The Let's Play Archive

Tropico 3

by Bobbin Threadbare

Part 4: A Peaceful Resort




Update 3: A Peaceful Resort

Good morning once again, and welcome to TNN’s Very Special Broadcast! As always, I, Juanito, am your host. Much has happened again in the world since our last broadcast. Guatemala has undergone a military coup, and some suspect the Americans were involved in the matter. The American senator McCarthy has been causing quite a stir from what I hear, and even the Americanos are getting sick of his constant accusations of Communism. If he wants to see Communists, he should just come to Tropico! I hear that Señor Vandaron is very proud of his association.

Meanwhile, it seems as though the Soviets have become very jealous of the North Atlantic and their fancy acronyms, and have formed their own club, which they call the Warsaw Pact. Additionally, SEATO (for Southeast Asia) has been formed by Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand, the Philippines, the UK, and the US. A Baghdad Pact was signed between Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the UK again, while the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was formed by those sitting in the middle: India, Indonesia, Yugoslavia, Egypt, and Ghana. With all these fancy names and coalitions being handed out, El Presidente is feeling left out. Because of this, he has decided to create his own pact: Tropico Loves Fancy Acronyms, or TrASDeF. I believe I speak for all Tropicans when I hope that our fancy title leads our little nation to victory!

Now, people of the world, before I move on to the results of your votes, I have one question to ask:


What in the world did you people do?! El Presidente trusted you to maintain the international markets, but it seems that you cannot manage to do even this! Mr. Pizzaman speaks for us all when he says he is very disappointed in all of you!


In related news, the three new farms have finally started producing! Although you may see three bags with lines through them, this means that there is no production input at the locations. Seeing them at farms just means that the crops are due to start coming in, but if they are stamped over factories, it means that they are not receiving the raw materials they need to process. But now that our three cash crops are producing, it would be an excellent time to build a factory!


However, El Presidente did not come to Tropico to build factories. Instead, he ordered built a tourist dock, which will allow tourists to start entering our fine and picturesque nation.


El Presidente then showed his support for our education system by hiring a pair of teachers from other countries to come teach us about the world, even though every foreign worker hired costs $100 more than the last. Let this serve as a long overdue welcome, Cythereal and meatbag!

And now, the results of your vote: by a strong majority, the people of the world voted for Tropico to get its first clinic. However, El Presidente decided that a restaurant would be a better attraction to tourists, and decided to build that instead. After the man sent to tell the builders died of bronchitis on the way over, though, Mr. Pizzaman changed his mind.


Sadly, Heli Turtle decided not to celebrate this news, but instead betrayed her Great Leader and the nation of Tropico. With two rebels and only four soldiers, we are beginning to get a little worried about the situation.


For some reason, doctors demand a college education for others to join their ranks. Since Tropico has no college, El Presidente was forced once again to look for outside help. A man named Eli 949 was hired from abroad, and would end up coming along with the two teachers on the same boat.


Happily, by May, the tourist dock was finished, although Tropico’s tourism industry would not start until we had built a place for them to stay.


Fortunately, Voodoo Pizzaman still had the support of his investors, and they would be footing the bill for our very first hotel!


The arrival of the cargo ship was particularly important at this point, as all this spending had put us in debt, and the foreign experts were all on board.


In fact, many had died the past year from our lack of medical expertise. Mr. Pizzaman himself had tried to help, but very few were able to recover from the measles by eating glass and drinking pepper rum.


Sadly, we native Tropicans wound up having to wait in line, as the two teachers ended up bringing their two students (each) with them when they arrived.


On the other hand, Scalding Coffee, the only Tropican to study abroad and then return to our island, decided to exchange his gun for a stethoscope. His degree was in geology, but Eli promised he could show Mr. Coffee the ropes. We are all so lucky to have two doctors on our island!


In December of ’54, while the hotel was still in the middle of construction, the government office received word that some people were shouting angrily in the street.


No soldiers were found dead in the area, and in fact one such man was among the protestors. Because of this, El Presidente decided to intervene himself.


