Bay 12 Games Forum

Yes, you can edit the save file. Characters are stored as xml with all their properties (mostly) easy to edit. Attributes and skills don't have their names stored with them though so if you want to edit a specific one you're going to have to check the source to know which one's which or compare their values with what you see in the game. You also should know that before every blob of xml in the otherwise binary file are four (I think) bytes counting how many bytes the following blob of xml is. So if you insert or remove characters, eg changing 0 to 20 adds one extra character, rather than just change them you have to change the preceding count as well.

I know this is probably hopeless, but i have absolutely no experience besides BASIC so many years ago, so I have no idea what the preceding count is or how I edit it, or what to edit it to. I can find the values, and edit them, but I encounter the same problem. If this is fruitless, I'll start a new topic.
EDIT: I cannot find the values if they are over 10, and the -8whatever value before it remains the same all throughout.

Sounds like maybe having the entire savegame file be pure XML so that it could be easily edited in a text editor would be a good idea. Then folks trying to edit it would have a lot less trouble. Then again, I don't know whether it would be good or bad to make it really easy to edit savegame files. I have mixed feelings on it.

Also, GENDER_WHITEMALEPATRIARCH is only used for generating names. No creature has it as their gender.

Noted. I will remove the checks for GENDER_WHITEMALEPATRIARCH that I added.

And I tested your code Liberal Elitist and it works but not very well, it's depending of the gender of the leader. If it's a male "Nu" will be displayed even if there are women in the squad and the same for the other gender.
The only code which works is the one with this->hisher(). I declared the variable masculinFeminin const char* instead of char* and everything is ok. Maybe now I need to add another else or else if to deal with the last gender, or simply like this if(masculinFeminin == "his" || masculinFeminin == "its || masculinFeminin == "xyr"). But xyr really exists in english language ?

Sorry about it not working very well. Also I am getting rid of the gender() function and we'll go back to using gender_liberal to get people's gender from now on, because of some advice from Jonathan S. Fox to have the game view things from an Elite Liberal perspective. "Xe"/"xem"/"xyr" isn't standard in English but it is used by some people who wish to have gender-neutral pronouns and don't believe in binary gender identities. Since this game is a parody and views things from an Elite Liberal perspective, "xe"/"xem"/"xyr" make sense for this game to use even though they aren't standard English. Look at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/sex-neutral-pronouns.html for more information on those gender-neutral pronouns (which are generally considered neologisms, i.e. newly coined words that aren't widely used, by most people, and would not be found in any standard dictionary).

I'm used to xe/xem/xyr for non-gendered pronouns, FWIW.

Ah, I have found that listed on Wiktionary: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/xe

Invented in 1971. Sounds very Elite Liberal. "xe"/"xem"/"xyr". Awesome.

I'll have the game use it when Gay Rights get to L+, but use "they"/"them"/"their" for transsexuals if Gay Rights are C, M, or L. If Gay Rights are C+, I'll have the game use "it"/"its" for transsexuals.

Now it has been implemented in revision 720 (which I quickly noticed had a mistake I made so I put out revision 721 very soon after to fix my stupid mistake). Yes, I couldn't resist. In this revision, the handing of gender identity issues has been greatly enhanced, and depends on Gay Rights law. It is interesting what happens now when Gay Rights law gets C+ or L+. The name for people with a neutral gender identity is different for all 5 possibilities of Gay Rights law. And when Gay Rights law gets to C+, everyone is identified by gender_conservative (their biological gender) instead of gender_liberal (their gender label), naturally. And if you try to Fix Gender Label when Gay Rights law is set to C+, instead of letting you choose what gender_liberal becomes, gender_liberal is "fixed" to equal gender_conservative. And if Gay Rights law is L or L+, people whose biological gender and gender label are different won't have "*" or "?" after their name, because people don't question gender labels once the country is that Liberal. If Gay Rights law is moderate, C, or C+, the "*" or "?" is there.

Update: revision 722 now views gender identity from an Elite Liberal perspective regardless of the law, following Jonathan S. Fox's advice. Now the "xe"/"xem"/"xyr" pronouns always get used for people who are genderqueer.

