This section is for "what the FAQ is about" and things like
that. Feel free to skip this section.
If you like the FAQ, please send me a dollar. :-) See [0.3]
This FAQ is primarily about the single player game, though
it has some references to the multiplayer game.
0.1 A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR
I don't see a FAQ for Monopoly Tycoon, so I wrote one.
This is a FAQ, NOT a manual. You probably will not be able
to learn how to play the game with this document. Besides,
there's a copy of the manual on the CD!
This USG only covers the PC version since that's the only
version that I have (and existed).
Some of you may recognize my name as the editor for the XCOM
and XCOM2: TFTD FAQ's, among others.
0.2 TERMS OF DISTRIBUTION
This document is copyrighted by Kuo-Sheng "Kasey" Chang (c)
2003, all rights reserved excepted as noted above in the
disclaimer section.
This document is available FREE of charge subjected to the
following conditions:
1)This notice and author's name must accompany all copies
of this document: "Monopoly Tycoon Unofficial Strategy
Guide and FAQ" is copyrighted (c) 2003 by Kasey K.S.
Chang, all rights reserved except as noted in the
disclaimer."
2)This document must NOT be modified in any form or manner
without prior permission of the author with the following
exception: if you wish to convert this document to a
different file format or archive format, with no change
to the content, then no permission is needed.
2a) In case you can't read, that means TXT only. No
banners, no HTML borders, no cutting up into multiple
pages to get you more banner hits, and esp. no adding
your site name to the site list. [Small exception: a
"small" toolbar with no banners embedded is okay. See IGN
or Neoseeker for examples.]
3)No charge other than "reasonable" compensation should
charged for its distribution. Free is preferred, of
course. Sale of this information is expressly prohibited.
If you see any one selling this guide, contact me (see
below).
4)If you used material from this, PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE the
source, else it is plagiarism.
5)The author hereby grants all games-related websites the
right to archive and link to this document to share among
the game fandom, provided that all above restrictions are
followed.
Sidenote: The above conditions are known as a statutory
contract. If you meet them, then you are entitled to the
rights I give you in 5), i.e. archive and display this
document on your website. If you don't follow them, then
you did not meet the statutory contract conditions, and
therefore you have no right to display this document. If
you do so, then you are infringing upon my copyright.
This section was added for any websites that don't seem
to understand this.
For the gamers: You are under NO obligation to send me
ANY compensation. However, I do ask for a VOLUNTARY
contribution of one (1) US Dollar if you live in the
United States, and if you believe this guide helped your
game. If you choose to do so, please make your US$1.00
check or $1.00 worth of US stamps to "Kuo-Sheng Chang",
and send it to "2220 Turk Blvd. #6, San Francisco, CA
94118 USA".
If you don't live in the US, please send me some local
stamps. I collect stamps too.
0.3 VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION
Gamers who read this guide are under NO obligation to send
me ANY compensation.
However, a VOLUNTARY contribution of one (1) US Dollar would
be very appreciated.
If you choose to do so, please make your US$1.00 check or
$1.00 worth of stamps to "Kuo-Sheng Chang", and send it to
"2220 Turk Blvd. #6, San Francisco, CA 94118 USA".
If you don't live in the US, please send me some local
stamps. I collect stamps too.
For the record, out of ALL the FAQs I wrote (37 at last
count) over the past nine years or so, I've received exactly
7 dollars and 2 sets of stamps, as of release of this guide.
So I'm NOT making any money off these guides, folks.
0.4 HOW AND WHEN TO CONTACT ME
PLEASE let me know if there's a confusing or missing remark,
mistakes, and thereof... If you find a question about this
game that is not covered in the USG, e-mail it to me at the
address specified below. I'll try to answer it and include
it in the next update.
Please do NOT write me for technical support. That is the
job of the publisher.
Please do NOT ask me to send you a list of controls, the
manual, etc. If you borrowed the game without borrowing the
manual, blame your own stupidity. If you bought the game
without a manual, blame your own stupidity. If you copied
the game without copying the manual, you're not only scum,
but STUPID scum.
Please do NOT ask me to answer questions that have already
answered in this FAQ/guide. It makes you REALLY idiotic.
I will NOT answer stupid questions like the ones above
unless I'm in a really good mood. If you send questions like
that, do NOT expect a reply.
The address below is spelled out phonetically so spammers
can't use spambots on it:
Kilo-Sierra-Charlie-Hotel-Alpha-November-Golf-Seven-Seven AT
Yankee-Alpha-Hotel-Oscar-Oscar DOT Charlie-Oscar-Mike
To decipher this, simply read the first letter off each word
except for the numbers and the punctuation. This is
"military phonetics" or "aeronautical phonetics" in case
you're wondering.
