Bay 12 Games Forum

Obviously, there should be a small chance of decapitation with the pie tins.

That is an AWESOME idea that I fully endorse, on the grounds that it would be hilarious to throw a pie in someone's face in the game and accidentally decapitate them.

Why don't you try changing the console window for Liberal Crime Squad from Raster Fonts (i.e. Terminal) to the TrueType font Lucida Console? Liberal Crime Squad is set to change its locale and display code page to display Code Page 437, the standard one from DOS on U.S. English locales, as well as the standard one for DOS boxes and console windows in Windows on U.S. English locales. Liberal Crime Squad overrides the locale to display Code Page 437 on Windows if you're not set up for a U.S. English locale, but this only works if the console window is using a TrueType font, rather than a raster font. See if the workaround of using Lucida Console for your console window works (you should be using version 4.07.4 beta or later, as this feature did not exist in any previous versions).

Or, for a completely different strategy, you could try the Linux/Mac OS X/UNIX-like operating system version of Liberal Crime Squad, which you CAN compile and run on Windows, by using Cygwin (Cywin builds a POSIX-compliant layer on top of Windows that is quite similar to Linux). If I recall correctly, the Linux/Mac OX X/UNIX/Cygwin version is able to use Unicode for all text display, avoiding any problems with code pages, and always displaying the correct characters. At least in theory that's what should happen, I haven't personally tested it out to verify this. And with Cygwin you can even compile, build, and run the Linux version of the game on Windows, which would have the primary benefit of displaying the correct characters no matter what locale you have Windows set to, and without having to switch from raster fonts to Lucida Console.

Of course, that all goes out the window if Cygwin implements console windows through direct calls to the Win32 API, in which case you'd still get the wrong characters when your console window is set to a raster font, even if you compile the game under Cygwin. After all, this is all because of a bug in the Win32 API and how it implements console windows. Using Cygwin to ensure proper display of extended characters would only work if Cygwin has its own separate implementation of console windows that is independent of Microsoft's implementation of console windows. And I don't really know whether or not that's the way Cygwin has it set up. But it could be worth a try... if any of you are feeling adventurous why don't you try it out and report back whether or not this idea of mine works?

I think I found a bug. It looks like I can't recruit any new members if I move to another city. Whenever I succesfully manage to arrange a meeting with someone, they just never come. If I switch to a character in the starting city it works just fine, if I move the characters that can't recruit back to the starting city it also works like normal. If I move a character that is recruiting someone to another city it's instantly broken off (well, that one makes sense actually). Liberating sweatshop workers works fine however. This was in the 4.07.4 win version.

Whoops, my bad. Sorry about that. This is because of a bugfix I made to prevent a ridiculous situation where if you move from one city to another, but had recruitment meetings and/or dates scheduled with people in your previous city, those people would keep meeting with you in person each evening despite being in a city very far away. It appears that bugfix led to some unintended consequences. My best guess at this time is that all recruits in the entire game most likely have their city of residence set to Seattle, regardless of what city you find them in. So the solution to this bug is to solve THAT problem, and to have new creatures generated by the game have their city of residence set correctly to be the same city as the city of the location where you encounter them.

Unfortunately, I'm out of town right now, in the Detroit International Airport, about to board a flight to Charles De Gaulle Airport in France and then another flight from there to Vienna, and I probably won't have much time for programming during this month-long Real Life vacation.

Anyway I feel really terrible about introducing a bug like this into the game by accident, and then being unable to fix it in a rapid amount of time. I'll see what I can do... I mean, this bug is serious, not being able to recruit people in other cities really cripples the whole multi-city mode feature.

Other programmers are welcome to try and tackle this bug, hopefully one of us will get it fixed soon.

My dad has a Mac OS X 10.3 machine, but he doesn't let me anywhere near it. Plus I'm on vacation for the next month. I could try sneaking onto his computer and seeing if I can compile Liberal Crime Squad on his Power Macintosh G4 with a PowerPC chip. I am guessing it would PROBABLY work but I can't be quite sure until I try it myself. What would REALLY be tough is compiling it on classic Mac OS, like version 9.2.2 or earlier. There's actually some pretty neat stuff in Mac OS 9.2.2, like the latest TrueType version of the Chicago font, with Unicode support (a lot more glyphs in it than the versions you find online). Getting that Unicode version of the Chicago font would be VERY useful for people who add Advanced SubStation Alpha subtitles to Japanese anime shows. But I'm getting off-topic, so back to the main topic, I will maybe see if I can compile Liberal Crime Squad on Mac OS X 10.3 if I have the chance. Which won't be for another month, as I am traveling overseas and my dad's Mac isn't.

Quote from: Jonathan S. Fox on September 19, 2013, 07:15:22 pm

- Being naked makes seduction easier.

Go home Jonathan, you're drunk.

LOL... actually since I made that change I suppose I'm the one who's drunk... More seriously, though, being naked makes everything else in the game harder (it makes stealth impossible, doesn't work as a disguise anywhere except the Garment Makers, leaves you completely defenseless as far as armor when you're in combat, makes nobody take you seriously if you try talking to them about the issues, plus it's illegal too). So it would make sense to have ONE thing that nudity would actually help with, and seduction is the most obvious choice. Of course if you're naked at any place other than the Garment Makers and trying to seduce a Conservative, they'll be alarmed as soon as they see you because nudity automatically fails both the stealth and disguise checks, and then since they're alarmed they'll enter combat mode and you'll be unable to seduce them. So mostly this will only benefit you if you're trying to seduce a Moderate or a fellow Liberal, so it really has very little impact on the game. Conservatives who are hard to seduce, like the Corporate CEO, will still be hard to seduce.

