Basic Interface

Interface

When starting the game, you can choose answers for a variety of questions, and are then presented with the main game screen.

F - Go forth to stop EVIL

Allows you to select from one of the locations in the game. Most locations will serve as sites you will be infiltrating, but some serve as shops or other facilities.

E - Equipment

Equipment shows the loot, tools, weapons, etc. that the LCS currently has in it's possession. As of version 3.19.4, there is only one liberal inventory for all items. While only one liberal can use an object at a time, objects are automatically transported between safehouses when liberals are equipped. Note that squads currently3.19.4 have no inventory for taking items to sites. For a liberal to use a piece of equipment on a mission, you must equip the item before the raid begins. You do not need to tell liberals to bring items to the pawn shop to sell them. All items are automatically available for sale when you go to the pawn shop.

In 4.01.4, there is one inventory for each safehouse. Items can be transfered between safehouses using the Review and Reorganize screen (pressing 8 reveals a list of all items and their locations). This takes no time. Liberals going to the pawn shop can only sell the items in the location they are currently staying in.

V - Vehicles

Presentlyv3.19.4 it is possible to obtain a vehicle by stealing a car or going to the used car lot and buying one. Once you have obtained a vehicle, you may assign personnel to the vehicle by using this screen. Holding SHIFT while assigning a person will set them as the driver of that vehicle, which is important during car chases because you can bet that the police officers following you have considerable driving skill — and no one wants to place their lives into the hands of a prostitute who has only ever been in the back seat of a car.
If no driver is assigned, the best one will drive.

R - Review and reorganize Liberals

This is a screen which allows you both to check at-a-glance the whole Liberal Crime Squad membership as well as to assign personnel to new squads or disband existing squads. It is complicated enough that it merits its own page.

A - Activate the Uninvolved

Activate the Uninvolved is one of the most commonly used screens in Liberal Crime Squad. It allows you to select Liberals and then assign one of several tasks to those Liberals. A full list is described under activities.

C - Cancel this squad's departure

If you have Gone forth to fight EVIL, then you may press this button to change your mind and tell the current squad to remain in its present location.

X - Live to fight EVIL another day

This button quits and saves the game. Liberal Crime Squad is an “ironman”-style game, which means that when you lose, your save is deleted and your team is vilified forever in the high score list. The game autosaves at regular intervals, so you may usually quit the game by pressing the X in the top right, but the truly Elite Liberal way of playing is to use the [X] key.

W - Wait a day

This is the most-used button in the game. Every time you Go forth to fight EVIL at locations or assign activities to your Liberals, you must also advance time by pressing the [W] key. This allows the Liberals to travel to their destinations or to perform their activities, and you will be given updates on any newsworthy occurrences, such as random events, arrests, mob-beatings, and the like.

0 - Show the squad's Liberal status

Pressing the [0] (ZERO) key shows all six of the Liberals in the current Crime Squad in a short, summary form. Information presented from left to right is as follows:

  • Code Name
  • Total Skill Levels/Skill in Current Weapon
  • Weapon (Ammunition Remaining)
  • Armor Worn
  • Health Level (or “Liberal” if full)
  • Assigned Vehicle, or “On Foot” if… on foot

# - Check the status of a squad Liberal

Pressing a number key from [1] to [6] reveals a more detailed short synopsis of the corresponding Liberal in the squad. Pressing the same number key as the Liberal presently displayed opens up the full Status screen for that Liberal, showing all of the Liberal's skills, injuries, et al. Pressing [0] (zero) will show the squad overview again.

O - Change the squad's Liberal order

Pressing [O] (OH) allows you to rearrange the squad — press the number of the Liberal you want to assign to each position, with the last Liberal being assigned to the last position automatically. This options, combined with the right weapons allows some strategy:

  • For cosmetic and mnemnonic purpose it helps if the first slot is a leader, who recruited the others or is the best fighter. This is helpful in the late game, if you have multiple squads, to keep the overview. However this may have some tactical disatvantages.
  • If the squad consist of both melee and ranged weapon users, assign the melee users to the first slots. If they manage to kill the target before the gun users get their turn, you safe ammunition. Put expensive weapons like the .44 revolver in the last slot.
  • If you plan to assassin conservatives (attacking them before the alarm is raised) put someone with a [[dagger]] or [[combat knife]] and high knive skill into the first slot. They will then sneak upon one enemy and have chance to instantly kill it.
  • As the first slots statistically get more hits, it is better to assigne novice members to the first slots to train their weapon skills. In the late game, you should have the money and people to simply teach them fighting, so this effect blurs, but in the early game this is helpful.

TAB - Next squad

When you have multiple squads in play, this allows you to choose between them. Mastery of multiple squads can be very important for the Liberal Crime Squad; if the Elite Liberal Leader is lost, all is lost.

Z - Next Location

This button cycles through the available safehouses and provides an additional feature: I - Invest in this location. Investing in a location is a long-term goal which you should definitely be concerned with after your first year of looting, pillaging, seduction, and abduction. To view the squads instead of the locations, press [TAB] again.

L - The Status of the Liberal Agenda

This all-in-one screen displays a considerable amount of data. At the top left, the current (fictional) cabinet of the White House is listed, including the President, Vice-President, Secretary of State, and Attorney General. It also lists the number of seats currently secured in the House of Representatives and the Senate, listing in order the number of seats held by: Elite Liberals, Liberals, Moderates, Conservatives, and Ultra-Conservatives. See the political system for more information.

To the upper right is the Supreme Court — the judges responsible for interpreting the (fictional) Constitution of the United States.

To the lower left is the list of issues. You will want to devote your efforts to those issues to which the population is Ultra-Conservative or Conservative, with secondary effort devoted to those which are moderate.

The coloration of the listing reveals the current slant of the person or issue; red for Ultra-Conservative, magenta for Conservative, yellow for Moderate, blue for Liberal, and lime green for Elite Liberal.

From this screen you can also disband the LCS, and watch the political landscape of the country change on a month-by-month basis. Very helpful for achieving victory quickly in a very Liberal environment. If the country starts (or is) trending towards Conservative policies, you can reform the LCS to further promote the Liberal Agenda. Depending on the length of time between the disbandment of the LCS and its reformation, some members with lower Juice levels may choose not to return to the squad. The Founder and members with very high levels of Juice, however, will return to action even after a decade or more of inactivity.

P - PATRIOTISM: Fly a flag here ($20) / P - PROTEST: Burn the flag

You may fly a flag within any of your safehouses. You may then burn the flag at leisure. Note that you can only get away with burning the flag if it is "Legal but stigmatized" or better; otherwise, each flag burned will add a charge to your criminal record.

S - FREE SPEECH: the Liberal Slogan

Selecting a Liberal slogan will identify your current squad on the high score list when you lose. You won't win… will you? ;-)

(Windows) ALT+ENTER : Fullscreen

This is the Windows hotkey for toggling fullscreen. As LCS uses Textmode, it starts inside a window, that is uncomfortable to play and consumes a lot of processing power (it lags). If you play in fullscreen, LCS uses the hardware charackter-generator of your video card (like MS-DOS).

(Windows) CTRL+ESC : Halt Process

This hotkey halts LCS (or any other programme) if you are playing in fullscreen and lets you use backround processes (for example reading this wiki or listening to musik). If your Keyboard has a Windows-95-Key, pressing it does the same.

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