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[MistaMeowmas]

Hey fellas, and lasses. I've played LCS in the past before and have watched JefMajor's lets plays of it often, and lots of times, and I really badly want to play it but I'm honestly kind of crap at it and want some tips for starting out a play-through, at least something to get me up to speed with the game and catch up with any of the 'easy' ways to make money. I don't necissarily mean cheating just... a smooth way to make quick money without huge set backs, cause I know everyone says credit card fraud, but I'm guessing that doesn't work so well in the new versions of the games, since you can get raided while you do it.

[SlatersQuest]

All methods of making money involve some kind of drawback - selling music, art, etc. with hippies freshly recruited from the vegan food co-op is completely safe, but nets relatively little money. All of the other methods involve some danger.

The method that I like is plain old thievery. You can follow these steps:

1. Get a liberal with a good charisma or agility (depending on whether you're going for disguise or stealth), and preferably also decent intelligence for lock-picking. If you're going for stealth, you might want to invest in a $50 black turtleneck at the department store before moving to step 2 (the hippie artists/musicians are more than capable of getting you $50). Actors have both high charisma and disguise, so they make an easy first choice of people to recruit.

2. Send this liberal to the park, and have xer strip naked. Have xer walk around until xe encounters a conservative, and keep going. The conservative will watch you suspiciously. Once that happens, have xer suit up again and keep walking around the park. When xe encounters conservatives, xe will practice either, stealth, disguise, or both. Head for the exit when you see the "conservatives suspicious" message on the status bar - this will ensure that the conservatives won't have time to become alarmed and shoot at you, and you'll escape.

3. Once you have disguise/stealth to level 5 or so, it's time to practice lockpicking. Recruit a locksmith (or anybody with lockpicking skill - even better if your liberal soon-to-be thief already has it). Put the locksmith in the same squad as your thief. Send them to the apartments and pick some locks (but don't enter the rooms). Make sure nobody is present to see you while you do it (or they will become alarmed - even if they're liberal)! This will build up your thief's lockpicking skill. Once your thief has a lock-picking skill of 1, xe can now pick locks on xer own, and you should remove the locksmith from xer squad. Train xer up on lock-picking.

4. Send your liberal to the AM Radio/Cable News station, pick the lock on the front door, and start stealing stuff. If you're going for disguise, you'll also need a $500 cheap suit - again, your hippies can foot that bill, but if you're really afraid of cash, you might want to do the agility/stealth option. Once inside the media station, start stealing stuff. You will get one point of juice for each item you steal up to 200 juice, and the laptops are worth $1200 if you fence them at the pawn shop. You will also get media documents that you can publish in the Liberal Guardian this way. Once your lock-picking skill is 7 or so, you can also loot the police station, the laboratories, and, at level 10-ish, the courthouse. They also have their own publishable loot. Once you have a car you can visit some of the out-of-town locations, too.

5. If you still need more dough, have your (now-juiced) master thief recruit some apprentices. Xe will have skill in lockpicking, so can train the apprentices the same way the locksmith trained xer.



Additional things to note:

1. If you are going stealth instead of disguise, avoid the Intelligence HQ. The guard dogs will sniff you out even with a stellar stealth skill. You can still disguise your way past them, though.

2. You can pick the locks on the safes in the corporate HQ and the corporate house, but doing so will attach a stealing charge even if you manage to escape unseen. You can be rewarded with tons of juice and very nice loot, but keep in mind the risk.

3. Avoid the bank vault, the CIA mainframe, and the armory. You will need computer skill to get into the first two, and the latter two will attach a treason charge!

4. If you publish stolen secret documents in the Liberal Guardian, that too will attach a treason charge to anybody in the safehouse containing the printing press. It's best to keep your important liberals (which, by now, includes your master thief) away from the safehouse while doing this, because treason charges will attract attention!

[MistaMeowmas]

Well that definitely gives me a start. I don't really want to always cheese it in the game though, you know? I just want something that is going to give me a run-through of how the game systems work so I can at least understand what I'm doing when I play through for fun. I do it with other games like Cataclysm:DDA as well, I min-max my stats to make it as easy as possible, but even then I still get my ass beat by the random generating worlds. Hah.

[Azerty]

As for training lockpicking, I would advice the Projects, where the risk to be fould is lesser.

Moreover, I would advice to be very cautious about publishing anything related to the corporations, lest you have enough firepower to resist their mercenaries.

Lastly, I would recruit prostitutes and seduces at last four judges, along with a lawyer.

[SlatersQuest]

Moreover, I would advice to be very cautious about publishing anything related to the corporations, lest you have enough firepower to resist their mercenaries.

While this is good advice, it's also true that their mercenaries won't find you unless you have heat. If you do have heat, then you will need to arm yourself regardless, because even if the corporations aren't angry enough to send their mercenaries, you will eventually have to deal with the CCS.

