Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
CirclMastr
Jul 4, 2010



Covert Action is a 1990 action-adventure game for MS-DOS and Amiga where you play as Max (or Maxine) Remington, secret agent. It's similar to Sid Meier's Pirates!, where the game is actually a collection of mini-games tied to the theme. The goal of Covert Action is to prevent diabolical organizations from executing their equally diabolical plots, while also tracking down and arresting the masterminds behind said organizations. If you are really good at your job, you can have a foursome in a hotel casino.

Sid Meier disliked Covert Action so much that he developed the "Covert Action Rule," which informed his design of later games:

Sid Meier posted:

The mistake I think I made in Covert Action is actually having two games in there kind of competing with each other. There was kind of an action game where you break into a building and do all sorts of picking up clues and things like that, and then there was the story which involved a plot where you had to figure out who the mastermind was and the different roles and what cities they were in, and it was a kind of an involved mystery-type plot.

I think, individually, those each could have been good games. Together, they fought with each other. You would have this mystery that you were trying to solve, then you would be facing this action sequence, and you'd do this cool action thing, and you'd get on the building, and you'd say, "What was the mystery I was trying to solve?" Covert Action integrated a story and action poorly, because the action was actually too intense. In Pirates!, you would do a sword fight or a ship battle, and a minute or two later, you were kind of back on your way. In Covert Action, you'd spend ten minutes or so of real time in a mission, and by the time you got out of [the mission], you had no idea of what was going on in the world.

So I call it the "Covert Action Rule". Don't try to do too many games in one package. And that's actually done me a lot of good. You can look at the games I've done since Civilization, and there's always opportunities to throw in more stuff. When two units get together in Civilization and have a battle, why don't we drop out to a war game and spend ten minutes or so in duking out this battle? Well, the Covert Action Rule. Focus on what the game is.

Now personally, I like the juxtaposition of short, intense action with the thoughtful investigation of the rest of the game. And I enjoy Covert Action; I'd love to see it get a modern remake the same way Pirates! did. But in the meantime, let's check out what passed for above-average graphics and sound in 1990 with the classic. I'll be providing live commentary, so you can hear my thought processes (and keyboard, sorry) in real time as I try to solve the cases. The mission: arrest all 26 masterminds.

Videos:
The Case of the President's Codebook
The Case of the Train Blueprints
The Case of the Travel Itinerary featuring Danaru
The Case of the Uplink Station featuring Danaru
The Case of the Prison Visitor Pass
The Case of the Prison Warden
The Other Case of the Travel Itinerary
The Other Case of the Train Blueprints
The Case of the Summit IDs
The Case of the Helicopter Pilot
The Case of the Election Commission HQ
The Other, Other Case of the Travel Itinerary
The Other, Other Case of the Train Blueprints
The Case of the Herp Challenge featuring HerpicleOmnicron5
The Other, Other, Other Case of the Travel Itinerary
The Case of the Metal Foundry
The Case of the Chemical Plant
The Other Case of the Metal Foundry
The Case of the Industrial Warehouse featuring Derek Barona
The Case of the Noted Chemist featuring Derek Barona
The Other Case of the Industrial Warehouse featuring Derek Barona
The Other Case of the Noted Chemist featuring Derek Barona
The Case of the Fighter Pilot
The Case of the Airbase Plans
The Case of the Medical College
The Case of the Noted Bacteriologist
The Other Case of the Chemical Plant
The Other, Other Case of the Metal Foundry
The Case of the Physicist
The Case of the Breeder Reactor
The Case of Geraldo Corazon
The Other Case of the Election Commission HQ
The Other Case of Geraldo Corazon
The Other, Other Case of the Election Commission HQ
The Case of the Airbase Plans
The Other Case of the Fighter Pilot featuring Orv
The Other Case of the Airbase Plans featuring Orv
The Case of the Veteran's Day Parade
The Case of the Train Station
The Other Case of the Veteran's Day Parade
The Other Case of the Train Station
The Other, Other Case of the Fighter Pilot featuring Coolguye
The Other, Other Case of the Airbase Plans featuring Coolguye
The Other Case of the Physicist
The Other Case of the Breeder Reactor
The Other, Other Case of the Physicist
The Other, Other Case of the Veteran's Day Parade featuring TheLastRoboKy
The Other, Other Case of the Train Station featuring TheLastRoboKy
The Other Case of the Prison Visitor Pass featuring TheLastRoboKy
The Other Case of the Prison Warden
The Other, Other Case of the Prison Visitor Pass
The Other Case of the Helicopter Pilot featuring nine-gear crow
The Other Case of the Summit IDs
The Other, Other Case of the Helicopter Pilot
The Case of the Treasury Building featuring bunnyofdoom
The Case of Willie the Pen featuring bunnyofdoom
The Other Case of the Treasury Building
The Other Case of Willie the Pen
The Case of the Chief Drug Investigator
The Case of the InterPol Headquarters featuring Blastinus
The Case of the Airbase Passwords
The Case of the Airbase ID Cards
The Other Case of the Airbase Passwords
The Other Case of the Airbase ID Cards
The Case of Edgar Coli
The Other Case of the Medical College
The Other, Other Case of the Prison Warden
The Other, Other, Other Case of the Prison Visitor Pass
The Other, Other Case of the Medical College featuring JamieTheD
The Other Case of Edgar Coli
The Other, Other, Other Case of the Medical College
The Other, Other, Other Case of the Prison Warden

