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[Pesi]

Flavour-wise, my thinking was that when someone does something impressive there'd be some kind of ["That was so cool!" "You should see my boss."]-thing happening.

Mechanically, the way juice is earned means there's only trickle-up for sufficiently awesome actions. Someone who reaches 200 juice via opening genetic monster cages gives their boss juice, and someone who burgles his way to the same point does not, even if they then proceed to open genetic monster cages.

----
A thing that only occurred to me when making the case above was that it is possible to have a liberal earn juice in, say, 50-point chunks to juice their boss up; then lose some of it a few points at a time (such as via prostituting) without affecting the boss and so be low enough for the big actions to affect them again.

[klingon13524]

Minor suggestion: Pickpocketing

Make something in illegal fundraising that allows you to pickpocket. Uses and trains security. Pretty much used for when you want a thief to make you money every day, but you don't want to go through the grind of going to the apartments/army base and micromanaging several thieves. If you want to level them quickly or make more money, just go steal in the traditional mannern, but if you're waiting years for the elections and want to have some cash coming in, use this. You can be caught in a similar manner to spraypainting.

Make it not actually earn much money or provide much XP at all, but not be risky. New criminal charge (or just get theft) if you're caught by the cops.

[Pesi]

@Blomkvist: You missed this part of fight.cpp in your last update

if(t.juice>=100)
{
   move(17,1);
   addstr(t.name);
   addstr(" seems less badass!");
   addjuice(t,-50,100);
}

I furthermore wanted to suggest that instead of the fix being changing "if(t.juice>=100)" to "if(t.juice>100)", it be changing "addjuice(t,-50,100);" to "addjuice(t,-50,99);".
The reason is that 100 is a milestone and it seems more consistant for converts to all be on the same side of it.

Other issues:
Genetic monsters are still money-spiders. While we're on the subject, why do they carry ammo for guns they don't have? For that matter, why do random people who don't carry guns still carry ammo?

Having a single key not skip certain screens should be easy to implement with "while(getch()=='s'){}" or "while(getch()=='w'){}" instead of "getch();". Is there some unintended consequence I'm not seeing?

I protest the recent change of money-making activities sometimes also influencing debate. The music skill, in addition to its combat-conversion effect also doubles as a letter-writing campaign that also gives you money.

And finally, I am in favour of "hacking" and "harrassing websites" being two seperate things once more. The reason is that every major hack that doesn't yield publishables has a mood-cap of 75. The opinion-change of minor hacks has no such restriction. The result of this is that once the issues are fairly but not completely liberal, one would like to do minor hacks, but what's this? One CAN'T because the hacker(s) are by that point skilled enough to do the then-useless major hacks instead.
----
Edit:

activities.cpp line 1208
int difficulty is defined but never actually used anywhere. What?

[Pesi]

Here's my largest suggestion yet. It begins with the randomissue function.

Instead of:

Code: [Select]

int randomissue(bool core_only)
...
interest_array[i]=public_interest[i]+total_interest+25;
total_interest+=public_interest[i]+25;
I suggest that the constants be turned into variables like so:

Code: [Select]

int randomissue(bool core_only, int equalizer)
...
interest_array[i]=public_interest[i]+total_interest+equalizer;
total_interest+=public_interest[i]+equalizer;
and the current existing function-calls have ",25" added to them.
This is to have some say in how much of an impact public interest has on the issue-picking.

The reason for this is to allow randomissue() to be used in places where it currently isn't, such as what issue to affect with a minor hack.
activities.cpp line 1356 says "int issue=LCSrandom(VIEWNUM-5);".
This could instead be "int issue=randomissue(true,150);".
The various instances of "LCSrandom(VIEWNUM)" in miscactions.cpp could instead be "randomissue(false,150)".

The reason for the 150 is, as mentioned before, to reduce the effects of public interest on the issue-picking in order to have it more closely mimic its previous behaviour which gives the same weight to every issue.

And finally...
The benefit of all of this, then, is that you won't get up on stage to talk about the Conservative Crime Squad when they don't exist, since that has already been accounted for in randomissue().
----
Edit:Typo

[Pesi]

This post is a followup to another post in the Q&A thread.