TNN does not know what El Presidente said to Agent Calavera, but after speaking, she immediately broke up the protest. Reports say that she had a disgusted look on her face as she walked away, and her face was bright red. I think that El Presidente knew some kind of secret from Ms. Calavera’s past.


By February of ’55, the hotel was still under construction. According to the Builder’s Guild leader, reports of head and stomach pains spiked during this month, which made it harder for them to continue their jobs.


Finally, in the May of that year, the hotel was completed!


Many Tropicans were present to see the very first yacht approach our shores.


The first load of tourists contained four very fat foreigners and a pair of thin hikers who apparently wanted to walk through our jungle. I do not know why, myself, as I would rather avoid agitating the dangerous toucans of the wild. Not to mention the rebels!


The military was also seeing the rebels, and decided they were not as sure about their Great Leader as they once were. They may also have been feeling jealous once they realized how much more money Mr. Coffee was making as a doctor.


Hearing his guards complain about their wages while cleaning their many, many weapons, El Presidente decided that it was time for them to get a pay raise.


While the tourists had places to arrive and stay at our beautiful island, they sadly had no place to spend their time! Mr. Pizzaman decided to change this by building a beach resort, but the construction worker tasked with the job seems to have gotten very badly lost, and we have yet to hear from him even now.

Finally, it seems that El Presidente’s worries about the tourists has caused the treasury to experience a remarkable boom! Seeing the amount available, Mr. Pizzaman decided to give the people of his island a gift.


I think I will like this upcoming year.

But now, it is time for the special segments!



Today, we are taking a look at 64 Bit Robot, a teamster who is originally from Italy.


You can see him here resting in front of the high school.

According to our questionnaire, Mr. Robot considers his house, his job, and his respect for El Presidente to be the most important things in life. He is a strong supporter of the religious faction, and is among the many who have been calling for a place of worship. He is also one of the few who live in the bunkhouses rather than the tenements. He seems to have above average intelligence and courage, and good leadership.


When we caught back up to him, it seems that he had changed his job to that of a miner! When asked why, he simply shrugged and said, “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”


Even so, the last time TNN spoke to him, he had exchanged his overalls for the teamster cap yet again.


We would like to thank Mr. Robot for his time, and hope that whichever job he decides on goes well for him.

I believe I will also take this time to address a complaint issued by one of our fans, “Toussaint Louverture.” It seems that we did not meet his expectations when choosing a Tropican for him to adopt, and rereading his letter, it does indeed indicate “male” along with “farmer with low respect for El Presidente.” However, when asked about the matter, El Presidente explained that he is always right, even when he is wrong. Thank you for your concern, Mr. Louverture!



Since both our last photo and our Adopted Tropican were both religious, it only makes sense for today’s Meet a Faction to be: the Religious!


The Religious faction is very large, second only to the Communists in number. Pleasing these people with enough churches (or cathedrals) can be very important to maintaining good relations with the Tropicans in general.


With the cathedral still a set of scaffolds, there is not much respect for El Presidente among the religious at this time. Pleasing this group is easy enough, however, so long as enough places of worship are present on the island. They also tend to object when El Presidente seems to support low morals, but when there is a cathedral around, they do not object very loudly.

And now it is time for the vote. While I mentioned the election as coming up soon, it seems I was mistaken! Rather than voting every six years as normal, the presidency actually allows for the first term to be eight years long. The mistake was apparently made when someone accidentally spilled white-out on the Tropican Constitution, and then smudged the ink that was used to replace the covered words. El Presidente is also still writing his book, so keep those suggestions coming!

As for the regular vote, it seems as though Mr. Pizzaman intends to build a factory on the island now that the high school has started to produce results. He will not say which he is building, however, so the vote will be about how to entertain the tourists!


Our first option is the botanical garden. The eco-tourists especially like this place, and our own Environmentalists will be pleased with El Presidente’s wise planning.


The pool is attractive to all sorts of tourists, as it does not contain the chance of shark attacks.


Last, the cabaret is a place where both tourists and Tropicans can go and have a good time. Juanito would certainly enjoy visiting such a place!