CirclMastr fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Dec 25, 2016

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

CirclMastr
Jul 4, 2010

Wiretapping 101

Whenever you want to place a wiretap or trace a car, you need to go through the wiretapping minigame. It is not 100% intuitive (except to me, because I am the best spy). So let's break down how it works, exactly.


Welcome to the main wiretapping screen. We have electricity, paths, circuits, phones, and alarms. The paths are either light green or the dotted yellow (animated in video form); light green means no electricity is flowing through it, dotted yellow means yes electricity is flowing through it. The flow always starts on the left and goes to the right. If you look to the right, you'll notice that all the phone panels have electricity flowing into them, while none of the alarm panels have electricity flowing into them. The goal is to cut off electricity to all the phones, without sending any electricity to any alarm. To do that, we mess with circuits in the middle.

Before we look at those circuits, you'll notice in the bottom center is a lone circuit in the grey area. That is the circuit 'in hand'. If we select a circuit on the board, it will be replaced with the circuit in hand, and the selected circuit will become the new circuit in hand. The light blue circuit in the center of the board is the one currently being selected; you move that selection around with the arrow keys.


This is the most basic type of circuit, and the only type you encounter on Local Disturbance difficulty. It simply directs electricity through the circuit as shown; this particular example takes electricity in from the top left and directs it out to the bottom right.


This type of circuit is a... something. I think in some videos I call it a "terminator" but you could also call it a relay, switch, or something else like that. Or fictional. Anyway, it is identified by the broken pathway on the circuit itself, unlike the above example where the pathways are continuous. If there is NO electricity being fed into the path on the left (such as on the top path of the circuit), it will generate electricity and send it out to the right. But, if there IS electricity being fed into the path on the left (such as on the bottom path of the circuit), it will cut off that electricity and send nothing out to the right. These circuits start showing up on National and harder (barring Electronics skill), and make wiretapping non-trivial.


Lastly, all circuits immediately to the left of the phone and alarm panels, as well as sporadically throughout the board, have a grey border around them. These circuits are fixed in place and cannot be moved or swapped. You just have to work around them.

CirclMastr fucked around with this message at 02:32 on May 7, 2016

Coolguye
Jul 6, 2011

Required by his programming!
Huh, I never knew Sid put his problem with CA quite like that. I only ever knew he didn't like it. Seems less like the action portion can't work and more that the action portion should have been more like Doorkickers instead of...well, what it was. Of course, there are a lot of other problems with the action game, namely that it is insanely overpowered, so it's probably silly to suggest that the remedy is simple.

CirclMastr
Jul 4, 2010

Coolguye posted:

namely that it is insanely overpowered

Try playing on a higher difficulty level.

Foreshadowing? What's that?

whowhatwhere
Mar 15, 2010

SHINee's back
Of course it'd also be more easily solved nowadays where you could keep tabs on what's going on with an in-game dossier accessible during the break-in sequences.

Wayne
Oct 18, 2014

He who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself

CirclMastr posted:

The mission: arrest all 26 masterminds.

Well, getting a freebie by starting on the lowest difficulty definitely helps! That's one of the pacing issues, the game is about twice as long as it could be because it's so hard to nail down the masterminds until you get a clue in the case's denouement. One interesting thing is that they always have the same name, so on a replay you can take advantage of presumably psychic powers to start using computers as soon as a name you recognize pops up.