I have a question, because I honestly don't know:

If you have a Teenager as a sleeper agent, does he grow up into a Political Activist?

Yes.

Based on this, I have an objection about sleeper_update.cpp.
The code on spreading liberalism allows anyone not otherwise specified to work to the tune of "libpower[LCSrandom(VIEWNUM)]+=power;".
Teenagers are not otherwise specified.
Political Activists are.
This leads to a situation where sleeper teenagers stop being able to do things once they stop being teenagers.
I motion for line 297 (case CREATURE_POLITICALACTIVIST:) to be stricken from the file.

In accordance with my previous suggestion, "libpower[LCSrandom(VIEWNUM)]+=power;" could be replaced with "libpower[randomissue(false,150)]+=power;"

[Pesi]

Whenever I send my spraypainters out to do graffiti and they are not already holding a spray can, they buy a new one. They are supposed to look for a spraycan to use, but for some reason are not finding them. This is in the homeless shelter, in case it matters.

[klingon13524]

Whenever I send my spraypainters out to do graffiti and they are not already holding a spray can, they buy a new one. They are supposed to look for a spraycan to use, but for some reason are not finding them. This is in the homeless shelter, in case it matters.

Do you have cans IN THE HOMELESS SHELTER? I don't think it will work if they're eat another location.

[Pesi]

@klingon : Every liberal and item involved was in the homeless shelter.

Here's another thing : When purging the supreme court, and everybody on it except one is elite liberal, the text of the amendment correctly starts of with "former citizen", continuing with "former citizens" from then on. Fridge horror ensues when it mentions deportation to "Conservative countries"(plural).

----
Having this amendment be proposed twice makes me consider the possibility that it might get proposed often enough to overflow the integer. Can we make it unsigned?

[Pesi]

Something that the manual and in-game text doesn't make clear enough : It's not enough to make all the laws elite liberal, the president must also be elite liberal; you won't win otherwise.

[Jonathan S. Fox]

Something that the manual and in-game text doesn't make clear enough : It's not enough to make all the laws elite liberal, the president must also be elite liberal; you won't win otherwise.

Everything on the Liberal Agenda screen must turn L+, including Congress (both houses) and the Supreme Court.

[Pesi]

I would like to see the various laws have more of an effect on the game, preferably in the style of Police Regulation which is to say that things get easier as they go from C+ to L, with L+ bringing in some unexpected difficulty.

Examples:

Privacy rights might affect heat protection. As it gets more liberal you are raided less frequently which in turn means you'll have a bigger rapsheet in court and therefore less likely to be found not guilty.

Election reform might affect the bonus granted to incumbents. During conservatism the conservatives in power are difficult to unseat. When things are liberal you must stay vigilant or lose seats.

Military spending might affect how much money you get embezzling from the army. No one misses a crumb if they are not hungry.

During C+ gay rights you are less likely to get a same-sex date.

Flying a flag during L+ Flag burning laws grants less heat protection.

[Pesi]

from sleeper_update.cpp:

Code: [Select]

      /* Radio Personalities and News Anchors subvert Conservative news stations by
         reducing their audience and twisting views on the issues. As their respective
         media establishments become marginalized, so does their influence. */
      case CREATURE_RADIOPERSONALITY:
         change_public_opinion(VIEW_AMRADIO,1);
         for(int i=0;i<VIEWNUM-3;i++)
         {
            libpower[i]+=power*attitude[VIEW_AMRADIO]/100;
         }
         break;

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a high attitude[] means people are more liberal about the thing, right?

It seems like what's happening here is the radio personalities become more effective the more their media establishment becomes marginalized, instead of less.
(This also applies to the news anchor.)

[SealyStar]

Perhaps occasionally both conservatives and liberals in the political arena should have some scandal happen to them. Preferably referencing real political incidents.
Like having a conservative non-incumbent running say "If I were president, that xxx would be shot".