Embezzling funds gets your squad money if your sleeper succeeds, stealing items gives some items depending on the work location (for example, rifles and ammo from the militry base). The chance of success is equal to his/her/xir infiltration rating. Success also gives your sleeper 10 Juice (and increased stats make your sleepers more effective at promotion Liberalism), failure makes him/her/xir lose 1 juice. At -2, failure to any kind of covert action by a sleeper makes him/her/xe face consequences (snooping around gets them fired and showing up at the homeless shelter, embezzling gets them a serious crime on their rap sheet and sends them directly into the courthouse jail, and stealing items gives them a theft charge and does the same).

I like your use of special gender pronouns for the transgendered/intersexed. I wonder what the most common transgender/intersex pronouns are. Right now the game calls them "they" or "them", and instead if "his" or "her" stuff, the possessive pronoun it uses is "their". So would the pronouns "xe", "xir", etc. be an improvement? If so, then maybe I could have the game use "xe" and "xir", I wonder what other people think.

Now, I remember having done some real fun thing once. I seduced a cop to recruit him as a sleeper, set him to steal items, and at 100 juice, I made him recruit others sleepers, whom were also cops/death squad members. Repeat with them. I managed to subvert the entire Police department that way (okay, that may be hyperbole). I did the same with the CIA HQ, I managed to get a few random civilian sleepers using the Cable News Anchors/Radio Personalities/Eminent Scientists that way, and early recon sleepers (sleepers I made to have a map of their workplace) slowly gained enough infiltration to do the same and recruit others. Funnily enough I did that because I wanted to do a no enlightenment run as a challenge, and found playing that way a very easier playthrough (I recruited Liberal Judges, send them to the park until I found a lone Eminent Scientist, debated him into Liberalism, and used him to convert Hangin' Judges (Law skill helps resist persuasion attacks from judges), and once I made the guys into an elite disguise team I easily converted the CEO (15 heart to make sure I get no troubles from dogs, epic disguise for the rest, the guy missed every roll except from my founder, who was wielding a guitar with next to no music skill and only tagged along to be the getaway driver, and the CEO was in tear in the first round doing nothing... Elite I tell you!).

I thought if you tried to have a Sleeper that was once Conservative and got converted through kidnapping and torture, they couldn't recruit anyone, since you'd get the message "Enlightened can't recruit" (enlightened being a euphemism for kidnapped, tortured, and brainwashed). Ah, you must have either seduced them or converted them using the Heart-boosting powers of a Guitar, and then made them into Sleepers THAT way... I generally go for the torture route myself when I play, since there isn't any cap on how many people you can kidnap and torture.

Am I supposed to be able to upgrade apartments with business fronts? And, actually, all of the safehouse upgrades? I feel like I'm not supposed to be able to.

Using version 4.07.1

No, that's not supposed to happen. You're using an out-of-date beta version though, the current beta is 4.07.3 beta. I think if you switched to 4.07.3 beta that problem would go away. I've looked at the code, specifically lines which say "SiteProperty(upgradable, true)" in world.cpp, and don't see any problems. You're using 4.07.1 beta, the first beta version that had multi-city mode, and it isn't very much implemented in that version, and there are some problems with locations in that version, like the one you noticed. So my suggestion is to use the latest beta version... or use 4.07.0, which is stable and came out before any of the multi-city changes.

OK, the answer about what Sleepers are most effective at Promoting Liberalism is a bit complicated. Here goes an explanation:

First of all, Cable News Anchors and Radio Personalities are both special cases when it comes to Promoting Liberalism; both are quite good at Promoting Liberalism if Cable News and AM Radio are held in high esteem by the public (if the Cable News and AM Radio issues are Conservative rather than Liberal). But if Cable News and AM Radio are held in low esteem (and any Cable News Anchor or Radio Personality who is a Sleeper will gradually decrease the public's esteem for those media outlets), then their influence decreases dramatically.

Corporate CEOs, Politicians, and Eminent Scientists have 10 times the effect of ordinary Sleepers on public opinion. Death Squad Officers, Educators, and Military Officers have triple the effect of ordinary Sleepers on public opinion. Actors, Police Gang Units, Military Police, and Navy SEALs have double the impact of ordinary Sleepers on public opinion.

