Tropico 5: Random Helpful Information

There are a few tidbits in Tropico 5 that will make the game much easier to play. Unfortunately, not all of this information is given in the tutorial. I will try to update this article if additional problems and solutions are found.

The Trouble with buildings – update 6/14

Plantations allow you to build over certain areas that already have buildings, you just lose plots to the plantation. The downside is, when a tornado or earthquake rolls through, you won’t be able to rebuild the plantation or the building your plantation plots were surrounding. Not sure if this is a new problem, it just started happening in my games.

How to rotate the camera – update 6/14

The option has been added to bind your own keys for rotating the camera. Now if we could only get the ability to bind keys for rotating buildings while placing them to build.

The first time I got a natural disaster, it rotated my camera to show me the worst possible destruction. Afterwards, I was left with a screen I had no idea how to adjust. There are several options to move the screen back the way you prefer or to angle around the hills that might block your view. The Zoom wheel will always zoom in and out of the screen for you normally.

ALT+Move the Mouse

ALT+Arrow keys

I prefer the second method because it seems to be the only way you can change the angle at which you are looking at the island.

Save Game Issues

I have saved a few games by overwriting the old game of the same name. I haven’t had any luck ever finding these games again. All the work lost. I suggest always saving a new name each time you want to save again.

How to Zoom while building

When you are trying to build a building the scroll wheel becomes a wheel that rotates the way your building will be placed. Just press ALT while using the scroll wheel. It will zoom in and out as normal.

How to find Windowed mode.

Already explained by TiquorSJ, you can find windowed mode by going all the way through your resolution options until you reach the end. There will be a Window option as the last choice.

How to keep your teamsters from shipping important goods. 

Once you progress into the later eras, you may find that some of your factories and power plants aren’t producing because the raw goods needed to fuel them are going to your docks instead and being shipped away. You will need to remove all the roads connected to a dock from the factories. This means you might as well build your factories right next to the source. If you ever end up with a “storage full” message because your raw materials production backed up, you will just need to add a road for a short time to offload the extras. I created a video to explain this option a little more clearly.