Problems with Armor and Heat

[sdshannons]

1) Heat seems to be completely stuck for Streets. I went through a bad batch where I couldn't seem to get through a block without getting jumped repeatedly and this was before I had stun gloves so I ended up killing a ton of Street hoods. Consequently, my heat went through the roof. Now, both Heat and Rep are stuck at maxxed out on both bars and I can't seem to get them down. It doesn't help that there are only two motels in all of the Streets territory and they're in different districts.

I've tried going back and forth between the two, resting a couple days in each, but both Heat and Rep continue to be stuck at maxxed out red.

Anything I can do at this point?

2) Maybe I just don't understand how armor is supposed to work but it seems like it's not having much of an impact (pun intended). Right now, I have dermal sheathing and Jaguar armor giving me Ballistics 11 and Deflection 8 but I still get whacked by dogs and punks easily.

Something just doesn't seem right there.


Shannon

[Cory Trese]

Staying in the same hotels, or in hot or followed areas will not reduce your heat.

Move OUTSIDE of the streets to reduce your heat! You can click the Flag to see the number of heat points, or tap the bars to see the zone reputation and heat.

If you have very high negative values then it may take weeks or months for the heat to die down. Avoid those areas.

---

What difficulty level are you playing on and what are the combat stats? If the armor you are wearing is too much for your character is may be causing massive melee penalties and only helping you in ranged combat.

CK's combat system isn't very forgiving and you have to watch the ATT and DEF values very carefully.

[grävling]

There are two sorts of heat in this game. The first sort is 'generalised heat all over'. You get this by going about your business as a CyberKnight. When this heat goes up in one district it goes up in all districts. You get rid of this heat by sleeping in hotels. The hotel you slept in last night, and the night before, and the night before that will not do you any good -- you have to keep going to new hotels in order to burn off your heat. This is why investing in safehouses is such a good idea -- you can buy a few in the same neighbourhood and then when it comes time to sleep go to 1, then 2, then 3 and burn off a lot of heat that way should it be needed. This is also a good way to get rid of heat you get when you get BURNED by the monitoring equipment. This heat is not personal -- it comes from the everseeing monitoring eyes of the NBZ, which is a fairly stupid AI program. It doesn't remember you very well, so forgets you when you get hard for it to track -- by changing hotels.

There is one other thing that effects this heat, and that is positive reputation. If you have a positive reputation in a neighbourhood, then this heat will be offset, and you might not see it. So you could be spending a happy time running packages out of Tuckmore's into other stores in Roxbury Crossing. You are generating heat like crazy, but you are generating positive rep faster than you are generating heat., so you don't see any heat as long as you are in Los V Land. Then you stick your nose out into some other neighbourhood. You discover you have heat off the scale! My goodness, where did that come from.

All those local runs generated it, and you are only finding out about it now. Find a hotel or 3 and rest.

The second sort of heat, which is the sort that I think is the source of most of your problems is called by negative rep by a faction. Each bad rep point generates one point of heat. This heat is only seen in the neighbourhoods where they hate you -- it's personal.
Every ganger in the Streets knows your name and your physical description, and that there is a huge reward on your head for killing or capturing you.

This sort of heat can only be burned off three ways. The first is over time. And the more they hate you, the longer it will take, and the proportionally longer it will take. The relationship between thenumber of red bars and the amount of time it will take is not linear. The more they hate you, the harder time they have forgiving you. Sleeping in hotels does nothing for this heat, except that a) sleeping in hotels takes up time and b) while you are sleeping you aren't engaging in activities, such as killing more gang members, that could increase their dislike of you. But it isn't an active way to remove heat.

The second, active way to remove this heat is to do jobs for the faction that hates you. This is a good strategy when they only hate you a bit -- 1 or 2 bars worth -- or if you have made a connection with a taxi driver that is willing to drive into heat. You take jobs from a connector whoi is close to a phone -- ideally one who has one in his own building. You taxi in, using Benny or somebody from a place where you are heat free, pick up all the jobs your computer can hold, get to a phone, and then use your heat-tolerant taxi driver to leave the neighbourhood. So don't take any escort missions, or missions to your high-heat neighbourhood. This strategy really only works well if you have a 2-or-more job computer, as well, because otherwise you don't get enough of a positive boost between visits.

