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[Asmodeous]

So I haven't played LCS since Toady had it at version 2 or something. I in fact completely neglected it existed and stumbled across it when trying to hit the DF forums and went, "Wait a minute.. did I seriously play something else Toady made before I found DF this past year? Holy crap I did... and I vaguely remember enjoying the tongue-in-cheek humor of the game," and downloaded the previous version.

So uh, what the heck am I doing here?

Is there a good primer somewhere? (I read the only wiki I could find on it, and it wasn't really that helpful).

Furthermore, what is the point? I mean, I realize that the idea is to get everything in government to be ultra-liberal. Rightright. But here's the deal: How do I know if anything I'm doing is having an effect? Do I just assume it is? Like I start off with a highly charismatic guy that has good persuasion/seduction because I want to do the "Waco" thing where the leader doesn't actually do anything but goes and gets recruits. I start off, get a couple gang members, set them as an "Action Group" and send them out on their merry way stealing stuff and releasing lab animals.

Ok, so the stealing stuff I know is for my own benefit - I'm doing it to get money. Is the releasing of the lab bunnies and mutants actually going to make people think that having test animals is bad, or is it just "because I can"?

How do I start to swing votes in my favor besides getting sleeper judges and such?

WHAT SHOULD I BE DOING?

(Halp).

If there's somewhere I could go to find some solid info that would be awesome, then I don't need to bug you people about it.

[Asmodeous]

Random aside: I also found a bug. My fearless leader was injured in a shotgun blast (I still don't remember why he was being shot at, he never engages in illegal activities) and ended up near death. Went to university hospital and stayed for 4 weeks for healing. Came out in liberal condition with no wounds listed anywhere. When he tried to go on a date he was not given the option to do the week of dating, because it said he needed to be uninjured.

Prior to the hospital visit he had a date that night and it first gave the "must be uninjured" line to that, but I broke it off and sent him to the hospital after that. Could that possibly have tripped a flag that never cleared?

[Deon]

Do you mean that you know all the basics of the game so you don't need tutorials, right? So you just need plain explanations what raises the liberal level, right?

I assume it's sleepers which do the "liberal" work, also your actions like freeing animals should want people to free animals more etc., and releasing of dangerous animals should increase a chance of a lab animal killing people journal article etc. However I would like to have clearer instructions too.

What I definitely know is that I'm doing it right. Because while I kill people, kidnap conservatives and kill CSS members, the country shifts to liberal agenda. And if I stop it and wait for my sleepers to do all the work, it starts to shift back, so my actions really affect the situation.

[Jonathan S. Fox]

From the activation screen, you can set someone to check opinion polls, and you'll get a once-a-day update on the public's opinions to gauge your impact directly. For the most part though, LCS is designed such that when you kill people, free rabbits, spraypaint walls, and generally revolt against the man, people sympathize with you more. If you get a news story that says "LCS strikes!" you're having a positive effect. If it says "LCS rampage!" and has negative language in the body of the article, you're doing bad and your action backfired because you alienated people. Government officials regularly change laws, and eventually they'll have elections where public opinion changes the government officials.

It sounds like you've already found the Liberal Crime Squad Wiki. I'd keep it in mind even though it didn't directly deal with your question, since it's handy for understanding a lot of the fiddly mechanics that need documentation. Otherwise it's no problem to ask if you have questions about the game.

It sounds like you already have a handle on how to play the game and work through the interface, but you may also find it useful to check out one of two video Let's Plays on Youtube if you want to get an idea of how other people play the game:

Valcon's has a better story and is completed.

My own is more instructive but slower paced and incomplete.

[Asmodeous]

Yeah, that's what I mean. I understand the fundamentals of what people to recruit given my "needs" at the time to approach my agenda. It's just the actual interaction of what I do and what that does to further my agenda. . .



Now @Jon:

I actually ended up getting back into it because I found your (incredibly hard to hear - TURN UP THE GAIN MAN! ) LP of the game and the updates to it were already clearly evident. I'll check out Valcon's.

Knowing the language difference in the articles is actually a big help, though what if it doesn't make the news? Then no one cares?

I was also watching Jefwhatever's LP and it was comical but mostly uninformative (but I did mention comical, the dude's hilarious). And by the LCS wiki the one I found was lcs.wikidot.com  Is there another one I should be aware of because the one I found severely lacks information.

So I've mostly been slow-paced in how I go. I build up a squad of mostly gang members that start off robbing apartments to get their security skill up, then I free some garment workers to get some security uniforms or lab uniforms, then I have the gang members go around raising general havoc in the name of Liberal Freedom... of... liberalness.

Meanwhile my main guy (that is primarily charismatic/seductive) goes around to the internet cafes, latte stands, and so on of the world, recruiting members and seducing conservatives and such. I make most of the teachers/lawyers/judges/tv-radio personalities sleepers, and leave them to sit for a bit before I  start having them spread the liberal agenda.

Then something whacky will happen and I'll end up abandoning it and starting over. And by "whacky" I mean like my leader suddenly unable to take week-long dates because of an injury he doesn't have, or being chased by the cops away from a latte stand even though he's not wanted for anything. . .

Although I wonder if he got ratted out and I missed it.

[Asmodeous]

Also meant to ask: Can I do anything with research papers? Or are they just vendor trash?

[Servant Corps]

Research papers can be published by the Liberal Guardian, and turn people against animal testing.

Ok, so the stealing stuff I know is for my own benefit - I'm doing it to get money. Is the releasing of the lab bunnies and mutants actually going to make people think that having test animals is bad, or is it just "because I can"?

Any Crime you commit at a site can affect the issues. So, if you freed bunnies at the Animal Research Testing Center, you are convicing people that animal testing is wrong.

[Asmodeous]

Ah hah, Valcorn is Jefmajor.

His LP was hilarious. I especially liked the sub-saga of "Facegone".

Also, thanks for the help guys.

[Jonathan S. Fox]

Actually Jefmajor and Valcon are the same person, I just gave his bay12games forum name instead of his youtube name. lcs.wikidot.com is the only wiki for the game, yeah. (And you figured this stuff out before I finished writing my post )

If you cause trouble on site you can get chased by cops even though you're not wanted for anything and don't actually do anything illegal; they'll just throw loitering or something at you if they arrest you.

Research papers and other sensitive-sounding documents and items can be published by upgrading one of your two abandoned building safehouses with a printing press and then waiting until the end of the month. These Liberal Guardian special editions give nice heavy bonuses to their issues, and might give you juice. It might add new enemies that want to kill you, like angry mobs, corporate mercenaries, or worse, but that is the burden of revolution.

The printing press doubles as a location that allows you to use writing in the activation screen for four times effect by assigning people to write for the Liberal Guardian. Once you're doing that, you also put your own spin on the news, magnifying the effects of your site actions and mitigating the damage caused by rampages.

[Asmodeous]

So yeah. Definitely seeing a bug here that if someone gets injured at some point and ends up at the hospital they can never go on the weak long dates again. Can upload my save.dat if you like so you can see it. Though it should be easy enough to reproduce.