(Disclaimer: I expect none of these to see the light of day, and you've probably seen them all, anyway. Just throwin' 'em out there.)
1. Useful Loot -- To put it bluntly, there's no real reason to steal besides for money in the very beginning, both for vanilla LCS and the current alpha. My suggestion? Make loot physically useful. F'rex, require computers stashed at the location to hack. Since you're toying with a "groups" dynamic already, this would tie in well-- I'm sure the Liberal Guardian would enjoy a donation of new computers, printers, and a few suits to boot. This also can be used to make sieges more interesting. I have a full item list with possible uses somewhere if you're interested.
2. Black Market Arms -- As far as I can tell, one really has no option besides stockpiling a major arsenal ASAP if they want to have decent guns later on. This makes no sense in either real life or the game world. After all, if the freaking LCS is running around, you know arms dealers are too.
3. Lower the main character's starting stats. 20 is too much-- It makes him almost superhuman, and better than pretty much anything you're going to recruit barring Agents. Maybe drop it to 15ish?
4. "Targets of Opportunity" -- Maybe the president's passing through town on a pre-determined route, or a state senator's going to be at X place at Y time with low security. Maybe there's an open test of a new military technology that could be wrecked, or maybe there's a large-scale natural disaster to make press off of. Regardless, shit happens. The LCS world seems a bit static for a game about massive sociopolitical change. A few random targets of opportunity with player input would help a lot. The thing is, it doesn't require much-- I'm not talking about randomly generating a new location to use, I'm talking about giving a pop-up with choices of action and associated costs/effects from time to time.
1. Useful loot has been suggested I think. The actual use of loot isn't really money per se but getting more crimes committed at the site. Its not obvious but the more you do at a site that gets in the paper, the more it influences people. If you run in and steal a T.V., it doesn't really do much. If instead you go in steal everything that isn't nailed down, bust down every door in your way and some that aren't, and kill a couple dozen conservatives, you really convince people that your right.
2. Black markets are a great idea. I think once the other groups get added in we'll see something similar to this represented by the other groups.
3. Your supposed to be good. The idea is to give you an incentive to risk your leader. If he sucked would you really use him for anything more then initial recruiting. He's a front line fighter who can stand toe to toe with the nastiest conservatives and win, at least until a lowly security guard gets a lucky head shot in.
4. Great idea but could be tricky to implement. More randomness is always good.
quote:
Originally posted by beorn080:
<STRONG>4. Great idea but could be tricky to implement. More randomness is always good.</STRONG>
something like that.
quote:
Originally posted by beorn080:
<STRONG>until a lowly security guard gets a lucky head shot in.</STRONG>
This is why I never use my leader anymore for anything dangerous. You don't exactly have fate points or anything to save yourself from a shit roll, so you probably shouldn't roll any more than necessary.
2. Yes! This has been on my personal to-do list for awhile now. Black market would have much higher (2-5 times higher!) prices, but would provide illegal equipment. So legal guns mean cheaper guns, but if you're willing to pay premium, you can always have them smuggled in.
3. Your starting skills are definitely much higher than most people, and you even start with higher physical attributes that characters naturally are capable of, which mean your character is inherently better, not just more skilled. You're supposed to feel stronger than other characters in the field you specialize in. If you choose a sneaky rogue build, you can make your founder into the the best infiltrator out there. If you choose a violent combat build, you can make your founder into the best fighter out there. The broad initial skill set doesn't make the game easy, but it does help to give you a head start.
4. This is doable and a good idea, it's just a question of having time for it.
quote:
Originally posted by Earthquake Damage:
<STRONG>This is why I never use my leader anymore for anything dangerous. You don't exactly have fate points or anything to save yourself from a shit roll, so you probably shouldn't roll any more than necessary.</STRONG>
Any ideas on how to change this? It's fine to keep your leader hidden in a bunker, but I want to make it easier to have them out and about more at less risk.
If cyberpunk features like implants are ever added to LCS, they should phase in gradually as the years progress. So maybe there's something really basic available in 2020, but by 2050 there're quite a few gadgets around. Naturally, your enemies would have access to the same wacky technology (if not more?).
Dodging ability based on juice is a fair idea. Rather than base it on your "level" (Activist, Revolutionary, Elite Liberal), it might make more sense to use some sort of logarithmic or Fibonacci scale since, in theory, you could be running around with over 9000 juice (or is there a cap? I'm not sure).
Having a character's subordinates soak blows for them would be pretty cool, though it'd be best to limit it to critical hits (organ damage, etc) and mortal wounds (maybe include a hit that would cause bleeding). Thus lackeys can keep your VIPs alive, but won't protect them every time they stub their toes. Naturally, you'd have to reroll the damage when someone does defend their leader since they'd have to be awfully talented (not to mention crazy) to block a heart shot with their own heart.