I don't actually think the game is as disjointed as Meier made it out to be. I was 12 when I played it first and never had a problem keeping things straight (granted, I mostly played National with a few cases in Regional so they weren't as complicated). Generally if you're breaking in it's to do one thing, whether that's bag the suspect, borrow their computers, etc. and then you're back to planning your next move. If the idea is more that the break-ins are too important and it was meant to be a "first among equals" of 4 minigames, well, unless you added functionality that a wiretap let you call in a hit squad or something, I don't see how breaking in could ever not be the most important one.

CirclMastr
Jul 4, 2010

The Case of the Train Blueprints

I'm going to aim for posting new episodes twice a week, and recording ahead of time. My track record on the subject isn't exactly the best, though, so no promises regarding four-year gaps. Anyway, next week's episodes actually feature someone joining me in live commentary! If you'd like to join me, hit me up on Skype at the same username (Skype is needed for the screen-sharing, since I'm still doing live commentary. Also bring Audacity.)

discworld is all I read
Apr 7, 2009

DAIJOUBU!! ... Daijoubu ?? ?
Also in case anyone is interested in getting the game themselves, it looks like Night Dive is having a sale and Covert Action is on sale: http://store.steampowered.com/app/327390/

ZeusCannon
Nov 5, 2009

BLAAAAAARGH PLEASE KILL ME BLAAAAAAAARGH
Grimey Drawer
I never got to play this game when it was out, to focused on civilization I suppose but this game really cool. I can kind of see why the creator can see its flaws but if it was ever revisited I would buy it in a heart beat. Your doing a good job keeping it interesting even when the AI locks you in a single room so I am looking forward to case 3.

CirclMastr
Jul 4, 2010

The Case of the Travel Itinerary featuring Danaru

Danaru is of course playing the entire Metal Gear Solid series and you should check it out if you haven't already. Also mentioned in the video is the superb Dishonored LP by Coolguye, TheLastRoboky, and Orv, which you should also check out if you haven't already.

At Danaru's prompting, the next video will be Regional Conflict. Hold onto your butts for that one.

CirclMastr fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Apr 27, 2016

CirclMastr
Jul 4, 2010

The Case of the Uplink Station featuring Danaru

Things didn't quite go ideally.

Felinoid
Mar 8, 2009

Marginally better than Shepard's dancing. 2/10
Goddamn. Between having to search even for a bloody starting point, and that bullshit invisible wiring, my brain flashed up this scenario.

"There's a bear cage behind a hidden wall somewhere in this building. It will open in 15 minutes unless you solve the puzzle. Good luck."
"Wait, what puzzle? What does it even look like? Can you at least tell me what floor it's on? ...Hello?"

Does Global Crisis just give you zero clues to start with and make the entire wiretap grid perma-invisible? :psyduck:

CirclMastr
Jul 4, 2010

I should do a demo of Global Crisis with another agent just to demonstrate how unfair it is.

BurningStone
Jun 3, 2011
I had a college roommate who got good enough at this to play at Global Crisis. I don't remember if he ever caught a mastermind, but I do recall he had to put all of his build points into combat just to stay alive. It was more than a little nuts.

Nemo Somen
Aug 20, 2013

For Global Crisis, do you need to booby trap every single door and hope that more enemies don't come through before you can trap it again? From what we've seen of this difficulty, whichever difficulty it was, if the enemies get through the door, they are nearly guaranteed a shot or two.

CirclMastr
Jul 4, 2010

Traps tend to set off alarms, so I wouldn't recommend it for higher difficulties. Normally I restrict traps to what I described in attacking Masterminds; I'm being a bit more liberal with them just for the sake of showing off for the LP.

I'd recommend abandoning my style of "stand perpendicular to the door and shoot," frankly. It's fine for Local and National, but we've already seen it be questionable for Regional, let alone Global. Your best bet is to actually duck behind some cover, wait for the enemy to be facing away, then pop up and shoot. You get more time before the enemy can react with a shot or alarm that way. Unfortunately, not every room layout supports that strategy, and you can end up just plain hosed if they decide to come in at the wrong time.

Felinoid
Mar 8, 2009

Marginally better than Shepard's dancing. 2/10
If any of y'all missed the previous 67% off sale on Steam for this game (like me), it's now 75% off until...I'm actually not sure, because that part of the store page seems to be broken. But it did still let me yoink it for less than $2. :dance:

Cathode Raymond
Dec 30, 2015

My antenna is telling me that you're probably wrong about this.
Soiled Meat
I've only watched one video so far but I have to disagree with Sid Meier. I think this game is good and I think he underestimates his audience if he thinks you'll lose track of things to a problematic degree by switching from action mode to case mode.