[Pesi]

Code: [Select]

// Cleanse record on things that aren't illegal right now
for(int p=0;p<pool.size();p++)
{
   if(law[LAW_FLAGBURNING]>0)pool[p]->crimes_suspected[LAWFLAG_BURNFLAG]=0;
   if(law[LAW_DRUGS]>0)pool[p]->crimes_suspected[LAWFLAG_BROWNIES]=0;
   if(law[LAW_IMMIGRATION]==2)pool[p]->flag &= ~CREATUREFLAG_ILLEGALALIEN;
   if(law[LAW_FREESPEECH]>-2)pool[p]->crimes_suspected[LAWFLAG_SPEECH]=0;
}
I suggest appending the following line:
if(law[LAW_FREESPEECH]>-2)offended_firemen=0;

[Pesi]

Now I want to bring people's attention to something, which starts with the way public opinion shifts each month.

Code: [Select]

   //PUBLIC OPINION NATURAL MOVES
   for(v=0;v<VIEWNUM;v++)
   {
      // Liberal essays add their power to the effect of sleepers
      libpower[v]+=background_liberal_influence[v];
      background_liberal_influence[v]=static_cast<short>(background_liberal_influence[v]*0.66);

      if(v==VIEW_LIBERALCRIMESQUADPOS)continue;
      if(v==VIEW_LIBERALCRIMESQUAD)continue;
      //if(v==VIEW_POLITICALVIOLENCE)
      //{
      //   change_public_opinion(VIEW_POLITICALVIOLENCE,-1,0);
      //   continue;
      //}
      if(v==VIEW_CONSERVATIVECRIMESQUAD)continue;
      if(v!=VIEW_AMRADIO&&v!=VIEW_CABLENEWS)
      {
         issuebalance[v] = libpower[v] - conspower;
         mediabalance += issuebalance[v];

         // Heavy randomization -- balance of power just biases the roll
         int roll = issuebalance[v] + LCSrandom(400)-200;

         // If +/-50 to either side, that side wins the tug-of-war
         if(roll < -50)
         {
            change_public_opinion(v,-1,0);
         }
         else if(roll > 50)
         {
            change_public_opinion(v,1,0);
         }
         else // Else random movement
         {
            change_public_opinion(v,LCSrandom(2)*2-1,0);
         }
      }

      // AM Radio and Cable News popularity slowly shift to reflect public
      // opinion over time -- if left unchecked, their subtle influence
      // on society will become a self-perpetuating Conservative nightmare!
      else if(v==VIEW_AMRADIO||v==VIEW_CABLENEWS)
      {
         if((int)publicmood(-1)<attitude[v])change_public_opinion(v,-1);
         else change_public_opinion(v,1);
      }
   }
the only purpose of libpower[v] is to bias the random roll, something that the Final Five(tm) issues don't do. And since background_liberal_influence[v]'s only
purpose is to boost libpower[v], anything that adds those things to those issues is a pointless thing.

This brings me to news.cpp, where liberals write letters to the editor and guardian essays, the effects of which are applied to "background_liberal_influence[randomissue()]". As randomissue() includes the Final Five(tm) issues, you'll be writing articles that have absolutely no effect at least some of the time.

This would be fixed by changing it to background_liberal_influence[randomissue(true)].

On that note, the same thing happens with random sleeper liberals advocating liberalism:

Code: [Select]

      default: // Affect a random issue
         libpower[LCSrandom(VIEWNUM)]+=power;
That last line really should be libpower[LCSrandom(VIEWNUM-5)]+=power;.

It furthermore means that this part from monthly.cpp just above the public opinion natural moves part quoted at the top of this post:

Code: [Select]

         if(align==1)
         {
            background_liberal_influence[VIEW_LIBERALCRIMESQUAD]+=power;
            background_liberal_influence[VIEW_CONSERVATIVECRIMESQUAD]+=power;
         }
         else if(align==-1)
         {
            background_liberal_influence[VIEW_LIBERALCRIMESQUAD]-=power;
            background_liberal_influence[VIEW_CONSERVATIVECRIMESQUAD]-=power;
         }
ultimately does nothing and might as well be deleted; and that the part from sleeping liberalizing news anchor/radio personality where they go from 0 to VIEWNUM-3 should be VIEWNUM-5.