Frequently Asked Questions and Unofficial Strategy Guide
Introduction
Last revision 10/05/96
Changes since the last revision are that `Tales from the Jungle' to their
own page, which will be revised seperately(eventually) and I am especially
asking for submissions for this part. The `TFJ' will when time allows
include walk throughs for some scenarios.
The full analysis of the breakdonw of costs for quality cars is now done,
the rest of the manufacturing/hi-tech costs will follow soon (hopefully this
weekend)
The format of this faq/strategy guide is at the moment very flexible. The
layout currently use is to divide it into sections, covering
background and general points,
bugs noted and workarounds,
Cheats and editors,
overall strategies and the
industries in detail.
Finally there will be a section covering
tables and analysis of costs and profits.
Acknowledgements
Major thanks must go to Simon Parkinson (aka Bob Moon), for the provision of
inside information.
Thanks to those people who have sent in comments or followed up my early
posts on the usenet.
Simisle is a CDROM game produced by Intelligent Games and Maxis, my own is
the PC - DOS version though there will be a Mac version , and a Win 95
version ,and it is assumed that the mechanics of all are the same
I have heard that the Win95 version is now out and it includes some changes,
such as extra tutorial scenarios
A full review (by myself) of the DOS version is available from the Games
Domain Review
All copyrights and intelluctual rights of the authors are acknowledged.
Save game files are approx 2-300Kb
The files are sisleX.si
X being 0-7
There are 8 save game slots each of which is numbered and it is possible to
swap these files. Person A's save game 3 transferred to person B's computer
will go to slot 3 unless renamed.
As yet there is no site known to me for the uploading and downloading of
savegame files, if anyone knows better then pass on the information.
Additionally there is an insurance slot sislse99.si which is updated once
per month and is used in cases of a crash to offer the restore game option.
This file is deleted in a clean shutdown
Disasters/events can occur randomly within the game, some can be remedied
fairly easily, others much less so. A full list of the disasters/events are
:-
* Coal mine exploding.
* Air crash.
* Ferry crash.
* Oil tanker spill.
* Refinery leak.
* Leper tanker.
* Earthqauke
* Drug villages.
* An agent being killed in a drug village.
* Ferry crash.
* Shark attack.
* Tiger attack.
* Host a UN Malarky.
* A Large (>220 population) Village Splitting of its own accord.
The game, as a whole, seems to be fairly robust. Minor bugs noted are
1) When reloading a saved game when the music was 'off' it will still play
the fix is to open up the options menu and switch the music on and then off
again.
2) 'Net reports of no visitors at all going to tourist attractions, further
information of the exact circumstances this occurs would be appreciated.
3) Very occasional hanging for no obvious reason.
4) Music 'sticking' and continually replaying the same note. Seems to occur
occasionally when the disc access is heavy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cheats and Editors
There is a program to edit the funds called islehex available from :-
WWW http://www.vcnet.com/jmoore/simstuff.htm
The page is mainatined by Jerry Moore and it is my understanding that he
wrote the program.
Whilst not a cheat per se, merely an exploitable feature, it is possible to
send an explorer into the jungle and send a construction agent to them by
selecting move and then clicking on the explorers face. Then it is possible
to open up the location of the construction site and build any small
buildings eg. sawmill or logging camp.
Cheat codes - these should be entered at the save game dialogue box and then
the game saved :-
Code marksanchovypizza (agents work for free) ragschocolatestash (+5000
food) deesextrapixel (+1000 building materials) iaintestedico (+10000 EMU)
simonschickenkb (+100 heavy machinery, +10 unskilled labor) 3527490 (+10
skilled labor) soggybiscuit cheatingnotme I'll leave it to your conscience
as to weither to use these or not
Overall Strategies
This is a tricky section to deal with as what is right on one island may not
necessarily be so on another, furthermore within each island scenario there
is a degree of randomness about the numbers, types and placement of
discoveries.
One of the first strategies therefore must be to explore thoroughly the
island and let the discoveries mould your general ideas.
Specific "Tales from the Jungle" have been moved to their own page and
currently hsow how scenario 2 can be won in totally differnet ways depending
upon the discoveries present on the island.
