Vendetta: Rise of a Gangster

@Bikkje Already changed to “attract more customers” for the next update. It says the same thing and avoids any confusion. :slight_smile:

@Toasters I must admit, I had great fun writing that scene. I think I must have a deep loathing of that type of ‘always-looking-for-trouble’ personality. It’s sweet poetic justice when they pick on the wrong guy . . . :wink:

@13ventrm I’m aiming for the first week in February, but that’s about as accurate as it gets for now. I’m up to a complicated scripting requirement to do what it is I’m hoping to achieve for Chapter Two and beyond (concerning the regular weekly income / update and other often-repeatable things, like buying stuff and investing your future earnings) but I’ve learned a lot over the past month so I’m feeling fairly confident about managing it. And, if push comes to shove, there are some very talented people around here who would be able to help. Truth is, I wouldn’t have gotten even this far without people like JimD and Reaperoa on the forum!

I should be able to offer a better estimate by the end of the month.

@nyxkora Thanks, I’m glad you’re enjoying it. :slight_smile:

It would indeed be rather silly to have a weekly income yet have the first chapter be the only one you’re able to buy stuff in.

Also I just had a facepalm moment for realizing this late who paid for Gina’s funeral if you took the truck job.

Question can we be knighted in second game if have good enought public image? P.S. will be third of part like taking over/runing vegas?

Well a programmer I am not, so I can only wish you much luck with those matters. Also there will be protesting if a tommy gun is unavailable for purchase.

Thank you for providing a link (even if its the same old one) with an update. We don’t have to search through the first page for it, and it lets people who aren’t interested in the discussion easily see there’s been an update.

I wish more authors would repost the link each time they updated.

Oh! Almost forgot, in regards to the added scene, it’s good, it gives the player more motivation to just go home. But it also makes me feel like a two bit small time punk hanging around with mooks like Dino. If that was the intent, good job, probably just an issue of taste.

Yep, this game does call for quite a sophisticated weekly / regular events system, able to be jumped to from any chapter, and then back again to the exact spot from whence you came in order to continue the story. Although Chapter One focuses on just the first few days (Chapter Two starts at the beginning of your second week), most future chapters will actually each cover several weeks of game time, so each is intended to access the “weekly events” scene several times at different points.

In addition to your clothing, for instance (only about half of which range is available in Chapter One from Ruggerio’s tailorshop), you will also later have a choice of personal jewelry, automobiles, weapons and private accommodation–together providing up to a third or so of your underworld Respect, and without which you cannot actually reach 100% Respect. Ergo: ‘Appearance’ is vital if you want the top spot in Hell’s Kitchen, so the system has to provide for regular income calculation / gain, and regular purchase options.

Well, that’s the plan, anyway!

As for your facepalm moment, I finally get to say: “No comment”! :wink:

UPDATE

Chapter One has been updated again with yet another additional scene. This has been added purely for overall balancing purposes (another one of those ‘in-hindsight’ moments . . .) and to access it you specifically need to befriend Dino Zaganis–the guy who lives across the hallway from your apartment. To do that, you have to head back there after your chat with Nick Morello, rather than to the Diner or Chuck’s bar.

http://www.vendetta1.webs.com

@Rogar The word ‘knighted’ has a very specific meaning in English (the act of being awarded a knighthood–ennoblement–by a country’s monarch) and doesn’t really fit with Prohibition America, so I’m not exactly sure what you mean. Sorry.

If you mean will you be able to take / be elected to very high political office yourself (the closest comparison), then probably not. But you will be able to control that person, both for your own protection and as a weapon against rivals. While I do personally feel that many politicians are indeed no better than crooks (probably as true now as it was then! :slight_smile: ) becoming one yourself is not intended to be an actual aim in the game. Your aim is instead to rise through the underworld hierarchy and, I suppose, ultimately become “Capo di tutti Capi”–Boss of all Bosses. In Vendetta: Rise of a Gangster, crooked politicians (and similar) are merely tools, there to be used and then discarded when no longer of use.

Las Vegas is still at least two or more decades away from the first game but, if the series continues, it–or something very similar–would certainly become a prominent storyline, just as it was in the real history of organized crime. You will however have the opportunity to become involved in the gambling racket (although on a much smaller scale!) in the first game, yes.

@HoraceTorys It’s a request I’ve seen posted a few times here & there and it’s hardly a great chore to repeat a link. Also, sometimes I haven’t myself been intrigued enough by the concept to actually bother searching for the link, but if it’s easily found I’ll usually take a look . . .

@13ventrm The definitive 1920s gangster weapon of choice absolutely has to be included. We’ll be fudging history slightly as it wasn’t actually commonly available until 1923 (so won’t appear until a later chapter, and will start out being very expensive) but there’s no question of not including it! :smiley:

As for the new scene, yep, that’s the ‘balancing issue’ I mentioned earlier–lack of incentive to just go home at that point. Those three main route alternatives are supposed to be a critical early decision, but that wasn’t made clear enough with the home option being somewhat . . . apparently less rewarding, shall we say.

