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[Jetman123]

Currently, business fronts are just a facade - but if you have a business that isn't actually doing business, then it's just sitting there empty. Any cop would notice that there's a business with no business going on, and be immediately suspicious. Even if they can't get a warrant to raid the place right away, it's not going to be as effective as it is now.

So why not have Liberals man the business as employees? In fact, you could even make a small profit that way. I'd like to see this in the game.

[beorn080]

A business front is a type of business that doesn't deal directly with customers for the most part but may occasionally have someone in. For example, the life insurance front. "Workers" enter and exit all the time for various reasons but since no actual products are for sale, it is relatively safe from random persons walking in.

[a1s]

um no, what he means is that the business front seems to have no profits or anything, it just sits there looking cute and does nothing. If the police won't get interested- the IRS will.

[Servant Corps]

But the business fronts already generate a profit, would it not? You need some sort of front to sell t-shirts made by totally legit Americans, pawn off imports that look verrry similar to the items that was stolen in last week's factory raid, promote those lovely choclate brownies that are not at all laced with drugs, receive the mysterious insurance payments you get from the bank account of rich CEOs in return for promises that their website won't get hit by hackers, etc.

[Fieari]

If so, it should be more explicit.

[a1s]

the problem is that all except for the "insurance" is LCS business. it doesn't take a genius to look for LCS criminals at the LCS business front 
(although from an IRL point of view hiding there would be counterproductive, so the police might outsmart themselves by not looking there...)

[Jonathan S. Fox]

I am not opposed to expanding business fronts. Right now, the function of a business front is apparently simply to blend the building (that you don't even own) in. If the police start looking for the LCS, and there's a bunch of comings and goings to an abandoned building with windows busted out, that is a lot more suspicious than a few people entering and exiting a life insurance building. But that sort of front is overall pretty boring as far as interesting gameplay goes, it's basically just a power-up you buy.

A business front for a location that actually serves customers would be different. You'd almost certainly have to own the property, and run a "proper" business there -- though there's no guarantee that it would necessarily be profitable. The profitability of this business would be, naturally, related to the business skill -- and possibly a few others as well, depending on the business, but business skill would be indispensable (and trained).

I think it would be interesting to have different kinds of businesses. A little hole in the wall restaurant, a nearly free health clinic, a nearly free lunch place for the extremely poor, a mini art shop, an adult video rental place... there are various possibilities with their own ramifications and interesting game play results and interactions with the game in general.

I'm honestly pretty fuzzy on what business fronts should be like. Let's assume that they're overhauled and made Awesome. What would you like to see for them? What's the "dream" for business fronts?

[viskaslietuvai]

Also in a way it could either cause some problems or gain recruits. The regular customers of a cheap clinic, coffee shop, or restaurant, would get influenced by the employees or feel the need to repay the favor and be willing to aid the cause. Also a snoopy or careless customer who goes through the wrong door would see a class going on in Assault Weapons or worse a hostage on the premises. That'd probably draw some suspicion.

[mainiac]

The thought of linking a persons bussiness skill to the profit of the front gives me an idea for a new kind of liberal agent: bussinessman.

Rather then working as a warrior or a sleeper, it could be very useful to have bussinessmen continue their day to day life, but let you use their existing bussiness/charity/home as a base of operation.  After all, no revolution can succeed without a strong base of support in the populace.  So recruiting landlords/bussiness people etc. could be a much more discrete way of getting a hideout then renting one.  An appartment is a bad place to plan the revolution after all but the sub-basement of an office building is much larger and more discrete.  But, once the hideout is comprimised, so is the bussinessmen, forcing them to become a regular agent or resulting in thier arrest.

Kinda fuzzy idea right now but it might be moldable into something cool.

[a1s]

It being a 9-5 job, anyone assigned to run the front should lose juice (but only down to 0 or maybe 10 (activist)).
In addition to the person who scores best for business, it needs regular "workers". both categories should probably just be the same item under Legal Fundraising. People in soup kitchen need the cooking skill, while people in clinics need first aid and so on.
instead of just being in the industrial district the BFs should be all over the city- and they should charge rent (the more rent, the less heat, but the increase shouldn't be as big as the apartment one), having the BF make less than half the rent in a month attracts a small amount of heat.

[Jetman123]

I would like to see at least some basics added in - restaurant, service industry, groceries, stockbrokers maybe? It would indeed be interesting, and could be fleshed out as it goes along. I do agree that the business front is too much like a powerup that just sits there. I also agree that juice should be lost - it's a day job that some liberal you can spare does.

Oh! What if you could appoint a manager, like your founder or another LCS member, who doesn't work in the business but adds his business skill to how much profit you get, and how much heat is lost?

You could even upgrade it further past that point. Get a fleshed out secret  basement to lower the changes of some customer stumbling on your liberal activities. Even set up a pamphlet stand that will shift public opinion a little.

[Fieari]

I'd like to see some specifically Liberal business fronts.  Porn store, yes.  But also Health Food stores, New Agey stores, "Alternative Medicine" stores... basically, if you can find them in California, you should be able to start one.  Visitors to these stores could get a fractional increase to heart.

I definitely support that anyone set to work in the stores should steadily lose juice.

In fact, I would suggest that you'll need to set someone as the accountant, who will both gain wisdom and lose heart at tax time, but if you don't have one, you'll get audited... which will be bad.

EDIT: Furthermore, the CCS should have fronts too, like insurance agencies and such, but they'd be almost entirely beneficial to them, as they'd still lose heart and gain wisdom from accountancy, and people partaking of their services would gain wisdom instead of heart.  They'd likely still lose their juice equivalent though. 

Regardless, taking down CCS fronts should be a top priority for the LCS, and doing so should attract heavy police investigation into your actions.  Sleeper police agents would be able to expose the illegal activities of the CCS, but sleeper CCS agents would ensure the police turn a blind eye.  No sleepers would mean a more random chance of them focusing only on you, or also busting the CCS.

[E. Albright]

My own old thoughts on the subject mostly still fit. I'd add that more involved fronts would make a good place to implement a more tiered organizational structure; have an active LCS member managing the place, but the staff would be recruited non-active permanent employees or volunteers. Asking someone you're doing the recruitment dance with to volunteer at one of your fronts for a week could be a step towards making them ready to fight for the liberal cause (or alienating them, before, after, or while they do the volunteering).