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[Theinsomniac]

Something that really annoys me in LCS is that sometimes an enemy will "Crawl off" in the middle of combat, and usually that enemy is someone I want to either finish off or abduct.
Is there any way to prevent enemies from "crawling off"?

[BoxOfAids]

This is a really good question, I was kind of wondering this myself.

[Cheedows]

That moment when the damn CCS leader crawls off...

[EuchreJack]

Use better liberals.  You've got six shots: Skilled liberals with fully-automatic weapons will obliterate single or dual conservatives.

Actually, the reason that more "Conservatives crawling off" would be occurring in the current version is an upgrade to the targeting code.  Previously, your liberals would attack conservatives randomly.  Now, liberals tend to target the most dangerous conservative, which means wounded conservatives don't get shot as much.  I can't prove this to be true via code (I'm no programmer), but my experience with sieges is that liberals focus fire on healthy conservatives over wounded ones.  The end result is more turns for wounded foes to crawl away.

Dunno how difficult the targeting code was to create, but it seems you would like to add "kill wounded" as an alternate targeting mode to the current "fire on most dangerous".

[Liberal Elitist]

Well doesn't it make sense for the LCS to attack the most dangerous targets first? They ARE trying to survive the fight and win, after all. Attacking weaker targets that can't fight back effectively, when there are stronger targets that are well-armed and healthy, doesn't make any sense. And as for Conservatives who crawl off (you didn't even mention that when fighting breaks out, Moderates and Liberals who aren't part of the LCS all crawl off too), well they are just trying to survive, as they realize the power of the LCS is no match for them. The LCS ALSO has the power to escape from a fight too, after all.

But perhaps certain Conservatives could be True Believers who never back down from a fight no matter how outgunned they are, and would NEVER back off from a fight with the Liberal Scum they HATE with such a PASSION, even if they are outgunned, outnumbered, wounded, and surrounded by healthy Liberals with machine guns. A reasonable solution would be to have Conservatives with Juice of 200 or more be True Believers willing to fight to the death against the Evil Scourge of Liberalism, while Conservatives with Juice below 200 would be, well, less Conservative, and unwilling to fight to the death if they are outgunned, outnumbered, and wounded, and want to get away so they can survive. What do people think of this option? It would be quite simple to code. Conservatives would attempt to crawl off as usual if their Juice is under 200, while Conservatives with Juice of 200 or more would never crawl off or retreat No Matter What because they know that God put them on this Earth to defend His Righteous Conservatism to their last breath (since they saw Pat Robertson say it when they watched the 700 Club and believed him). Wasn't it Sarah Palin who said, "Don't retreat, reload!" But that is just how the Arch-Conservatives with Juice over 200 would act, the ones with Juice under 200 wouldn't be so ideologically committed to the cause of Conservatism, and would be sensible enough to follow their survival instincts and crawl off as usual so they can live to fight another day.

[EuchreJack]

I can't say I actually agree that Arch-Conservative leaders would stay and fight (history shows quite the opposite, actually), but I don't mind it as a game mechanic.

[Liberal Elitist]

Well then, now it IS a game mechanic, as of revision 728. So, I have solved Theinsomniac's original complaint, at least with regard to Conservatives with 200 or more Juice. Ones with less Juice, however, are not True Believers in the cause willing to fight to the death, and thus they will still run or crawl away when wounded, since they are not so deeply committed to the ideological cause that it overrides their survival instincts. Now the really high-level Arch-Conservatives you encounter will be unwilling to ever back down from a fight, and fight to the death. Unless there is a big fire. If there is a big fire, everybody runs away except for Firefighters. I could have made it so high-level Arch-Conservatives didn't run away from fires, but that wouldn't make any sense, because they may be crazy in their levels of hatred for Liberals, but they're not stupid, standing there for a fire to burn you up would just be dumb. But taking a glorious last stand against Liberals, like Custer's last stand or the Alamo, well, that is the Arch-Conservative way, Glenn Beck even held a Tea Party rally at the Alamo once to symbolize never backing down.

Oh right, I almost forgot, anyone with "animalgloss" never runs away under any circumstance, that was already in the code. That includes tanks, guard dogs, and genetic monsters. So if you're fighting them, they won't ever back down no matter what (not even if they're badly wounded, not even if there's a fire).

[Cheedows]

That fixes the annoying part when the damn leader crawls off so you can't capture the safehouse.

