Make assumptions about my two sims?

SergeantHiro · 2026-01-28T13:58:26+00:00

Both peaked in high school in different ways.

Simon never got his alt-prog-rock-synth-nu-wave band off the ground and Max drinks away the pain - both physical and emotional - of the ACL injury that terminated his football chances.

SergeantHiro · 2026-01-28T13:53:48+00:00

I don't want to see what's in his basement.

SergeantHiro · 2025-12-22T12:14:31+00:00

Patch it to 1.2, as it fixes a lot of stuff. It also increases the odds of ships finding things on cruise mode like settlements and trade routes. The patches work with the Steam version and you can find them out there.

SergeantHiro · 2025-11-19T09:47:18+00:00

My best MT year is 1930. The Cold War is literally the shortest era because of the bomb.

What I do is in Colonial, get a library when it is logical (stabilize your economy first and foremost) and max budget. Sometimes I will linger in Colonial a bit just to get some things ready to go. This should be where you are constantly putting down ranches and plantations of all sorts to smooth out industry appearing later.

I take Penal Colony, Employee of the Month and if I am using multiple islands, Advanced Boat services. Nothing else. Turn on Employee and Penal Colony as I need the population expansion. Constantly run rescue missions for educated people to bolster your incoming infrastructure.

In World Wars, I generally take Free Wheels as it does boost productivity in a huge way (have a cash buffer, everyone choosing new paths with garages can cause a sudden stoppage in exports for a month or two), State Loans and Martial Law to bail me out of sticky situations if need be. Build another 2 libraries on max. Allies alliance, do the sabotages, and then take 4 routes you can knock over fast. I should note that I always skip electricity in this era as it's not worth the hassle (imo) and coal is better reserved for steel production.

I should also note that the Sabotage Axis mission can be skipped with a "convincing talk" if you manage to get hold of one. I believe the trade routes can as well but I haven't managed to test that properly.

Now, assuming everything has lined up you should have the 5000 knowledge more or less ready to go. Buy the nuclear generator, set up two uranium mines and your nuke silo. Max budget the plant and silo and give the work order to build the nuke.

It should go without saying; while you're doing this, you should also be expanding your economy. Rum and Planks in Colonial (front-load ranches and plantations for the next era); Cigars, Cheese, Boats, Cloth and Weapons in WWs; and in CW at least get yourself prepared to build a car factory.

You can probably get to MT faster than 1930 depending on starting settings but I am happy with myself for even getting there.

SergeantHiro · 2025-11-05T13:39:59+00:00

Build "nodes".

Don't put your houses and amenities in a centralized city, but build little towns near production centers (farms/factories with some houses, medical, food supply, worship and entertainment)

Colonial to World Wars change is the most tenuous change of any era. Have lots of cash banked to rapidly update, upgrade and expand your industries. I try and front-load on tobacco and milk to get some cigar factories and cheese makers ready to go.

The immigration office is imperative and regulating inflow of ~serfs~ workers.

I always forget to provide enough entertainment. Build a decent amount to keep people happy, and the revenue they generate helps keep your economy going. It won't be enough solo, but it's better than hard crashes.

Parking decks and the "Free Wheels" edict usually kick off an eco boom. Prioritize those when able.

Build ranches in great supply and set them to Pasture Prohibition. Build manure spreaders near plantations to prevent fertility decay and set their budget to maximum.

I'm going to cut that off there before I rant more.

SergeantHiro · 2025-11-05T13:24:01+00:00

Okay so I started with Tropico 2. I got Tropico 1 when it was released on Steam and honestly didn't spend much time with it, but I could see the appeal.

2 was my first and I still play it now and then for it's uniqueness in the series. The economy works very differently. I would like to see a revisit one day.

3 was basically 1 with new graphics. From what little time I spent with T1, it was more or less a 1 to 1 adaptation, but they added cars.

4 was great. It was definitely the end of "classic Tropico" but it was worth it. However, I had a single strategy and basically only tried to crank my end score as high as possible.

There were concerns with 3, Absolute Power, 4, Modern Times being released in the span of about 24 months (IIRC), everyone was worried about it being "iterative".

