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[beorn080]

Heres a basic tutorial. Only have the first bit done so far.

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The first screen you encounter is the title screen. Hitting escape here
will quit the game while any other key sends you to the character creation
screens if this is a new game or it takes you to the main action screen. When
creating a character, remember that 
A. Charismatic rogue
B. Guntoting thug
c. Computer whiz-kid
Once you have created your liberal avatar, you are then presented with the main screen.
(insert screen cap here}
The information in the upper half of the screen is

Location  Date                 Squad's current activity       Cash
------------------------------------------------------------------------
l         Squad information
l Name   Total/Current weapon skill  Weapon(ammo) Armor Health Transport
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The lower half lists the various commands you can issue. For more information
regarding these options can be found in its appropriate section.
F: go Forth to stop evil
This option takes you to the menus to determine where to send your squads.
Note: You must wait a day to go anywhere. At the end of the day all the squads
who are going out go out in the order of their squads.
E: Equipment
Takes you to the equipment screen to arm and cloth your liberals from either
their inventories or the safehouse stockpile.
V: Vehicles
Lets you assign stolen cars to the liberals in a squad.
R: Review and reorganize liberals
Takes you to the review screen and allows you to promote liberals, make or
disband squads and send squadless liberals to different safehouses.
A: Activate the uninvolved
Allows you to assign liberals actions other then going to locations such as
causing trouble and stealing cars.
C: Cancel a squads departure
Cancels the current squads departure. Easy enough.
X: live to fight evil another day
Saves and exits the game from the current location.  Note that the game
autosaves at the end of every day
W: Wait a day
Takes you to next day. Required to send out squads that you have told to go
Forth.
0: show the squads liberal status
This is the zero key not the O key.  This takes you to the generic squad display
shown above.
#: check the status of a squad liberal
#= 1-6  This displays a detailed display of a squad member. Pressing again takes
you to the Liberal sheet for that liberal.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
lStats         Top 5 skills   Health         l
lWeapon Transport         Nothing is displayed if   l
lArmor               uninjured      l
-----------------------------------------------------------------
O: change the squads Order
Rearranges the squad members.  Important for deciding who hauls dead or severely
injured Liberals first.
TAB: next squad
Lets you choose the action for the next squad on the list.
Z: next location
Scrolls thru the various safehouses and displays upgrades on them.  Also allows
purchase of upgrades.
L: status of the Liberal agenda
Gives you a report on the various laws that are in effect along with elected
officals.
Red is bad, Yellow is better, Green is good.
P: Patriotism: fly a flag here ($20)/P: Protest: burn the flag
Allows you to fly a flag at the current location or burn it. Flying a flag does
nothing at all. Now, burning one on the other hand is much more useful. It
brings in publicity. Especially in a siege. More especially if it's illegal to
do so.. (Credit for this information goes to a1s)
S: free Speech: the liberal slogan
Lets you change your groups slogan.  Will be displayed on the high score list
and possibly in newspaper articles.  

[ January 05, 2008: Message edited by: beorn080 ]

[a1s]

quote:Originally posted by beorn080:
<STRONG>[CODE]P: Patriotism: fly a flag here ($20)/P: Protest: burn the flag
Allows you to fly a flag at the current location or burn it. Not sure of the effect of flying
a flag but burning it could be a crime depending on the laws.</STRONG>

flying a flag does nothing at all.
now, burning one on the other hand is much more useful. it brings in publicity. especially in a siege. more especially if it's illegal to do so.

[beorn080]

Ah thanks for that info. I'll update that section and fix the whole page width thing.