I mean, read the last part of Sid's quote again. If it were up to him the Total War series wouldn't be a thing because it violates the Covert Action rule. In fact many of the best games violate the Covert Action rule. I would almost go so far as to say that you should try and violate the Covert Action rule, at least a little.

BurningStone
Jun 3, 2011
Having played the game, I agree with Sid. It's not that you have to switch the type of game you're playing, it's that you have to remember a bunch of names, cities, pictures and organizations, how they connect, and figure out if they're relevant to the plot. It's hard enough deciphering the clues, once the difficulty is up to a reasonable level. It's the combat that's the problem - the other minigames aren't long enough to be a problem. But a long combat mission will do it.

WhiskeyWhiskers
Oct 14, 2013

It seems like it'd only be a problem if you were trying to remember the 'wire intercept' names and pictures that don't get added to dossiers. They're usually red herrings so I don't bother with them, even if they can nab you the mastermind really early. :shrug:

e: Actually I know I've forgotten which city I needed to find a location at from computers quite a few times. But that seems less of a problem with having games within games, and more not having access to your clues during combat.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead

CirclMastr posted:

Traps tend to set off alarms, so I wouldn't recommend it for higher difficulties. Normally I restrict traps to what I described in attacking Masterminds; I'm being a bit more liberal with them just for the sake of showing off for the LP.

I'd recommend abandoning my style of "stand perpendicular to the door and shoot," frankly. It's fine for Local and National, but we've already seen it be questionable for Regional, let alone Global. Your best bet is to actually duck behind some cover, wait for the enemy to be facing away, then pop up and shoot. You get more time before the enemy can react with a shot or alarm that way. Unfortunately, not every room layout supports that strategy, and you can end up just plain hosed if they decide to come in at the wrong time.
The AI seems to have patterns to follow. If you trip an alarm at the higher levels, guards will toss grenades in the room where it was activated. If a guard lets out a shot, any extra guards entering that room will toss a grenade as a precaution until there is an explosion. If a grenade does not go off when extra guards enter the room, they will toss their grenades. All guards have a pair of grenades. You might make them waste grenades by entering a nearby door before the first blows up, fire at him when he enters, then wait for the next grenade.
Never be near a door during a tripped alarm or you can get stunned. Hang near the wall furthest from the line of a tossed stun grenade. Hang near the door to another room when you shoot. Trap the doors to nearby rooms if you are making a stand. Gas the room and make them walk to you in another room. They can't toss grenades through doors.


I might be interested in the game, but I have no idea how the tapping mini-game plays out with those power lines.

Felinoid
Mar 8, 2009

Marginally better than Shepard's dancing. 2/10
Sid Meier was right that there was something wrong, but he was wrong about what it was. Having a game do different things is only bad if they don't fit together, or the devs spread themselves too thin and each thing becomes lovely, or something else like that. Here it all fits really well, and the minigames are all interesting (even the driving, if you like that sort of cat-and-mouse thing). The issue of forgetting things in the middle of combat would have been short-circuited completely if you just had a method to look at your clues during an infiltration. That's literally all that's missing to "fix" this. Simply having a notepad on hand or a good memory would also work, but speaking to game design you shouldn't really require that (E: maybe unless you say so up front, for the old school types).

Domus
May 7, 2007

Kidney Buddies

Scalding Coffee posted:

I might be interested in the game, but I have no idea how the tapping mini-game plays out with those power lines.

I'm not the only one! I was feeling stupid for a while there. Bought the game to see if I could figure it out.

Edit: Oh, you're trying to get ground to the phone. Not power. Because...

Domus fucked around with this message at 01:14 on May 2, 2016

CirclMastr
Jul 4, 2010

The Case of the Prison Visitor Pass

Agent Goon Jr. takes up the mantle, back on National Threat. Because pounding my head against a wall is not fun for anyone.

HerpicleOmnicron5
May 31, 2013

How did this smug dummkopf ever make general?


CirclMastr posted:

I should do a demo of Global Crisis with another agent just to demonstrate how unfair it is.

If you capture a mastermind on Global, I will actually just straight up buy you Just Cause 3.