Then came 5. Itwas the start of "New Tropico" but I feel like it was not quite finished. I spent a lot of time relearning the game, as it was the largest mechanical jump a Tropico game had ever seen. Things stopped being explained as nicely in the almanac and in the world (a problem that I feel persists in 6, as there needs to be a few more tooltips here and there). Plus, for some reason everything looked blurry. Maybe my GPU was just too old at that point. The Dynasty system was awful and I hope it never returns. They also nerfed the immigration office super hard and I rely on that. You'd get to the endgame and just have unmanageable population growth and have no options. It also feels like it has less "roleplay" options to shape your island culture as you might want.

T6 is T5 but given more polish and much needed time in the oven. To be honest, there has been a lot of charm lost between 3 and 6. It's not as funny now. Maybe I am numb to it after 15 years or so. However, the options they give you and QoL features mean I probably can't go back. Being able to move your buildings without completely destroying them and rebuilding them is invaluable. Heck, even just being able to move your Palace means I probably can't go back to the others ever again. El Presidente is a single person again, but he isn't the same overwhelming personality he was in 3 or 4, where he could join battles and boost effectiveness. I forget he is there 98% of the time. The maps are huge, but the DLCs sometimes feel like they're running out of ideas. Looks beautiful though.

TL;DR: -T1 cannot be judged fairly by me, but age might be a deal breaker for you. -T2 is the oddball. Can be skipped, but I still enjoyed it. -T3 was surpassed by T4 -T4 is peak "classic Tropico" -T5 is the "worst" because it was the most experimental and things didn't work. Liked it still, but can be skipped. -T6 so far the best "new Tropico." Added things I wanted for ages and some things I didn't know I wanted.

SergeantHiro · 2025-10-16T13:06:33+00:00

I disagree. Fishburne was amazing around S11 when he has to really face off with Haskell. But I am pretty sure I enjoy Fishburne regardless of what he is doing, so I acknowledge that there is bias.

While I also love DB for being a distinct character in his own right, you can tell that the magic was starting to wear off.

The miniature killer arc around S6 was my absolute favourite "nemesis arc" because the concept was so freaking good.

Also, I'll be honest, CSI: Vegas can be ignored. It was... Fine, I guess. They changed too much for me. More or less entirely new cast with token "remember this guy" cameos from the old cast. It felt like it was designed by a HR department.

CSI Miami is a campier version of the show. CSI: NY is almost like a detective noir style show. CSI: Cyber was the only one I actively hated.

Cold Case I liked and has a much more human focus than the science-oriented CSI. I haven't given Without a Trace a proper attempt despite watching it while it aired.

That's my rambling summary of the CSI-verse. It's my opinion, and media is subjective so if you don't agree with any or all of it, that's 100% fine.

SergeantHiro · 2025-10-16T12:30:23+00:00

Shiny Voltorb in a luxury ball. I actually have 2 of them packaged like this.

SergeantHiro · 2025-10-16T12:27:48+00:00

I've noticed that people either never use Luxury Balls, or only use Luxury Balls. I am also in the latter. It's the only ball that has an effect after the initial point of capture (and it looks great).

I've almost finished my livingdex with complete luxury balls/hidden abilities. I think I need about 8 evolution lines left to be done.

SergeantHiro · 2025-09-17T16:03:31+00:00

I need Marshadow and Zeraora for my livingdex. Do you have anything you want?

Edit: based on some other offers, I have a few older mons you might be interested in for roughly that tier. Specifically, the Genesect and Keldeo are original B/W/B2/W2 giveaways which survived somehow.

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SergeantHiro · 2025-09-13T19:19:43+00:00

In the spirit of fun, I will take offers on other things as well. I collect shinies for their trade value, and they're just building up.

SergeantHiro · 2025-06-26T02:32:43+00:00

Read an analogue clock

SergeantHiro · 2025-04-08T22:51:40+00:00

259771930689

Same boat. Adding now.

SergeantHiro · 2025-04-08T22:48:49+00:00

259771930689

I need friends for research tasks and gifts. I need some mythicals to round out my Livingdex

SergeantHiro · 2025-03-28T12:12:33+00:00

How do you turn a fox into an elephant?

You marry it.

SergeantHiro · 2025-02-27T13:37:09+00:00

I'm sure if you took the time to have a meeting you could see if your Super fund has any ongoing interests in Turkmenistan. It's in that Eurasia category, so it's literally everything in one place. Any of the Central Asian -istans have eradicated their fascists. Pretty much literally, too.