This document was produced on Microsoft Word 97. Some
editing was done with Editpad (editpadclassic.com).
0.5 THE AUTHOR
I am just a game player who decided to write my own FAQs
when the ones I find don't cover what I want to see. Lots
of people like what I did, so I kept doing it.
Previously, I've written Unofficial Strategy Guides (USGs)
for XCOM, XCOM2:TFTD, Wing Commander, Wing Commander 2, Wing
Commander 3, Wing Commander 4, Privateer, Spycraft, 688(I)
Hunter/Killer. Mechwarrior 3, MW3 Expansion Pack,
Mechwarrior 4, Mechwarrior 4: Black Knight, Need for Speed:
Porsche Unleashed, The Sting!, Terranova, Fallout Tactics,
Starfleet Command Volume II, DS9: The Fallen, DS9: Dominion
War, Driver, Warlords: Battlecry, and a few others.
To contact me, see 0.4 above.
0.6 DISCLAIMER / COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Deep Red created Monopoly Tycoon. See them at
http://www.deepred.co.uk
Infogrames published monopoly Tycoon in the US. Find them at
http://www.infogrames.com
This USG is not endorsed or authorized by ANY of the
companies mentioned above.
There is an official strategy guide (ISBN: 0-7615-3141-6)
published by PrimaGames at http://www.primagames.com
The information compiled in this USG has been gathered
independently through the author's efforts except where
noted otherwise.
This document is based on the V1.4 patch, and thus
information listed here may NOT apply fully to earlier
versions.
0.7 HISTORY
09-FEB-2003 Initial release
10-FEB-2003 The "oops, forgot to fix up the typos"
edition.
1 Monopoly Tycoon General Info
1.1 THE MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: Can you send me the game (or portions thereof)?
A: No.
Q: Can you send me the manual (or portions thereof)?
A: It's on the CD, you *****!
Q: Can you tell me how to play the game?
A: Read the manual.
Q: Can you help me get the game working?
A: That's the publisher's job, isn't it? (http://www.ina-
support.com)
Q: How about a patch?
A: There are 3 official patches and 1 semi-official patch.
Officially the game is patched up to V1.3. However, a semi-
official V1.4 patch is also available.
Q: How about a discussion board?
A: Infogrames has a board at http://www.ina-community.com
Q: How about Expansion Packs? More missions? User-created
missions and campaigns?
A: There are some custom scenarios available for download at
Tycoon Resource (http://www.tycoonresource.com, part of MGON
network). There's supposed to be an editor out there as
well. Some "extras packs", which contains patch and extra
scenarios, are available as well. Check the official site
for details.
Q: How about a sequel?
A: No idea. Given that Monopoly Tycoon has fallen into
"bargain bin" already, chances are pretty unlikely.
1.2 MT HISTORY
Those who have played family-style board games should have
at least HEARD of Monopoly, where you buy blocks in a city,
charge rent, and generally through a bit of luck and
management, own the board. There is also a random events as
your piece moves through the city based on dice rolls.
Monopoly Tycoon takes most of the mechanics, applied it into
a Tycoon setting (started by Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon),
and created a fun mix of a game, great for single or multi-
player.
1.3 MT HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
Excerpt from the official website, recommended specs are:
Operating System: Windowsr 95/98/Me
Processor: Pentiumr 266 MHz or higher
Memory: 64 MB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 200 MB Free
CD-ROM Drive: 8X Speed
Video: 16 MB Windowsr 95/98/Me-compatible video card*
Sound: Windowsr 95/98/Me-compatible sound card*
DirectX: DirectXr 8.0 version (included) or higher
* means the device should be compatible with DX8
1.4 HOW DOES THE GAME PLAY?
Monopoly Tycoon is basically a management game. You start
with a set amount of money. You can build living spaces, day
retail, or night retail. You then stock the retail spaces
with items to be sold (done automatically). By analyzing the
people's needs (and build the right stores), you hope to
make a lot of money, with which you'll build more
businesses, buy land, buy utilities, buy railroad stations,
and so on.
The actually "objective" may vary. See [9] for a full list
of game objectives, ranging from largest empire value by a
certain date to be voted mayor by winning 5 elections.
The game is in full 3D view, with individual citizens and
cars visible on the streets, and they will walk about as
they simulate buying things for their needs. However, a lot
of the information is seen in the 2D "map" view.
There are a lot of small details that makes the game deeper
than it first appears. You can adjust prices of individual
stores (down to 0.1 dollars). You can lease utilities and/or
train stations to reduce overhead (for example, if you
leased the water utility, then all players must pay their
water payment to you, and your business's water becomes
essentially free). New store types becomes available as time
marches on, and the city slowly transforms from small houses
to skyscrapers.