Also, bullet catching should be filed under dodging as cool flavor text that starts to appear when high juice characters dodge successfully.
[ February 08, 2008: Message edited by: Earthquake Damage ]
Or another idea: each level (Revolutionary, Activist) gives 2 or 3 rounds of "Adrenaline" so that you can't go die while on site until it runs out, but will instead hover at NearDETH and refuse to go down from (non-critical) damage. Basically gives you the choice of Scarface-ing down a horde of enemies with your last moments or escaping to fight another day. You could even have this do permenant stat damage for every couple of rounds of Adrenaline usage.
Billy Bob Baird shoots at Police Officer with a AK47!
Billy Bob Baird JUMPS IN FRONT OF THE ATTACK!
Billy Bob Baird hits the body twice.
Billy Bob Baird cries silently for mother,
breathing slowly, then not at all.
Nobody can carry Martyr Billy Bob Baird.
C - Reflect on your Conservative ineptitude
It has me wondering, though: From my reading of the code, it becomes fully automatic once your leader has a certain juice, and as long as you have party members with high enough stats (modified by juice).
Now, if I remember how sieges work, you get to keep replacing dead party members with others as they go down. So I assume that means that a high-juice leader is practically invincible to a base raid (where subordinates are replaced automatically), so long as you don't run out of decent fodder. Is that intentional, or unbalanced?
It also seems to always go in order, so I'm assuming you can choose who will take bullets for you by changing the party order, rather than a random (qualified) party member taking the bullet. Same question applies here.
[ February 14, 2008: Message edited by: Wisq ]
Edit: Bear in mind that high juice leaders don't get hit for >10 damage to the head or body very frequently. Their high agility and health play a big role in reducing damage below that level. If it's a dismembering blow to the arm, or even a glancing blow to the head, they can't get someone jumping in the way. It only kicks in for hits that could potentially kill the leader, or give them a crippling hit, like heart blasted or lung pierced.
[ February 14, 2008: Message edited by: Jonathan S. Fox ]
Please PM me some strategy if you can get super liberals!
quote:
Originally posted by Wisq:
<STRONG>I'd answer, but with all my reading the source code and answering questions, I'm starting to feel like I'm just sitting here spoiling all the surprise for everyone. :( Let me know if I'm wrong. :( )[ February 15, 2008: Message edited by: a1s ]
I started my current game before the "jump in front of your leader" patch, and my primary goal was to keep my leader alive -- and squeaky-clean. This strategy relies on never committing a crime, and never letting anyone get arrested. It doesn't matter how many people die under your command -- if they never wind up in prison, you're safe.
Meanwhile, I've got a judge teaching law to my leader, so by the time I slip up and go to court, I can defend myself without trouble. Key things to avoid until then: I don't teach criminals; it makes me one. I don't let anyone under me do a non-interactive crime -- no selling brownies, no activism, no sweatshop workers. I never let anyone give up to the cops, no matter how good they are -- better to fight their way to martyrdom, even naked and unarmed, than to get arrested and risk a confession.
Recruiting is a very fast way to get to 50 juice points. Once you hit that, you have a +2 bonus to all stats. This is a waste of time for my gangsters, who can get to 50 almost before they're recruited, but it's a good way to give the leader a running start, and much safer than starting from 0.
If you're ready to begin murdering people, I hear the best place to get juice is the aptly-named Juice Bar -- there are lots of mostly-unarmed conservatives to hunt.
If you have a decent team of cop-killing thugs and want to take a run at something bigger, date someone from a building so you get a map of the whole facility. I dated a liberal judge, and got a full map of the courthouse. Once I had that, I could see where all the loot and action-points were, and could very efficiently run through the place grabbing anything that wasn't nailed down.
Eventually, the "MASSIVE CONSERVATIVE RESPONSE" (MCR) showed up -- which was great for me, because it meant I stopped having to battle security guards. I looted the entire place, slipped past the MCR (probably because they stepped onto my old square just as I stepped onto theirs!), and only had to shoot a single cop to escape at the end.
Yeah, I got lucky, but I wasn't risking my leader. With a skilled group of thugs, my leader should be very easy to keep safe -- I'll put myself at the top of the group so I always get the first attack, and then anyone I don't hurt/kill, they'll finish off. And if anyone actually hits me, any one of my team will be glad to take the bullet for me.
With the "jump in front" patch, it should be a lot easier to keep your leader safe, so long as you ensure your thugs have high heart and agility. To get their heart up (and wisdom down), always have them do both community service and activism before you recruit them.
