My issue against Docks is that they don't function how it seems logically they should, and that (dis)functionality effectively pigeon-holes and restricts imports to only high-cost goods.


My expectation was that Teamsters would bring goods to the nearest Dock, but they don't. Instead, they bring them to whichever dock has the lowest quantity of that good in storage -- even if that Dock happens to be on the opposite side of the map.

Please change it so Teamsters bring goods from the production building to the Dock nearest it.


I expected additional Docks to increase the nation's import capabilities, but all they do is distribute the same fixed, maximum import quantity across all of the Docks.

If Tropico has only one Dock, its one freighter will import only 1000 quantity of each contracted good. If there are two separate contracts for the same good, only one will be filled at a time.

For each additional Dock, each additional freighter simply imports a lower quantity proportional to the number of Docks: 1 / n, where n is the number of Docks ... 1000, 500, 333, 250, etc.

At maximum efficiency, three freighters will dock each year. This means the maximum import quantity of any good is 3000 per year.

This causes the next issue:


Since Tropico can only import a maximum of 3000 quantity of any particular good each year, importing inexpensive goods takes FOREVER.

(For example, an import contract for 311,000 Cotton takes 104 years to fulfill!)

Please change how imports are balanced and/or allow each additional Dock to increase the import capacity of Tropico.


I understand the need to balance import quantities. After all, even at a scant 5% margin, being able to import/export 100k of each luxury good each year would trivialize the economy and break a major aspect of the game entirely.

However, by limiting imports, a hard cap has been created on how many finished goods Tropico can produce when its raw goods must be imported.

So, creating an industry-centered export economy based on raw goods import (such as on infertile islands like "Pirate King") is basically impossible.

Specifically, I recommend re-balancing import quantities to scale relative to the most expensive good. For example:

Import_Quantity = ( Base_Cost_Of_Most_Expensive_Good / Base_Cost_Of_Imported_Good ) * 1000

So, one could import per "trip", 1000 Boats, 1143 Cars, 2580 Furniture ... all the way down to 42667 Hides.

This would also be limited to 10k per ship, so multiple Docks would be required to receive huge contracts on cheap goods.

Rebalancing Docks would open up an entirely different way to play this game. It would also allow superpowers to offer fewer trade options and enable players to more strategically negotiate their contracts and relationships. (Gone would be the meta-strategy of importing luxury goods at -15% and then exporting them right back to the same nation at +20%.)