New Bodyguard Mission

[grävling]

A mark joins your team at the point where you take the mission. But you can still take taxis. Intentional?

[grävling]

Okay, I hauled the guy to a safehouse. No matter which option I pick, the place gets attacked. 8 times so far. Is this how you want things to work? I would think that if I murdered all the attackers then either a) the job should succeed or b) I need to find another safehouse.

After 9 attacks, the time left was 0 minutes. But nobody freindly showed up. I tried again, got attacked again, the bodyguarding time is long over and I am exhausted. I decided to sleep at my safehouse. The job then expired. It looks to me as if, if you do not have the skills to either succeed at 'stay close' or 'patrol outside' then no matter how many times you take out assassination squads the job is still doomed to fail. This seems wrong, to me.

On the other hand, if you just sleep at your safehouse, and make no attempt to guard the mark, then I can see that failing might be the best behaviour. You are supposed to stay up on crammers while you are bodyguarding. But then your relief really does need to show up ...

[fallen]

grävling - great to hear your feedback. Yes, that is how it is supposed to work, except the part about the 8 fights. What are the skills you are using on these tests? I was able to run a few of them, and I found that sometimes completing the mission would require 1 combat, or the mark would get killed without my realizing it. I never had to try more than twice, and with a pretty junior Knight.

The Connector's team will not show up unless you are on guard.

[ntsheep]

I did one of these last night with a Hunder and 3 hunds. I selected let the hunds patrol while I stayed inside. Took about 4 tries till I completed the mission.

[fallen]

Hmmm, now I am wondering if I made the same mistake (flipped Bonuses / Penalties) that I did with Surveillance. I will check the difficulties on these.

And looking forward to adding more possible results next release.

[ntsheep]

How about where you fight them off instead of it just saying they attacked and then you have to try again. It makes sense that if you kill the ones trying kill the mark then they don't need a body guard anymore.

[fallen]

ntsheep - the premise is that it is an enemy organization trying to kill the mark. So they have the ability to drop multiple hit squads on you ...

Maybe the "sustained mission" setup is annoying? It is intended to work like Surveillance in which sometimes you have to be successful a few times running before you get the $$. For that reason, it is the best paying job in the game.

[grävling]

My Hacker Knight has
Int, Hacking, 5 (hacking 6 due to dataport) Negotiate, Intimidate:5
all other stats 6.
Her AgentEX Runner buddy has:
Brawling 3, Negotiate, Intimidate, Hacking 0, Electronics 3,
all other stats 6.

Brutal, of course.

[grävling]

Feb 19, 2015 11:23:28 GMT -5 fallen said:

ntsheep - the premise is that it is an enemy organization trying to kill the mark. So they have the ability to drop multiple hit squads on you ...

Maybe the "sustained mission" setup is annoying? It is intended to work like Surveillance in which sometimes you have to be successful a few times running before you get the $$. For that reason, it is the best paying job in the game.

It's not that the sustained mission is annoying. What is annoying is that you can haul the mark around on other business, even in taxis, and
why should the taxi drivers be willing to take you when you are bodyguarding? I think that a bodyguarding mission should be exclusive -- you can only have one of them, and then you really have to stick to your safehouse until the time expires. If you wander around town delivering packages, the mark should just get automatically killed by one of those hidden snipers and the job fails. Indeed, your safehouse had better be _nearby_, or
else he or she will get killed as you try to get to it. And taxis should hate this sort of mission the very most -- its more hazardous than escorting.

I think that the bodyguarding missions should all end quite close in time to now. Bodyguarding for 4 days, when you cannot do anything else
is pretty boring, and at 'every attack takes 3 hours off the clock' or whatever it is .... it is something like that .... you can get a ton
of attacks in, in that period. Perhaps more than is reasonable.

I think that sleeping in your safehouse or elsewhere should cause the mission to fail. You snoozes, the mark loses Running out of
crammers and going to the drug store to get some more should also be suitably hazardous for the mark. Fighting while exhausted I think
should be even less effective than it is now, thus making it more likely that the mark is killed.

And, should the timer get to 0, then the mission is over, and if the mark is alive, then you succeeded.

The way I see it, anyway.

ps. tried more bodyguarding with this char. Never was successful. I will try again with a less experienced knight.

[fallen]

grävling - the ability to take the mark into a taxi is a mistake. I will work on making Bodyguarding more exclusive (other Escort-type work is rejected).

Next release will see new and bad Encounters if you are taking a Mark around the streets. The kind of thing that will make you run for the Safehouse.

I will review the difficulty on the Bodyguarding-Encounters as it sounds like something is messed up.

[ntsheep]

I don't mind the multiple tries, and gravling makes some good points and suggestions. I like this new mission type. It adds a whole new style of play for different knight types. My Hunder had a good advantage yet still had to work for his money.

[grävling]

Maybe if you take a bodyguarding job then all the marks you are currently escorting should leave, immediately, and all their jobs fail. (The packages don't have that option.)

[grävling]

Okay, tried this a few times with a different knight

Sniper CK
Body: 4
Ath: 4
Brawling:4

Dex:4
Stealth:2
Firearms:4

Mind:4
Int: 3
Elec:0
Hack: 0[1]

Per: 3
Neg:3
Int:3

with her bodyguard, a martial artist

Body: 4
Ath: 4
Brawling:4

Dex:3
Stealth:3
Firearms:1

Mind:3
Int: 0
Elec:0
Hack: 0[1]

Per: 3
Neg:0
Int:0

-----------

I now know why you install a clinic in your safehouse. or a phone. Because after being attacked a few times, you cannot afford to walk to the
closest clinic.

----------

And this team had a really wretched time of it, as well.

Because the team is small, I could not patrol outdoors. I ended up with a corpse every time.
But success with the small team 'stay close' requires electronics and perception. I have none of the first, and very little of the second.
So it doesn't surprise me that this repeatedly fails, as well.

This means I really want a 'your mission succeeded because you managed to kill everything they had to throw at you' option, for instance when the time limit wears off. Why electronics, by the way? Doesn't seem all that relevant to me ...

I also think that you should be able to equip your safehouse with some surveillance cameras that makes this mission more likely to succeed (if they attack, they will start from farther away. And lots of them will not because they know you have the surveillance equipment.)

I'm getting a fair bit annoyed at the marks for 'flipping out' and heading for the door. Can't I tranquilise them? That would make them
easier to kill, should anybody ever get inside my door, but the whole point of guarding them _in the safehouse_ is to make the safehouse
difficult/impossible to attack with booby traps, a kennel of dogs I could release, etc ...

[fallen]

grävling - thanks for posting the Knight's stats. A Security System upgrade is coming in the next update. I think things will get more interesting as Safehouse options increase and you really start building Safehouses for jobs (even a Clinic, Kennel, Security System would be great for bodyguarding -- grab you 2 Hunds, heal up, guard).

There is only one Encounter possible for Bodyguard result today, so that is limiting the possible results. We will be adding more in the following releases.

Electronics is used because every house would have some sort of surveillance measure / things you've installed. Electronics represents the skill of using the tech of the day.

[grävling]

Okay, I go buy some dogs, train them some, stick them in the kennel, and then try more bodyguarding, this time with the large team option. I will report on how it goes.