Jasonred79, did you play
3.09? Because as I remember it, that version was definitely NOT a game that was easy to win by bungling around.
If you won, it was probably because you were exploiting the overpowered income tools -- hacking (massive money for little effort) or selling expensive suits (even more massive money for grinding) -- and then putting your massive money into converting news anchor sleepers for $500 a day. Get about four, disband, and the game's won. I actually wrote a tutorial on how to beat it back in the day.
But if you don't know that, if you don't know any of the many ways you can totally break the game, the spirit of LCS has always, in the years I've played it, been that of Jefmajor's playthrough. You don't know what you're doing, you just do some stuff, it's fun while it lasts, and then you die or go to jail forever. You're never actually looking likely to win unless you've played it enough to figure out how to beat the system. That's how I expect people to play the game, and that's what a lot of the systems are designed to support.
With that said, the game is harder now, I agree. Here are the reasons I think it's more difficult:
1. It's true that interrogation is significantly tougher. It used to be a simple money sink where you'd trade cash for effectiveness. Revising the interrogation system to make it more like it is now was a very common request. Nowadays, I'm thinking it should actually be eased up a bit.
2. It's a lot harder to get really good Conservative only characters. Agents in particular used to be fairly easy to seduce and form into a large squads, and it wasn't uncommon to see the LCS holding off raids with 20+ agents with M16s holding the line. Apparently agents can't be seduced even at 20 seduction now, so that needs to be worked on as well.
3. You don't have infinite recruits. This is arguable, but this change was carefully calibrated to make the game more fun, not more hard. It reduces the incentives for some of the grinding. I took a poll awhile back and some 70% felt that the game was either more fun with recruitment caps, or it was no difference.
4. High end weapons are more deadly due to multiple shots per round, and there is body armor. SWAT teams, instead of normal police, do raids. This definitely favors more experienced players over new ones.
5. Money is harder to come by because a number of totally broken things were fixed, including sales of clothing and hacking income. There are actually some new ways to get lots of money though; the activation screen option to ask for donations is much more lucrative, and theft is substantially more rewarding. The other legal fundraising methods need to be buffed a bit.
6. A lot of bugs were fixed that favored players. For example, when you were attacked in a siege, the police would often walk straight past you in the opposite direction when you moved, not generating an encounter, even if you entered their tile. And of course you can't disband with four news anchor sleepers and expect to win.
I don't think juice is tougher -- Special Editions used to give everyone in the entire organization 50 juice, but that's it really. In fact, I believe juice gains were doubled across the board about a year ago. It's just more important, since it's tied to your squad size. This is to ensure you learn how to (and do) use the people you already have before you expand further.
Author
Topic: Agents (Read 2369 times)