Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Newbie Questions

Aug-29-2006 23:48

Hey everyone... so I know I'm not a newbie anymore =( but this probably fits best here....

I'm wondering about mixing tough and charming skills - does this significantly help solve the almost impossibles? what are you opinions?

i have all the tough and all the smart skills, save most of the faction stuff and stress det., and I am slowly gaining new skill points.

I'm at a loss as to what to buy next! I was considering stress detection, just cause I think it's handy (my old detective had it, so I know what it does) but then I wonder if I should start on my Charm stuff... I am at a -8 in Charm Gear though, and hunting villains, so I can't change equipment...

I'm lost! Help! Lol.

PS, I do have pugilism, and am not terribly interested in the rest of the faction stuff at this point.

Sep-1-2006 23:46

Underworld Connections is a Charm skill... will my -8 in charm gear affect it? Would better gear enhance it?

Sep-2-2006 02:07

Nope, Underworld Connections works every time no matter what you're wearing :)

Sep-24-2006 03:15

Update... I'm well on my way to Underworld connections. (just working up the faction points now)

Do you suggest I get more faction skills, or start on the Charm skills?

(i have pugilism and will have underworld, have no charm skills)

Sep-24-2006 03:44

For what it's worth, I'm in sort of a similar position Ranier - have all my toughs and smarts, and for the last little while I've been concentrating on buying Charm rather than faction skills. It's a hard decision though, for sure...my decision came on the heels of a villain hunt during which I quit WAY too many cases that chram skills might have kept alive though, so I might not be thinking too clearly.

Sep-24-2006 05:59

I would go for surveillaince next before any charm skill..just a siggestion.

Sep-25-2006 00:17

I have all the tough +pugilism & all the smart skills. I have 15 unspent skill points, what charms skills should I acquire first?
Skills You can Purchase*
Sweet Talking (9 skill points) - Charm
Rule Bending (9 skill points) - Charm
Judge of Character (10 skill points) - Charm
Flirting (7 skill points) - Charm

Sep-25-2006 02:01

Hey Smoops (btw - 'Smoops' has been one of my favourite det names here ever since I first saw it).

I have JoC, and it's not really all that useful...all it does is let you know whether a charming or tough approach is more likely to be successful when interviewing. Since you have all the toughs and no charm this one will invariably tell you that tough is the way to go. I'm in the same place. It's kinda neat because it lets you look at the chances of each skill, but not the best buy.

AndreaX's reply would probably apply to you as well as to me (Hi Andrea!). Surveillance would allow you to unclam somebody in every case (I think), and it looks like you've got the wallet for it!

Failing that, flirting is a pretty good deal. It dramatically increases the chance of the charm approach working with a person of the opposite sex, and you would still have a gang of points left after buying it. But I really need to say, I just bought it and feel like a bit of a tool, because it has yet to make my charm chances better than my toughs.

Sep-25-2006 02:07

It should be pointed out that Surveillance is NOT an automatic success. What it does is give you a chance to get 2 more questions out of one suspect each case, affected by smart gear.

I just bought surveillance myself, and I consider it to be a nice, but not desperately vital, skill to have. I'm starting to kick myself for not getting Hyptotism first, as I could save a few questions a case with it.

Sep-25-2006 07:11

Flirting coupled with more balanced gear can help you get through the transition period as you build up your charm skills.

Although I would say getting all the faction skills except Pick Pockets before the charm skills is more helpful than flirting.

Sep-25-2006 09:07

Smoops, I too have all the tough skills + pugilism.

I have found that Hypnotism is a reasonably useful skill. This gives you a chance at revealing an extra suspect every time you ask a witness if they know someone with a motive. Even though it is a charm based skill, I find it does work fairly often for my "Tough" aspect, and saves me a few questions I can ask later.

Surveillance can be a life saver, but is very hit or miss on whether it works. I find that it unclams a person every third case (approx). I also haven't really seen much difference between wearing smart gear or not. In general I find it unclams a suspect if it's not vital to my case, but always fails when it is necessary (Sod's Law). I find Hynotism more useful.

Underwold Connections is a useful time saver for finding disappeared suspects, but not vital.

Judge of character would be needed before getting charm skills, because without it how can you tell whether to use charm or use tough on a suspect. I am saving up my points now so that I can get several carhm skills all at the same time.