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Author Topic: LCS 3.10 (Formerly "what would you want to see?&quo  (Read 12436 times)

4bh0r53n

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Re: LCS 3.10 (Formerly "what would you want to see?&quo
« Reply #30 on: June 09, 2007, 05:04:00 am »

how are you supposed to get more people to read the liberal guardian?

at the end of the time period it just comes up with a message saying either:

"only conservatives are reading the Guardian as they think that it is funny" or
"Not many people are reading the liberal guardian"

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.B.H.O.R.S.E.N.: Abhorrent, Bloodthirsty, Hitchhiker-Obliterating Ravager from the Sunless Enchanted Necropolis

I dont explode Cats, its way to hard to coax them into the microwave...

Jonathan S. Fox

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Re: LCS 3.10 (Formerly "what would you want to see?&quo
« Reply #31 on: June 09, 2007, 05:23:00 am »

As it stands, you need to:

1) Have the LCS be well known and well respected. The Liberal Guardian well help improve the LCS's standing slightly, but past about the first 20% of the population you'll probably need to use LCS actions to advertise the Guardian, and not the other way around.

2) Use intelligent, skilled writers to write good articles that make people think. If you have bad writers, you get a lot of "nutty" articles, which tends to alienate Liberals. This is probably what is happening if you get the message that only Conservatives are reading the Liberal Guardian. The other possibility is that the LCS is polling very poorly as far as who actually respects the group, which causes people to think badly of anything your people write.

3) Have enough articles written in any given month to draw people's attention. Even if you write a good newspaper and the LCS is quite popular, if it's only carrying a couple of articles a month, people will tend to think of it less as a pillar of Liberal thought to show to their friends, and more as a mildly interesting sideshow.

Printing presses will help you to reach a greater distribution by converting the Guardian from an online newsletter into a real newspaper.

Publishing a special edition will also provide a huge one-time boost in readership, plus it will likely improve the writing of all of your writers in the future (by giving them juice) and it will improve the respect and recognition of the LCS by a large amount, all of which should help your future releases. You can only do this if you have a printing press and something to feature in the special edition.

I am totally open to suggestions for changes with the way this works. If it seems too hard, too easy, anything.

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4bh0r53n

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Re: LCS 3.10 (Formerly "what would you want to see?&quo
« Reply #32 on: June 09, 2007, 08:16:00 am »

ok thanks, so my action on the CEO headquarters (4 ex policemen armed with shotguns) didnt help my magazine then?
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Xavior

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Re: LCS 3.10 (Formerly "what would you want to see?&quo
« Reply #33 on: June 09, 2007, 10:44:00 am »

Only if you don't put a proper Liberal Spin on it! You were obviously showing The People what happens when you give civilians firearms and let them loose in a Conservative society.

Also, I notice that the base and character initializations have options for investing in a training facility and for characters being in training. It seems to be the only reference to them though so I've no idea how it would work or even what it would let you train.

I think it is very cool what you're doing. Could you repost the source, though? As I'm under linux, and the link in the first post appears to not work anymore.

As for ideas, I think it would be nice if it were possible to sort people more under [A]. If it only showed, say, people at the same location you're looking at(or your active squad is at) it would make more sense, and be easier to manage groups doing different things. Especially with apartments allowing you a bunch of safehouses for little specialized groups.

By the same token, some method of only viewing the people in the safehouses that have people in them under [R] would be nice too. Or just another option sorting by location before the order they joined in.

[ June 09, 2007: Message edited by: Xavior ]

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Jonathan S. Fox

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Re: LCS 3.10 (Formerly "what would you want to see?&quo
« Reply #34 on: June 09, 2007, 11:49:00 am »

Your action will have helped some if it improved the way people view the LCS (you can tell this by searching for polls on the [a]ctivation screen before and after). That depends on whether it was a "strike" or a "rampage" in the media's eyes, and whether people already like you so much or hate you so much that there was nobody left to convince that you're bad/good (if you're always getting good spin, eventually even the Conservatives grudgingly respect you, and there's no more room to get better ratings because everybody already likes you).

The source code is up there, I just posted the wrong link.   ;)

I don't understand what you mean about the [r]eview and reorganize screen though. Do you mean sorting by safehouse...?

[ June 09, 2007: Message edited by: Jonathan S. Fox ]

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Xavior

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Re: LCS 3.10 (Formerly "what would you want to see?&quo
« Reply #35 on: June 09, 2007, 12:22:00 pm »

Indeed! Mainly because if you have tons of people, it can be easy to lose people :-o. If you have it only showing the people who are at your safehouse in Activate, then Review would be a good way to find the other people you're looking for(each safe house would be listed in order, and such an organization will likely be how you want to find them).

And also, if everyone still shows up in Activate, then it keeps letters from getting jumbled around if you look at Reorganize to get their more detailed stat screens  ;)

And thank you for the link!

