Monopoly Tycoon Unofficial Strategy Guide and FAQ by Kasey Chang released February 9, 2003 0 Introduction 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. --THE END--