Good sources of income early in the game that are easy to set up are:-
1) Ore mine to steel mill which is set to export. With doubled mining
remember to have a 2:1 ratio of unskilled labour in the steel mill as are
mining.
2) Oil Rigs to a chemical plant that is set to export, this however is
unsustainable. Even the Arabs will run out of oil someday, and your little
islands don't have that much oil.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Specific Industries
1. General Points
2. Population
3. Exploration
4. Tourism
5. Forestry
6. Oil
7. Coal and Power
8. Ore/Steel
9. Heavy Industry
10. Manufacturing/Hi-tech
11. Tables
General Points
Labour costs are unskilled 1EMU/worker/day
skilled 2EMU/worker/day
Labour that is not being used does not cost in wages
Money earnt from exporting produce is dependant upon the level of world
opinion. All export revenues quoted later are from a very popular island
that was used as a test bed. Detailed information about the way that the
prices vary will hopefully be included in a future revision.
Industries will search for up to 25 grid squares (including diagonal) for
materials that are needed, except for oil and minerals (ore) where the
distance is 100 grid squares.
Warehouses look a much longer distance (100 ??) for both accepting and
distributing all items. It can therefore be very useful to have a ware house
as an intermediate between the production site and the useage site ie stick
all the heavily polluting industries one one side of the island and have the
cities which are demanding the goods the other.
Within villages the mechanics of the batch train are that the vilage is run
through five succesive train cycles, but if the efficency of the village is
higher than the skill of the ecologist then only one point is added. Ergo it
is beneficial to have as high a skill level as possible for the ecologist.
When a town converts to a city, 4 skilled workers are automatically created.
Additional skilled workers will continue to be created automatically if the
happiness and education levels are high enough.
A city that is sufficently happy provides a good tax return, but a large
unhappy city has to be remedied quickly or else the drain on the coffers
will wreck your plans.
A fishing village produces three times as much food as a farming village of
equal size and efficency.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exploration
Whilst not being an industry per se this seems to be the best section for it
to fit into. The 'range' of an explorer starts off at 5 squares from the
point he/she is sent to, each train then adds a single square to this range.
Fully trained up explorers therefore search a large area each stop.
No exploration is carried out en-route, it is the destination square only
that determines the area to be searched.
Discoveries and Effects
Pot of Cash_____________________Money :-)
Hidden Village__________________A new village
Rare Animal_____________________Game Park can be built
Burial Cave_____________________Tourist Attraction
Ancient City____________________Tourist Attraction
Ancient Temple__________________Tourist Attraction
Ancient Fort____________________Earn double for exported wood
Crashed UFO_____________________Earn Double for all exported cars
Golf Course_____________________Village Happiness + Food Production -
UFO - Doctor Turnip_____________City Happiness + Food Production -
Captain Sprout__________________Secret Agent (99 for everything)
........................Also eliminates effects of Dr.Turnip
Hidden pit with_________________Tourism increased )
Healing Properties................................) These may increase
..................................................) -- tourist happiness
Pile of:-.........................................) to 100%
Oldcastle Brown_________________Tourism increased )
Ale Bottles
There is a large degree of randomness to the discoveries available within
each scenario, however the very last item in each game is 'converted' to
being Captain Sprout. If you have not found him then the island is not
completely explored.
Back to Industries List
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tourist Industry
Tourism is a very useful industry to build up in many scenarios, as it uses
no labour (except the game park) and it has only minimal pollution (that
from the vehicles).
Tourists search 25 squares from the point of entry for a hotel room and then
20 squares from the hotel for attractions, they do tend to prefer to go to
nearer attrcations, though a particularly high excitement will draw them
further afield.
What is the downside then, and in a nutshell it is cost.
Tourists are demanding souls requiring places to stay and excitment, the way
that the industry starts from scratch is an initial pulse of tourists whom
you MUST have the space to accomodate, then a fall off and if they are happy
enough a subsequent climb.
Small caravan parks are the best way to deal with the inital pulse, as when
the fall off occurs hopefully they will still draw in enough people to
remain open. A large hotel even with a 20 rating can close down in this
second stage as I have found often to my cost. :-(
However there still is a need ,if the third stage of climbing is to occur
,for the tourists to be happy. The necessary investment in the industry,
once there are enough rooms for all, needs to be in attractions. In
particular beach attractions are both popular and profitable,as well as
being free to set up, as many of the simtourists are actually simsunseekers.