Also, make sure to seduce the hanging judges, not the liberal judges. Whether you get a sleeper judge for a trial depends on the judge's infiltration score, and hanging judges have better infiltration scores.

[Jboy2000000]

I don't know about publishing ANYTHING about corporations, the only time Ive ever been raided by corporations was after publishing the special secret documents you get from the the safes (saves?) in the two corporate locations in the outskirts.

[Purple Gorilla]

Its is important to know the basics about heat and raids: Then a liberal commits certain crimes, he gets heat attached, that will slowly transfer to the safehouse. You can see the heat in the "Go forth to stop evil" Menu.
Then a liberal has 100 or more heat, he will transfer the heat to the safehouse, and loose it in the process, up to a minimum of 100. Then liberal does communtity services, his heat is reduced by 1 per day. Heat below 100 is only relevant, if you are working in public, while heat above 100 gets you raided. (To work safely in public as a criminal, you must do 100 days of community services)

* The types of raids are *
* Police Siege : The probability of a Police siege is proportional to your heat. After some days of sieging, they will raid you. If you fought of a siege, they will besiege the location a few days later, no matter if there is still somebody there. You can surrender to the police, and criminals get arrestet, others will be released. There is no "FINDING A BUG" charge, and in fact it isn't a bug. Killing the raiding Policemen is considered murder, so you get even more heat. Police sieges escalate from level 1 up to level 4.
* CCS raid : The CCS attacks locations with heat, and prefere locations with a printing preess. In 4.7.4 They can also attack a press, without heat, and in 4.7.0 you are completely safe if you haven't heat. The strength depends on the Endgame_state variable.
* CIA raid : The CIA attacks, if the location has heat, and the offended_CIA flag is set. offended_CIA is set if you publish their files or ANYBODY commited treason. It is reset after the raid.
* Corporate raid : The corporations attack, if the locations has heat, and the offended_corps flag is set. offended_corps is set if you publish their files. It is reset after the raid.
* Firemen raid : The Firemen attack locations with a printing press, if the offended_firemen flag is set. offended_Firemen is set, if you publish any files, or ANYBODY commited free speech. It is reset after the raid. They let you surrender.
* Redneck raid : The Rednecks attack, if the offended_AM_radio or offended_cable_news flag is set and the view on the media is below 30%. The flags are set, if you publish files of a media, or take a news anchor or radio moderator as a hostage in a way, that gives you a kidnapping charge. The flag of the raiding faction is reset after after the raid.

*Raiders*
* Police level 1: SWAT Teams with MP5s and M4s.
* Police level 2: Marines with M16s.
* Police level 3: Marines with M16s and M1 Abrams Tanks.
* Police level 4: Navy Seals with M4s, M1 Abrams Tanks and Bombers.
* CCS level 1: Civilians with .44, AR15 and Molotov Cocktails
* CCS level 2: Types from level 1 plus Soldiers and Mercenaries with M16 and AR15, and armour.
* CCS level 3: Types from level 1 and 2 plus Team Leaders with AA-12s and Ceramic armour.
* CIA : Agents with Various automatic Weapons.
* Corporations : Mercenaries with AR15 or M16 depending on gun control.
* Firemen : Firemen with Flamethrowers. They always set the site on fire, and the damage is permanent. If enough of the site is burned down, you get some glitches on the map borders, and items may spawn in inaccessible holes.
* Rednecks : Rednecks with torches, pitchforks and shotguns. The probability of a given redneck, to have a shotgun depends on gun control.

*How to publish Files*
Then a file is published, you may be charged with treason or free speech. To avoid this, station the files at the press (R->Move Equipment) and make sure, at the end of the month there is nobody there. You can still publish the file, but nobody gets a charge. This will however still offend the factions, so the press may be attacked by firemen, if you commit free speech and rednecks may attack any locations if the view drops.

*How to surrender*
In general you should never surrender to anybody other than the police or the firemen, because this gets anybody killed. If you surrender to the police, anybody at the locations gets arrested. There is however an abusive workaround: If you chose to fight off the raid and wlak into a siege unit, you can (T)alk to them and surrender. This gets only the currents squad (=six guys) arrested. During the raid, you can press (R)eorganize, and put some Hippies and Prostitutes with a clean rapsheet on the frontline, and prevent your high profile liberals from getting arrested.

*Known Bugs*
* Sometimes the game will crash during elections. This happens, then a proposition tries to change the prison law, in a year without a president election. To work around : 1. Retry a few times 2. raid the courthouse, to give other laws more priority. 3. restore from a backed up safegame.
* You cannot reconquer abandoned factories conquered by the CCS. They are lost forever. Better not let that happen.
* If you kill multiple tanks during a raid, the raid becomes unwinnible. To avoid this make sure, you kill 10 Navy Seals before taking on the tanks. Killing 10 or more Seals and EXACTLY one Tank ends the raid, no matter how many tanks were spawned.
* If you buy a gun from a conservative (Gangmember at the Crack-House) he shoots at you for wielding the gun, you just bought. To work arround, Press (E)quipment while you are still in the shop menu, and unwield the weapon (buy pressing the number of the liberal).
* You can assign ANYBODY to a squad, including prisoners and sleepers. This can be abused to walk out of prison, or train your sleeper lawyer by vandalizing the sweatshop.