There is also bidding for various properties' lease rights.
If you managed to obtain lease rights for all properties in
the same color block, you obtain monopoly. With monopoly,
you can force other owners to sell their business on those
blocks to you at a reduced price (below market price).
1.5 BUGS AND FIXES
For a full list of bugs, please check the specific patch
"README" file.
1.6 EXPANSION PACKS? SEQUELS? RELATED TITLES?
There are no expansion packs, sequels, or related titles to
Monopoly Tycoon.
On the other hand, you could argue that the entire "tycoon"
genre is related. Try the big names, like Zoo Tycoon
(Microsoft) or Railroad Tycoon 2 (GOD Games). The smaller
names are mainly junk.
1.7 NOTES ON ORGANIZATION
This guide is organized as similar to the actual manual as
possible, mainly acting as a supplement.
2 The Citizens
See page 18 of your manual for details on the citizens.
TIP: Low-income citizens tend to live in the low-income
districts (1 star and 2 star), medium-income citizens live
in the 3-star and 4-star districts, and the high-income
citizens live in the 5-star districts.
TIP: Citizens want to shop in buildings build to similar
quality. Low-income citizens like low-quality buildings,
while high-income citizens demand high-quality buildings.
Think of it this way: the low-income districts would have
the Walmarts and Targets, while high-income districts would
have Nordstroms and Saks Fifth Avenues. The mid-income
districts would have the Macy's and JC Penney's and
Mervyn's.
TIP: In general, the low-income district needs cheap prices
and high stock quantities, while high-income district needs
expensive shops with low-stock quantities.
3 The Passage of Time
0000 night-retail stops operating
spoilage occurs (half of remaining stock is lost)
bank checks for solvency. If you're insolvent, you
have until next midnight to turn that around or
you will be ejected from the game
NOTE: your "cash" icon will flash red in this 24-
hour "warning period".
0000 - 0900 Best time to build day retail and adjust
stock levels and prices
0000 - 1800 Best time to build night retail and adjust
stock levels and prices
0600 your stores are restocked with items. This can be
a significant drain on your cash, so beware that
you don't overspend during the day
utilities and railroads pay their owners (so if
you own utilities you get a big bonus)
0700 kids go to school (look for them)
0900 day retail start operating
commuters arrive via the trains
day workers spill out of the apartments to do
their shopping
1700 day retail stop operating
1800 night-retail start operating
voting occurs if election scenario is on
0000 cycle starts over, see top of the chart
4 Leasing a City BLock
TIP: As building rights are suspended during bid countdown,
forcing a bid on a block your opponent is building on will
temporarily stunt his growth. Even if he wins the bidding,
you'd have held him off for a significant portion of a day.
TIP: Only one block can be up for bid at a time, so one
possible tactic is force auctions of strategic blocks so
others use up the cash, while you keep building.
TIP: Leasing a city block can use up significant amount of
cash during the bidding process. Check the amount of rent a
block can generate before making the investment, and see how
much of that can you REALLY afford. In general, you need to
recuperate at least 50% of the bid amount from "one-day's
rent" to make a bidding worthwhile, unless you need to
squeeze out competitors with "Monopoly".
TIP: If you successfully control all blocks of a particular
color, you can use this Monopoly to force businesses on
those blocks to be sold to you for a discount. This even
includes city-owned businesses. This can be a significant
way to increase your empire value.
TIP: If you control the utilities, you gain a LOT of extra
income, the more the better. However, it will take several
game days to successfully bid all four, as well as a lot of
cash. Analyze what utilities are most used by businesses
already on the map, then make your move.
TIP: Controlling the train stations can mean a good income,
though less than utilities, esp. in mid-late game. You're
looking at about 3500-3900 nightly if you control all four
railroads. However, the bidding can drive prices WAY UP into
the 3000 range per station.
TIP: If you need money, sell the lease LONG BEFORE midnight
to raise money. Figure 6 hours before midnight. Selling
means another bidding war. You will probably lose money.
Still, it's better than being ejected from the game
altogether.
5 Auctions -- a bidding frenzy
TIP: Consider the potential income of a block, utilities, or
railroad, before you start a bid. You need to make that
money back in a day or two, unless you have a lot of cash
reserves and can afford a bidding war.
TIP: If a block is mostly empty, let the opponent have it.
He may have that exclusive period, but unless he's got
CHUNKS of cash, he can't build enough buildings there to
cover up the whole lot until AFTER that 24-hour period
expires, then you can join in there and build any way. Just
make sure you don't let him get monopoly to force you out.
