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[EuchreJack]

If people aren't happy about LordBucket's game, I volunteer to try...although the controversy and non-"workingness" of the Stalinist mod doesn't bode well. 

Much like Jonathan S. Fox is able to satirize Elite Liberalism effectively by being a Blue Liberal, I think that Purple Conservatives are the best people who could satirize Arch-Conservatism.

When I made my suggestions for the CCS game (sex change operations for homosexuals, Presidential authorization for abortion), I wanted to do two things:
1) Make fun of the CCS.
2) Don't offend actual conservatives who do share the same beliefs as the CCS.

That was it. The end result is some twisted Arch-Conservative CCS who want to implement a rapid reactionary programme of national rebirth, but at the same time don't offend the Elite Liberal United Nations in the process and lose valuable oil contracts. But I prefer my ideas rather than some of the more disturbing Arch-Conservative suggestions...

YAY!

I'd suggest LordBucket design the game, and Servant Corps design the world and ideaologies.  Or, as previously discussed, the game could contain the actual text for the laws in a text file, like Dwarf Fortress handles dialogue.

[LordBucket]

renaming the game.

Meh. At the moment I'm designing a player-configurable issues system which, in theory, should allow a player to play anything from liberals vs conservatives to the church of england vs athiests to race wars to reducing the foul humans to their proper place as burnt offering to our animal lords, or any combination of those at the same time.

If I like what I end up with, this may become "Crime Squad."

[EuchreJack]

renaming the game.

Meh. At the moment I'm designing a player-configurable issues system which, in theory, should allow a player to play anything from liberals vs conservatives to the church of england vs athiests to race wars to reducing the foul humans to their proper place as burnt offering to our animal lords, or any combination of those at the same time.

If I like what I end up with, this may become "Crime Squad."

That is a great idea.  I look forward to the results!  We'll be able to play all the CCS games: Conservative Crime Squad, Crazy Crime Squad, Cannibal Crime Squad, Circus Crime Squad, Catholic Crime Squad...

Edit: Also, I had a gameplay suggestion: Buying members.  It always seemed to me that any non-Liberal organization would recruit sleepers via large bribes, and hire some muscle to supplement the recruited masses.  A family-based system may also be useful, if you're up to coding it.  Most organizations maintain secrecy by consolidating control in one family, like the Mafia.  Plus, it meshes well with the "pro-family" bias that many organizations espouse.

[LordBucket]

That is a great idea.  I look forward to the results!

Thank you. It does however complicate things massively because the scope of site actions and gameplay has to be expanded to match. For example, in CCS I wasn't planning on making any sort of seduction system because it seemed out of theme for conservatives to run around sexing people up.

If this works though, anything would potentially be in-theme. It may be difficult to make this work in a way that is neither hopelessy unobtainable nor unpleasantly generic.

Will probably be a few days before I have an answer to that.

gameplay suggestion: Buying members.

I may be able to work mercenaries in. How would you propose a plyer go about recruiting them? I suppose at certain levels of law, mercenaries might be available just like secretaries from any temp agency.

sleepers via large bribes

It will need to be re-examined if the current changes go through, but I was planning on replacing sleepers with a new system whereby individuals at sites are static individuals who can be replaced. Sort of like how the club bouncer works, but with provisions for a person to be permanently killed, and for CCS recruits to apply for the job.

At some point though I may have to simply draw some lines about what I do and don't want to include. I don't really want this to be a project that takes years to complete.

[Jonathan S. Fox]

Yeah, the sleepers have always been difficult to work with. I haven't figured out a way to make them really work well. I would carefully think about what role you want for your undercover characters to have in the game, and how that will support the other mechanics.

[Asmodeous]

For example, in CCS I wasn't planning on making any sort of seduction system because it seemed out of theme for conservatives to run around sexing people up.

True, but you could still use the mechanics that are already in place and instead of "seduction" have them "proselytize". Just change it from the "seduction" skill to the "Religion" skill.

[Blacken]

That is a great idea.  I look forward to the results!

Thank you. It does however complicate things massively because the scope of site actions and gameplay has to be expanded to match. For example, in CCS I wasn't planning on making any sort of seduction system because it seemed out of theme for conservatives to run around sexing people up.

If this works though, anything would potentially be in-theme. It may be difficult to make this work in a way that is neither hopelessy unobtainable nor unpleasantly generic.

Will probably be a few days before I have an answer to that.

No reason it can't be. Conservative Crime Squad doesn't need seduction? Then don't have it. But leave in hooks for others to write them in Whatever Crime Squad--develop a modularized framework with overridable fluff text. I wouldn't try to do it in a data-driven way, because then you're reinventing the wheel and you're going to want to stab yourself in the eye when you do something that might require user scripting (and then you put yourself into the position of having to be everything to everyone). Instead I'd expose an object framework that can be used in loadable libraries to do it.

(This nearly precludes C++, but you can do it if you're determined enough and you want to deal with Boost.)

[EuchreJack]

It is hard to produce valuable advice until we see how the system will work generally, but buying members and bribing sleepers would mostly be an extension of the recruitment system, and they can probably be combined to some extent.

Blackmail might also be fun!  Especially in sleeper-creation.  It would probably involve a "follow, watch, record" tree of actions, with success determined by skill(s).  But at this stage, it is probably to be added later with space set aside.  Really, I just want to play the alpha.

[Neonivek]

Wait so the CCS game should be an exagerated outlook of the Liberal agenda and exagerating the actual goals and outcomes of such for comical effects?

Id suggest reading George Orwell but in that book military is in fact the major industry which Conservatives support.

So I guess as the country reaches higher levels of Ls the institutions should start getting more and more dismal. So hospitals should be worse, less and less trained police officers, and perhaps Firemen equipped with buckets.