One plan is to make the beach resorts big enough to cope with the daily
demand and then focus on one or two for a major investment. Build up a stock
of materials (wood) and then send your team to the resort. The team needs
Construction, Local Ecology and Local Culture to allow both resort extension
and excitement increase. The trick then is to juggle an increase in
excitment and the size of the resort such that it is being fully utilised at
the peak of the day ,with few or no spare spaces. A useful rule of thumb
seems to be having the size at twice the excitment.
A size 40 excitment 20 beach resort that is regularly full brings in money
hand over fist due to the number of visitors, the same sims leave and come
back several times during their stay, each time giving you some profit.
Once the resorts are working well then comes the time to invest in the
quality of the hotels, whilst keeping them as small as possible to cope with
peak demand to minimise the risk of closures. If rivals have hotels of high
quality and size it is a better investment to focus on attractions still at
this stage, until the funds are available for a major blitz on hotel quality
to 'steal' , or rather intice away;-) , the rivals clients.
A hotel that has less than 15% occupancy for 60 turns will run the risk of
closing. Conversely a hotel that has an occupancy of 75% or greater has a
chance of expanding.
For points of entry into the tourist paradise, ferry ports seem to be the
preferable option, small airports create rival hotels and attractions and do
not seem to bring in the same number of tourists.
There have been reports on the net of tourists just not visiting attractions
and I have now seen a game where this has happened. Despite being fairly
exciting (10) and with space to spare (size 17), and having the necessary
road connections, no-one visited an attraction over the course of three game
years. In this case I had discovered the 'Pile of Pixels: SimIsle II' which
may or may not have had any bearing. Competitor attractions also had no
visitors at all.
Incr. Excitment_________150_____________(Construction + 100 wood)
Extend___________________50_____________(Construction + 300 wood)
Extending burial caves, however, reduces their excitment
Back to Industries List
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forestry
When posting my tables of manufacturing costs to the Usenet some ideas on
forestry which included were only partially right. The forestry industry
like all industries works on the system of 'cells' of approximately the same
size as those for oil/ore etc.
Within the cell there is no advantage to having more than one logging camp
which when considered with the pollution from the log trucks is another
reason to keep them fairly well seperated. Use of the method noted in the
cheats section to build logging camps in deep jungle is particularly useful
here.
The type of forestry affects the damage to the ecology of the cell, slash
and burn removes all the trees, sustainable 'harvests' every other gid
square with the cell and the trees grow back the quickest. In addition the
ratio of wood to wood waste is the opposite of this, sustainable produces
relatively more wood, slash and burn produces more wood waste. The amount of
trees usefully harvested depends upon the method of forestry. In an
experiment on a known cell, slash and burn harvested only about 100 trees in
clearing the cell, whilst both sustainable and non-sustainable harvested
over 2000 (exact numbers were not recorded)
'Trees' from camps doing different methods are not necessarily the same. One
possible trick that occurs is to build up a large stock at a non-sustainable
camp then convert it to slash and burn to see if this then leads to an
increase in the production of woodwaste.
Labour and Costs
Slash and Burn__________5/tree/day
Non-sustainable_________1/tree/day
Sustainable_____________2/tree/day
Produces________________Wood__________________Wood Waste
Slash and Burn__________0.85/tree_____________2.35/tree
Non-sustainable_________0.85/tree_____________1.1/tree
Sustainable_____________0.4/tree______________0.1/tree
The profitablity of forestry is due to the use of the wood waste, as wood
sells for 1/unit. The best return therefore is -0.15EMU/worker/day
(non-sustainable), however there is a saving in non-sustainable (only) when
compared to the costs of importing wood.
