Bay 12 Games Forum

Or games that, despite appearing to be stupid dumbness-incuding entertainment, turned out ot make you smarter in some respect.

My TOP 7:

* Age of Empires (despite the fair amount of dramatization, the game works well for teaching the general image of some historic events)
* Settlers (the game is very similar to QAP and other such optimization tasks)
* Civilization (the reason I knew more about politics, science and wonders of the world than the other kids)
* SimCity (or how taxation works)
* Dwarf Fortress ("seriously K, how do you know all these alloys?")
* Heroes of Might and Magic, NetHack (all the important mythologic creatures)
* Liberal Crime Squad (the reason I know more than my friends about American decisionmaking)

This RTD is based on Liberal Crime Squad, an excellent Bay 12 game. Knowledge of the game is helpful but not necessary.





- The squad also needs a slogan - a short verbal manifestation of the Liberal Agenda. You'll have to decide this as a team.
- One slot is reserved for lawastooshort, otherwise I'll just put people in in the order of signup.
- To keep the game manageable, the amount of simultaneous players is the maximum Squad size in LCS - six flexible.
- I haven't hosted any RTDs in ages, so pardonnez-moi for any mistakes I may make
- Roleplay in the usual way - RP parts in bold, other stuff in regular.
- Remember - at all times, be LIBERAL! Failure to be Liberal may lead to nasty consequences.
- if you're interested in LCS, check the links in my sig or just go make yourself known in the Curses subforum
- I'm a busy man and live in an East European Timezone, so updates may be infrequent and incompatible with your daily life. In the event I'll have stop hosting completely, I'll try to inform you though.

People in so far:
* lawastooshort
* Darvi
* Ahra
* Toaster
* Azkul
* Krath
* Geen
* Spaghetti7

While I defend my forts vigorously and have thick trap corridors, drawbridges and such, a few dwarves tend to die each time for reasons I don't fully understand. I don't usually savescum, but an interesting scenario happened... this fort's second siege came almost right after the first one (first one was Autumn, just after dwarven caravan and the next one was winter and left just before the elves came), and it seemed that my dwarves were actively trying to kill the entire fort this time round.

First try: After the first siege, I had ordered my dwarves to finish construction of a "box" next to (but outside) my wall. Because I had assumed the interval between the sieges to be longer, I finished the underground connection to my fort proper and de-suspended all the wall jobs that had been suspended because of the last siege). For some reason, the dwarves refused to build the final missing piece of wall (a corner block - I checked burrows and everything, but it wasn't being built). All my masons were just idling, and when the siege came surprisingly early, I hastily tried to block the tunnels, but to no avail. Cursing the stupid Urist McMason to Hidden Fun Place, I decided to reload and see if they'd build the wall this time around.

Second try: This time, the dwarves finished the box in time. The siege came, and the fastest ones were caught in my cage traps. A few of my dwarves went in to reload the traps, but a marksgoblin started firing at them. No biggie, my dwarves realized to stay well away. All except for Urist McSuicidalLegendaryDwarf who just stood there with cage in one hand and, soon enough, his chest full of silver crossbow bolts. Cursing his idiocy, I decided to try just one more time.

Third try: This one requires more background information - I was a bit short on food because of a bit of miscalculation on my part, so my dwarves were harvesting plants outside. Most of the plants were gathered by the arrival of the siege, with only a few shrubs designated as it came. Right after the announcement I removed the plant designations and activated the alert so they'd return inside. And yet, a few brave idiots who already were inside safely went out for no clear reason ("No job", even!) and promptly got slaughtered. I found this one funny enough to keep playing though, but...

...

What exactly about sieges makes dwarves want to kill themselves and each other?

Travel mode stops, I get returned to the normal map, with a message that "I feel uneasy". I'm standing in a dried out pool and can't get out. Travelling doesn't work either (You don't feel safe enough blah blah). HELP!

EDIT: Nevermind. Sneak + travel worked for some reason. However, I'd like to know what caused this and how is one supposed to escape pits anyway.

I played adventure mode yesterday. I started from a civilization that inhabited a large island (perhaps a continent?) in the north. Usually the towns I see in adventure mode have been 3-15 sites big, but this one... sorry, I can't get a screenshot now, but it's a lump of about 100 sites if not more. Never seen one that large (although I'm a newish player, so it may be more common).

Is this kind of town bloat caused by the isolationist nature of the civilization (no other civ on the same continent)?

The title describes a condition that sucks.

My father is among the first vocationally qualified programmers in Finland. As a result, I've always known a lot about computers. My father taught me to use DOS, he showed me Windows, he let me experiment and even taught me some programming. Then, after comprehensive school, I graduated with the same vocational qualification as my father and am now studying Computer Science at the University. No wonder why my real life friends consider me a geek (positive sense) - especially since some of my closest friends have luddite parents who fear or dislike computers for whatever reason.

Now, into the part where it sucks. I'm the helpdesk of dozens of people. Everyone expects me to know everything and be capable of miracles. Even worse is when they still don't believe me ("what do you mean, why can't I back up everything on my C: drive just in case?"). I'm a student and don't have much free-time: I could request payment for reinstalling operating systems and cleaning up trojans, but requesting compensation from friends would be against custom (especially if the compensation is money, but trading favors is an exception). If I don't help, I'll get a very bad conscience (especially since one of the least computer-skilled friends I have tends to mutter about the rates of computer repair companies he frequents) and if I do help, I'll end up doing several hours of unpaid work simply because people *won't* learn to do even simple stuff (installing a program or changing the resolution) by themselves.

I know these forums are frequented by various geeks. How have you managed situations like these?

While I haven't had any problems with burial tombs yet, I was wondering if the space used by coffins and tombs could be recycled. If I at first place the corpses in coffins, but dump the bodies in magma a few years afterwards, will I have problems with ghosts?

Kidnapping people is a big part of many LCS strategies. It's difficult to reveal CCS safehouses without kidnapping on site or on date (I think successful dating would also do the trick though). However, most CCS characters and other armed conservatives can't be kidnapped until they're very low in health, making datenapping mandatory. And datenapping always has a chance of going awry...

I suggest that the on-site kidnap option, instead of giving the "All the targets are too dangerous" message, would have the Liberals attack the target until he's ready for kidnapping, at which point the attacks cease and the intended kidnapper snatches the target. This would require confirmation ("Pounce at 'em?") and could result in accidental death (but would be less likely, as the enemy would not be subjected to a whole round of attacks) or, even worse, the enemy remaining in fighting condition.

Whaddya say?