Art Critics get bonuses based on Writing and Art skills, Painters and Sculptors get bonuses based on Art skills, Music Critics get bonuses based on Writing and Music skills, Musicians get bonuses based on Music skills, Authors and Journalists get bonuses based on Writing skills, Hangin' Judges get bonuses based on Writing and Law skills, Lawyers get bonuses based on Law skills, Lab Techs and Eminent Scientists get bonuses based on Science skills, Corporate CEOs and Corporate Managers get bonuses based on Business skills, Priests and Nuns get bonuses based on Religion skills, and Educators get bonuses based on Psychology skills. These bonuses are applied BEFORE the multipliers, making anyone listed in this paragraph as well as the previous one (Corporate CEOs, Eminent Scientists, and Educators) have those bonuses multiplied by their multipliers to be super-effective at Advocating Liberalism. The skills and attributes that affect Advocating Liberalism for everyone, whether or not they have those bonuses, are Charisma, Heart, Intelligence, and Persuasion.

Now, there is the number of issues which each occupation affects in their advocacy. Radio Personalities and Cable News Anchors affect ALL issues except for public perceptions of the Liberal Crime Squad and Conservative Crime Squad (24 issues total!), and also change public opinion to be less favorable towards the media outlets they work for (AM Radio and Cable News, respectively), but their individual effects on each issue are decreased by the fraction of people who don't like their media outlets (so if 90% of people don't like Cable News, a Cable News Anchor has 90% less impact on each issue).

Priests, Painters, Sculptors, Authors, Journalists, Psychologists, Musicians, Art Critics, Music Critics, and Actors affect Women's Rights, Civil Rights, Gay Rights, Free Speech, Drugs, and Immigration (6 issues).

Lawyers affect Police Behavior, Death Penalty, Gun Control, and Drugs (4 issues). Hangin' Judges affect those 4 plus Justices, Free Speech, and Intelligence (7 issues).

Lab Techs affect Nuclear Power, Animal Research, and Genetic Engineering (3 issues). Eminent Scientists affect those 3 plus Pollution (4 issues).

Corporate Managers affect Women, Taxes, Corporate Culture, Worker's Rights, Pollution, and Civil Rights (6 issues). Corporate CEOs affect those 6 plus CEO Salaries (7 issues).

Police Officers, Police Gang Units, and SWAT Officers affect Police Behavior, Drugs, Torture, Gun Control, and Prisons (5 issues). Death Squad Officers also affect Death Penalty and have double the effect on Prisons (6 or 7 issues, depending on whether you count Prisons twice).

Educators, Prison Guards, and Prisoners affect Police Behavior, Death Penalty, Drugs, Torture, and Prisons (5 issues).

Agents affect Intelligence, Torture, Prisons, and Free Speech (4 issues). Secret Security affect those 4 plus having double the effect on Intelligence (4 or 5 issues, depending on whether you count Intelligence twice).

Elite Security affect Gun Control (1 issue).

Soldiers, Veterans, Military Police, Military Officers, and Navy SEALs affect Military, Torture, Gay Rights, and Women (4 issues).

Sweatshop Workers affect Immigration and Worker's Rights (2 issues).

Child Workers, Genetic Monsters, Guard Dogs, Transients, Crackheads, Tanks, Hippies, Union Workers, Liberal Judges, and Mutants have NO EFFECT AT ALL ON ANY ISSUE. Having them Advocate Liberalism achieves zip, nada, zero, nothing. Other than decreasing their Infiltration percentage by 2% (which happens whenever anyone Advocates Liberalism). So don't do it.

Politicians affect 3 random issues, with the exception of views on AM Radio, Cable News, the Liberal Crime Squad, and the Conservative Crime Squad (so 3 issues).

If Free Speech laws are Arch-Conservative, Firefighters affect Free Speech, otherwise they are in the "everybody else" category and affect a random issue (1 issue).

Everybody else affects a random issue (1 issue).

As for things OTHER than Promoting Liberalism, I mean, seriously, this post is long enough, it would take FOREVER to look up all that information and post it here and this post would be VERY long if I did that. Anyway this should help y'all figure out how best to Promote Liberalism.

Oh, and another thing. The multiplier of 20 for Politicians and the ability of Politicians to affect 3 random issues are only present in recent SVN builds off SourceForge. In any builds that have been officially released (4.07.3 beta and earlier), Politicians are in the "everybody else" category and just have a small amount of influence on 1 issue, just like anyone whose occupation wasn't listed above. This doesn't make any sense, you would expect that a Politician would have more influence than, say, a Sweatshop Worker. Which is why that was fixed. Seriously, in 4.07.3 beta and earlier, a Sweatshop Worker has more of an affect when Promoting Liberalism as a Sleeper than the President of the United States of America. Which is ridiculous, and not the case anymore in recent builds on SourceForge, where Politicians actually do have large amounts of influence, following the forumulae described above.