Costs at camp
Change to:-
Slash+burn_______________50_____________(Flora+Forestry)
Non-sustainable_________150_____________(Flora+Forestry)
Sustainable_____________200_____________(Flora+Forestry)
Hire Labour______________40_____________(Employment)
Fire Labour______________10_____________(Employment + Negotiation)
Deconstruct_____________700_____________(Construction)
Costs at Sawmill
Export/Internal___________0_____________(Negotiation)
Import Materials________200_____________(Negotiation)
Deconstruct_____________700_____________(Construction)
Back to Industries List
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oil
There are two useful ways of sending construction agent onto the oil field
(or any other mineral resource)
1) Give a move order directly on the 2D map
2) Right click on the resource on the 2D map which autocentres the isometric
map on the resource and then send the agent to the centre of the display
Oil Rigs produce :
* 1 oil/skilled worker/day normal
* 2 oil/skilled worker/day doubled
Exporting Oil earns 9EMU/unit
Profits from exporting oil are therefore
Costs at Oil Rig
Normal/Double_____________0_____________(Industry)
Hire Worker______________40_____________(Employment)
Fire Worker______________20_____________(Employment+Negotiation)
Extra Tanker____________700_____________(Construction)
Deconstruct____________1000_____________(Construction)
Oil Pump Station
Import/Export_____________0_____________(Negotiation)
Buy Oil_________________900/50__________(Negotiation)
Deconstruct_____________700_____________(Construction)
Chemical Plant
Switch Jobs_____________150_____________(Industry)
Hire Worker______________80_____________(Employment)
Fire Worker______________20_____________(Employment+Negotiation)
Deconstruct_____________700_____________(Constuction)
Back to Industries List
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coal and Power
Coal mines produce
* 1 coal/unskilled worker/day normal
* 2 coal/unskilled worker/day doubled
Power Stations need, at 0 degradation, 1 coal/1000 city population
Wind Farms require 1 Windmill/1000 city population
Nuclear plants require 1 Uranium/ 1000 city population
Exporting coal earns 1EMU/unit
Profit from exports are therefore
* 0.0/unit at normal
* 0.5/unit when doubled
Costs at Mine
Export/Internal use_______________0_____________(Negotiation)
Normal/Double_____________________0_____________(Industry)
Hire Labour______________________80_____________(Employment)
Fire Labour______________________20_____________(Employment+Negotiation)
Deconstruct_____________________700_____________(Construction)
Costs at Power Stations
Deconstruct Power Station_______900_____________(Construction)
Add Uranium_____________________100_____________(Construction)
Deconstruct Nuclear Power_____20000_____________(Construction)
Add Windmill to Wind Farm_______800_____________(Construction + 200 wood)
Deconstruct Wind farm___________900_____________(Construction)
Back to Industries List
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ore and Steel
Ore mines produce as coal
Steel mills convert 1 ore to steel/unskilled/day
Exporting ore earns 1EMU/unit therefore profits are as coal
Exporting steel earns 5/unit
Therefore maximum profits are
* 3.0/unit ore mining at normal
* 3.5/unit ore mining doubled
Transport costs between ore mine and steel mill and any idle time at the
steel mill will reduce these profits from the maximum.
Costs at ore mine are as at coal mine
Costs at steel mill
Hire Worker______________40_____________(Employment)
Fire worker______________10_____________(Employment+Negotiation)
Deconstruct_____________700_____________(Construction)
Back to Industries List
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heavy Industry
Heavy Industry can be used to produce heavy machinery or cheap cars
Requirements are :
* 70 Oil and 100 Ore per Heavy Machinery
* 7 Plastic,70 Ore, 30 Steel and 21 Cheap Manu Goods per cheap car
* (Raw Requirements 525 oil 100 ore 168 wood 84 wood waste)
Total Labour costs for
Heavy Machinery (assuming extraction is doubled)
35 skilled days for oil__________________________70
50 unskilled days for ore________________________50
50 unskilled days to produce_____________________50
TOTAL___________________________________________170 EMU
Assuming 100% efficency at plant. However at:-
__________75% costs become______________________186.67 EMU
__________50%___________________________________220 EMU
__________25%___________________________________320 EMU
Industries may go on strike at low efficencies. The assuption of efficency
was to account for the proportion of time that the workers were standing
idle waiting for item X needed to continue production. Happiness of the
cities may contribute as well.