Next section: Go Forth Young Liberal

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Go Forth Menu
First in the go forth menu you will note 4 options
A - Downtown
B - The university district
c - The industrial district
D - On the outskirts of the city <need>
These 4 options will take you to the next set of menus which allow you to choose the location
you want to go to inside of these 4 catagories. Note that the squad thats going out has to be
assigned a car to go to the outskirts.
Now for a list of the various areas and a brief description of each.
Downtown locations
Police station
Majority of encounters here are with police officers, but there is a chance for almost any
person to be here.  You can also spring your arrested liberals from jail here.
Court House
High number of police but less then Police station.  More judges and lawyers then Police Station
as well.  Second stop for liberals after being arrested. Can be freed here.
Cable News Station
Security gaurds are common here, as are various TV and office related workers.  Very few
if any encounters with the base level recruitment fodder.
AM Radio Station
Same ratios as Cable News Station but instead of TV workers, there are radio based people.
Downtown apartments
Cost $1500 dollars a month but has a high heat dispersal.  High end people of all types can
be found here.
Department Store
Buy various suits and dresses.  Note that clothing is non gender specific so a guy can wear a
dress and not elict alarm.
Gentleman's Club
Conservative hangout. Security gaurds are common, as are various conservative workers.
Latte stand
Almost any non-base level encounter is available here.  Based on your luck can be EXTREMLY
DANGEROUS due to agents and other high end conservatives coming here but those are fairly
rare.
University Locations
University Apartments
Midlevel apartments costing $650 a month.  Has better heat dispersal then Industrail apartments
but worse then Downtown apartments.  They are frequented by low level people.
Hospital/Clinic
Severelly wounded liberals go to the clinic automatically.  Both of these locations will tak
anyone who goes there wounded and there isn't a difference.
Genetics/Cosmetics
Security gaurds and lab types are common here. Don't open the cages because...
Vegan Co-Op
Hippie and Liberal hangout.  Almost no conservatives if any.
Juice Bar
Another liberal hangout.  More variety of liberals as well as more conservatives compared to
the Vegan Co-Op.
Internet Cafe
Large numbers of college students, programmers, and other computer related types.  About
even numbers of liberals and conservatives.
Latte stand
See downtown stand
Industrial locations
Homeless Shelter
Starting safehouse.  Good location for initial base level recruiting.  Almost everyone here
can be persuaded by talking about the issues.
Abandoned buildings.
Other safehouses.  Can be upgraded. Can't wander around unless attacked.
Factories
Large number of security guards and even split of union/nonunion workers.  May also have 
low level corparate workers.
Industrial apartments
$200 a month.  Low heat dispersal but better then unupgraded safehouses.  Also has more 
base level and low level people then others.
Cash & Loans
Sells firearms, clips and crowbars.  Also buy loot, clothing and extra weapons and ammo from
you.  Very important location.
Garment makers
Almost entirely sweatshop workers and security gaurds.  Note that releasing sweatshop workers
can fill up your squad but will make any conservatives in area angry.
Crack Houses
The other base level recruiting areas.  Ratios are about the same as homeless shelter.
Edge of city locations
Prison
Prison gaurds and prisoners abound here.  Very unfriendly place.  Can liberate liberals who
are serving thier sentance here.
Nuclear power plant
Secure location.  Large numbers of Security gaurds and dogs.  Also home of the irresitable
Large Shiny Red BUtton.
Intelligence HQ
Most dangerous location in game unless unlucky in one other area.  Agents are everywhere and
yes those are AK-47s and .44 Magnums they are packing and yes they are VERY skilled with them.
Corporate HQ
Security guards and dogs guard this spot.  Good chance of finding high end corporate workers here.
CEO Residence
Security guards and dogs patrol here.  Also has servants that can be released the same way as
sweatshop workers.  

[beorn080]

Alright here is the last section for tonight. I plan on doing the basic building screen and the lists of various types of weapons, armor and people in a generic sort of way tomorrow. Oh yeah all this is for the last actual release not the current alpha.  Oh twice if you see anything wrong or can contribute pictures of the various screens don't hesitate to either pm me or post a correction in this thread.  I suppose when this is done we can post a cleaned up version thats properly formated.

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Equipment page
Along the top is the squad box described earlier. In the middle section is the equipment that
the squad is currently carrying.  You can strip a liberal of his gun by pressing his number,
his cloths by pressing S then his number, store things at the current safehouse by pressing
Z, get items from the current safehouse by pressing Y, and equip items on a liberal by pressing
the items letter then the liberal's number.