TIP: Prevent other players from achieving monopoly if
possible. Usually the AI doesn't go for monopoly that much.
All blocks must go through auction, so if you can just buy
up ONE block out of 2 or 3 in the district, you can prevent
the monopoly.
TIP: On the other hand, price is no object when you need
monopoly yourself. Dip into your cash reserves and your
10000 credit when you need it. Just make sure you make that
back before end of next day.
TIP: Know the maximum price you can afford to pay before
entering the auction. As soon as the counter starts, you
should figure out how much can you afford to pay. Sometimes,
money is no object. At other times, you may need to let
someone else take the prize.
TIP: Use "pass" instead of "pull out". Pass keeps you in the
bidding (unless the other bidders have pulled out).
TIP: You may want to keep bidding small amounts just to make
your opponent spend MORE money on the block than he
originally planned to. On the other hand, know when to stop
so you don't end up holding a block that is of no use to
you.
CHEAT: see [12.2]
6 Building Successful Shopping Centers
See [3] for the time chart. You need to know this by heart.
TIP: Note which types of business has a minimum width of 1,
and which ones have minimum width of 2. This helps you plan
the size of each business, which affects the stocking levels
and building costs. See "Fact File 2" in your manual for
full list of retail shops.
TIP: Note that many shops, esp. later, can be built-higher,
to fit more stock, instead of more footprint. If you are
building a high volume low price store like newspaper, you
may need to build up in order to squeeze more stores on the
same block.
NOTE: Restocking happens at 0600 or by construction (if
after 0600). Therefore, do NOT construct stores just before
midnight, or you'll lose a LOT of the stock due to
'spoilage'. Instead, build day retail just after midnight
(between 0000 and 0900), and build night retail before 1800.
It is hard to use the "special restock" card if you get it.
Basically, it's best to use it on a store that has ran out
of stock, but there is still significant amount of the
retail period remaining. Also, the price should be high on
the item.
For example, let's say your newsstand is already out of
paper, and your jewelry store is also out of jewelry. The
day is only 11AM, and you have a special restock card.
Assuming both stores are equal capacity, it would probably
be better to restock the jewelry store, as that has better
margins overall.
TIP: Check ALL of your business before 6AM every day on
stock level, prices, and so on. Lower prices and/or stock
level if necessary to sell things out.
TIP: Keep day and night retail on separate blocks. Citizens
who shop on the block will tend to browse the rest of the
block, so you want to put the maximum number of shops on the
same block.
TIP: Refurbish existing stores when they no longer serve the
right clientele or provided the wrong commodities. Remember,
only the same footprint type can be done.
TIP: Rule of thumb: keep selling price AT LEAST twice the
cost, higher for lower cost items. Also see [10.5] for more
pricing tips.
TIP: If you can't maintain the profit margin or make the
store profitable, TEAR IT DOWN. You don't want the store to
drain your cash.
TIP: The default prices are NOT always right. In case of
tools, clothing (esp. in mid or high quality buildings),
electrical, travel, and such, the default prices may be much
too high to let you sell out, unless you are building a VERY
small store.
TIP: Some stores NEED to be small, while others need to be
BIG. Know the difference, study the manual.
TIP: Build stores higher whenever possible, so you can fit
more stores on the same block.
7 Apartments
TIP: Most scenarios have multiple apartments already on the
map. So usually, you don't need to build any unless you see
a district with NO apartments and have extra cash around
ready to invest.
NOTE: you can only survey blocks with an apartment on it,
and only after people have moved in.
TIP: You can see the apartments flashing on the city map if
you click on the survey button on the toolbar.
TIP: Build shopping center around the BIGGEST apartments, as
it's easier to anticipate the "needs" of residents there
(less margin of error).
TIP: In certain scenarios, you may need to build your own
apartments to give the citizens places to live.
TIP: Build your apartments first, if you need to, to attract
more citizens. The larger the apartment, the more people
will be enticed to shop on the same block (or nearby).
8 Utility Companies and Railroads
TIP: Own all four utilities to get a LOT of money. If you
have a long game ahead with lots of cash, buying out the
utilities can almost guarantee you a win. If you go for one,
you may as well go for them all (if you have enough cash
reserves).
TIP: Owning the railroads are less lucrative, but can
generate near $1000 per day per railroad. Of course, you'll
need to grab most/all railroads to get all that money.
TIP: If you own all railroads AND all utilities, you will
get a HUGE profit at the beginning of the day. They generate
an incredible amount of dollars.
9 Game Objectives
9.1 SALES TARGET
Make certain number of sales before anybody else.
TIP: Start in the cheap districts, and build those high-
volume stores like newspaper and so on. You can make a LOT
of sales like newspapers and such. You probably won't make
too much money, but you'll sure make lots of sales.