Importing machinery costs 6000/10 i.e. 600EMU per unit so production is
cheaper than importing
Selling machinery produces 300EMU/unit a profit of 130 EMU at 100%
efficency, becoming a loss of 20EMU/unit at 25% efficency
However for a true comparison the loss of income from the oil and the ore
needs to be taken into account
* 70 units of oil earns (at 9/unit)_______560
* 100 units of ore earns (at 1/unit)______100
Therefore exporting machinery results in a net loss, when compared to
exporting the raw materials, of 290/unit. (Deliberate design policy within
the game)
Cheap Cars (assuming doubled labour where appropriate and non-sustainable
forestry)
262.5 skilled days for oil______________________525 EMU
50 unskilled days for ore________________________50
30 unskilled days for ore - steel________________30
198 unskilled days for wood/woodwaste___________198
250 skilled days for plastic__________________500
120 skilled days for cheap manu goods___________240
35 unskilled days for production_________________35
TOTAL__________________________________________1368
Importing cheap cars costs 40000\10 i.e 4000\unit therefore it seems that
production will be cheaper than importing.
The oil alone would sell for 5025EMU, compared to the export of the car at
2000EMU/unit, so production of cars for export produces a net loss to the
economy
Cheap cars made at a hi-tech plant do, I have been assured make a profit,
the calculations will follow in the appropriate section when done.
Costs at Heavy Industry
Change Job_______________50_____________(Industry)
Hire Unskilled__________150_____________(Employment)
Fire Unskilled__________250_____________(Employment+Negotiation)
Import Heavy Machinery_6000/10__________(Negotiation)
Import Cheap Cars_____40000/10__________(Negotiation)
Deconstruct_____________700_____________(Construction)
Back to Industries List
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturing/Hi-tech
Analysis of Costs
Quality Cars
Require (assuming doubled labour where appropriate and non-sustainable
forestry)
267 skilled mandays for the oil___________523
73 unskilled man days for the ore mining___73
146 unskilled man days for the steel mill____146
286 unskilled man days for the wood______286
(also enough for the wood waste)
445 skilled mandays for the Plastic________890
120 skilled man days for CMG_________240
160 skilled man days for QMG_______320
30 skilled man days for production_____60
Total Labour costs_____________________2538
Importing Quality Cars costs 8000EMU/unit, export earns~4000EMU/unit
Compared to the Cheap Cars at the Heavy industry the toatl Labour cost are
about doubled, but so is the revenue. More net profit can be made by
exporting the oil directly( at ~7EMU/unit, that is ~3500EMU). However with
the discovery of a crashed UFO the export earnings become doubled, and the
export of all cars becomes a big plus to the accounts.
Back to Industries List
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
__Approx_Selling Price___Profit Normal Doubled
Wood_____________1_________________NA__________
Coal/Ore_________1_________________0________0.5
Steel____________5_________________3________3.5
Oil______________9_________________7_______16
Others sell at 50% purchase price
Scenario Information
Scenario....................H Mach....Wood...UnSk......Sk...Cash(x1000)
Buy Out........................13.....1000....20........6......20
Big Ideas.......................0.....2000....60........0......20
Megatropolis....................0.....1000.....0........6......20
Money Spinner..................10.....1000.....0........0......20
Motor City.....................80......300....15.......12......25
Tourist Haven..................25.....1000....20........0......20
Industrialisation...............0......100.....5.......12......50
Drug it up.....................10......100....25.......24......50
Happy Tourist...................0.....1000....15........0......20
Tourism.........................0.....1000....50........4......40
The Development State...........8.....1000.....0........0......10 *
Ripe for Tourists...............8.....1000....20.......16......50
Deforestation..................50.....1000....20........4......25
Underdev. Villages.............50.....1000....15........8......35
Mystic Lines....................0.....1000....25.......12......30
City Blues......................0.....2500....50.......16......25
Bigger and Brighter............50.....1000.....0........0......35
Up for Sale.....................8........0....12.......10......15
Good ol' Boys...................8........0....25.......10......40
Baby Boom......................50.....1000....14.......18......25
Goods a Gogo...................50.....1000.....4........0......35
Land Romp......................50.....1000....50.......10......40
Pollution City.................50......760....50.......32......35
* In the Development State you begin with only one agent - Cap'n Sprout Back
to Industries List
Back to document top Any suggestions revisions corrections or additions
should be sent to me
RJAbbott@its.dundee.ac.uk
Accreditation will be given to any submissions.