Vehicle page
In the middle are all the cars you have stolen.  Cars in yellow are in use by a different squad
but can still be used on different days.  The liberal with the best driving skill will drive
unless a driver is directly specified.
Review and Reorganize page
Listed here are various catagories.  Listed first and sorted by letter are your squads where
you can remove, disband and add people to specific squads.  Next are the numbered catagories
where you can view all your liberals, the conservative hostages you have taken, any liberals
being treated at either the hospital or the clinic, any liberal currently conservativly
incarcerated at a conservative incarceration institution, view any sleepers you currently
have infiltrating conservative society, your undisposed of dead, and those who are away
for any reason other then those listed.  At the bottom of the page are the commands to
promote a liberal(U), form a new squad(Z), and change squadless peoples bases(T).
Activate the uninvoled
First select a liberal from the list.  This brings up the action menu.
A- perpetrating random Acts of liberal disobedience.
Gives you a list of cash amounts and sends the liberal out.  If the liberal has negative juice
they instead perform random illegal acts like prostitution and shell games.
D- soliciting Donations
This option provides a slow but steady source of income based on juice, charisma, and persuasion.
I believe it also allows for negative juice actions to be taken.(needs confirmation.)
B- selling Brownies
Illegal form of fundraising.  More profit but high risk of being arrested or beaten.
May also allow for negative juice actions.
C- making Clothing
Makes various forms of clothing.  Having cloth from a garment maker allows clothing to be
made for half price. Low skill people have a high chance of making poor copies of the clothes.
R- Repair clothing
Allows bloody and damaged clothing to be repaired.  The clothing is repaired in this order:
on the person, in the squads inventory, in the safehouse stash.
H- tending to a conservative Hostage
Allows you to choose a hostage to either watch, try and convert with increasing costs per day,
or execute the conservative.  A successful conversion before he is noticed gets you a sleeper,
otherwise he joins the ranks directly.
P- surfing the net for opinion Polls
Based on computer skill and intelligence, the liberal checks online for polls on how liberal
the country is and how much they like the squad.
S- Stealing a car
Sends the liberal out to steal a car.
W- Writing for the liberal guardian
Only active when at the liberal guardian.  Allows a liberal to write an article on a certain
subject assuming there is interest in that subject.
M- Move to free clinic
Sends a wounded liberal to the clinic.  Heavily wounded liberals will do this automatically
while light wounds can be sent manually.
Z- dispose of bodies
Dispose of dead bodies lying around the safehouse.  Is an illegal activity but unlikely
to be spotted doing it.  

[flap]

Good initiative !

[Athame]

:roll: Very Good!!1
It'll help a lot.

[ January 08, 2008: Message edited by: Athame ]

[beorn080]

Sorry bout the horrendous lag between posts.  Problems of various sorts kept creeping up from nobles making unreasonable demands to children tantruming about the engraving of a donkey, an ogre, and a cat being covered.  Anyways, enough about my life, heres a small addition