TIP: Stay out of the high-rent districts. You can't afford
the expensive buildings there.
TIP: Build at least one or two stores daily, as you need to
keep expanding. Make smaller stores and make sure they sell
out. Build 1, 2, or 4-unit stores.
TIP: Build both daily and nightly business to fit the
demands. Frequently one gets fixated on building only day
retail. Night retail has higher profit margins.
TIP: Lower prices to make sure you sell out (or get close to
selling out) all the stock in each and every store.
9.2 EMPIRE VALUE
Get Empire value up to a specific value before anybody else,
or by a specific date.
TIP: Grow in medium-value districts, 3-star and so on. Cheap
districts have almost same amount of overhead so you make
less money. Expensive districts cost too much so you grow
slower.
TIP: The strategy will differ slightly depending on how much
time you have. If the time is short, don't bother auctioning
anything, just build, build, and build, while force auction
on someone else (esp if two or more build on the same
block). You don't need to buy it, you just need to freeze
the block for quarter of a day. If you have more time, then
buy up the blocks with the best stores, force monopoly, and
buy out the enemy stores at below market to boost your
empire value.
TIP: Keep building new stores every day. Use up more land to
get more value.
NOTE: Don't overspend too much. If you overspend and can't
make back the money, you lose due to bankruptcy.
TIP: Empire value is NOT directly related to cash. Empire
value has more to do with the stores, the land they use, and
how much revenue they generate. It's better to make smaller
stores that are profitable than to make big discount stores.
SPECIAL TACTIC: "final day crunch" -- build up a large cash
reserve by the final day. Look for a group of blocks
(preferably 3-star or below) with a LOT of opponents'
businesses. Just before the final day starts, force that one
of those blocks into auction. The idea is the auction starts
JUST AFTER midnight, so you don't go into the red just yet.
BUY THE ENTIRE neighborhood at ANY COST. You MUST achieve
monopoly. Once you achieved monopoly, go HEAVILY into debt
(remember, you have 10000 credit) and BUY OUT ALL of the
stores on those blocks. Your empire value will skyrocket,
even if you're heavily in debt, due to all these "hostile
takeovers", as you paid LESS than market value for them.
This should be enough to win unless you never kept up with
the rest.
9.3 VOTING FOR MAYOR
Each citizen votes each "day" for each player that best
enhanced his/her life at 1800 hours. There's two days before
the voting starts. The first player to collect multiple wins
(rosettes) win as mayor.
TIP: Satisfy the needs of the citizens. Build stores that
satisfy as many "needs" by the polls as possible. Check the
polls constantly and build more stores nearby. This is
similar to sales target, except you need to keep this day to
day.
TIP: As voting is at 6PM, it's the DAY RETAIL that will earn
you more sympathy points. However, you still can't ignore
night retail as it's more profitable.
TIP: Build near the BIGGEST apartments first. You're going
for quantity, not quality.
TIP: Build in the cheap districts, so you can build MORE
stores.
TIP: Build a lot of small stores instead of few big stores,
to satisfy more needs.
TIP: Lower prices to make more sales. More sales, more
votes.
NOTE: Don't lower prices too much that you're not making a
profit. You need money to keep growing and maintain your
margin. The target is at least $1000 profit daily, so you
can build one or more new stores every day.
9.4 LAST MAN STANDING
Similar to "Voting for Mayor", except the lowest scoring
person is kicked out, until only one remains.
TIP: Same tips apply, except you don't need to be the very
top all the time.
NOTE: the loser forfeits his or her properties to the city.
9.5 FIRST TO DAILY PROFIT X
Make more profit than any one else, and reach the target, on
a daily basis.
TIP: Build medium-sized businesses. You can't afford to keep
all that stock around to spoil, yet if you go too small you
don't make enough money.
TIP: Build businesses with higher profit margins. Jewelry
has higher margin than newspapers, for example. On the other
hand, if you can't sell enough of them, you don't make money
either. Not all are good sellers.
TIP: Go for medium-rent districts. Low-rent districts are
easier to start, but their profit margins are lower as well.
High-rent districts are too expensive to get in.
TIP: Control utilities. They minimize your operating costs
(you don't pay yourself) and gain you extra income.
Controlling utilities will give you a lot of income right
about 6AM, offset-ing a lot of the restocking charges.
TIP: Once you control utilities, go for the railroads. The
more you control, the more money you make at the beginning.
10 More hints and tips
10.1 INTERFACE
TIP: Use TAB key to switch between city and block view, sure
beats clicking the "switch view" button.
