Bay 12 Games Forum

In the "stabile" release, it may happen, that game crashes during elections. Why does this happen ?

After looking at POLITICS.CPP, the line 575 looks suspicious, as it accesses the array canlaw[] without verifying, that its size is nonzero. The algorithm from lines 561 to 565 may produce this result, if all priorities are zero. The acces, to an uninitialized memory location in canlaw[] may read a value, that is out of range in the law array (assuming int is 32bit VERY MUCH out of range). The actual change of the law then causes acces out of the array with the laws. Appearendly, the C-compiler inserts a BOUND instruction before accesing the array, that results in the processor generated interrupt number 5, that has no handler inside LCS and is intecepted by the operation system.

If this assumtion were true, the following questions rise :
* Why does it happen so deterministic ? If you start the game again, the RND should return different values for the mood (lines 534-537), so it shouldn't happen, that it is unavoidable.
* Is it possible to change this in the single day, you have before the elections ? I tried, to raid a location and burn a flag, but it didn't work.
* Is it possible to avoid this by commiting certain actions on the days, before the elections (for example raiding the court hous to affect free speech ?)
* Is there a way, to see it coming from public opinion ? (for example people concerned about CCS terrorists, as there is no law about them)

Assuming, conservative implies religious, they should actually oppose gambling. Casino staff could still be flagged as conservative in the meaning of hostile. This is in analogy with the gang members at the crack house, who also shouldn't be politically conservative. This however raises the question, what publicity it should yield, if you raid it.

The illegality of gambling could influence the way how they react on cheating. If it's illegal (conservative), they beat you up for cheating in blackjack, if it's legal(liberal), they call the police and charge you for fraud or something.

Skills for playing Blackjack and Poker are different. Counting in Blackjack doesn't need more than primary school's math skills (assuming you looked up the strategy and didn't invent it yourself), so science shouldn't matter. What it needs is a good short time memory, that is influenced, by the intelligence stat and not a certain skill. Maybe hippies should get a penalty for beeing stoned. If you win by counting, there should also be a street sence or disguise check to see, if you get caught.

Poker on the other hand, benefits from higher math (science). On the number of cards, seen, you can determine the dynamic probability of all possible outcomes. Theese probabilities are often seen in TV poker mathes, and one with significant skill could calculate them himself (thought the probailities are different than in TV, as you can't see the other's cards).  Another (possibly more important) aspect of poker, is to keep concealed whether you have good or bad cards (disguise), and possible seeing if other have good or bad cards (psychology). Professions, who can be assumed to be very emotional could get a penalty, maybe teenager,canine hero,hippie,fashion designer,critics,car salesman,fast food worker,hick,news anchor.

Giving hippies penalties in gambling has also a gameplay-wise benefit, as they are easy to recruit, so it prevents you from winning money too early.

Army Veterans start with extra juice, so they can recruit others, without commiting crimes. It should thus be possible, to get a large number of writers for the liberal guardian by only recruiting army veterans. They can be found at the university appartments. This is however very tedious, as you have to let them talk to hippies a lot to raise their persuation, and on a conservative public opinion, it takes long, to find liberal or moderate army veterans.

If you just want to avoid murder, you can kill monsters at the genetic lab, who don't count as human. Getting out without fighting security guards can however be tricky.

An easy way to nerf seduction and make the game more realistic is, only permitting (succesful) seduction, if both have a different sex. The game currently treats everybody as homosexual, that isn't only extreme unrealistic, it also should get you arrested if homosexuality is at C+.

Imagine, a male fashion designer drops a pickup line to a male death squad officer when homosexuality,police beahaviour and death penalty are all at C+. What could possibly go wrong ...

I always assumed this were true, considring homosexuality is one of the issues you can influence, but neither TALK.CPP nor DATE.CPP check for sex.

This could even be more elaborated, by giving some persons a homosexual flag - a very small percentage, to be realistic - and allow to blackmail homosexual conservatives if homosexuality is at C/C++. This would also balance the game, in a similar way than gun control, as it makes the game more difficult if laws are liberal.

If a transvestite (liberal gender femal,actual gender male) tries to seduce a man, there should also be chance, that he is killed by his enraged date. This often happens to tranvestites in real life.