[Liberal Elitist]

Yes I guess it could be considered a bugfix because letting the CCS Lieutenant or CCS Founder crawl or run away and having to come back again to the same site is not the way it is supposed to work, it's supposed to be like a boss fight in other video games, where the boss doesn't run away. And if they do crawl or run away you have to leave the site, come back, and try again. Not the way it's supposed to work. The way it's supposed to work is the CCS Lieutenant or CCS Founder should be there, in their spot, waiting for you, ready for a fight, and taking them down gets you control of the site, and they're supposed to fight to the death. And that's the way it works now.

[EuchreJack]

Glenn Beck even held a Tea Party rally at the Alamo once to symbolize never backing down.

Glenn Beck can say whatever he wants, but I'm certain he'd be the first to run if the LCS came knocking.  But it still makes a nice game mechanic, and LCS isn't reality.

Besides, LCS is an exaggeration of real life.  If in real life, a conservative talks big, then they should act big in LCS, even if conservative cowardice exists in the real world.

[Liberal Elitist]

Glenn Beck can say whatever he wants, but I'm certain he'd be the first to run if the LCS came knocking.  But it still makes a nice game mechanic, and LCS isn't reality.

Besides, LCS is an exaggeration of real life.  If in real life, a conservative talks big, then they should act big in LCS, even if conservative cowardice exists in the real world.

Agreed. I was just mentioning the Glenn Beck at the Alamo thing because it's rather funny and ironic. He wants the Tea Party movement to succeed and win, but he picked as a symbol the Alamo, where everyone fighting to defend it got massacred and there were no survivors. That is like launching an attack on another country and promising everyone it will be just as successful as Napoleon was at Waterloo. I'm not sure whether Glenn Beck knew this and did the thing in an act of self-parody as a performance artist, or whether he really is a true believer. I'm pretty sure the guy is just a performance artist, not that there's anything wrong with that.

But it works as a game mechanic to prevent high-level Conservatives from running away, and that's the main point. Having a CCS Lieutenant or CCS Founder run away when you're about to finish them off is the worst. Although I am wondering if maybe this change didn't go far enough. Many Conservatives run away even from a measly little Guitar, even when they aren't physically hurt at all, including, as one example, Corporate Executives. This makes it almost impossible to convert Corporate Executives to Liberalism by playing the Guitar at them, since they run away within a few turns. It would make a bit more sense for Conservatives who sense that you are weak, and who have perfect health, to attack you rather than running away. Running away only makes sense if they think you are more powerful than them, and I find it hard to imagine any Conservative being frightened of a stoned Hippie playing a Guitar, or a Liberal with zero Martial Arts skill who doesn't have a weapon equipped, or something like that.

[SealyStar]

With regards to the argument that the LCS can sneak away just like wounded conservatives can, that would only make sense if the LCS also got a full turn to shoot at them between when the computer "rolled" that they should run and when they actually do.

[Neonivek]

Please clearly if Glenn Beck existed in the LCS universe he would be some sort of elite conservative boss with insane maxed out stats and bodyguards.

[Darvi]

He'd be a TV personality, duh. Not quite the same as a news anchor, but then again news in eneral has devolved into general faffing about.

[Liberal Elitist]

Technically Glenn Beck is no longer on TV (lost his job at Fox News) but still has a big nationwide radio show with lots of listeners, so currently he'd be best classified as a Radio Personality. Yes, he does have his own TV network, but he copied that idea from Al Gore who did it before Glenn Beck did, and nobody watches Glenn Beck's TV network anyway. Al Gore ended up selling his TV network to the Qatar-government-owned satellite TV network Al Jazeera. Judging by that pattern, I would guess Glenn Beck will probably sell his TV network to the Russian-government-owned cable news network RT America. But only after Glenn Beck gets more cable companies to include his network in their packages, so that RT America views it as a worthwhile purchase. It is very hard for foreign-owned news networks to get included in cable packages, for some reason, so they have to buy struggling American-owned news networks like Al Gore's Current TV in order to actually get on television. And the Russians would probably give Glenn Beck a very generous offer to buy his TV network, and he seems like the type who'd do anything for money. Just like most politicians and pundits likewise seem like the type who'd do anything for money, with the sole exception of the President of Uruguay, José Mujica, who has absolutely no interest in money whatsoever. Good guy, that José Mujica fella. I'd vote for him... if I lived in Uruguay, that is.