TIP: Use the "adjust price" button to call up the price
viewer. Use the "business scroller" there to flip through
your businesses. It's much easier than click from block to
block then business to business.
10.2 WHERE TO START BUILDING
TIP: Pick the block with the largest apartment, if there are
apartments on the map. You get more initial customers that
way.
TIP: If there are no existing apartments, start in the low-
rent districts, as the rents there and building costs are
cheaper. Build apartment there, then expand your businesses.
10.3 WHAT BUSINESS TO BUILD
TIP: Use a LOT of polling. Check every single block with an
apartment building (flashing blocks in the city view, poll
mode) in the districts you want to target. However, it'll
take several hours for the apartments to get their tenants.
TIP: If there's no residents yet, build bakery and newspaper
stands. Those are the usual needs. Some will also want
clothing store.
TIP: In general, food items are good sellers, though they
generate minimal profit. You need to be pretty big to sell
enough of those to make big money.
TIP: Balance between day and night business. Remember to
have night retail ready before 6PM comes along.
TIP: Day business should be small to medium size, as there
would be MORE of them, except the stuff in HEAVY demand.
Stuff like meat, fish, fruit and veg, bread, and such are
usually in demand. Still, check the poll.
TIP: Night business tends to be large. Indeed, the smallest
Ballroom and Theater is size 8. Initially, you may want to
stick to the smaller night business, like Bar, Restaurant,
and Cinema. Those are usually hot sellers, and generate most
of your profit (if you priced them right). Indeed, don't
build Ballroom and Theater until you see more than 15 demand
for each.
TIP: Some businesses do NOT generate profit (at least for
me). Businesses like furniture, clothing, books, hardware,
jewelry, and such don't generate much profit, as they are
high priced and any sales variance is bound to affect them
severely. Spoilage is a major issue with these high-cost
businesses. You may want to avoid those initially and
concentrate on the businesses that you can just plop down
and expect to make money (i.e. the ones with default pricing
set right).
10.4 WHAT SIZE BUSINESS TO BUILD
TIP: Read the poll and consider how many people from THAT
BLOCK needs. Use that as a general guideline. Multiply that
by 1.5 or 2. That's the size you should aim for as stock
quantity.
For example, say 24 people at this apartment want a bakery.
I would probably build a 36 or 48-capacity bakery, just to
make sure I can handle all requests.
For cheaper / smaller stuff, I would go for 2x. For
expensive items like furniture, jewelry, and such, I may
just go for 1x.
Read the store description in the manual, look for the
"stock capacity". Divide the stock quantity by stock
capacity will give you the store size.
If you're not sure, just build small, a 2 space, 3 space, or
4-space store is sufficient for day retail. Not all stores
must be Walmart-sized. Later, you'll know what size to
build.
TIP: While extra stock do spoil at midnight, you don't NEED
to stock a store to full capacity, whereas if you have a
small store to start with, you do sell out, but you can't
make enough money! Cut down the stock to prevent losing lots
of money!
TIP: Consider, if possible, "down-the-road" consequences.
You can only refurbish a store to one that has the same
footprint.
10.5 PRICING
TIP: Use the graph to judge profitability. Ideally, you
should make money the first year, and every year. This may
not always be possible, due to special circumstances like
competition, chance cards, and so on.
TIP: Remember the old joke that goes like this, "I know
we're losing money on every sale, but we'll make it up in
volume"? Before you adjust prices, first calculate how low
of a price CAN you set.
For example, let's say you have a clothing store with daily
cost of $200 (rent, utilities, etc.), averages 15 sales a
day. That means you need to price the clothes at 200 / 15,
or 13.4 (rounded up) to break even. If you tried 13.5 and
you STILL can't increase sales enough (beyond 15) to make a
profit, it may be time to close the store.
TIP: Don't lose money in a store. You lose the time spent
building it, the construction cost, the demolition cost, the
actual money lost, AND the lead it gives to your opponents!
TIP: Pricing strategy is simple. If the store did not start
at 9AM, ignore the sales that day as it does not reflect a
full day's sales. Check how many you sold vs. how many you
stocked. Calculate the sales to stock ratio. For example,
say you have a 24 stock newsstand, and you sold 20. Your s-t-
s ratio is 83.3%
100% Well done! Try raising prices 5% and see how the
market reacts
90-99% Nice, drop price 5%, get that full 100% sellout,
and leave it there this time.
80-89% Reduce prices another 10 to 15%, you are getting
close.
50-79% This is not good, reduce price by 30% to 50%, you
are getting SIGNIFICANT spoilage and you need to reduce that
ASAP.
0-49% This is really bad, reduce prices DRASTICALLY,
right near the break-even point, then start up from there.
TIP: The default price is NOT necessarily the right price.