Then the games difficulty curve because obvious because as place becomes more conservative the more equipped the world is to stopping you.
-Suggestion: Institution Budgets should/could be a part of the game or even issues.

Though the CCS should have different methods of doing things then the LCS. The CCS should focus more on connections, bribes, and smoozing. Maybe not.

[Jonathan S. Fox]

I think at L+, government budgets would be huge, they'd just be paying for things like golf courses and big screen TVs for prisons, instead of training and equipment for SWAT teams. Instead of funding the military, huge grants go to drug addicts that apply for artistic subsidies so they can continue to hang up pictures of splattered paint for civic beautification. The economy is a basket case as the poor have little incentive to work and those who do work are taxed into oblivion to help pay the bills of those who don't.

[Duuvian]

Sarah Palin is a retard and used in animal testing or something?
I don't find it that amusing. Yeah, I sort of agree, but it's just not that funny to me.

Her son is mentally retarded and she is a conservative. She also brings him up all the time, usually involving the health care bill and how it would spell doom for him somehow.

[rickvoid]

I only got halfway through this thread, but I had to stop a voice my support for Islamic Jihadist Squad. Then, partway through putting together the post, I changed my mind. It's only funny if they never win, and always get blown away. Which means there's no point to the game. Otherwise, you quickly move into the "Not funny dude" zone.

Finally, let me try to explain my thought process here. Some people in this thread have argued that the Arch Convervative laws I've described are not "real world" conservative, or are as you call it, "more than a mile over" the top. But there's a fundmental problem here. If you limit yourself to "real world conservatism" the game is conceptually flawed to begin with. If you think of "conservatism" in a literal sense of "conserving the way things are" and "maintaining the status quo" then what exactly are the CCS fighting for?

This. This this this this THIS.

I am a Conservative. I believe in a number of things, among them that using the Federal Government to institute broad, sweeping changes that have at best had dubious impact in places they have been tried, and at worst have resulted in the combined slaughter of tens of millions worldwide, is a very bad thing. I believe that the individual States should have the right to, if passed by a statewide vote, implement such practices so long as they affect only the inhabitants of their State, or visitors from other States, and are not to be imposed upon other States, such that if sucessful, such things could be moved to a national level. If not, then any damage is confined to that one State only, and can be more easily and effectively contained.

However, it is the belief of my fellow Conservatives, and myself, that we should work within the system to prevent these kinds of nationwide excesses. The very concept of taking up arms against our own government (and by extension, our own people) is distasteful to us. We don't want another Civil War. We don't want other nations (such as, for example, Mexico, China, or Russia) to use such conflicts to establish footholds in our country. We don't WANT to shoot our brothers and sisters (in spirit, if not in blood).

This point is, no true Conservative (who simply wants to be left alone, be the master of his or her own destiny, and to enjoy the products of his or her labor (be they consumed by him or her, shared with family and friends, or gifted to those less fortunate, as he or she wills)) would engage in the kind of behavior exhibited by radicals (such as depicted by the LCS). In short, a CCS game is DOA, unless it is wildly and inaccurately reinterpreted.

I'd say rename it Republican Crime Squad, but the only difference between today's Republican and Democratic parties are the color tie they wear.

[Servant Corps]

I only got halfway through this thread, but I had to stop a voice my support for Islamic Jihadist Squad. Then, partway through putting together the post, I changed my mind. It's only funny if they never win, and always get blown away.

It wouldn't be funny if you lose. In fact, I don't really know how to make it comedic without...I don't know, making these Jihadists fight for vague promises of Islamic Socialism and social justice.

Johnatan S. Fox has vetoed any talk about Islamic terrorism because of fear that the game would be used to justify violence (by making violence seem like the best way to promote an agenda).

[Jonathan S. Fox]

This point is, no true Conservative (who simply wants to be left alone, be the master of his or her own destiny, and to enjoy the products of his or her labor (be they consumed by him or her, shared with family and friends, or gifted to those less fortunate, as he or she wills)) would engage in the kind of behavior exhibited by radicals (such as depicted by the LCS). In short, a CCS game is DOA, unless it is wildly and inaccurately reinterpreted.

What you've just described sounds to me like the ideals of the American Revolution, whose first blows were carried out by the Sons of Liberty, which were, by modern standards, a subversive terrorist group, prepared to engage in at least blackmail and arson to get what they want -- widespread killing came later. People WILL kill to be left alone, if they have to.

That said, I agree -- a game like CCS will necessarily portray its protagonists as hypocritical idiots. That's true of LCS already, though, so it's to be expected. You're a bunch of pacifists with AK-47s. It's deeply ironic and not at all ideologically sound. Liberals as we know them, like conservatives, would never join a crime squad.

Johnatan S. Fox has vetoed any talk about Islamic terrorism because of fear that the game would be used to justify violence (by making violence seem like the best way to promote an agenda).

Have I? I might have done that at one point, but I don't mean to censor forum discussion, per se. It's true that I would definitely not be comfortable making such a game myself for the reasons you describe. LCS gets away with it because it's so absurd; for Islamic Crime Squad, it's a little too real and risks coming across as propaganda. Plus, as a game designer, it would look really bad on my resume.

[Kay12]

The reason LCS is funny is that it is very exaggerated. In my opinion a M-L society would make sense, but both ends of the political scale are ridiculously funny. Animals are people too, people are allowed to have machineguns in public, the Government sets up a Ministry of Love...

Conservatives in LCS are all either stupid and mislead or cunning and evil, while liberals are oppressed, enlightened or just very smart. They all pursue a political agenda different from their real world counterparts because of intense exaggeration. That's why I think LCS is well made and funny - it satirizes both liberals and conservatives without hurting either side for real.