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[Toady One]

Tossing the justices is a game mechanic -- it takes too long for justices to roll over, and rather than getting the Secret Service searching my house by adding assassination, you just deport conservative justices to other places.  It happens before the liberal utopia is actually established, but the justices are usually the last obstacle.

Okay, I agree regarding rebasing now.

As far as dismissing and demoting -- the idea was, if your leader recruits somebody, they know who your leader is.  The position in the organization tells you who can rat your leader out to the cops and so on.  I guess it could be more nuanced... for instance, your leader could recruit somebody, and then that person could be passed off to somebody else.  They'd be able to id your leader, but they wouldn't know where the leader is.  This probably fits into the police investigations I was going to add.

The chihuahua is still alive.  It is named Spark Plug.  It is even more calm now when its master is around, but it is still crazy when he's not.  The animal will be living in the house all summer.

Yeah, I think we mentioned some changes to how the newspaper would work, and that sounds like a reasonable alteration.  If business fronts make money, you should have to people them with volunteers who can be caught...  you could have your low level people at a counter in the front and blow off any passerby, or maybe you could actually sell goods and services (which would be something of a complication, unless it's just brownies again).

[Antilles]

Regarding business fronts... I think you could have 2 types of business fronts.
The first is the kind we have now, the 'fake' business. The way I'm imagining it, we're talking a small sign, a small reception/counter area, and maybe a small connecting office, all permanently 'redecorating'/'restocking'/'in financial problems'/'not accepting new customers', some excuse as to why they're not selling insurances or whatever. And possibly explain why cop cars filled with armed thugs dressing up as security personell are doing driving to and from it...
The second is an actual business. This would require a fairly large sum of money to construct, to represent, say, purchase of stock, or hiring of low-level employees. Now, it would still be considered a hideout, but with even lesser chance of a police raid, seeing as a regular shop with regular people using it would seem less suspicious as a shop perpetually 'redecorating.'
Now, you'd also have to permanently assign at least one person to run the shop, as manager or something, and have the actual effectiveness of the shop rely on his skills. A high skill of, i dunno, writing perhaps, could signify a generous boost in income, whereas a low skill would signify a decreased income. And if/when the police would raid the location, it wouldn't mean that the shop is automatically dismantelled. If the person assigned has, say law, he could convince the authorities he had nothing to do with the LCS, he was just renting the place, and would very much like to get back to his business.

[Jonathan S. Fox]

If you were going to have a real business front, wouldn't you just take over a pre-existing business by converting the owner, and using the storerooms in the back or the basement as your safehouse?  

[Antilles]

Yeah, that would be easier... but I don't think every business has unused backrooms or cellars capable of housing, at times, dozens of people, several vehicles, twenty or so computers, thirteen tv's, a dozen printers, not to mention the lab equipment... and not to forget the printing press, barricades, traps, etc.
If you take over an abandoned warehouse, you could easily knock up a couple of (sound proof, preferably) walls to make a few rooms the shop could use, and keep the rest for yourself.

[Jonathan S. Fox]

I didn't mean to imply that every business did, but if apartments can be used for safehouses, then real businesses could too. The question is, what is more believable, a store that just opened in an abandoned warehouse actually owned by some meat packing company, or a store that already existed? If I were running the LCS, I would not bother with all the paperwork and all the technicalities of actually opening a business, especially not in a building I don't own, don't pay rent for, and almost certainly isn't zoned by the city for the business I'm opening. I find it much less believable to have a real business with real walk-in customers out of an abandoned warehouse than to use an already existing business as a front for a safehouse. For the first, there are too many questions of legality, and you could get too wrapped up in the running of the business. For the second, you don't need to explain anything -- just assume there's room in the back, and if the business is already legal and has been running fine, there's no need to go to the great lengths of explaining how it runs and how you got it started. A front that isn't real is easy to just assume, the money goes to buying props and paint, and you're done. A real business begs for a great deal of management and detail, and would need to be abstracted a great deal to avoid damaging the feel of the game. If you're abstracting starting a business too much, it feels crudely done and implausable with too many questions of "how exactly did they get a legitimate store in this warehouse?", but abstracting a business that has been running fine before the LCS came along is much more believable, it would seem to me.

