Mission 5: Paranoia

Campaign Part 1: Paranoia (5 of 8)

The time has come to turn our attention away from just development of infrastructure and keeping our citizens happy and entertained, and put our efforts into attracting Tourists and their money - so that we can keep THEM happy and entertained!

We recommend you use the standard settings:

Island: Cayo de Fortuna

Economic Difficulty: Medium

Political Difficulty: Medium

Disasters: Occasional

As you will see we resume our play with the same progress and capabilities that were present when we last played here. Now that the World War is over, it is time to reconcile the existence of a Banana Republic in the New World Order of the Cold War.

What does that mean? Well for one thing it means that we need to re-invent our rule - we need to come up with a new outlook. And we need to deal with the new problems that The Order is thrusting upon us and in particular the paranoid delusions of Leon Kane - who while he may be (is) paranoid, is also a very dangerous man due to the power he wields in that shadow-world of The Order!

He comes to you with the warning that his life is in danger - that someone tried to assassinate him - and that he feels it is urgent that he find a decoy to stand in for him - and that YOU help him to do that and to survive the next assassination attempt!

So right off the bat this Mission gets interesting...

Mission 5 - Paranoia - Getting the Airport Build is Important

The New Tourism Focus

Okay the first Task we are given is to attract 32 Tourist - to do that though, we need to present an island paradise that the typical tourist wants to visit, right? That means getting and keeping the economy on track, keeping the citizens healthy and happy, and perhaps most important, controlling pollution and all of the other negatives that can adversely impact tourism.

I suggest that your first move is to take a look at the Happiness Levels via the Happiness Screen (you get that by hitting Left Trigger plus 'X') and see what you can do in the short term to bring those numbers up.

Ideally each of the line items in that list should be at least 50 or better - and if they are not, well then you now know where to focus your efforts.

But while you do that, bear in mind that you also need to keep the raw resources flowing, keep your industry producing, and oh yeah, start creating more entertainment options that are specifically aimed at Tourists!

Balancing the Appearances

One area of focus should be to reduce the concentration of military structures in the main town area. When we were here last time we needed those military buildings, but now we need to downplay the need for a strong military - and open up space for new tourist-oriented buildings as well, so hey, win-win!

The most difficult challenge in this Mission is going to be keeping the economy on track while building the additional infrastructure elements that are required to bring the Happiness levels up. That said, in our game Housing and Healthcare were the most difficult stats to correct and maintain. YMMV.

Reaching the Goal

The actual goal here is to attract 32 Tourists - so once you have the citizens more or less stable you should not delay going directly to the Tourist class buildings and getting that process started.

Speed is critical here because you can easily find yourself trapped in a constant wet-nursing sequence in dealing with the needs of the citizens if you delay too long. That and if you delay long enough so that Leon Kane is killed the required Tourist number will shoot up to 256.

If you failed to attract the numbers you needed fast enough, you will find that you now have a much more daunting challenge ahead of you!

What I recommend is going with something like the following plan:

• Family Resort

• Museum

• Family Resort x2

• Circus

• National Park

Using the above approach the closest I was able to get to completing the first goal of 32 Tourists was a grand total of 31 - before the elections happened, and Leon was soon thereafter killed...

It really is not clear whether you can actually complete this Mission by drawing in 32 Tourists or not - but after half-dozen attempts on my part in which I corrected the perceived mistakes and improved on the previous results each time, as I have said the closest I managed to get - using the building formula above - was 31 Tourists.

That seems to suggest that you are not meant to achieve the first goal - so the second adjusted goal of 256 Tourists appears to be the real one. The suck part of that though is you don't get any credit for the ones you did manage to attract before the assassination! You start from zero...

Post-Leon Challenge Stage

After Leon is killed a few things happen - starting with a rapid-fire release of new Tasks. You also get to start this next stage with a good head-start on having things Tourists want thanks to our previous efforts - so the advice above is good even if it did not result in an early victory.

Proceeding from here the new path that worked best for me included the following building projects:

• Casino (Luxury Entertainment).

• Restaurants x2 (Entertainment & Environment) - in the area of the tourist zone.

• Beach Site (Entertainment & Environment) - on the beach in the tourist zone.

• Cabins x4 (Tourism) - for Eco Tourist and Families.

At this point you will need to divert resources and your attention away from building up the Tourist capacity in order to address specific infrastructure issues, starting with the following:

• Addressing the Oil Spill off the coast...

• Power Plant No. 2

• Oil Well (on far side of the island) plus the road supporting it.

• College (If you don't already have) - provides educated workers you desperately need.

Adding the second Power Plant is actually of critical importance since the rolling black-outs will prevent certain tourism buildings from functioning...

Making profitable use of any other resources is a very good idea. Once you have all that in hand though, it is time to return to creating a Tourist Attraction... And that means building the following:

• Ancient Ruins (Luxury Entertainment) - far side of the island.

• Additional Eco-Tourist Cabins (Several Tasks Requiring the same)

At this point your game will launch the “Spiders” warning - this is scripted and informs you of the danger and the risks associated with the home-grown protest movement that is forming. You will need to check the Happiness Page to learn which of the stats that the game has randomly chosen to be the one to represent the Occupy Movement in your Tropical Paradise - and it is most likely Housing - and act accordingly.

Economy Issues: One of the most common issues that you will run into while you are trying to get the economy on track is the frustrating appearance of notifications that the storage for a resource production building is full. What that actually means is you need more Teamsters - that there is no transportation for that resource. Just build more Teamster Offices to solve that problem and voila! Economy back on track!

As you respond to this threat you will unlock the Achievement The Town of Cityville (20G) Built 150 Buildings in a Single Game. Well done you!

When you reach the end of the Mission you will likely also reach the point where you have the option of creating an International Incident or Do Something Stupid... You can indulge in that if you like, but by that time you are certain to be within a few Tourists of winning the mission - so why take the chance of doing something that could have permanent repercussions on your nation?

It makes far better sense to simply ride that out, win the Mission, and move on... That way when you return to the island for the next mission there you don't have to deal with potentially negative fallout.

That said, well done on another Mission you!