It seems there are quite a few features that I can't imagine actually using in the game. Either they don't _do_ anything, or they are ways for you to hurt yourself in the game. But who knows- maybe I'm just playing wrong. I was wondering if anybody had any ideas how to use these:

Edicts:
-Prohibition
-Same Sex Marriage
-Inquisition
-Book Burning

Buildings:
-Shanty
-Prison
-Statues (tedious, to boot!)
-Parochial Education

I have not yet tried an evil dictator yet, so I'm not going to comment on Military things. But if someone knows about those, feel free to mention them.

prohibition gives you more respect with the religious, same sex marriage with the intellectuals, inquisition helps to supress dissent, book burning causes 50% of intellectuals to leave the faction and makes it less likely people will join, shantys are a little better than shacks for people to live in but don't cost upkeep etc. prisons are for putting people you don't like in, statues decrease liberty (I believe that maybe it helps to supress dissent, but idk) and they also look good if you do it right, and parochial education increases the chances that students will become religious.

That is all in the tooltips.

(08-02-2010 07:30 AM)polaris2013 Wrote:  I'm not going to comment on Military things. But if someone knows about those, feel free to mention them.

The military for the most part repel rebels. If you don't pay them well, and have good housing for them, they will turn on you. Sometimes just for fun I use them to shoot strikers, and protesters.

Statues also reduce crime at the cost of liberty as Person012345 stated.

He knows what they do.. I think he just can't ever see the benefit in using them. I can't either. I can't think of a situation where any of those things would help you win.

(08-02-2010 12:57 PM)crossmr Wrote:  He knows what they do.. I think he just can't ever see the benefit in using them. I can't either. I can't think of a situation where any of those things would help you win.

And we're trying to help him as best we can. Knowing what they do can help you in some of the campaigns, and user created scenarios. It's all a matter of what you need, and what you're looking for in a particular game. Each of his examples may be a short-cut, or at least aid in a victory within a given scenario. It's a learning process. I have used each of his examples at least once.

1. If you need lots of Church's or Cathedrals to win, then you would want parochial schools rather than paying the expert immigration fee.

2. If you need low crime to win, then statues will aid you here.

3. Shanty's can be useful early in the game to stem the shacks, and keep USSR off your back, without paying maintenance fees.

4. The Edicts tells which factions they benefit, and which ones they hurt. So if you need a quick boost in one faction at the cost of another, you can use it.

5. Prisons can be useful for arresting a constant protester before they become rebels. I have used this quite extensively. Sometimes it makes a good secret police building, but that's a matter of choice.

I find same sex marriages a useful way to help with a housing shortage because these newly married couples will move in to a single housing unit freeing up one unit for someone else. I usually enact this edict as soon as I have the required liberty.

And besides. It's always fun to notice that two priests or bishops have decided to get married. Guess the religious faction isn't that much opposed to this edict as they claim

As for the other features in question, never used any of them...

Just for fun, in sandbox mode, you, and all interested in the results should try all the possibilities the game has to offer. Some are very interesting, and amusing. You get a good feel for the game with it's ups and downs, good and bad.

I do have never built a prison

(08-02-2010 07:30 AM)polaris2013 Wrote:  It seems there are quite a few features that I can't imagine actually using in the game. Either they don't _do_ anything, or they are ways for you to hurt yourself in the game. But who knows- maybe I'm just playing wrong. I was wondering if anybody had any ideas how to use these:

Edicts:
-Inquisition
-Book Burning
...

http://forum.kalypsomedia.com/showthread.php?tid=3419

There I posted comments on those two decrees:

Inquisition This is more correctly titled something like "Watch & Report Your Neighbor" because the game really doesn't establish a government operation. Once again, it is a mechanism used by all kinds of authoritarian regimes to control the population. I would suggest that the connection with the Cathedral is completely invalid; since T3 has established the "Secret Police" -- this edict should be called Watch & Report and be dependent on the existence of the Secret Police HQ and the status of relationships with the militarists and nationalists.

Book BBQ Completely ridiculous from the start; it must be the result of a drunken staff meeting. It is simply Censorship and has nothing to do with church buildings. It should have to do with having an Immigration Office which is set to either the 'Tropico First' or 'Nobody gets out alive' options plus a fully staffed Prison.

I need to add that Book Burning is closely associated with the "Wiretapping" edict. The two completely control everything but face to face talk.

(08-02-2010 02:33 PM)Tapsa Wrote:  I find same sex marriages a useful way to help with a housing shortage because these newly married couples will move in to a single housing unit freeing up one unit for someone else. I usually enact this edict as soon as I have the required liberty.

i never thought of that

^^yeah it works, I've used this before as well and it's a real good way to maximise your housing, especially if you have limited space. got a big military and only one army base? let the generals and soldiers marry! they will happily move in together, and the tropican army does not discriminate.

as for the rest of those edicts, I think this just shows the lack of scenario design in the game, if you can complete all the given maps without ever even thinking about using these edicts, then they have failed to properly illustrate those mechanics. user created scenarios should not be relied upon to provide this kind of content. much like tourism in this game, worthless to me without proper scenarios the way they have done it. what do they have to show for it? one single map where you are forced to build x amount of buildings for tourists, no real goals to give them any purpose at all.

what they did not fail at imo was ui design, at no point was I ever confused about their purpose, or when they should be used, just never found a reason to use many of them. after all, what problems in this game can't be solved with cash?