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ussdefiant

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Re: LCS 3.10 (Formerly "what would you want to see?&quo
« Reply #36 on: June 09, 2007, 02:04:00 pm »

minor question:

Just how do you get your characters new skills anyway? I know it's related to getting juice boosts, but i can't seem to find anything related to it in the source code. In particular, i'd be wondering how to get my guy's persuasion and Disguise skills up.

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Jonathan S. Fox

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Re: LCS 3.10 (Formerly "what would you want to see?&quo
« Reply #37 on: June 09, 2007, 02:23:00 pm »

Skill increases are actually use-based, rather than based on juice. Juice just affects the base attributes like intelligence, charisma, agility, etc.. Those affect your skill checks, but actually increasing the skills themselves requires using the skill.

Persuasion can be increased by defending yourself in court, recruiting (by hostage interrogation, dating, or discussing the issues), soliciting donations (but only if you have low skill), selling brownies, and bluffing when fighting evil. It increases slowly except when in court, at which point it increases very fast, but that's also a great way to get thrown in jail.

Disguise can be increased by wearing the appropriate uniform in a restricted area and standing or walking near conservatives. It increases very slowly.

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Xavior

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Re: LCS 3.10 (Formerly "what would you want to see?&quo
« Reply #38 on: June 09, 2007, 02:34:00 pm »

*Playing now;D*
Another thing that really annoys me is that there doesn't seem to be any sort of break when you encounter people. So I quite often end up walking right past them before I even notice they were there even when I'm specifically looking for people to recruit.
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Jonathan S. Fox

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Re: LCS 3.10 (Formerly "what would you want to see?&quo
« Reply #39 on: June 09, 2007, 03:03:00 pm »

I currently have a gun control issue working in the next version of the game. It *replaces* tax law as an issue, because tax law didn't really have an effect on gameplay. There is no associated opinion poll for gun control, it's based on a couple of different factors related to the prevailing feeling on crime prevention. Features of the gun control issue:

- The pawn shop sells different guns depending on the state of the law. You can get more powerful guns when it's Arch-Conservative than when it's Elite Liberal.
- If you carry a gun which is illegal to carry due to the current laws, you will cause instant alarm when spotted by Conservatives. So now walking through the front door of the Police Station with a squad of clowns with AK-47s will in fact cause a panic almost immediately. Exceptions are if you are able to conceal the weapon in your clothing, or you are wearing clothing which makes you look like you have business holding that gun (so if you're toting an M16 at the juice bar, you'll be less likely to cause a panic if you wear an army uniform than a John Ashcroft mask).
- If the gun in question is legal, but it's still out of place, you'll cause suspicion, but not instant alarm. So walking around a sweatshop naked may not be suspicious, but walking around a sweatshop naked with a shotgun under your arm will be.
- There is a new crime called "carrying an illegal weapon". I haven't ironed out all the bugs with this.
- If the LCS is popular, it will tend to disincline people toward voting for gun control. What happens is that LCS actions will tend to make people believe that guns are a citizen's defense against tyranny. This feeling will fade if you disband. The President, Congress, and the Supreme Court will be unswayed by such arguments.

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Jonathan S. Fox

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Re: LCS 3.10 (Formerly "what would you want to see?&quo
« Reply #40 on: June 09, 2007, 03:10:00 pm »

Yes, this is true about the break. I think it would be more annoying to try to add one though; a "press any key to continue" type break isn't really any better than we have now anyway, since the problem is specifically that you're pressing lots of keys. Maybe a very brief suspension of the game? I don't know, the problem is that you're not always recruiting, and I think it'd be pretty bothersome in any other setting.

With that said, there are ways to minimize the annoyance. One thing I do to deal with that is to take one step, then wait continuously instead of walking continuously. This is because waiting is just as likely to generate a new encounter, but if you over-wait on an encounter, they won't leave immediately, they'll just stand there waiting for you to make a move.

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Xavior

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Re: LCS 3.10 (Formerly "what would you want to see?&quo
« Reply #41 on: June 09, 2007, 03:19:00 pm »

Brilliant.

And I always thought Gun Control being a Liberal motive was just an elaborate trick played on us by Conservatives who WANT to take away our ability to rise up against the corrupt corporations and government(as the LCS does)

EDIT:
On the other hand, I think tax law should be a very important issue(Tax law being conservative gives rich people MORE money) and would rather there be some gameplay mechanics attached to it than to be replaced with gun control.

FURTHER EDIT!:
There's also a bug that was there in the normal version too, when you die stealing a car, you stay in the squad but get all funny-charactered, but it's not in the known issues. Perhaps it's only under linux?

EDIT AGAIN!:
Weeheehee, I just went to trial after escaping from jail twice, with a crime list that was five lines long, and defended myself to a liberal jury that set me free.