The movement screen

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The dungeon crawl I mean Building Exploration window
Top third is the group status window which should be familar by now.
Bottom 2/3s is divided into a map (right had 1/3) and the encounter and key command window.
Map symbology
Grey lines
Walls: cannot walk thru them.  Tanks can destroy them in a siege.
Door
Sometimes locked.  Can attempt to pick once based on security skill, then attempt to break
it down with strength.  Picking locks and breaking down doors raises the difficulty of
disguise checks.
Goods
Sellable items.  Picking them up counts as a crime and raises the difficulty of
disguise checks but allows you to sell the loot when done at the location.
XXXXXXX
Restricted area.  Much higher chance of being caught when in these areas.  Note that some
areas are restricted everywhere and these don't have the XXXXXX.
Various object names in yellow
You can interact with these items.  Some require the (U)se key, others merely move onto them.
Interface keys
W,A,D,X and Arrow keys
These move you around the map to the right.
(F)ight- attacks any conservatives you are currently encountering. Can alienate liberals and
moderates.
(T)alk- talks to various people you encounter.  Allows you to (A) talk about the issues or
(B) drop a pick up line.  Issues only work on base level recruits and it doesn't matter
what you talk about.  Picking up someone sets up a date for after the run. Multiple
dates can be arranged but stands a chance they know eachother and set a trap for you.
A successful date either makes the person your love slave or if they are conservative
you can kidnap them.  Combat professions are harder to kidnap then noncombatants.
(G)et loot- picks up any GOODS or LOOT that you are standing on.  Loot are items dropped
by people you kill.
(M)ap- shows a map of the current area. $ are goods, ! are interactive objects, and a striped
box are doors.
(E)quip- lets you change out armor and weapons and review the loot you have aquired.
(S) wait- essentialy it moves you into the square you occupy.  Causes one turn to pass while
not moving.  Useful for raising disguise and finding encounters without moving deep into the
area.
re(L)oad- reloads all weapons in group. Note that any ammo left is lost.  Unsure if it reloads
everyone when being raided.
(U)se - use the current object you are standing on. Can cause various reactions.
e(V)ade - after one round of combat in which no one in your group attacks you move to a
different square in the direction you press.
(K)idnap - start hauling a noncombatant conservative or a critically injured combatant.
Extremely high risk activity.
(R)elease opressed - certain areas have large numbers of oppressed people who you can free.
People freed like this fill up your squad then when its full disappear into the night.
You recruit anyone who stays in your squad.  

[Jonathan S. Fox]

This is great work! Awesome job!   Thank you thank you.  

[beorn080]

Alright the long awaited and greatly anticipated next segment of the LCS guide the ranged weapons. Also are there any generalized documents on clothes, melee weapons and various types of recruits available.  For the first two it wouldn't
be hard to go through and record all of them but that last one would be annoying.