Yes, the only technique for lowering Wisdom (at least currently) is to interrogate someone and beat it out of them using violence. Instead of playing Music to raise the Heart of the Agents and turn them Liberal (which doesn't reduce their Wisdom at all), you could ask them out on dates, then kidnap and interrogate them, and beat the Wisdom out of them. Of course I have usually found that people I successfully interrogate usually end up with quite low Heart, much lower than if I converted them to the Liberal Cause by playing a Guitar at them. Plus they still have some Wisdom, too, usually.

Anyway, what you are currently doing, turning them Liberal by playing your Guitar, is a very good technique and results in them having higher stats than if you interrogated them. This allows their skills (specifically Art and Music) to reach higher levels. Yes, they may have higher Wisdom than if you interrogated them, but they have higher Heart too, and so that particular trade-off is worth it. Just avoid having them do anything to increase their Wisdom even higher and you should be fine. Their Wisdom probably won't be a problem if they're a combat squad, unless you encounter Conservatives that use special argument-based attacks, such as Radio Personalities, Cable News Anchors, Hangin' Judges, Police Negotiators, etc. But if you have good enough weapons (read: guns) and high enough weapons skills, you should be able to kill anyone who uses a special argument-based attack before they can give you even more Wisdom. My weapon of choice for combat squads is, of course, the AA-12 Auto Shotgun. And the armor for them? Heavy Body Armor, of course.

Sorry for my absence, I've been thinking about other things lately. I got a new job, which saves me from the financial difficulties I mentioned in the liberal fundraising thread, but also leaves me with less time to spend on projects. Probably won't be doing much on LCS (or other projects, like ZSS) in the next month or two, but as I get settled I might come back to it.

Is your new job working at an LCS business front? Or are you an LCS sleeper agent working at a Conservative employer? In either case, good luck!!

Eek! at the Arch-Conservative term for tank top.

SEAL suits seem like they'd be comparable to SWAT armor?  Would expect a SEAL found at the MilBase (or the IntHQ; they ought to be rare but possible there, being specops and all) to be in uniform, not Stealth Armor.

Black Dress seems like it should be based on Womens' and/or Gay Rights.  If the MiniLuv wouldn't allow women as Agents, you probably shouldn't be able to pass yourself off as a WiB.

Thanks much, in any event.

Heh... Wife Beater is already the term the game users for tank top, I did not introduce that term to the game or change it. If you want that changed in the game to something else such as "Tank Top" you should say so. Navy SEALs, wherever they occur in the game, wear SEAL Suits a.k.a. SEAL Stealth Armor. You can get SEAL Stealth Armor by recruiting a Navy SEAL or killing one and looting it from their corpse. So any location where people would expect to see Navy SEALs, they would logically expect to see people wearing SEAL Stealth Armor since that's what every Navy SEAL in the game wears. Black Dresses were already an acceptable disguise at Intelligence HQ (the only other one being a Black Suit), and a place with only 2 valid disguises, that's quite a low number. 1 is an even lower number, that's the number of valid disguises there were when there was a CIA raid on one of your compounds, the only valid one was a Black Suit, for some reason the Black Dress was excluded. Anyway this game is from a Liberal perspective, gender and gender identities aren't supposed to be important, Jonathan S. Fox already explained this to me in another thread. Only allowing a Black Suit and not a Black Dress, that would be a bit sexist don't you think? And that is the only place in the disguise code that shows any gender bias. Everywhere else in the disguise code, wherever there is a suit there is a dress of the same type and vice versa (the 3 types being cheap suits/dresses, black suits/dresses, and expensive suits/dresses). And female spies are quite common, ever seen a James Bond or Austin Powers movie? These changes to disguise code were to make it more consistent with the rest of the game (namely whichever file it is that specifies what armors and weapons each creature type has, I think it's creaturetypes.cpp, and whichever file specifies which types of creatures appear at which location, which I can't remember off the top of my head).

I didn't make any changes that I didn't think were appropriate and consistent with the rest of the game. And I handled Death Squad Uniforms and SWAT Uniforms following your advice (Death Squad Uniforms work for being police when the Police Behavior and Death Penalty laws are both C+, and SWAT Uniforms work for looking like police when there is high security but are only a 2nd rate disguise when there is low security, and at places where Police Uniforms and Police Body Armor only work as 2nd rate disguises, SWAT Uniforms only work as 2nd rate disguises when there's high security and don't work at all if there's low security. And I noticed you didn't complain about Firefighter-style Bunker Gear working when the place is on fire, or complain about someone disguised as a Hick being allowed to carry a Pitchfork or Torch since people would consider those weapons in-character. So at least you don't seem to have a problem with those 2 changes... anyway I thought carefully about what I was changing before I changed it and reviewed the changes carefully before committing them.

I know this is a game a lot of people like and I try to be very careful not to do anything that might be harmful to it in any way, and only make positive improvements. So anyway, thank you for your contributions to the game too KA101, I know you did the maps, that was really great, they are quite good maps. I'll be going on a vacation to Europe in about a week, and I'll spend a month in places like Vienna and Rome where I don't speak the language, and I won't do ANY programming while I'm gone since I'm not taking my main desktop computer, just a little laptop maybe. If there's any changes I made to the code that people think are horrible and want to undo, you can undo all of them while I'm off in Europe and I probably won't even have Internet over there or if I do I'll probably be spending my time doing other things than going online anyway... have fun while I'm gone. I WILL be back sometime in mid-to-late October though...