... If the profitability of persuasion is the issue, then I'd rather profits of it drastically reduced and the growth faster, so that to get better you can target those you want to join, rather than have to ask 1000s so that you can get to the point where persuasion is useful for more than just hippies.
On that note, and considering that it seems the zeitgeist likes the current model, is it easy to change the growth settings (eg is there a text file/spread sheet/skills growth rate modifier flag or something somewhere)? Overall this version has some great features that make it better, but I liked the convenience and speed of the old LCS I played years ago.
I'm planning to nerf recruitment-based donations in general. They were never meant to be as good as they apparently ended up being, and they encourage grinding, which sucks. I'd rather people use the hands-off activation options if they want to grind money, instead of feeling the need to use a convoluted mechanism to get money money faster.
There isn't any way to mod skill gains without editing the source code and recompiling. What exactly would you like to be doing quickly that you're unable to do now without extensive griding? I don't like grinding in general, so if part of the game is being locked up because you can't get the skills for it in a reasonable period of time, I don't want to keep things that way.
Does it vary by other locations too?
Sort of -- some important sites get double notability, but the main feature is that the crack house and tenement (industrial apartments) got crippled as far as public interest goes.
Why are you guys even attacking the Crack House to begin with? It can't be to sway the issues, there is no issue associated with the Crack House (except maybe the Drug issue). Is it to gain a new safehouse that has tons of heat already associated with it so that the Police will raid you?
I didn't know anyone knew that you can take over crack houses!
if you want to train persuasion, then start selling brownies as it AFAIK trains both persuasion and street sense.
It trains both of those, plus business and cooking. I think I'm going to make soliciting donations train persuasion faster and to a higher level in the future, so that if you want to train persuasion in a safe and hands-off fashion, you can use that.