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Weapons (Guns)
Pistols
All pistols have the same accuracy starting at about 50% hit rate and gaining about 1.5%
every skill point increase.  This makes them the least accurate gun set in the game.
That being said they are almost always legal, are cheap to aquire, and ammo is easy to
come by.  They are also hidden by almost any sort of clothing.
9mm Semi-Automatic and .45 Semi-Automatic
Functionally the same, these have the second lowest damage in the game outranking the
.22 revolver in damage only.  That being said they are still very effective weapons having
15 rounds of ammunition before needing to reload and ammo is plentiful and fairly cheap
at $30 a clip.  They are also cheap to aquire at a mere $300 price tag.  Becomes illegal at
liberal gun control.
.22 Revolver
The lowest damage gun out there.  Cheap at $150 a gun and $15 a clip.  Unskilled and with
low strength and agility it still outdamages melee weapons, however with decent strength and
skill most melee weapons out damage this.  Useful for training pistol skill and for arming
non-combatants who stay at base for raids.  However with only 6 rounds you may need to 
max out their clips too often to be useful. Also only becomes illegal at elite liberal status.
.44 Magnum Revolver
The most consistently high damage hand gun in the game.  At $300 a gun and $20 a clip they
are an econical buy and provide high bang for your buck.  With only 6 rounds in a clip
it does have a high downtime but compensates with its high damage and ease of ammunition
acquistion.
Assault Rifles
These weapons are the deadliest in the game(with the exception of the AR-15 which for the rest
of this paragraph is ignored).  They each have 30 round clips but fire 3 rounds per shot.
All of them use the rifle clip which is readily available at the start of the game but
can become hard to come by rapidly. That being said the raw amount of firepower these weapons
is considerable and will if you can aquire them make up the mainstay of your arsenal. Also
these weapons can not be concealed under clothing.  Also all three three hit rifles can blow
off limbs if all 3 hits hit.
M4 Carbine
This gun has the 3rd highest potential damage in the game next to the M16/AK47. In addition
it is much more accurate then those two guns with 5% higher accuracy then those two guns and
significantly better rates of all 3 hits hitting.  It has a very rapid accuracy increase at 
almost 2% a skill point. Unfortunatly you can't purchase this weapon at the beginning and it
takes a long time for gun control to go arch conservative. (When I just held down wait and
did nothing else, it was the last issue to go arch conservative.) That being said, these are
probably the choice weapon for low skill assault squads.
M16/AK47
These 2 guns have the highest potential damage of any gun in the game. They have slightly better
accuracy then the pistols but the chance to hit more then once makes them Much more powerful.
Like the M4, you can't purchase them until gun control goes arch conservative.  However,
you can aquire an AK47 at the beginning and it will serve you well.  
AR-15
Identical to the M16 in all ways except it doesn't have 3 hits.  However this can be an
advantage due to having 30 rounds per clip.  That works out to 309 rounds of combat before
needing to reissue clips to any liberals holding this weapon.  This makes it possibly the
best base defence weapon for those liberals who do things like solict donations or cause
trouble.  This is also the only assault rifle that is purchaseable at the beginning of a game
for $350.
Other firearms
The remaining two firearms are the MP5 and the Pump Shotgun.
MP5 SMG
Combines the 3 hit power of the assault rifles with the ability to hide it under a trench
coat.  It has the highest accuracy of any weapon for one hit but it is fairly weak and has
very poor accuracy over all 3 shots.  When starting with it, ou will hit with one shot about
2/3s of the time however you will only hit with all 3 hits about 10%. In addition it only
has 15 rounds so it can only be fired 5 times before needing to reload.  At high skill levels
its not as effective compared to an actual assault rifle but its concealability makes it
a potential choice for combat squads. However the shotgun tends to be a better overall
weapon plus you can always buy them and the ammo for it.  The MP5 is illegal at the start
and you can't buy either it or the ammo for it until gun control hits arch conservative.
All in all this makes it a specialist gun that is very effective but hard to come by.
Pump Shotgun
Potentially the highest single hit weapon in the game.  It has the same accuracy as the
M16/AK47 and is normally only slightly weaker then the M4.  However it also has a 20% crit
chance which skyrockets its damage to more then any other single hit weapon in the game.
At higher skill levels it rises at a fairly slow rate but this makes it a very potent weapon.
At $400 its the most expensive of the available weapons at the start, but it is worth it for
the damage it can do.  It has 6 shells which cost $20 for a pack of them.  When choosing
between this and the magnum its a choice between concealablity and consistency(magnum) vs.
raw potential power and trench coat concealability(shotgun).  

Damage chart(strongest at top)
M16/AK47 (3 hits)
M4 Carbine(3 hits)
M16/AK47 (2 hits)
M4 Carbine (2 hits)
MP5 SMG (3 hits)
Shotgun (crit)
.44 Magnum Revolver
MP5 SMG (2 hits)
M16/AK47 (1 hit)/AR-15
M4 Carbine (1 hit)
Shotgun (noncrit)
MP5 SMG(1 hit)/ 9mm Semi-Automatic/ .45 Semi-Automatic
.22 Revovler  

[ February 04, 2008: Message edited by: beorn080 ]

[Jonathan S. Fox]

Looks great. Just curious, did you poke at the source code, or was that all from the guns document and experimenting in the game?

I haven't made any documents on the different clothing types, characters, or melee weapons. The guns one was actually a side-effect of my efforts at balancing weapons somewhat, and I figured it'd be a fun spoiler to make a bunch of accuracy charts and describe how the weapons work in the game. At the time I was working on getting the multi-hit accuracy rates right especially. Some of the numbers I put out were the results of adjustments I was making as I was writing that document.  

If making a list of character types, I would stick to the important/useful ones. That would cut the tedium down a bit. If you have any questions that I might be able to help with, feel free to ask.

[ February 04, 2008: Message edited by: Jonathan S. Fox ]

[beorn080]

Nope just used the guns document and some game work. Guess some code diving is in order.

[Jonathan S. Fox]

If you find it's too complicated to look into the source and find what you're looking for and/or understand what's there, you're totally welcome to ask about something. Like if you want to know how the damage is affected by agility, strength, and health, for example.