In fact, for a lot of the stores the default prices are
simply TOO HIGH. For things costing less than a dollar,
figure you need to sell it at 5x to 10x the cost to be
profitable. For things costing more than a dollar each,
figure 2x-5x the cost.
Here's a list of prices I found to work so far:
Bakery: default price
Book store: $8-$10
Butcher shop: default price
Cafe: default price
Clothes Store: $9-$15
Dairy Store: default price
Diner: default price
Doctor's office: default price
Electrical Store: $20-$25
Fish Market: default price
Furniture store: $20-$30
Grocery store: default price
Hardware store: $20-$25
Jewelry store: $30-$35
News stand: default price
Souvenir Shop: default?
Toy store: $10 - $15
Ballroom: default
Bar: default
Cinema: default is okay, but may need reduction to as low as
$8
Restaurant: default
Theater: $10-$12
Antique store: $30-35
Ice Cream Parlor: default
Night Club: no data
Pool Hall: a little HIGHER than default is fine, unless you
have competition
I have no data yet on further businesses. If you have them,
feel free to submit them.
TIP: If you sell out of a commodity, consider raising price
by about 5% for next day, and see how the market reacts. If
you stop selling out, return the price to normal, and then a
dime less ($0.10 less). If you still sell out, consider
raising it another 5% or so until you stop selling out.
10.6 ADJUSTMENTS
There are two things you can adjust for a business... you
can adjust the price, or the stock level.
First thing you need to do is calculate the breakeven point.
At your present price, multiplied by the daily sales, are
you actually making a profit? What is the lowest price you
can set to match your daily costs?
The stock level should only be adjusted if you cannot sell
out the stock, even if you have lowered the price right near
the break-even point. This basically means you built a store
too large for the local market. . .
The price... is obvious. Usually, the lower you set the
price, the more you sell. However, this may not be always
true in MT. There may be a limit after which you STILL can't
sell more, as there are no more residents nearby needing
that commodity. See above for more pricing tipsl.
10.7 WHAT BUSINESS TO KEEP
TIP: If a business is NOT making money, you have three
choices: fix it (change price and such until it can make
money), refurbish it (so it sells something else), or
demolish it (so you don't lose any MORE money).
TIP: A business that loses money should be demolished or
refurbished ASAP. Adjusting stock level just means you're
losing LESS money.
TIP: In general, if you can't make the business profitable
by end of THIRD day (15 years), that business should be
"recycled".
10.8 AUCTIONS
TIP: Watch for auction's timing. The 120 seconds warning
period in real-time means almost 5 hours in game time. If
this occurs just around the important times, like 0000 or
0600, you can have a problem. For example, if the auction
happens just before midnight, you may go into red in the
wrong time, or use up capital before you need it.
TIP: Against AI, there's really no point in using $500
instead of $50 or $100. AI seems to choose randomly between
follow, or not. If it is set to exceed your bid, it doesn't
matter if you added $500 or added $50. Just keep adding $50.
NOTE: You CAN use up to 10000 dollars of credit. However, if
you go that far into the red you probably lost... Unless
you're doing the "last day crunch" tactic. see [9.5].
10.9 BUYING LEASES
TIP: Buying the lease on a full block has the following pros
and cons
Pros: * you get the rent
* if you have businesses on there, you don't pay the
rent (they cancel out)
you lock the block from further development unless you
open it again (in which case, you get 24-hours of
exclusive building)
* you can sell the lease for $$$ (though it'll go
through the auction again)
* you have a chance for monopoly, esp. in long games
Cons: * you pay a big chuck of money immediately
* the rent isn't that much, esp. in low-rent districts
* you may block yourself from building there (esp. when
you don't want your enemies to build there either!)
* if you sell the lease, you may lose a lot of money
* you need to buy up ALL blocks of same color to get
monopoly, which can easily be blocked and REALLY drain
you of cash.
11 Campaign Mission Notes
Here is a list of all the missions in the single player
campaign. See [10] for some generic advice.
11.1 STARTING OUT
You need to make 100 sales total. Some apartments are in the
city already...
There is no competitor, so this one is quite simple. Build a
store or two that satisfy the needs of the biggest
apartments, and watch the sales counter click upward...
11.2 A HOMELY CITY
You need to make 100 sales total... But there are no
apartments in the city. Build some apartments, THEN build
your businesses to make the sales.
As the briefing says, build some apartments. Build one big
enough for 25-50 tenants. Then build the normal shops like
clothing and bakery, and a night business on the next block.
11.3 COMPETE FOR SALES
You need to make 200 sales, more competitors.
Still pretty simple, but this time you get more competitors.
