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[Broseph Stalin]

Here's my Windows executable. Just drop it in the terravitae0.4 folder from the original zip and run it.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ujn5ucp9gdb1rsg/crimesquad.exe?dl=0
I don't think I changed anything important, but I can't guarantee it'll work right. It runs on my computer with no issues I've noticed except the siege thing. Let me know if it works.

I got it to compile for Windows pretty easily, not sure if my version is stable or anything but it seems to run for me.

Awesome - indeed, can you post it, and, more importantly, tell me how you did it? I have a Windows computer, but lack the Windows knowhow to compile anything on it. It would be really nice if I could learn how to do this myself so that I can release Windows versions of future updates, too!

There's a bug in this version (not sure if it exists in base LCS) where conservatives will siege the courthouse when you have liberals held there. It might apply to the police station and prison as well. It makes the save unrecoverable without hexediting since there's no way to break the siege. I'm trying to fix the bug on my machine but I haven't found it yet.

Yeah, that's a bug, and a surprising one. Did you get it via moving conservatives to the Courthouse using the cheat code functions, or did you do it through normal means?

I just opened the game.sln file that came in the download (I'm using Visual Studio 2013 Professional), let it update the file format, fixed a couple compiler errors and then built. You have to add tvrecord.cpp in the src/monthly folder to the project manually, it's missing from the download. My version probably isn't a stable release. 

The siege bug seems to happen whenever I have several high heat liberals awaiting trial. I've tested a bit and it's pretty consistent if I put lots of multiple murderers in the homeless shelter and then surrender to a police siege. It happened in normal gameplay, no cheat codes needed.
There's always the possibility that it's an artifact of my lazy windows port of course. 

Fairly prevalent. I revised my play strategy to include allowing nobody to be taken alive and in the event that they are I launch nonstop raids on the police station to keep it closed awaiting trial. As a sidenote it's actually kind of refreshing to let the Inner Circle have an unbeatable rap sheet.

Edit:

Apart from that my biggest gripe is with the battle suits. I think they're underpowered. They don't seem to have any value as armor and aren't flame retardant which is problematic because they are awesome at starting fires. Sure the blaster is usually one hit kill but so is an m-16 in competent hands. I imagine proper battle suits being tough than heavy armor, flame resistant, and also miserably impractical to gain access to. If a battlesuit could turn an elite liberal into a man-tank that can burn down entire sites and soak up damage like nobodies business I'd have no problem shelling out a million dollars to make one.

[SlatersQuest]

All right, time to tally up the bugs to fix before version 0.5 is released:

New features to implement:
-Athletics activity (done)
-Secret Mission activity (done)
-Sieges by new factions (apart from supervillains) (done)
-Use of Terra Vitae as safehouses (done)
-Interaction between Terra Vitae and other factions (again excluding supervillains) (done)

Bugs to fix:
-Make CCS actions' effects on public opinion actually do what they're supposed to (right now, the CCS makes itself less popular with each attack, apparently). (fixed)
-Prevent the CCS from besieging the police station, prison, and courthouse (fixed)
-Rebalance the battle suit (I agree it's not as useful as it's supposed to be) (fixed)
-Prevent army sieges from lasting forever if you kill soldiers and tanks in the wrong order (fixed)
-Look into presidential succession bugs

Misc rebalancing issues:
-Replace where sexual treason, etc. crimes get flagged on liberals (done)
-Rebalance the recruitment system again (done)
-Make volunteering unable to get to better than 0 juice again (it's not remotely dangerous!) (done)

[corgi]

I thought the CCS was (sometimes) supposed to make itself less popular with each attack, isn't there some mechanism where they alienate the public?

Magic and superpowers also set a lot of fires, squads with them tend to kill themselves pretty quickly unless everyone is in bunker gear. I guess that might be intentional or you might be planning another solution, but it seems kind of weird to me. Not like the battlesuits that kill themselves with fire damage I guess.

Also the police and CIA were besieging the courthouse for me, it wasn't just the CCS.