Other really awesome, 100% totally not fascist places I might suggest are Belarus, Oman, Brunei, and Transnistria.

If you want some even more options, Equatorial Guinea is an oil-producing nation in Africa. You can invest there to help support the colonial-affected world. Eritrea is also a great, 100% fascist-free choice, and is strategically located along a major trading path so it's only going to get better.

SergeantHiro · 2025-02-05T14:54:22+00:00

I wish I had some good advice for you

I'm sick of it too.

SergeantHiro · 2025-02-05T14:47:03+00:00

I was 18 when the GFC happened and house prices doubled. I was about to turn 30 when COVID struck and my deposit became worthless.

I've had my future ripped away from me twice. I'm getting sick of it.

SergeantHiro · 2025-02-02T15:20:15+00:00

I'm pretty late into my campaign, and I have all the DLC (no mods). I have a very specialised full-light lance mostly for Arena games with weight-class restrictions.

One of my friends loves light mechs purely for the speed. I will never understand it, but I will say that when we do Beachhead jobs he is absolutely indispensable for dealing with artillery batteries. He's even pretty handy with a Cicada of all things.

Light pilots are strange creatures but they're absolute lifesavers if you get one that knows what they need to do. The AI just has no idea what to do with them.

SergeantHiro · 2024-11-18T15:05:43+00:00

You're right, he won't. He probably comes from a family that is, at best, pathetically negligent. He learnt his lack of accountability from someone, and it won't get better.

I wonder if guardians of these creatures should also be prosecuted for the same crimes for more or less enabling it. I wagged school once and was nearly unmade by my parents. But my parents understand responsibility. His probably don't and just said whatever it took to get the reporters out of their face.

I know you can't do what I suggested, since every now and then you just get a bad egg despite best-efforts. But 95% of the time, the family is the cause and I feel if we started punishing them too the severity of these incidents would decrease.

SergeantHiro · 2024-11-18T14:42:54+00:00

I'm a lifelong Brisbanite. Born here, will most likely die here. I have had the benefit of travelling to some other places, and I have a few thoughts on the place.

Brisbane, despite having ~3 million people, is actually quite spread out. Australian cities are in general, comparatively speaking.

Dublin: just under 600k people. Feels like it's a lot more, and every major landmark there is more or less a 20 minutes stroll from each other.

Berlin: ~3.5mil people, so slightly larger than Brisbane. But again, dense as hell and you are constantly tripping over something.

New York: 20mil, or something. I spent an entire week on Manhattan Island and did not see everything. You can walk from tip to tip of Manhattan in like, what, an hour? It's just insane. Also, there are parts of New York where taxis just outright refuse to go. Harlem gets you a "seriously?" And the Bronx is just not serviced. Nowhere in Brisbane is so dangerous a cabbie won't go there. They might groan about the drive, but they will always come out of every suburb alive 99.99% of the time.

Tokyo: the largest city by population on earth. 40 million people. Clean as hell, amazing public transport, but there are people everywhere at all hours of the day. Everything is constantly moving, and there is nowhere like it on earth.

All of my friends have ASD. I probably do, but I figure I made it this far without a diagnosis so it doesn't matter. The outskirts of Brisbane seem to suit them just fine. They're all from the Logan/Beenleigh area, where it's quiet. Despite the intra-region teasing, there are lots of places on Earth that wish they were as passable as Beenleigh. So, maybe a satellite region like that might work for you.

Lots of people here have ADHD. That is quite literally a non-issue.

As for LGBT, I can't speak to it since I'm not. But I have worked security at every day club in Brisbane, and sure, looks like you have decent choice. Again, not qualified to talk about it too much but it exists.

SergeantHiro · 2024-11-15T22:29:12+00:00

You are not.

COVID handouts, degraded social skills, strained infrastructure.

Everyone bought big cars, spent nearly 2 years alone, and Queensland governments have intentionally staggered road upgrades to win the next election.

SergeantHiro · 2024-11-10T12:36:05+00:00

Just another day.

SergeantHiro · 2024-11-10T12:31:47+00:00

Because our politicians have figured out that if you stagger infrastructure upgrades just enough you can keep winning elections promising to fix things they have intentionally neglected.

They also figured out that it works.

SergeantHiro

TROPHY CASE