Bay 12 Games Forum

Thanks for the updates fella. Menu quantity prompt bug aside, seems very stable running XP SP2 compatibility on administrator. I did encounter a dead savegame bug where one of my liberals was attacked in the Projects, escaped out the front door, then disappeared from my active liberals list for two days before the Wait a Day option started causing unavoidable CTD. Don't know if that's useful to you or not.

That sounds like a fantastic idea, and there's a lot of things in prison that political activist types do to better themselves. Right now I think events pop up that either wound your character, increase their Juice, and I believe the capacity to learn skills from other criminals. Meeting contacts and sleepers in prison could be useful for a character that picks up a several year sentence. My imagination runs with things like an LCS prison gang opposed to the Conservative Brotherhood prison gang or the Mafia's prison mooks. Not sure if the prison event system could even handle complexities like that, so take those less as suggestions and more as idle thoughts.

Targeted violence sounds like the way to go. It creates a procedure of gameplay through which multiple characters with various skills can excel and contribute to a common goal. Think about it: Let's say you want to commit acts of violence against the Corporation. You would want to go in and steal Secret Corporate Files, publish them, and then when the public is scrutinizing them you come in and start breaking things and shooting people to win the day through the public's very short attention span. Constant and sustained violence would require hackers, sleepers, and skilled thieves to be working constantly alongside journalists to manipulate public opinion in favor of liberal idealisms even though the media are owned by conservatives. Public opinion polls would be much more useful, maybe even necessary.

Now that I think about it, I'm wondering if the news system could be a battleground all to itself. I'm sure that within the context of the game the conservative media establishment would be more than happy to throw its own under the bus in order to draw attention away from issues you've made hot topics in the media. The Corporation might leak Evidence of Church Corruption to take attention off of itself, or the AM Radio Station could run a news story on corruption within a petty liberal business or institution like the Latte Stand that actively turns public opinion against liberalism. Turning conservatives against eachother temporarily to save their own skin would be a great liberal victory for the LCS! Maybe it'd give you free license to attack a new target instead of the one you had intended too. Bonus points for the Liberal Guardian's monthly publishing being the limiting factor in violence. (I'm not sure how these things work so please don't take offense if I'm spouting off about things I clearly have very little understanding of.)

I'm not quite sure the LCS would have ethical limitations in regard to genetic experiments. They don't have ethical problems buying up AK47s illegally, gunning down crowds of people, or kidnapping then brainwashing via savage beatings and mind bending drugs. LCS are very much pragmatic hypocrites convinced of their own utter righteousness and the endgame of genetic experimentation is something extremely liberal: engineering people so there is no significant differences between anyone, and things like skin color or race would be regarded as entirely cosmetic since everyone's a post-human. Forcing equality on everybody is clearly the most liberal thing there is. But then this is your LCS in your mod, so they are whatever you want 'em to be. Cheers.

At the moment, no, cops aim for the chest and death squads for the head. I might make SWAT aim for the legs.

My understanding of police procedure is that cops aim for the largest target (the torso) because if they're using guns, they're past the point of attempting non-lethal force. Part of this is because there is no "safe" part of the human body where you can shoot without killing someone. There are important blood vessels everywhere.

Also, this is Liberal Crime Squad. The cops are Conservative - they're supposed to be the bad guys. I suppose I might make police negotiators aim for the legs when they have to use their guns, and I suppose maybe also Amerindian police, but they're the only ones.

By and large shooters are trained to aim for the center of the mass. Aiming for the head or legs is very much a videogame and movie thing. LCS is a videogame and a fairly zany one at that so it fits. If I were feeling daring I'd suggest "Shoot to Kill" and "Shoot to Wound" instead of Aim for Head or Aim for Legs but that would look really weird with melee weapons and it's probably hard coded to use the same menu options. Maybe a combination, Aim to Kill or Aim to Wound. It's a shame LCS doesn't have comprehensive damage tracking like DF. It would go a long way toward keeping Murder charges from racking up and maybe dial down the effectiveness of mass shootings in-game. The presence of EMTs and hospitals seems to be nonexistent within the game mechanics. Maybe that should change at some point, or at least get mentioned in newspapers.