[SlatersQuest]

I thought the CCS was (sometimes) supposed to make itself less popular with each attack, isn't there some mechanism where they alienate the public?

They are, at a 1 in 10 chance, which is reflected in how the news story portrays them, as with the LCS, i.e. news stories that begin with "The Conservative Crime Squad has struck again" paint the CCS in a positive light, while stories containing "The Conservative Crime Squad has gone on another rampage" paint them in a negative light. However, from what I've noticed during playtesting, the positive/negative portrayal of the CCS appears to do the opposite of what it's supposed to. The CCS striking again makes the CCS less popular, while the CCS going on rampages makes them more popular.

Magic and superpowers also set a lot of fires, squads with them tend to kill themselves pretty quickly unless everyone is in bunker gear. I guess that might be intentional or you might be planning another solution, but it seems kind of weird to me. Not like the battlesuits that kill themselves with fire damage I guess.

I am planning on potentially dealing with that, or just making them stop causing fires. It makes obvious sense for them to be able to start fires, but since fires more often harm the user than the victims, I may simply remove that characteristic. It would be neat if you could burn down Conservative Government/Corporate buildings, but that's not what usually happens when you start fires in Liberal Crime Squad.

Also the police and CIA were besieging the courthouse for me, it wasn't just the CCS.

Yeah and I think I know what I did that caused that bug.

The thing is that I want the player to be able to use "cheat" codes to cause sieges that take place there, but I don't want them to happen there naturally. Apparently in allowing for one, I caused the other. It's a bug.

[Dwarf McDwarf]

*comes back after over a year*

*remembers this mod*

*thinks it's funny that the vanilla game hasn't updated yet*

[SlatersQuest]

THis mod is a lot more playable than it was a year ago - still not complete, but progress is definitely being made 

I'm finding more issues with the vanilla game and fixing them in the mod as I work on stuff, by the way. I discovered today how pathetically weak the background liberal influence is, and am going to adjust it.

[SlatersQuest]

Updated post 136.

Major change: sexual crimes are now charged when you commit them, rather than when you go to trial.

[SlatersQuest]

All right, I am going to poll the populace for some advice.

The Secret Mission mechanic is now (almost) done. Here's the gist of it:
-Secret missions are initiated from the activation screen, but they will take your liberals out of circulation for 8 to 20 days.
-Secret missions are very rewarding, if successful: they affect public opinion, yield publishable loot for the Liberal Guardian, and everybody you send on one gets 50 juice for every mission who participates. They are, however, quite dangerous for those without a great deal of existing skill.

As an additional option, I've considered having a conspiracy counter, which is weakened every time you complete a secret mission, and slowly recovers over time. I am wanting this conspiracy counter to do something bad to the LCS if you don't do anything, and the idea that I'm considering is that it slowly corrupts politicians (i.e. makes them more conservative). Politicians that are already elite liberal or Stalinist would be immune to this corruption, but politicians without such an extreme alignment would slowly drift towards conservatism.

The concern that I have is that this would increase the level of difficulty of the nightmare mode (even more so than it already is in the Terra Vitae mod, thanks to the wilderness mechanic). The only think preventing the conservatives from passing the arch-conservative constitutional amendment in nightmare mode is that the arch-conservatives do not hold a 2/3 majority in Congress; if they did, then they would propose the amendment, the states would ratify it (because public opinion starts at 100% conservative), and you would lose the game. The player has one election cycle (two years) to turn the country around. However, if ordinary conservative politicians could become arch-conservative due to the conspiracy, then the time that the player has to liberalize public opinion becomes much shorter.

What are your thoughts? Am I making it too difficult, or should nightmare mode be, well, nightmarish?

[EuchreJack]

I would suggest making nightmare mode more nightmarish, but be prepared to tone it back if it is unwinnable.

[Servant Corps]

I would think that the New Earth Conspiracy would be scarier if it was an "apolitical" conspiracy dedicated towards the goal of human supremacy. Let the CSS, AM Radio, and Cable News focus their efforts on promoting petty conservatism, but the NEC will play the "long game" and maneuver its way through the changing American political landscape. No matter who ends up winning, the NEC wins too.

