered them reduced rent for several months!

June ’63

The newly finished cathedral should help with the bishop’s complaints that there isn’t enough space to worship on the Island. Now we just have to hire someone to run it and then wait for them to show up on one of the boats. Really it would be nice if there was a way to promote our highschool and then build a college so we didn’t have to “import” college graduates and could instead hire natives for all of these vital tasks.

May ’64

It’s taken a while but the housing situation seems to be finally coming together. There are still a few dozen people living in shacks, but there are no more homeless! And no, I didn’t just have them shot.  Wages have been increased across the board and rent prices have been kept low. The amount to be made from rich tourists is astronomical so there is no reason to stint on quality of life for my people. A new Luxury hotel is nearly complete which is the first step in wooing famous world leaders which will likely prompt even more tourism.

September ’64

My cabinet acquired some … compromising photos of a certain US senator. In exchange for them disappearing a small contribution to my retirement fund has been anonymously made. Everybody wins. And no, we won’t be posting those picture here.

January ’65

One of the small number of malcontents and terrorists on the island was wanted by the US. We did our best to extradite him, but apparently he escaped their grasp and is now blaming our wonderful island and threatening revenge.

January ’60

Cara Libro truly was an idyllic  place before we invited all of these foreigners to our island. So far most of the crimes have been littering and vandalism, but we can’t have our chief of police operating out of a shack behind the Libro Imperator Hotel, and so we’re ordered construction of a fully functional and modern police station right in the heart of the tourist district.

Additionally the results of the Election are in, only 15 residents didn’t vote, and only 8 didn’t vote for me. With 87 votes that’s nearly 80% confidence level. It is good to be loved by the people.

December ’60

The TV station is nearly complete. The current plan is to broadcast educational programming. Learning with Leroy should help boost the brainpower of our citizens, which is especially important with all of the new technical jobs opening up in the marketplace (like working at the television stations for example.)

July ’61

Something has stalled the construction of the TV station… The ground apparently is not stable enough to support the TV tower and so they’ve had to install a special foundation, regardless it’s been six months and it still is “almost done”. The bright side of this is that one of our oil rigs has sprung a leak and so we at least will probably be able to fix the issue before it becomes widespread knowledge.

January ’62

Only a year late the TV station is finally completed, but due to the massive delay Leroy has left for other greener pastures (a farming programme in Louisiana.) That said we’ve contracted w/ another TV Teacher who should be here on the next boat, and changing the name to Learning with Louise shouldn’t be too hard. Plans are in place for a Cathedral and more housing.

June ’58

The housing situation is just untenable, with nearly 40 people living in shacks. I’ve been told there are some homeless as well, but I don’t believe that for a moment. As El Presidente I promise, we’ll have sufficient housing before the end of the year!

January ’59

We’ve built 3 new apartment buildings and have a fourth almost finished, we’ve dropped the prices to a ridiculously low amount, but we still have 40 people dwelling in shacks. Maybe if we knocked the shacks down they’d move to the nicer locations we’ve set out for them. With an election coming up there is no better time to make this a big issue.

Maybe the people just don’t realize all the wonderful housing opportunities available to them. Out with shack living, in with Air conditioned Apartments.

June ’59

The Marina is finished which is great for tourism, but even after we demolished a half dozen shacks the people still seem to prefer to sleep on the beaches rather than enjoy the modern comforts of the Air Conditioned apartments we’ve spent a ton of money building. They’ve even built a few shacks near the marine, but we can’t just blow those up as surely some of the tourists will see us doing it and take it the wrong way.

September ’59

The housing situation is still abominable. They keep building shacks instead of moving into the glorious apartments. I’ve mandated an increase in wages for the uneducated, maybe they just can’t afford to live properly but I’m afraid there’ll be a riot if we order their shacks demolished again. On a brighter note, the seaside resort is finished and will surely attract more high class tourists!

November 56

In a bid to win the elderly demographic, which should also garner more respect from the older tourists, we’ve instituted a Social Security scheme. Right now there are so few qualified individuals it’ll only cost us about $12 a year…

January 57

Senator Crane is a smooth tongued devil… This “Freedom Tax”; well, we have little choice to pay, as there isn’t much we could do if the Americanos became angry with us. This is a great hardship as most of our current budget was to be spent on improved housing conditions for our populace… We have a tenement building and a condominium, but many are still living in shacks.