[Antilles]

Yup, all good points. So, what you're suggesting is that we just run into a shop, seduce/convince the owner of our righteous liberal cause, and persuade him to give us a cut of his income and the use of any free space? Yeah, why not. Fits with the rest of the game. Tried it with a landlord, but I didn't get a free apartment though  .

[Jonathan S. Fox]

I don't know if that's exactly how it would work, seems too easy, and we know the game can always use a little challenge.  

Maybe you can't seduce them while they're at their shop, or you have to make them a sleeper or something, I don't know. The sleeper thing makes sense, actually, considering they still have to run the store, right?

BTW, I've also tried the landlord thing to get an apartment, I was dissapointed it didn't work, hehehe.

[Toady One]

I can only do so much!  :roll:

[Jonathan S. Fox]

*laughs* Consider it a compliment to you for creating a great game, we're all like "hmmm, ideas ideas!"

[Antilles]

I'd like to share my latest experience with this game.
While starting up a new game I decided to play it in a completely different way that I usually do, and the first step would be avoiding any criminal acts for as long as possible. So instead of releasing sweatshop workers and forcing them to make expensive suits and disguises for me, I immediately set out to recruit people the old-fashioned way.
Aiming high, I make my way to the Gentlemen's Club. Knowing that Clothes isn't an acceptable disguise, and that my skills are very low, I stick around the exit, ready to bail at a moment's notice. However, when attempting to Radio Personality, a Corporate Manager see through my lack of disguise and sound the alarm, and forces me into a fight with these two and a third guy, an Athlete or something. Being only a few steps away from the exit, and more importantly, unarmed, I immediately evade and hope for the best.
However, both the Corporate Manager and the Radio Personality lands powerful blows and reduces me to Near Death. Things are not looking good. Indeed, the third guy scores a critical hit, and apparently severs my lower spine with his bare hands. 'Bastards', I think, as I press the C button and prepare to begin again.
However, being paraplegic apparently enabled the conservatives to capture me instead of killing me, as the newspaper wrongly reported, and thus I find myself in the legal system. Seeing as I hadn't done anything illegal, I found this very strange.
And indeed, I was charged with . Puzzled by this, I decide to defend myself. Unsurprisingly, I was found not guilty. Upon return to the hideout, I sent him to hospital for 4 months, fixing up the severe beating he received. I also noticed his Law and Persuasion skill had gone up. 'Nice', I think, and stick him in a squad and set out to resume the original mission.
However, upon arrival at the Gentlemen's Club, he collapses and is captured. Again he's brought before the court, charged with doing . Again I defend myself, however, this time I'm found guilty. And given a stern warning. 'Uh, okay', I think, while a small worryingly though suddenly springs up. It is quickly confirmed. I'm fucked. I can't do anything, since I collapse and is captured as soon as I enter a site, and neither can I recruit anybody, for the same reason. All I can do is sit in my hideout, alone and bitter, and wait until the entire country has been overrun by the elite conservatives.

The Moral of the story is: Wheelchairs should be available for purchase in the shops or the hospitals.

[Toady One]

You can steal a wheelchair like you'd steal a car, although admittedly the situation was bug-ridden with the courts.

[Antilles]

Really? Cool, I'll try it out later today.... after upping my Law skill to übergodlike levels... How much Law skill do I need to be virtually untouchable?

[Antilles]

Okay, wheelchair aquired. However, new problem. Apparently, the game doesn't allow paraplegic people without wheelchairs to form squads. Ok, fair enough. But, how come this is only a factor after I've gotten a wheelchair, and why won't the game see that I've already gotten a wheelchair? Frustrating...

[Toady One]

Because of this fascinating bug:

"if(!temppool[p]->canwalk()&&
(temppool[p]->flag & CREATUREFLAG_WHEELCHAIR))"

This says if you can't walk and you have a wheelchair, then you can't be in a squad.  Splendid.  If your character was already in a squad, then it wouldn't be a problem until the squad disbands, hence the success of other people with wheelchair characters (and my failure to notice it).

Once your law+persuasion is 8, you'll be better than the public defender.  It needs to be around 20 to compare to the hired attorney.

[Toady One]

I just put up a little 3.07 that addresses the wheelchair bug and the no-crimes-in-court problem.  Still haven't found the car chase/corpse and the hauling problems.

If you still have that wheelchair save file it can be copied over and used in the new version.