In this view, the NEC will support extremist non-L+ politicians, trying to convert conservative politicians into Arch-Conservatives and liberal politicians into Stalinists (this is, of course, assuming you actually want to have Stalinists in your game). It doesn't matter to the NEC whether unions controls the means of production or are brutally suppressed by said means of production. All that matters is that, in the end, mankind stays supreme and the eco-weenies' political influence squeezed out.

It might even be possible for the LCS to make a deal with the NEC devil, abandoning several L+ positions on Animal Rights, Pollution, etc. in return for the NEC providing their own backing to L+ extremists (though such an action would certainly anger the TV and is overall considered a pretty terrible outcome).

[SlatersQuest]

I would think that the New Earth Conspiracy would be scarier if it was an "apolitical" conspiracy dedicated towards the goal of human supremacy. Let the CSS, AM Radio, and Cable News focus their efforts on promoting petty conservatism, but the NEC will play the "long game" and maneuver its way through the changing American political landscape. No matter who ends up winning, the NEC wins too... It might even be possible for the LCS to make a deal with the NEC devil, abandoning several L+ positions on Animal Rights, Pollution, etc. in return for the NEC providing their own backing to L+ extremists (though such an action would certainly anger the TV and is overall considered a pretty terrible outcome).

I not only have the same view of what the NEC is supposed to represent, but also like the idea of player agency. The LCS choosing to make this deal with the devil, though, would basically make them indistinguishable from the SCS, so I am thinking that at some point they may be able to become/replace the SCS if the player so chooses. I doubt that feature will make it into the 1.0 version, but I am hoping for the 2.0 version.

From what I'm getting, yes, I am thinking I am going to have the NEC strength affect politicians, but lightly. It might affect attacks on the wilderness more (which is the main way that the LCS can lose the game that is apolitical). Thanks!

[SlatersQuest]

Check post #136 for more updates.

All that remains apart from bug-squashing is to make it so that the LCS can use Terra Vitae locations as safehouses once TV likes the LCS enough.

This will be accomplishable in two ways, either:
1. Recruit the Terra Vitae leader into the LCS (you will be evicted if xe ever dies, though), or
2. Defend the Wilderness from attack successfully while the LCS approval rating (VIEW_LIBERALCRIMESQUADPOS) is 90% or better.


Edit: done. A little play-testing, and it will be release time!

[Nosaneinme]

Being Superhero and Supervillan are Stock Mad Science about Technical Alliance and Technocrats, Unmoved by politics, They to make America,Candan,Mexico into North American Technate rule by science and engineer.

Sound like neat idea, They Poltic with mixed Elite Liberal idea and Elite Converse idea(Being Uber-Sciencist think that can do anything because anything stooped the advance technology make, Some Lab-Tech and Emittet Science interstead Arch-Converse, There Uber-Techocrat )

Learn about technocracy http://technocracy.wikia.com/wiki/Technocracy_Wiki

[SlatersQuest]

I am sorry - I did not see your comment!

I am not sure I understand your suggestion. The New Earth Conspiracy is more than merely technocratic (and has a motivation of its own). Indeed, there are some scientific endeavors (specifically, those aimed at learning about nature, as opposed to artifice) that they actively oppose.

The NEC isn't really political. They are like Terra Vitae in that they have an ideology that has political implications, but as Servant Corps suggested, the NEC would be just as comfortable with a Stalinist government as an arch-conservative one. Their enemy Terra Vitae, similarly, would be just as happy in a libertarian society as an elite-liberal one.

I've had RL distractions and haven't been able to play-test the bugs. I may just post version 0.5 and let you find them. :p When I get a break with a few other things on my plate (which are dragging on and on due to uncooperative coworkers...), I will get version 1.0 in order.

[EuchreJack]

I've had RL distractions and haven't been able to play-test the bugs. I may just post version 0.5 and let you find them. :p When I get a break with a few other things on my plate (which are dragging on and on due to uncooperative coworkers...), I will get version 1.0 in order.

Sounds like a great idea!