If the patch had been in place when I started, I think I would've just gone out and tried pure thuggery -- and it's very likely I'd be the one with 250+ juice now, not my goon squad. :D
1) Riots -- If a high popularity, ultra-violent LCS nails a target when interest in said target is high, shouldn't there be a small chance for the public to openly riot? (Tensions breaking from a sharp, sudden blow to the normal state of affairs.)
In regards to how this could be implemented, one could go all the way from having a one-time site that's permenantly on "Massive Conservative Response", a lot of loot, and general anarchy, to just an event window that pops up with various courses of action that cost different amount of money/selected liberals to disappear from the LCS for a few days while they ride the wave and keep the riots going.
2) Re: Tanks, it's possible to disable them without blowing them up IRL. Even modern tanks can be stopped by small arms fire/small explosions (as in molotov cocktails)-- Treads (on older models mostly), sensors, and weapons systems can all be disabled with a little luck, which leaves the crew (while perfectly safe) trapped, unless they want to come out and try to fight their way some hardasses that disabled a tank while on foot. Just something to think about.
3) CIA interaction. Once you piss them off, they keep coming-- Why not bring the fight to them until the point where it's more profitable to just settle with the LCS? Again, this could be implimented at almost any level of complexity.
4) Corruption. Being able to bribe cops/CIA agents/etc. to act as one-off Sleepers/etc. (or "contacts") would be awesome. This, however, would have to be complex, and would be a bitch to add in-- It's just a pipe dream, really.
Currently, if I have hackers (for lack of a shorter term than 'programmer') poll for opinions, they give me one poll result per hacker, the results can overlap in terms of topics, it's up to me to remember them between reports, and if I want more exact figures, it's up to me to average or deduce them. (Obviously, if the polls are accurate to within +/- 4 points, and I see a 68 and a 60, then the exact answer is 64. Not that it matters that much.)
My hackers also stop collecting opinions at that point, so I either have to reassign them all back to it, or I have to do what I actually did, and comment out line 570 of daily/daily.cpp. :)
Edit: Alternatively, turn the whole report into something you call up on demand, like the 'L' agenda status screen. The hackers would just be working in the background to keep it current, similar to how the Dwarf Fortress bookkeeper keeps the stock counts accurate.
[ February 16, 2008: Message edited by: Wisq ]
quote:
Originally posted by Mercutio Valentine:
<STRONG>2) Re: Tanks, it's possible to disable them without blowing them up IRL. Even modern tanks can be stopped by small arms fire/small explosions (as in molotov cocktails)-- Treads (on older models mostly), sensors, and weapons systems can all be disabled with a little luck, which leaves the crew (while perfectly safe) trapped, unless they want to come out and try to fight their way some hardasses that disabled a tank while on foot. Just something to think about.</STRONG>
There are ways to disable them, but not the way you're thinking. Small arms fire isn't going to do anything to a modern tank except draw attention, and from what I hear, molotov fuel is better used against the tank's ventilation system than against the body.
Reportedly, one very effective disabling tactic uses something we already have in-game -- spraypaint. Distract the tank, then have some daring militant get on it and spray over all the viewing ports. With no ability to see, the tank has to either retreat (and hope they don't crash into stuff), turn out (and get shot), or be vulnerable to attacks against its other systems.
The joint between the tank and turret is one of the most vulnerable spots, enough so that the Israeli tanks feature hanging balls-on-chains behind the turret (that look somewhat like a fancy middle eastern headdress). :) The intent is to prematurely detonate inbound rockets before they hit the joint.
Ultimately, even though it takes some serious guts and cunning to take on a tank up close, a tank without proper infantry cover is still pretty vulnerable. There should be ways to at least make it retreat, if not disable it outright.
Once disabled, there are probably a few different ways to harm the crew, too -- and if that gets you even more publicity but takes a few combat turns to do, then it becomes a cost-to-benefit action.
quote:
Originally posted by beorn080:
<STRONG>The way you described it was the same as it previously was. Still the showing the changes day to day would be helpful I think.</STRONG>
Really? Maybe I didn't check for opinions in the old version, but I always remembered it as being "<so> searches for opinions" and then getting a report... then a few more actions (like repairing clothes), then another "<so> searches for opinions", etc.
Also, when you free prisoners from the lock-up and then talk to them, you can get a pretty funny dialogue:
quote:
Jun Galindo says,
"The police regularly torture minority suspects during interrogations."