Coincidentally, I think it would be interesting if there were special articles for the liberal guardian when things happen(people getting arrested, breaking out, getting murdered in cold blood by Conservative Forces) Though I suppose the game covers alot of that anyway. I'd also like to see more on the monthly Liberal Guardian published screen to do with the articles that were written for it.

And how do I release a special edition? My hackers obtained some corporate files at some point, but I never got the option...maybe it was because they were at a different safehouse.

AND AGAIN!:
Also, the graphical newspaper articles always seem to get cut off for me. Is there some way to turn the page or something?

More!:
The screen for setting up a squad only shows people in the same location as the squad is currently. It could be re-used for the Activate screen depending on the active squad or current safehouse with Z

Last Edit!(Probably):
Whoa..Okay, bad crash? I had just gone to the university hospital with some folks who were mercilessly shot by Conservatives for appearing on TV, and I got the message

"~~~___________________ has escaped!"(or thereabouts)
followed by alot of weirdness with strange characters in a diagonal pattern down the screen and poof. crash.

Also, apparently it never autosaved once during the entire game? Because when I started up again it just gave me the create a character questions.

[ June 09, 2007: Message edited by: Xavior ]

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Jonathan S. Fox

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Re: LCS 3.10 (Formerly "what would you want to see?&quo
« Reply #42 on: June 09, 2007, 05:19:00 pm »

Woah, sweeeet, my sweatshop worker got killed trying to steal a car and her name changed to a heart symbol, a weird line, and a closing brace, and she was marked as deceased. Well, the bug is fixed now. As a side effect, this also fixed an unreported sister bug related to arrests during car chases...    :p

As far as gun control being a Liberal motive, you will need to get it to Elite Liberal to win the game, but that doesn't mean it won't make your life more difficult if it gets there early. Just a means to an end...

I can understand wanting tax law to remain an issue. Here's the problem which led me to replacing tax law rather than just adding gun control to the list: There isn't enough room on the [L]iberal Agenda screen for any more laws. It's a silly visual problem, but if we increase the total number of laws, it becomes a problem. Now, that doesn't mean it's insurmountable, but we have a few options.

First option is that we can remove something else other than tax law.

Second option is to change the [L]iberal Agenda screen to support more laws.

Options for the second option include adding a paging system for the laws, so that you press a key to go on to the next page (kind of icky, it's nice having one page), and reorganizing the screen as it is to support more laws. I can't add more lines to screen, but maybe shrinking the text and adding a second column? I'm open to thoughts on how to best support additional laws. There are certainly more issues which could be added, if we want to expand the number of laws (foreign policy, campaign finance, etc...)

I definitely think that there's room for improvement on the Liberal Guardian. News articles in particular are currently completely superficial; they do absolutely nothing. I want them to work like you describe, writing about LCS actions, current events, even responses to major news stories. I also agree that it would be much cooler if you could see more specific information about what you're writing about when the Guardian is released at the end of the month.

I don't think there's a way to page through major news articles.

I'll check out the squad setting up screen, because you're right about that, I may be able to re-use that code, which would make life very easy.

Edit: I don't *think* you need to have the files in the same location as the printing press, but you will need to have both somewhere. Beware that hackers, upon getting the files, will not put them in the squad's inventory, but in the safehouse's. If the safehouse is raided later, even if unoccupied, the files will then be confiscated.

[ June 09, 2007: Message edited by: Jonathan S. Fox ]

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Jonathan S. Fox

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Re: LCS 3.10 (Formerly "what would you want to see?&quo
« Reply #43 on: June 09, 2007, 06:17:00 pm »

Don't know what would have caused that crash, may be Linux specific, but I know about the autosave feature. Autosaves are saved in a separate file, called autosave (rather than save) which is never loaded from. You need to manually restore rename that file in order to use it as a normal save file.
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Xavior

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Re: LCS 3.10 (Formerly "what would you want to see?&quo
« Reply #44 on: June 09, 2007, 06:22:00 pm »

Heheh, well, if enough issues are added, adding paging to the screen wouldn't be all that bad. But taking away the line under Liberal Agenda would probably look alright and would give you another line to work with.

Are you sure you can't add more lines? I think curses gives you some sort of information on how big the terminal is and allows you to set it yourself. I know that when I first run it some commands don't work until I expand my terminal a couple lines(Renaming people in particular)


The articles really do NOTHING? I assumed they at least modified the opinions *laugh* That explains why the polls continued to go down despite having a good 15 intelligent writers working constantly on articles for the Guardian throughout the game. I guess the ones I did get could have solely been for my own actions and my sleepers.

As for the special edition, I forgot I had to have a printing press to release one. I never did save up enough money for one since my programmers abandoned me when I got arrested the first time ;P(Akira was arrested and argued his way out no less than four times    :( I started a new game to check the agenda screen and it saved over it.

[ June 09, 2007: Message edited by: Xavior ]

[ June 09, 2007: Message edited by: Xavior ]

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