If you persue this strategy, make sure that the connector you choose is really connecting for the faction that you want to improve your rep with. In particular, Kinder Ban at the Phoenix sometimes connects for the streets -- but sometimes for Bravestar and sometimes for Fennian. I think this is a bug, but right now he is pretty useless for this sort of operation.

The third way to remove heat is to buy your reputation back, when you can. If you go to the gang headquarters, and the hatred is not so bad, you can pay to make things fine with the faction. Unfortunately, the Streets is not one of the factions that can be bought this way, so it will not help you, and also, by the sounds of it, if you tried (say it was Los V, where this can be done that hatres you) the bad blood runs too deep and they won't accept your money to end the violence between you.

Hope this helps,
Grävling

p.s. your armour is likely fine, but you aren't skilled enough to use it. It will start performing better when your dexterity improves. (And maybe your athletics, too, I am not sure about that). In the mean time, stim yourself up to 15 to provide more of you for the dogs to chew on.

[sdshannons]

Thanks guys for the info on Heat. I have a much better understanding now of how it works. At -63 reputation with Streets, I guess I'm just going to have to suck it up and wait it out since nothing I do seems like it's going to make much of a difference.

Regarding armor, I was surprised by grävling's comment that I don't have a high enough Dex or Athletics to make use of the armor. Is that somewhere in the docs? I don't remember reading anything about that. Can you provide more detail about how Attributes and/or Skills affect armor usage?


Shannon

[grävling]

I don't think its in the docs. I just know this from playing a lot. Probably it should go in the docs, and maybe Cory can explain exactly how it works.

[sdshannons]

Feb 9, 2012 1:37:51 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

What difficulty level are you playing on and what are the combat stats?

I'm playing on the default difficulty. I think that's Easy.

My stats:

Body: 5 (6)

Strength: 4
Athletics: 4
Brawling: 4

Dexterity: 3
Stealth: 3
Firearms: 3

Mind: 4

Intelligence: 3
Electronics: 2
Hacking: 0

Perception: 2
Negotiate: 2
Intimidate: 2

EDIT: My DEF is only a 2, which I guess explains why I continue to get my ass handed to me, all neatly wrapped in armor. What can I do to fix that? Raise Dex? Raise Athletics? Both?

[fela]

I have a nagging suspicion that rep only for the 'streets' faction - positive OR negative - does not degenerate over time. That's really my only explanation for my chroncically positive rep with those guys.

Can you please try to verify that, Fallen/Cory ?

[Slide87]

I have the same doubt,fela,i'm -172 but i can't confirm that my heat lower,anyway i'll check it...it's sure that my heat is negative by long time =)

[grävling]

For what it is worth, my rep goes up and down in the Streets. Early on I work for them a whole lot, but as time goes by and I concentrate on jobs for either Blue Ox or Bravestar, it goes down the tubes.

[Slide87]

Also with fennians(Mrs grim gives a lot of capture jobs in streets territories)...maybe it's just for this reason that my heat doesn't lower =)

[grävling]

Feb 10, 2012 12:03:18 GMT -5 Slide87 said:

Also with fennians(Mrs grim gives a lot of capture jobs in streets territories)...maybe it's just for this reason that my heat doesn't lower =)

Yes, they like you a lot better when you stop murdering them. ;D

[Slide87]

Ghghgh even if i use tasers...they don't appreciate shock power,probably xD

[grävling]

hmmm, I am not getting a major reputation loss on assassinate missions as long as I taser everybody. It's the intimidation missions that really ruin reps for me. Even when no fighting happens.

[Slide87]

I taser much of them(not all),but seriously talking my heat surely increases 'cause i prefer looting corpses than go away stealthy...=)

[sdshannons]

Can anyone provide details on how Dexterity and/or Athletics impact one's ability to benefit from armor?