The second one is far more annoying. I tried to disband my squad after I got about... I dunno... 100 sleepers? And as soon as I disband, I get an out of range error.

Not sure what else you'd need, but I'll try to get it to you.

Webadict, that second bug is the exact same one Baffler has reported, I already know about it and am going to try and investigate it:

Fatal crash bug detected. I had my founder in jail and sweatshop workers left, so I disbanded the LCS to wait out the founder's prison sentence. I typed in the activation phrase and got to the screen that lists the status of the agenda. I pressed the button to wait a month and the game promply crashed. All my people were in Seattle at the homeless shelter (except the recently incarcerated founder).

The actual thing read:

Debug Asssertion Failed!

Program: ...s\Desktop\Liberal Crime
Squad\lcs_win32_4.07.3\crimesquad.exe
File: d:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio
10.0\VC\include\vector
Line: 932

Expression:vector subscript out of range.

Edit: the save is not broken, I could reload it and do anything else just fine. I was able to reproduce the crash at the same point.

Tried to reproduce the bug under similar conditions, and the same thing happened with a teenager and two hippies left over. So yeah, most likely caused by the founder's imprisonment (13 month sentence).

3 reports of the same bug from 2 people. Always happens when disbanding. Always a vector subscript out of range. I'll see if I can fix this one.

Ah... so, I came across a couple bugs while playing this.

The first one is bizarre, in that I'm not sure what caused it, but while out Causing Trouble, my founder came across a Death Squad Member. As my founder was armed with an M4 Carbine, I figured I'd shoot the guy. The game crashed when I hit Fight. No idea why, clicked too fast to find out the cause.

That's not probably not enough info for me to go on. If it is a bug in fight.cpp (the file that deals with fighting), that file is big, the bug could be anywhere, like finding a needle in a haystack. Awhile back I fixed a bug in fight.cpp involving Conservatives and Liberals getting mixed up by the game during fights after someone counterattacked, another needle in a haystack type bug that was buried deep in there and hard to find. So maybe this is another one in that same file. Still, it sounds harder to fix than the other bug, the one about the vector subscript out of range when disbanding, I have a lot more to go on with that other bug.

[I dare say the real bug is that the flavor text says you found a bug even though the situation is perfectly reasonable. It should probably say "You are wanted on suspicion of harboring criminals" or something like that.

Agreed, yes, everything else about that report sounded like the way things are supposed to happen, except for the bit about the police saying "You are wanted for Finding a Bug", which is the result of calling a function with an int parameter that returns a string using a switch/case statement with an out-of-range parameter that isn't covered by any of the cases in the switch statement so the default is used instead (and the default only occurs in these particular functions when there is a bug). So the siege code should have something similar to the trial code, have a default crime for them to say if there isn't anything else. At trials it's Loitering. For a siege it would be Harboring Criminals or something like that. It should check to see if the int number for the crime is within the acceptable range before calling the function to return the name of the crime as a string.

The Guitar is one of the most powerful weapons in the game, allowing you to turn Conservatives into Liberals. Conservatives in the game often say when they die "Better dead than Liberal..." Conservatives in this game would rather die than turn Liberal, and using a Guitar, which can turn them Liberal quite fast if you have high Music skill, puts them at risk of what they consider a fate worse than death, namely becoming a Liberal. So naturally, to avoid a fate worse than death, they are willing to use deadly force.

It's not as if the Liberals in the Liberal Crime Squad are any different though. If a Radio Personality, for instance, tries to convince them to become a Conservative, by reasoning with them using Good Old-Fashioned Conservative Wisdom, the unhinged Liberals in your Squad are liable to counterattack the entirely nonviolent Radio Personality using deadly force. In this game, anyone views a threat to their ideology as a threat to their life.

Playing a Guitar ISN'T a crime though. And Loitering is what you get charged with if you didn't commit any actual crimes, it's just there so that if you get arrested for no reason other than pissing off Conservative Police Officers, they'll have SOMETHING to put you on trial for. But the penalty for Loitering, even if you are convicted, is nothing... except maybe if the Death Penalty is C+, since I think when the Death Penalty goes to C+, EVERYTHING becomes punishable by death.

And playing a Guitar isn't considered assault, either. It DOES alarm Conservatives, though. But it doesn't alienate Moderates or fellow Liberals. Moderates and fellow Liberals see nothing wrong with playing a Guitar, only Conservatives take offense to it.