Oh and on the topic of cops as conservatives within the context of the game that may not be entirely true on a situational basis. Keep in mind that the average beat cop could be liberal, and is only chasing or engaging your liberals because they broke the liberal laws. A Deathsquad is most surely conservative, but police or even SWAT responding to a crisis or pursuing a criminal are not necessarily. Having normal cops shoot to wound makes sense in my opinion. Especially since running from normal cops can very often result in death for poorly trained liberals and early game founders. Being shot in the back and killed by a cop for setting off a car alarm and running is a little strange, yeah? Deathsquads or Gang Units maybe, but normal Cops?

The prison system should see a bit more use I think. I don't interact with it much because my liberals usually get killed in gunfights or running from cops rather than arrested. In fact, it's preferable that way since they can't rat you out if they're dead and a lot of times they're facing execution if caught and imprisoned. Low Heart liberals being captured can have serious consequences so it may act as a balancing mechanism for violence to up the survival rate on getting shot or police encounters in general. Early game TV tends to skew toward Arch-Conservative and Deathsquads within the first 5-8 years anyway. If the game's going to bust your founder it should do it before minor crimes are answered with the death penalty.

We miss you Suds. Come back to us.

With the separation of movement and attack speed being implemented does that also mean that Crossbow and Bow Users no longer stand planted in one spot while "reloading" their weapon? For example: Can an archer knock a new arrow while moving? If so is there a stat penalty or skill roll associated?

According to the 2/17/2014 Devblog post:

So you could throw a head into a room to freak people out, which is cool, but you can also throw a single tooth, and it would work too, if the person is dead. And if you drop a tooth from a bar fight in a different room with some relatives, nobody will care, but if you later go and kill the former owner of the tooth, then you'll hear people cry out in the distance as long as they are still on the map, since they'll suddenly recognize the tooth as belonging to somebody deceased. That's okay, as far as we need it to work for now.

Will creatures react emotionally to butchery returns as if it were a piece of a dead creature's corpse? Can I butcher a historical Giant Dingo, eat it, and throw its heart onto a table in a tavern to show everyone it is dead?

I shall construct a great Ziggurat. At the apex of this Ziggurat shall be the entrance to a staircase. The staircase will lead to a winding catwalk tour of the cavern layers deep into the world. Far below the Ziggurat, just above the magma sea, will be a Great Arena built with many pitfalls and dangers. The greatest engravers shall line its walls with the majesty and glory of my people and the greatest mechanics will create instruments of death that will honor our ingenuity. I shall create various challenges for any siegers who challenge the arena.

I will name both the Ziggurat and Arena "Armok's Hammer" in honor of whom it was built to please. It will be populated by crundles with "Trap door" bridges holding cells full of war dogs and giant cave spiders. Cells holding giant animals I have bartered from filthy elves shall also play an integral part of the ritual. Like the goblins they play their part in the completion of The Hammering. If the elves find war with me more favorable than trade they will come as challengers themselves. I'm sure a horde of naked emaciated elves would serve as a good warm up for any army of goblins looking to seek their glory. I will not allow the challengers to face too much more than they could conceivably handle.

The final challenges shall be forgotten beasts isolated on a far platform by a center platform with drawbridges on either side. When the drawbridges lower the forgotten beast will be loosed onto the challengers. Should they slay the great beasts they will prove themselves worthy of Armok's favor. The Ziggurat constructed above will be dropped on The Arena and all inside will be crushed to dust by the Wrath of God.

Our children and their children will rebuild this Temple until this world is shattered and forged anew. Blood must flow without end or life will cease to be. Armok be praised.

Cheers and thanks for the reply Toady.

I wondered about that actually, the Gray Goo thing threw me off. Very peculiar thing, those demon sites; Toady, you certainly have done a good job teasing us, for those and in general.

I wonder what those items are...

Various pointy objects with with few peaceful uses, no doubt.