Sid Meier HATES it! Let's play Sid Meier's Covert Action

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Sid Meier HATES it! Let's play Sid Meier's Covert Action

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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.

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

# ¿ Apr 22, 2016 01:39

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 18:32

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

# ¿ Apr 22, 2016 01:39

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

Coolguye posted:

namely that it is insanely overpowered

Try playing on a higher difficulty level.

Foreshadowing? What's that?

# ¿ Apr 22, 2016 07:44

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.)

# ¿ Apr 22, 2016 19:36

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

# ¿ Apr 26, 2016 22:50

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

The Case of the Uplink Station featuring Danaru

Things didn't quite go ideally.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2016 16:52

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

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

# ¿ Apr 29, 2016 18:39

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.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2016 17:50

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.

# ¿ May 3, 2016 22:41

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.

# ¿ May 6, 2016 18:04

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.

# ¿ May 7, 2016 02:33

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.

# ¿ May 7, 2016 18:38

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.

# ¿ May 8, 2016 04:10

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.

# ¿ May 10, 2016 19:38

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.

# ¿ May 11, 2016 00:24

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

Domus posted:

What happens if you 'google' for mastermind?

Searching for roles, or anything invalid, just gives "No data" as a result.

# ¿ May 14, 2016 23:23

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

EclecticTastes posted:

If this is true I demand it be shown off at some point. I mean there's 26 of the guys, and you had to redo two of them, so I don't think it's a big deal if you cheese one to show off a dumb glitch/cheat code.

I will try it out (I fly home tomorrow), but if it's true I suspect it's because the mastermind would default to "Agent A" while unknown in all cases, so searching for "a" is considered by the game to be searching for "Agent A", thus giving you intel on the mastermind.

# ¿ May 15, 2016 05:29

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

The Case of the Summit IDs

Hey guess what the Mastermind in this video is Agent A as well. I did some off-camera testing and it seems to be consistent; searching for "a" does indeed get you the mastermind. However, it refused to identify his role as such until I broke into his location and searched it; even other locations of the same organization seemed to cap out at name/city/organization. Still, it's pretty drat cheesy.

# ¿ May 17, 2016 20:39

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

The Case of the Helicopter Pilot

Next video is my attempt to cheese the game, so look forward to that on Tuesday.

# ¿ May 20, 2016 22:49

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

The Case of the Election Commission HQ

Scalding Coffee posted:

Does the game drag on long enough that it didn't need to make Mastermind's take multiple cases before getting captured?

I've never had a Mastermind uncaptured long enough for them to do all the cases involved in a plot. But the cases/plots do tend to repeat; I think I hit that point shortly. (Which isn't to say you can cheat them easily; they have different agents and locations and such involved.)

# ¿ May 24, 2016 18:48

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

The Other, Other Case of the Travel Itinerary

Next week I'll be switching to either Monday/Thursday updates or Wednesday/Saturday.

# ¿ May 27, 2016 21:46

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

The Other, Other Case of the Train Blueprints

It's still Wednesday where I live so I'm technically not late with this update!

# ¿ Jun 2, 2016 07:33

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

In general my top priority is to prevent the crime. If it means something like what happened last video, so be it. I'd rather break the plot than fail completely. Obviously it's better to turn the enemy agents than arrest them, but if I can't do it with the floor safes presented to me, I try not to scum (though I did record at least one video showing it off).

My second priority is as many arrests as possible. This is more about completion than score for me; I just don't like letting people get away. You're going to lose 120 or 200 points for not catching the Mastermind anyway. Also, depending on the rank of the enemy agents, it's entirely possible that they could be worth less than the value of a piece of evidence. I'll still prioritize the arrest over the evidence, though.

Lastly I'll care about evidence and CIA doubles. Sometimes I go after evidence hard, but that's more in service of breaking the plot than score.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2016 22:57

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

Derek Barona posted:

The buildings, or when he gets jumped? Because Jesus Christ, the buildings could be worse?