The game will last a little longer. Still, make the simple
shops, fit the needs of those citizens, and you should rack
up those sales in no time.
11.4 $3000 DAILY PROFIT
Make $3000 daily profit.
You can do this the hard way: build lots of shops and make
sure you make a lot of money, or you can do this the easy
way.
Easy way: bid for all four railroads or all four utilities.
That should be enough to push you over the $3000 daily
profit... Even if you are in the red. If you can grab ALL
FOUR railroads before end of the day, you should win almost
immediately. Else, build a shop or two...
11.5 FIRST TO BE WORTH $20000
Be first to be worth $20000 total empire value.
This one can be a problem, if you grow wrong. It is
difficult, even on easy level, to maintain the constant
growth in the medium district to sustain the growth and keep
your empire value on the top. If you over-expand, you may
kick yourself out of the game due to bankruptcy. It is a
delicate balancing act.
11.6 GREATEST EMPIRE VALUE BY 1945
Have the highest empire value by 1945.
This one can be a problem, if you grow wrong. It is
difficult, even on easy level, to maintain the constant
growth in the medium district to sustain the growth and keep
your empire value on the top. If you over-expand, you may
kick yourself out of the game due to bankruptcy. It is a
delicate balancing act.
11.7 FIRST TO BE MAYOR
Be elected mayor (get 3 votes).
Think of this as the "sales target" job, and you can do it
easily. Make lots of sales, keep the populace happy. You
should be able to win 3 rosettes in a row.
11.8 SELL, SELL, SELL!
Make 3000 sales before any one else.
This game will last into the 1960's and perhaps longer.
Build low-price stores like newspaper, records, etc. While
stores like electrical, travel agent, and such make more
money, they also sell less. Therefore, on sales target
scenarios, make Walmarts, not boutique stores.
11.9 LAST MAN STANDING
Establish your presence in the city, similar to "voting for
mayor".
The best part about Last Man Standing is the last place
person is kicked out, and their store becomes city property.
So as less and less people remain, you usually win more and
more votes. Stay out front, and you'll win handily.
11.10 $6000 DAILY PROFIT
This one will be difficult. You will need to be in control
of the utilities and/or the railroads to do this, but first
you need to generate enough daily profit to be able to
acquire all these stuff. That will be the difficult part.
Controls the utilities ASAP. Not only it minimizes your
overhead, it also provides extra income. Even if you can't
control all of them, controlling some of them still helps.
Use the bidding cheat to control everything. When you do,
your daily income should be 6000 or very near so right at
6AM... Just make a few sales after that, and you're done.
11.11 GREATEST EMPIRE VALUE BY 1960
This is a longer game, so you have chances to go after the
utilities, if you can make enough money-generating
businesses. I would suggest avoiding businesses like
furniture, clothing, jewelry, and such, as those are very
hard to price properly and still make a profit. Stick to
simpler stuff like ice cream, bakery, butcher, and things
like that.
Use the bidding cheat to control the utilities and you've
got the game pretty much won. Build only the most profitable
businesses.
11.12 FIRST TO BE WORTH $25000
Standard technique... except you now have a chance to get
Monopoly over certain districts. You can significantly force
up your Empire Value that way. Remember, it doesn't matter
about your debt... As long as your empire value goes up that
high, you win.
11.13 WIN MAYOR, 5 ROSSETTES
This one is a tougher version of mission 7. This time, you
need 5 rosettes, not just 3, to win as mayor. There's more
competition, and longer period of time. You need to know
when to refurbish old businesses to newer ones to fit newer
needs.
11.14 FIRST TO BE WORTH $40000
Same as Mission 12, except you get to play even longer...
This game may run into the 60's and 70's.
11.15 LAST MAN STANDING 2
Ah, this is the OTHER last man standing game, and this time,
things are tougher, as the game starts a bit later, with
more buildings available.
11.16 GREATEST EMPIRE VALUE BY 2000
Ah, the ultimate game... What can I say? Remember to re-
evaluate and refurbish businesses, bid and buy utilities...
You need to know EVERYTHING and use EVERY trick to win this
one. good luck.
12 Miscellaneous
12.1 SCENARIO EDITING
All the scenario scripts are stored in the under scripts
subdirectory.
Put your stuff under "custom" subdirectory.
12.2 CHEATING
There are NO known cheat codes for Monopoly Tycoon.
There is an "exploit" (or two, depends on how you count).
If you save the game when it is your turn to auction, then
reload the game, all the AI competitors will give up. (If
one of them do not, just reload one more time), thus
allowing you to control the block for a pittance.
If you reload a saved game, the AI will likely do something
completely different. If you save and reload the game
multiple times per "game day", the AI will likely be
paralyzed and confused.
