#Sales Ledgers and Fingerprint Rework

25 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

sour coral
#

After playing for a few hours, there's a few techniques that can be so overwhelmingly effective it can ruin the game.

First is sales ledgers. Once you are aware of the sales ledger for the black market, it's so easy to identify the killer with it that it can even make the very crime scene irrelevant. I have been having a lot of repeated gun murders in my save so this has been incredibly obvious for me. Some options I think would help would be having the killer use a fake name often when purchasing ammunition, or perhaps if they already like guns, maybe they shouldn't purchase ammo at all and simply use ammo they already have. In it's current state, you can simply pin the sales ledger and have it automatically update in your memory and witness a suspect purchase instantly and have a name.

The second issue is fingerprints, and specifically the ease of gathering records on them. Using business photos and employee records in tandem can allow a savvy detective to go from business to business and accumulate fingerprint data on everyone in town rather easily. In addition to not being very fun, it's so effective that the player can 'optimize themselves into having no fun'. I'm of the opinion that business employee records should not have fingerprint data, and that the government database should made harder to use, perhaps by increasing the amount of characters you must type before the system gives you name suggestions, or perhaps only people who have been arrested for something before have had their fingerprints taken and catalogued

thin knot
#

It is definitely weird that employers keep fingerprint data. Cyberpunk dystopia, I get it, but ... weird.

next fractal
#

fingerprints should really be switched with where they live

next fractal
#

If it was up to me, prints would only be on the person and in the govt database

#

so you either have to find the person or their name

exotic tinsel
#

Fingerprints realistically could be kept out of the database unless they committed a crime, work for the gov't, or a handful of other exceptions. That's (supposedly) how it works IRL. It doesn't need to be realistic that way, but it could help trend toward the balance people are looking for to use it as a model

thin knot
#

On the subject of sales ledgers, I found it weird when I searched a pawn shop and there was a sales ledger but no purchasing ledger. When looking for stolen jewelry I wanted to see if the pawn shop bought it but there were no purchasing records anywhere.

next fractal
#

I don't think they can sell stolen stuff yet so that's probably why

thin knot
# next fractal I don't think they can sell stolen stuff yet so that's probably why

Yeah, that's what I figured. I guess it's kind of good because that's one less thing to have to track down .. but still I'm sad that checking the pawn shop for stolen goods isn't a thing (.... yet)
Imagine finding out that the necklace was sold and then some other person innocently bought it .... you'd have to go buy it back, then go to the original perp and steal the money back. Could be a fun chain of events, or you could stop it all from happening if you track down the thief before they go sell it

unreal topaz
#

should have some appraisal vmails

thin knot
exotic tinsel
#

VMails could work, although logistically that implies someone went to the shop and left it there for appraisal right? Is that a common thing in pawns? I would think just a receipt would make more sense?

unreal topaz
#

I have no idea if delayed appraisal is a thing

fossil elm
#

On fingerprints i also find it funny that a NPC only has one print despite having 2 hands.

One possible way to balance prints is for NPCs to have two prints, and for cases to require both to link them, employee databases should only have one print per employee, and the gov database could have a full match but only on NPCs with criminal history.

This would make it less common to insta link every suspect the moment you get your scanner out, and would require you to sneakily, forcefully take the prints or by convincing them give you the prints.

exotic tinsel
#

Apparently IRL, every finger has a different print but certain ones are similar. I think 10 unique prints per person with 6/10 having patterns to help you match them up is way too much, but there could be something to it. 2 might be a good starting point like you suggest.

fossil elm
#

It would also double the amount of prints to sift through and increase the likelihood of misidentifying a suspect, example being the victim could have print A & B, but the killer could have A & C, and the victims spouse could have B & D.

#

Would have to get rid of the prints being named in order of discovery, and switch to each NPC having a unique combo, but then it makes sleuthing and cross referencing prints challenging compared to make it the silver bullet it currently is.

exotic tinsel
#

Oh, it'd work like that? I was thinking more like you just get one of a pair, both prints still being unique so they can't be confused. Something like that I'd be fine with too though I guess, but there is a suggestion somewhere around here to make it even bigger with like a 5-long serial. The issue with only 2 though is that instead of fingerprints starting at A and scrolling through the alphabet as you find more unique ones, you'd have to have enough print types to cover the whole pop without dupes, unless you want dupes to be a feature. Which, considering how much other evidence you usually have, wouldn't be the worst thing to have as a caveat.

fossil elm
#

Im for either way, i was more elaborating where it could go, i personally like info having the possibility to lead you astray since this makes collecting other bits of info valuable, and gets you out and about in the sandbox.

Just giving each NPC two unique prints would definitely work better than just one print tho, at the very least it would make fingerprinting every suspect a more intimidating work load, vs just searching other leads.

#

And you can nerf employees records in the same change with only one print being recorded.

exotic tinsel
#

Yeah, that's interesting, because if you have a suspect you might start tailing them so you can grab more of their prints when they go out to eat etc or when you get into their apt. Instead of breaking in knowing they did it, you'd break in having a good reason to think they did

fossil elm
#

I also think NPC's should get mad when you scan things, like i would get mad if i heard someone at my door scanning the doorknob sarkLul

exotic tinsel
#

They get mad if they catch you scanning their prints from their actual attached hands, so this tracks. Unless they're very willing to give you their fingerprints anyway?

floral turtle
#

I just stumbled over this sales ledger tactic myself and it's really overpowered. Simply keep a note case with all the sales ledgers pinned and you immediately have the names of people who happened to buy murder weapons just before the time of death. You shouldn't have that information instantly

I propose making it so that you can tear out a page of the ledger and pin that. It should not keep updating since last you looked at it

floral turtle