I've heard that the CCS gets stronger over time; We Didn't Start the Fire claims to start them "extremely strong".
Where does this sort of thing happen in the code? I'm curious as to how the CCS is supposed to level up, chiefly because I just got the Liberal Guardian up and it's stopping the CCS from affecting public opinion.
(Thinking the CCS at high/max power might be able to take a cue from the Firemen, and attack Liberal Guardian sites without needing Heat on the site.)
The CCS strength increases at the top of monthly.cpp in the function passmonth. It increases once per month, in a few steps, if public opinion is sufficiently Liberal. The steps are:
1. Occasional raids.
2. Attacks on LCS raiding parties as they leave sites.
3. Carbombings and sieges of LCS safehouses.
At each tier, the equipment and threat of CSS members encountered increases. Destroying a safehouse temporarily reduces the CCS level by one step. Destroying all three shuts it down entirely.
Nightmare mode starts the CCS at tier 2 or 3, I don't remember which. Quite possibly all the way to 3.
It is indeed the case that the Liberal Guardian always spins CCS actions as Rampages. Having the CCS aggressively target the Liberal Guardian if you start publishing "Rampage" stories about them is a great idea. I think they should also stop doing natural rampages entirely, and always be successful in their attacks.