Hopefully this is enough incentive to make you willingly torture yourself. Beating a case on Global is like being swarmed by hornets: Lethally painful. I'd shudder to think what a mastermind looks like.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
You should put up what you can do at the mini-games. I don't know what all the computer chips do.

X_countryguy
Dec 31, 2007

Whatscha holdup, Tron? If you don't hurry up there's not gonna be any pizza left!
I finally picked up this game. Using the function keys is a pain on my laptop. Can keys be rebound in this game?

Funny story. When I nabbed my second mastermind in my easy mode game I walked into his building and he was in the very first room with about 6 or 7 white shirts all firing at me. I fortunately only took three hits and I got him. Sheesh.

CirclMastr
Jul 4, 2010

The Case of the Prison Warden

I should have a more in-depth thing on wiretapping done tonight or tomorrow, so look forward to that.

X_countryguy posted:

I finally picked up this game. Using the function keys is a pain on my laptop. Can keys be rebound in this game?

I don't think so, no.

CirclMastr
Jul 4, 2010

The second post has been updated with wiretapping 101. Let me know what else could use explaining, and I'll do my best to explain it.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
Now wiretapping makes sense. I didn't notice the gray border being a soldered chip and wondering why you didn't replace them.

edit: What does bugging do and what are the giant camera furniture supposed to be?

Scalding Coffee fucked around with this message at 06:11 on May 7, 2016

Domus
May 7, 2007

Kidney Buddies

CirclMastr posted:

Wiretapping 101

This type of circuit is a... something. I think in some videos I call it a "terminator" but you could also call it a relay, switch, or something else like that.

That's a double Not gate. :science: I don't know if there's a common six pin version, but the fourteen pin version is called a 7404.

CirclMastr
Jul 4, 2010

Scalding Coffee posted:

What does bugging do and what are the giant camera furniture supposed to be?

Bugs can be placed in various furniture in rooms and act as a motion detector in only that room. They can also rarely provide additional info after the break-in, similar to wiretapping. Placing a bug breaks a disguise, though, so it's not like you can sneak into a suspect's room, bug it, sneak out, and then gather clues without wiretapping. I've always found them to be a waste of time.

I don't know what you mean by giant camera furniture, but I'm guessing you mean the phonographs. They are just furniture that you can hide behind, they don't do anything or interact with any equipment.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
Why not take every piece of equipment with you?

CirclMastr
Jul 4, 2010

Scalding Coffee posted:

Why not take every piece of equipment with you?

Because you're limited to five, and three of those are uzi, vest, and motion detector.

Xenoveritas
May 9, 2010
Dinosaur Gum

HerpicleOmnicron5 posted:

If you capture a mastermind on Global, I will actually just straight up buy you Just Cause 3.
Isn't playing Global punishment enough?

X_countryguy posted:

I finally picked up this game. Using the function keys is a pain on my laptop. Can keys be rebound in this game?

You might not be able to rebind keys in the game, but you can rebind keys through DOSBox.

HerpicleOmnicron5
May 31, 2013

How did this smug dummkopf ever make general?


CirclMastr posted:

Because you're limited to five, and three of those are uzi, vest, and motion detector.

A modern remake of the game should make genuine stealth much more feasible and reduce the importance of these three and increase the importance of the camera, the bug and the safecracking kit. Fixing tailing would also be pretty great.

I've actually been tooling around with the idea of a Covert Action style boardgame/PnP RPG. The mechanics are simple enough to translate, and the theme is strong but it doesn't seem like such a thing exists. drat you Sid Meier for hating a game that simply came out too early! :argh:

CirclMastr
Jul 4, 2010

The Other Case of the Travel Itinerary

The Other Case of the Train Blueprints

Double update today, since tomorrow I fly to New York for my sister's wedding and I won't be able to update.

Felinoid
Mar 8, 2009

Marginally better than Shepard's dancing. 2/10
You got robbed twice there.

If you play as Maxine, do you get guys instead of girls for the ending screens?

CirclMastr
Jul 4, 2010

Felinoid posted:

If you play as Maxine, do you get guys instead of girls for the ending screens?

Not only do you get guys for the ending screens, but your assistant (the "hint lady" you're forced to see in the very first video) is a guy as well.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Xenoveritas
May 9, 2010
Dinosaur Gum
Clearly you need to do a video as Maxine "Goonette" Power, or whatever your last name is in this game. I'm not really paying that close attention.

  • Locked thread