The getting jumped parts. Also note that one level of skill is not enough to offset one level of difficulty.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2016 08:02

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

HerpicleOmnicron5 posted:

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

The Case of the Herp Challenge featuring HerpicleOmnicron5

It is time to attempt a mastermind arrest on Global. May Sid Meier have mercy on my soul.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2016 18:07

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

EclecticTastes posted:

Just as an observation, since there were only two rooms in that Mastermind hideout that you needed to get through, you could have taken the grenade variety pack instead of just the gas grenades, to have more options. Might have sped things up.

The problem comes from switching grenades being slow and awkward, done with the F10 key and just cycling down between them. In an arrest where the key to success was leaving doors open to get out that split-second faster, messing with the UI is a huge time sink.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2016 21:27

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

Xenoveritas posted:

I hope you enjoy your hard earned technically-not-mandatory racing-through-rings simulator.

They Remade Superman 64 - Let's Play Just Cause 3

# ¿ Jun 5, 2016 03:40

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

Scalding Coffee posted:

Those constant ambushes were not necessary and they keep spawning after you recover. How did they conclude that it should be in the game?

Probably to dissuade players from doing exactly what I did: pounding your head against a brick wall until it gives. A more reasonable option would be to go to a different city to investigate another angle until suspicion dies down at the alerted location.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2016 22:13

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

The Other, Other, Other Case of the Travel Itinerary

Behold the perfect clean sweep and the disappointing result. Also, I did not expect to need so many 'other's so quickly, or for the same mastermind to repeat a case.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2016 17:40

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

Nemo Somen posted:

As for the casino ending, doesn't the value of the participants also vary depending on their role? Perhaps because you had a good number of low value conspirators you only got one lady at the casino.

Yes, the value of an agent does depend on their rank. As for affecting the casino ladies: possibly. Time will tell, I suppose.

EclecticTastes posted:

Did I miss something, or did the score tally fail to include the CIA double agent you picked up?

For whatever reason, the scoring system for CIA doubles is different. If you don't get a double, then you get marked 0/50 for each one you don't get. But if you do get them, rather than being marked 50/50, it simply doesn't count them at all. In effect, the penalty for not getting CIA doubles is to increase your possible score by 50 without increasing your actual score.

If the endings are based on ratios, this is mathematically slightly in your favor. But it is confusing on the score screen.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2016 23:02

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

WhiskeyWhiskers posted:

What a modern remake of this game needs, is the nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor with enemy agents carrying across different missions.

You'd have to make turning double agents a lot harder, to make up for them being repeatedly useful.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2016 06:15

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

The Case of the Metal Foundry

Once again it is still the correct day to update in my time zone and therefore I'm not late.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2016 05:06

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

That bundle would be seriously tempting if I didn't already have these games.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2016 05:48

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

The Case of the Chemical Plant

If you or someone you love has a last name of Baader, you might be a criminal mastermind and not even know it.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2016 03:23

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

The Other Case of the Metal Foundry

Another day, another criminal mastermind put behind bars.

BurningStone posted:

Have you considered bugging a person instead of an early arrest that breaks the case? It's taking a chance, but can give you a chance to catch the whole plot.

That would require either leaving and re-entering, which takes precious time, or bringing bugs instead of something else in my default loadout, which isn't useful enough often enough to be worth it. Besides, you can't control when a bug feeds you information.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2016 16:44

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

Given the nature of the crimes, most roles are tied to at least one other role. The only 99% safe arrests you can make are Masterminds and anyone who has completed their task, though the latter go into hiding quickly. That's why turning people to double agents is so important to getting a clean sweep: a double agent is still 'in play' and therefore won't make anyone else go into hiding.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2016 19:16

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

The Case of the Industrial Warehouse featuring Derek Barona

I am just publishing this video today and the commentary is already dated.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2016 22:21

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

The Case of the Noted Chemist featuring Derek Barona

Can Derek and I catch more than two agents this time? The length of the video suggests that yes, we can!

# ¿ Jun 25, 2016 23:19

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

The Other Case of the Industrial Warehouse featuring Derek Barona

Will I capture the infamous [insert first name here] Baader? Only time will tell!

# ¿ Jun 30, 2016 00:25

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 18:32

CirclMastr: Jul 4, 2010

Derek Barona posted:

We are really bad at this secret agent thing sometimes.

I am the best spy.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2016 01:22

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Sid Meier HATES it! Let's play Sid Meier's Covert Action

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