September 57

It’s been a fairly uneventful summer. The Llama Flu ban on immigration has been lifted, apparently enough people thought it was a hoax. Our housing situation is still fairly dire, and there’s been rumblings from our local priests that we don’t have enough religious support. We do have the third of four planned ranches is just being finished, which should be a nice dietary addition to the fish and corn that is the vast majority of local fare.

January ’56

Ahh, the start of a new year. We’ve built a tacky little tiki bar since the tourists all seem to want to spend at least one night in the local dive. We’ve also nearly complete a second clinic, and just in time, we’ve been placed under quarantine due to an outbreak of the Llama Flu.

August ’56

The Llama Flu has finally run it’s course and tourism can resume, though immigration is still prohibited. We’ve offered considerable discounts to any tourist who has a significant social media following, this should help get the word out and hopefully really bring the numbers of visiting tourists up. On a more domestic front we’ve started working on an electrical infrastructure, and while it’ll be a while before we can afford to put in a proper hospital, we’re at least able to offer AC now which should improve everyone’s quality of life, event in the more decrepit tenements.

October ’56

A small earthquake cause the tenement to collapse. We were able to fund rebuilding easily, though that will delay the hospital a few months. Much worse, apparently many of the natives are unhappy and some of them are forming some kind of rebel organization. Some of the more violent minded of my advisers are suggesting we should raise a militia to deal with them, but I think if we can just raise their quality of life they’ll see what a great leader I am voluntarily put down their arms.

Turns out the campaign is a bunch of fairly short scenarios… about 5 minutes into the second session of the first one I won. Oops. Unfortunately all my screenshots of #2 (How to Mine Fish) mysteriously disappeared. I blame the rebels. So this means we’ll skip right on to mission 3. Interestingly any traits you pick slowly improve over the course of the game, so I’m keeping my Professor background, but switching my Rise to Power to Hotel Corporate Buyout since it’s got a tourism bonus. Likewise I’m switching my Entrepreneurial trait to Sociable for the tourism bonus.

So the island has an active volcano. One can only hope that will lead to FUN! later. In the meantime, the island only has the most basic infrastructure, however since the goal is going to be to make a tourist trap we’ll keep our cargo dock on the other side of the island from the touristy area. The little bay in the upper right is nice and sheltered and has an interesting rock formation and should make the perfect tourist destination.

I’ve started with a tourist dock (much nicer than the cargo dock on the other side of the island, and a few bungalows. I’ve also built a road from the historic downtown. Obviously we’ll want to get a hotel in shortly, and some other entertainment, but for now this should be enough to entice a select few to come to Cara Libro and spread the word of this idyllic island with it’s quaint charms.

<Time Passes> And a few months later the wharf and a couple of bungalows are finished. Due to poor planning, the hotel has been finished well ahead of schedule while 3 of the bungalows still are little more than foundations. Unfortunately the pub has become a local favorite and will probably need to be entirely revamped if we want to make it presentable to the more high class clientele we’d like to to attract to the island. The job of El Presidente is never done. Also still under construction is a garage to allow for easier transport between Paradiso district (hey, my marketer isn’t the most original) and the Historic District. In retrospect we should probably have built the garage first to enable faster travel for our construction workers.

Soon we’ll have a beautiful vacation spot with the tourists flocking here in droves. I’ve talked to my advisers and we’ve decided to focus on the wealthier demographic. To that end we’ve started construction of a five star Spa and a Fancy Marina which you can see the foundations of below.

The view from my helicopter as we make final approach to my new island home.

Who doesn’t want to rule a Tropical Island? I’ve played a few of the earlier versions so it shouldn’t be too hard… I’ve picked a custom avatar, a Professor put into power via a “velvet revolution” who is a hardworking entrepreneur with administrative experience.

Farms

I started off with a few farms. Two producing corn, and a Papaya farm for variety, plus a couple (not pictured here) Tobacco farms to make some money. now I just have wait for my loyal subjects to build them all.

The Church, Clinc and pub are all vital to infrastructure.

Downtown I’ve constructed a Church, Clinic and Pub… As well as a Museum near the palace. Hopefully these should make the people happier.

With minimal infrastructure surely I’m missing something. The Police Station and Ministry are now finished and a High School has been commissioned. The marketplace should help feed my people, but I need some better housing. Even with two tenement buildings, I’ve still got a small shanty town building up behind the police station.

And everyone loves me! Nation El President is awesome day is a huge success. And don’t believe anyone who says otherwise.