[Taberone]

Its is important to know the basics about heat and raids: Then a liberal commits certain crimes, he gets heat attached, that will slowly transfer to the safehouse. You can see the heat in the "Go forth to stop evil" Menu.
Then a liberal has 100 or more heat, he will transfer the heat to the safehouse, and loose it in the process, up to a minimum of 100. Then liberal does communtity services, his heat is reduced by 1 per day. Heat below 100 is only relevant, if you are working in public, while heat above 100 gets you raided. (To work safely in public as a criminal, you must do 100 days of community services)

* The types of raids are *
* Police Siege : The probability of a Police siege is proportional to your heat. After some days of sieging, they will raid you. If you fought of a siege, they will besiege the location a few days later, no matter if there is still somebody there. You can surrender to the police, and criminals get arrestet, others will be released. There is no "FINDING A BUG" charge, and in fact it isn't a bug. Killing the raiding Policemen is considered murder, so you get even more heat. Police sieges escalate from level 1 up to level 4.
* CCS raid : The CCS attacks locations with heat, and prefere locations with a printing preess. In 4.7.4 They can also attack a press, without heat, and in 4.7.0 you are completely safe if you haven't heat. The strength depends on the Endgame_state variable.
* CIA raid : The CIA attacks, if the location has heat, and the offended_CIA flag is set. offended_CIA is set if you publish their files or ANYBODY commited treason. It is reset after the raid.
* Corporate raid : The corporations attack, if the locations has heat, and the offended_corps flag is set. offended_corps is set if you publish their files. It is reset after the raid.
* Firemen raid : The Firemen attack locations with a printing press, if the offended_firemen flag is set. offended_Firemen is set, if you publish any files, or ANYBODY commited free speech. It is reset after the raid. They let you surrender.
* Redneck raid : The Rednecks attack, if the offended_AM_radio or offended_cable_news flag is set and the view on the media is below 30%. The flags are set, if you publish files of a media, or take a news anchor or radio moderator as a hostage in a way, that gives you a kidnapping charge. The flag of the raiding faction is reset after after the raid.

For some reason, only Cops and the CCS raid me. This happens on both the Unofficial R855 Version and the last "Official" version by Johnathan S. Fox. I publish documents on a monthy basis and never get raided by the Firemen, I piss off the Corporations and Rednecks by publishing Corporate/AM Radio files constantly. I've got half a dozen Liberals with several counts of Treason, and yet the CIA never raids.

Also, one "Easy" and overpowered strategy in LCS is to get a squad of six Gang Members/Army Veterans/Etc, train them in the Rifle skill by giving them an AR15 at the least(M4 Carbines preferred) and send them to a Liberal Live Firing Range known as the Crack House. Or the Genetics Lab, but you need some skill in Security for that.

Once the Combat Squad has enough skill in Rifles to reliably one-hit-kill in a single turn of combat AND you have 6 of them, send them to the Police Station to massacre it. Its recommended to have a Sports Car and a good driver to avoid the car chase. Police Station shuts down, no heat. Constantly shoot up the PD every time it reopens. Inbetween waiting for the PD to reopen, have your Badass Combat Squad shoot up locations constantly and remember to restock on Assault Rifle ammo by either attacking the CIA or Army Base.

[SlatersQuest]

The above long-winded description has some errors mainly about the CIA. Among them that I see are:

-The CIA holds grudges, and does not reset the offended_cia switch after a raid. Most of the other factions do reset, however.
-The CIA only gets offended if you publish either the Secret Documents or Intelligence HQ data disk, not just for treason (there aren't many other ways to get flagged for treason, however).


Also, the CCS doesn't escalate the same way that the police do. Police escalation is site-specific, and is reset whenever the police raid a safehouse with nobody there (kill the LCS defending it, or the LCS present surrender). The CCS escalates each month, globally for the entire CCS, based on how liberal public opinion is (60% will escalate to level 1, 80% to level 2, and 90% to level 3). THe CCS will always attack and do anything else at their current escalation level, and the only way to knock it back is to take over a CCS safehouse (or defeat the CCS entirely).


Note that in the Terra Vitae mod, there are "cheat codes" that allow you to have yourself besieged by any faction, reactivate the defeated CCS, activate the inactive CCS, pacify any faction so that they won't besiege you, etc. I like to use these to increase the challenge level because several of the factions don't raid me as often as I would like.