Bay 12 Games Forum

Okay, I think I managed to commit some changes using the new selectRandomString function. Let me know what you think and then I can work on all the other occurrences.

Basically, a search for "case 0:addstr(" gives possible places where the new function might be used.

Hm, is there a source file that holds small "utility" functions that are used frequently by all parts of the code?

My approach uses a generic "pick random string function":

const char *SelectRandomString(const char **string_table, int table_size)
{
int roll;

roll = LCSrandom(table_size);

return(string_table[roll]);
}

that picks one random string from a given array, e.g.

static const char *male_first_names[] =
{
"Aaron", "Abraham", "Adam", "Adolph", ...
        };

I placed it in creaturenames.cpp, but logically it should go in a more general place.

So, if someone wanted to rewrite the name generator to clean it up, that'd be cool. It's low priority for me personally, simply because it has no immediate impact on the game.

I have a changed creaturenames.cpp ready to submit. Now what do I do?

Then we just need to hunt down all the other places where strings are randomly picked from a list.

Does having a squadwipe hurt the public's perception of the LCS/ the issues, or could using disposable thugs to constantly perform attacks be a viable strategy?

There are few issues with using this strategy later on:

1. Juice only "trickles up" the chain of command if the superior has less juice than the subordinate. A leader with 500 juice already will gain no juice from a freshly recruited thug horde.
2. Liberals other than the LCS leader need to get up to 50 juice before they can recruit at all (normal recruits, not love slaves), and to 100 juice so they can have three recruits. I.e. the thug horde works best for the LCS leader, but not so well for any other Liberals.
3. Later on, as the population becomes more liberal, it becomes increasingly hard to avoid accidentially hitting moderates/liberals when attacking conservatives.

Later on, having "non-expendable" attack squads is probably a better idea. They gain more juice themselves and are able to constantly supply their superiors with "trickle-up" juice.

The strategy is almost an exploit. There should be repercussions for a Liberal if his subordinates/love slaves are killed (loss of juice), and police should try to capture the wounded Liberals if a squad gets completely disabled (members are alive, but unable to fight). This would lead to possible racketeering charges for the superior.

Yep, though in the last couple versions I've had to add a couple files in src/title to get it to compile.

Could you give some details on that? I'm trying to work with Code::Blocks, too.

num_names = sizeof(names) / sizeof(names[0]);

This only works if the array uses fixed-length strings (which may actually be advisable due to being able to use the line above, even though it leaves some memory unused), e.g.

char male_first_names[MFN_COUNT][MAX_MFN_LENGTH] = {"Aaron", "Abraham", ...}
On the other hand,

char *male_first_names[] = {"Aaron", "Abraham", ...}
does not leave any memory unused, since it is technically an array of pointers into one long string, "Aaron\0Abraham\0...".

*Note: most of the time blue states give more federal tax money than they receive, and vice versa for the red states.

Heh. We must have better conservatives where I live, since the conservative "states" are actually funding the "liberal" (we call 'em "social democratic") "states" around here. Then again, the conservative party/-ies around here is more along the lines of m...L instead of C+...C.

Y'know, I was thinking that the LCS ought to have to get an ELITE LIBERAL AMENDMENT of this nature in order to win.  As it stands, Nightmare Mode is pretty much the LCS-wins scenario, but for the CCS (and I think the Congress isn't Arch-Conservative).

Well, the Congress can't be arch-conservative, since that would mean that the ARCH CONSERVATIVE AMENDMENT(*) to fully reaganize the country would be passed a few months into the game, leading to a game over for the LCS.

(*) see endgame.cpp. Yes, it's one way to lose the game.