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Sep-20-2007 00:33

I read somewhere that it might take a long time, say 150,000 exp - especially if you are trying to get them both in the same city.

I am a little confused though because I checked some fellow detectives in the high score area and I saw that some people with well under 100,000 xp have 3-4 contacts, sometimes 2 in the same city. I saw one lady detective with about 163,000 xp and about 7 contacts. How is that possible? These were journeymen detectives I was checking out. Yes, I am a little ambitious and rather anxious to acquire a PE contact. ;)

I guess my question is...do the contacts you show have anything to do with belonging to Agencies? I mean I checked the agencies but even then different people had differing numbers of contacts and different ones, so that doesn't seem to be the case.

Is the best thing for me to do, if I want a PE (since I have the WE contact in NY), just to keep turning over the cases and favors in NY and hoping I get lucky eventually?

Sep-20-2007 01:09

Getting contacts is a completely random, and sometimes frustrating, process. Some people get both contacts in one city within 20k exp. points. Some take much, much longer (like almost half a million points longer for some). Does being in an Agency have anything to do with it? Not really, no. The only advantage to being in an Agency is your fellow associates can throw you cases they don't want or need, thereby making the favors come faster, and potentially the contacts. Does it always work? Like some of my colleagues have found out the hard way, no, it doesn't always work that easy. :-/

As for what you should do, it depends on if you're going for a specific P/E contact or just want the first one you can get. If you're going after a specific one, it means you need to QUIT all non-associated favors for that particular contact. For example, if you're aiming for the Barber, you would quit any favor you get for the Shoemaker, Tailor, or Banker. W/E contacts are fair game because they don't influence P/E favors. If you want to just get the first P/E contact you can get your hands on, then any favor will work.

Generally speaking, when you get one contact, it will be a while before you get another one. And yes, the chances of getting a contact dramatically increase if you go more than 150,000 exp. points without getting one.

All in all, it's a wait-and-see game. Sorry. Be patient. We've all been there, trust me. ;-)

Sep-20-2007 01:14

And I did a slight oops in my explanation above. Sorry.

I mean to say that W/E FAVORS (not contacts) are fair game because they don't influence P/E favors.

There ya go. Good luck! ;-)

Sep-20-2007 04:29

I wasn't really being too picky, just wanted any PE contact. As I understand it, if I move to London and do favors there, then I have no guarantee of this, as I could still get a WE contact next, correct?

Also, if I have a PE contact in one city and a case I am working on in another, can I travel back and forth to use that contact on the case as long as I have the money and cases left to spend on the travel? This is just a hypothetical, because I really don't have the pocket change to do that, but I'm curious because presumably a contact in another city would not know the suspect.

Logically it would stand to reason that that is what an Agency is for, to utilise different contacts in the SAME city. Am I on the right track?

Sep-20-2007 05:03

I found with both LED and LRC that I got all my contacts really quickly. Maybe because I travelled?
I'd basically do a couple of cases in a city and get a contact then travel and get a contact in the next city.

Sep-20-2007 07:07

I found that when I did my contacts, I'd travel to a city stay there for a few days, and by day 4 I'd have both my contacts, and then head on and travel to the next city.

Sep-20-2007 12:32

No, you can not travel with a case open. So you can not open a case in NY with 4 threads and use your London Tailor contact.
Yes, agencies are very helpful for using contacts of others in the SAME city. If your case has 4 threads, and your contact is the barber, you can store your case and ask (Joe) who has the tailor as a contact to run the physical evidence. Then all you have to do is match the physical evidence findings with someone who has a fake/no alibi. Again, it all has to be within the same city.

All my contacts came before I hit 150,000 exp. I moved around a lot chasing treasures. Yours will come, but like others said, it is very random.

Sep-20-2007 12:57

Also, if you move to a new (contact-free) city, you could wind up with a W/E contact OR a P/E contact, depending on which one comes up first in the system. Like the others have said, the process is completely random. You could have a gut feeling you're about to get a contact, and nope, no go, or *POOF*, there it is, when you least expect it.

Contacts only work on cases in the SAME city as the case they're in, unfortunately (trust me, I've tried that one too ;-), and like Arabella said, you can't travel when you have an open case to solve on your screen.

Dave and I both got all our regular contacts (excepting Cairo) just under 2 mill. exp. each. I got 'em hunting treasures, like Andrea. Dave was going after feet people, specifically, so he took a bit longer to get his. We were about average, in my experience. Some people I've worked with have taken over 3 mill exp. to get all theirs. Some take less than 100k (they tend to just take the first ones they can get, and have been very, very lucky).

You'll get 'em. You're just starting out. Be patient. Half the fun of all of it is seeing the announcement at the end of a favor, saying so-and-so will help you out anytime you like. It makes it worth it. ;-)

Sep-20-2007 21:36

I just found this thread and if I read it correctly you only can have two contacts per city, one PE and one WE?

Sep-20-2007 22:04

Yes, that is correct!