Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Sleuth Talk

Aug-26-2005 01:46

The suspects,barring a few exceptions,-ALWAYS- refuse to talk after the FIRST QUESTION.

Which of course causes a problem since at absolute minimum you need to ask 2 questions,alibi and whether they know anyone else has a motive to commit the murder.

Even assuming you manage to pull off the interrogation/sweet talking for EVERY suspect that refuses to talk,you only get at most 2,occasionally 3 more questions,before you hit a brick wall and am not allowed to ask that suspect any more questions.

Then of course theres witnesses refusing to talk either.They follow same pattern.Barring some exceptions they -ALWAYS- refuse to talk after the first question,which more often than not is to check an alibi.Not to mention the way the physical evidence system works.

At most,you get 2 or 3 attempts to pick the guy associated with that physical evidence correctly.Thats assuming you suceed in the intimidation/bend rules roll.If you dont,guess what....you are -FUCKED-.Why?Because now that physical evidence you just found is USELESS.

Lets assume you found a 2nd piece of different evidence.Same situation applies.If you dont pick the guy correctly,you are fucked.Since suspects apparently start bribing witnesses to lie for them on hard difficulty(how else do you explain that there is this mysterious footprint that doesnt match with ANY of the non-real alibie suspects....).

And bribing,while it always works,only works for ONE question only.So at most,you get 4 tries.If you are unlucky,you are fucked.

Back to suspects.Firstly lets -ASSUME- you are so lucky that every witness tells you whether hes heard anything about the case.Lets say 1 or 2 thinks they know who the murderer is.

Seeing as you asked them twice already,for alibie and other suspects,your chances of picking the right person to ask about is incredibly low,before they refuse to talk for all eternity.

Aug-26-2005 01:58

Even if my chances of interrogating/sweet talking/blah blah blah were a flat 100%,that still leaves a significant chance of not picking the right person before the witness/suspect leaves you NO option to ask them any more questions,doesnt matter if you got 100% interrogation anymore.

And how the hell am i supposed to find out whether suspect X has bribed someone for his alibi?God,how?There doesnt seem to be any way to do that.You cant ask -anybody- about it.You dont bump into someone who happens to mention the transaction.There just doesnt seem to be any way.

Its insane.In real life,suspects can bribe people for alibies,or get them to lie for them.In real life other suspects MIGHT get killed off.In real life suspects are allowed to not talk,at all.

In REAL LIFE,real suspects say straight out if they saw anything suspicious.You will NOT see the following conversation occur :

Detective : Seen anyone acting suspicious?Disposing of a bloody knife maybe?

Suspect : Who?

Detective : John Doe maybe?

Suspect : nope

Detective : bob smith?

Suspect : nope

Detective : johnny depp?

Suspect : yea i saw him washing his bloody hands the other day......

Detective : why the hell didnt you say so in the first place instead of making me ask multiple times?!?!?!

Suspect : im a retard.sorry.

In real life,there probably hasnt been a single case where the detective has absolutely no way to continue because everyone is acting like they are the suspect and refusing to answer anything more than a few questions.

If this game was intended to simulate real life private detective work,im sorry,it has failed.You might get the suspicious character who refuses to answer any questions,but when the victim's son refuses to help you solve the case by answering a few basic questions......wtf?

And the sheer idea of forcing players to buy and read mystery novels to answer the 3 questions when you choose to do a job for a faction is the most ingenious idea i have ever seen in advertising.

Aug-26-2005 02:00

Want to get further in the game of sleuth?Simply head down to your nearest bookstore and purchase all the novels by x author today!

Those professionals in marketing can learn a thing from this.

Next time,if you want to purchase a fridge......you need to the shelves seperately!Or how else will you be able to store food in it?And you need to buy the special cable and plug!

Aug-26-2005 02:44

Take this intermediate case for example.

No physical evidence was found.

Asking witnesses whether they saw any of the non-real alibie suspects do anything suspicious didnt go anywhere because i didnt pick the correct people,or they flat out refused to say anything.

So pray tell,how am i supposed to find out who the murderer is?

Aug-26-2005 05:14

wow, some had his bitter flakes today.


It is definitely possible to solve all the cases. If you haveing this much of a problem on the hard level, go back to intermediate til you get some better skills. Do you have a contact yet?

Also sleuth isn't just a game of randomly asking questions. There is a strategy to it. YOu might want to check out the thread "How do you Sleuth" for some pointers.

You want to eliminate as many suspects as possible before you start the witness evidence. Always check your fake alibi suspects first for physical evidence. (Do you have all the smart skills?)never ask them more questions then you need to. Eliminate suspects one by one til only one is left. I am sure you'll get the hang of it :)

Aug-26-2005 05:15

also, with only 300 exp points, you probably should still be doing easy cases anyway. There's no way you can do hard with that level of exp

Aug-26-2005 06:23

As you continue to play, you will find that each level of difficulty has a set number of suspects with no or fake alibis. So if you have 5 possibles, and find 3 with no alibis, by default the other two are ok. These numbers are random BTW. Therefore no reason to ask for one. Before you bribe a townie, make sure that you can't eliminate the suspect by process of elimination. Gradbeth is right, the how do you sleuth is great for finding ways that work for you.

Aug-26-2005 08:02

That is a little confusing, I meant that the example numbers are random.

Aug-26-2005 08:14

As gradbeth points out, with only 300 skill points and being three days old, it is going to be a little difficult for you to do the Hard level. As you gain experience and skills you find the townies at that level will clam less often.

Also, in order to find hair and thread evidence at the scene consistantly, you need to have the basic thread and hair skills. If your case has two threads and you do not have the skill to find them, you will have a case with no evidence.

Also, have you ever thought of using to google to find the answers to your little jobs. I have yet to purchase anything besides my subscription unless it was a book recommended by a friend.

Aug-26-2005 08:43

frankley, Im not sure if you really want help or just want to tell everyone you think this game sucks. Your post has somewhat offensive character that doesnt seem to make me want to help.

But for now Im going to assume you are just fustrated and that is why you sound angry and use cursing (be carefull with those if you dont want to get your posts deleted, its a public forum).

A detective with your record still needs to learn a lot before he can do hard cases. You are 3 days old and has almost no equipment. I assume you also mis a lot of the basic skills.

All cases can be solved. but you need skills, the right outfit and contacts. to gain those you need to be patiance.
dont jump to hard right away just because you can open them. Go back to easy and work on your detective and strategy. If you need advice go look in newbie board. If you cant find it post a (friendly) messege and it will be answered very fast.

Or if you still think this game sucks just go away and let us enjoy it.

Aug-26-2005 10:29

Oh my god, after playing more then 3000 hard and above cases.....NOW someone tells me that the cases can not be solved?

I thought the whole time, that I was the only one that could not do it from the almost 12000 active agents.

OH-MY-GOD. I have been duped for almost 500 days.