Prisoner responds,
"Only criminals have reason to fear police." <turns>
I know it's a pretty minor case, but it might be worth a quick profession check there and a different message like "Yeah, and I'm going clean, so leave me alone" or something. ;)
quote:
Originally posted by beorn080:
<STRONG>Also if a tank has no support and is sealed it is actually extremely vulnerable to infantry sneaking up on it. It is possible to destroy a tank by firing a round down its cannon while it has an HE round loaded. </STRONG>
I want to have riots in eventually. Extremely high encounter rate, Liberals in the encounter actually attacking Conservatives, Conservatives randomly fighting back or running away like moderates and Liberals do during alarm now. I would imagine the trigger mechanism for this would involve high interest, an LCS action, and the law on this subject being extremely Conservative.
Tanks:
Eventually I want both molotovs and anti-tank rockets. Anti-tank rockets wouldn't come from the pawn shop -- they would require access to smuggling (the marketplace for illegal weapons) and be extremely expensive, both for the launcher, and for ammunition. They would be one shot per "clip". Molotovs would be a weapon in themselves and would be expended once thrown -- they would have to be manually reloaded. The LCS could make them at any safehouse. The game would have to handle spreading fire before this point. Molotovs wouldn't be able to destroy tanks, but they could cripple them and potentially drive the crew out.
CIA Negotiations:
Once we have negotiators from different groups showing up to talk to you, it'll be straightforward to enable the CIA to eventually come to a settlement with you.
Bribery:
I would like for you to be able to bribe leading figures in particular. At the moment, there aren't any leading figures. Easier would be to allow you to bribe kidnapped persons to act as a sleeper for you even if they don't agree with you. You'd have to pay them monthly, presumably, or they'd rat you out. By this point, I would want two things enabled: Telling sleepers to quit their jobs and come back to work as a normal squaddie, and assassinating your own sleepers if needed.
Polls:
My long term thoughts on polls are to have polls taken weekly or monthly in the background, and have a history of the last 48 polls or so. This would be a fairly large chunk and it would grow the save file considerably, but it wouldn't be too hard to implement. Checking polls will be a page in the Liberal Agenda screen, and you'll get a list of the last percentages, and then be able to select one of them to go into the history and view the previous points on a scatter plot over time.
quote:
Originally posted by Jonathan S. Fox:
<STRONG>Billy Bob Baird shoots at Police Officer with a AK47!
Billy Bob Baird JUMPS IN FRONT OF THE ATTACK!
Billy Bob Baird hits the body twice.
Billy Bob Baird cries silently for mother,
breathing slowly, then not at all.
Nobody can carry Martyr Billy Bob Baird.
C - Reflect on your Conservative ineptitude</STRONG>
Sigged. Anyway, on the topic of suggestions, I'd like the ability to recruit liberals off the street, and turn them into sleeper agents. It's only logical that someone already liberal would be happy to influence society more. Either that, or being able to kidnap existing liberals and sleeper them easier would be fun, IMO.
Just my two cents.
quote:
Originally posted by Sithlordz:
<STRONG>Sigged. Anyway, on the topic of suggestions, I'd like the ability to recruit liberals off the street, and turn them into sleeper agents. It's only logical that someone already liberal would be happy to influence society more. Either that, or being able to kidnap existing liberals and sleeper them easier would be fun, IMO.
Just my two cents.</STRONG>
Alas, sleeper agents represent moles on the inside of Conservative society. A lifelong Liberal has no place in such dark company.
There was the idea of being able to plant your people as sleepers by having them apply for jobs, having it be risky, no criminal record, need minimum wisdom to convince them you're real, etc... as long as there's a mechanic for it, and a justification, I'm not 100% opposed to the idea. But the way sleepers work now, it's not presently reasonable to make Liberal recruits into sleepers. I might pick this idea back up when sleepers are more risky though.
quote:
Originally posted by Sithlordz:
<STRONG>being able to kidnap existing liberals and sleeper them easier would be fun, IMO.</STRONG>
enter interrogator
interrogator:Microsoft! he hits young man
young man: ow! what was that for?
interrogator: Microsoft!
young man: ow. why do you keep saying that?
interrogator:because Microsoft is evil.
young man: ow. I know. I use Linux. and Open Office.
interrogator: oh... he pauses his rhythmic punches... well then
interrogator:L'Oreal!
young man:I'm a man.
interrogator:Ford?
young man: devoted bus user.
interrogator:well... um... McDonalds?
young man:not really.
interrogator:I think we should talk about liberal politics.
young man:does that involve hitting me?
interrogator:no.
young man:great. I support the green party, who did you vote for?
interrogator: well actually... I was busy trashing the police station.
young man:then you are responsible for the current oppressive regime!
interrogator:I... I have to go.
exit interrogator
after a few seconds young man shrugs, and starts humming some obscure tune
One other thing, shouldn't Mithril Mail be capable of absorbing more damage? I mean, if it's really mithril..
[ February 18, 2008: Message edited by: Sithlordz ]