Dino and his boys (there’s a third one–currently locked up on a vagrancy charge) are only a good option in future if you have the necessary skills to take over leadership of the crew and knock them into shape. If you can manage that, you have the makings of your own future gang from a very early stage.

Chuck and his established crew is the middle-of-the-road option. Being your uncle, you can potentially become ‘heir apparent’ and learn leadership along the way. It will just take longer to make them your own gang.

Joining Ginelli’s boys early on is the easiest option, both financially and otherwise, but in some ways (specifically, your stats) also the riskiest, as that bunch is in the middle of a war with the powerful docklands Irish gang over control of the booze distribution racket–and, of course, you start at the very bottom and have to work your way up, earning every promotion.

All that said, there will be some opportunity in Chapters Two & Three to switch your overall strategy to a different major route, if you find you’re struggling because of your chosen character’s stats.

Well so far I’ve definitely preferred the Ginelli option, it makes me feel classier due to how organized they are, their first job coincides with the skills of my background of choice, and it’ll be so much more satisfying to take them over having started from the bottom. The loot helps as well.

@Vendetta So you’re willing to fudge history slightly to have Tommy Guns, but not to have gender egalitarianism? Care to explain how you justify that?

@canisa Probably because adding Tommy Guns is only slightly fudging history, and gender egalitarianism is rewriting the society at the time?

You don’t have to rewrite society. You just have to add a couple of 's’s and 'er’s to it. Three letters really isn’t that much.

@13ventrm Very interesting to hear your reasoning on that, thanks. The Ginelli route certainly would suit more of the character backgrounds in the early stages, in particular.

@Canisa No, I don’t think I really do care to explain that, because if I was going to have sleepless nights over it I would simply start the game in 1923 rather than at the very beginning of Prohibition . . . As Bikkje points out, it’s a very minor detail in comparison to completely rewriting history–but thank you for sharing your thoughts on the subject.

I must admit, it is tempting to make a character with a war vet background named Michael Corleone and have him take over the family business for reference’s sake alone.

@Vendetta Thank-you for taking the time to explain to me your position, you’ve been very helpful. I wish you the best of luck with your mission to stamp out human dignity!

Just one more thing: I tried to research the Ginelli family and their relationship with organised crime in the prohibition era, but I couldn’t find any mention of them. Because of course you are unimpeachably dedicated to historical fact, I’m sure it’s because of a failure of my own research that I can find no reference to their existence. Would you be willing to point me in the right direction? Thanks in advance!

Clearly, I do need to explain. Some people just love being pedantic.

The key phrase I used earlier, and to which you object so strenuously, was “commonly available until 1923”. In actual fact the Thompson submachine gun was developed during the First World War (Thompson called it his “trench broom”) but due to design problems wasn’t manufactured until 1919, after the war had ended. The first version was on sale to the general public (and I do mean actual general public) by 1920, albeit costing in the region of $200. That might not sound like much, but in that year a brand new Ford Model T cost about $400, so the tommy gun was roughly half the cost of a brand new automobile. Consequently, sales were a little on the slow side . . . But it was available, if you knew about it and knew how to get hold of one.

By 1923 it was a common gangster weapon (the point I was actually making previously), especially in Chicago, and sold for as much as $2000 through blackmarket channels because those sold through legitimate channels were easy for the authorities to trace. Gangsters preferred to pay a high premium for tommy guns stolen from the police, coast guard and even military bases, as those could just be discarded when needed without risk of being traced back to them.

In short, this weapon was available–if not actually in common usage–for the start of Prohibition. Being able to buy one at some point in Vendetta would not therefore be stretching the bounds of reality–especially compared to, say, having a completely gender-neutral 1920s Prohibition underworld culture.

So basically you’re admitting that the ‘justifications’ behind your sexism are completely empty and only apply when you want them to, thus meaning the discrimination in your game is purely gratuitous. Therefore I have to ask: Why even bother with it? It adds nothing to your game and subtracts so much; is your misogyny really so important to you? I honestly don’t see what you hope to gain by it, if you could enlighten me, that’d be great; I am genuinely interested to find out why you are doing this.

you know Canisa you made your point a long time ago, so why are you constantly repeating yourself? it got to the point that its no longer an argument only senseless trolling.

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I wish I had your time Canisa

@Canisa

*sigh* From the game itself. I’ve highlighted the bit in question.

"Disclaimer

Although the “Vendetta: Rise of a Gangster” story occasionally uses place names from both New York City and Chicago made infamous in gangland history, the author wishes to point out that these have been used only for inspiration and atmosphere. The story is not intended to accurately describe the real places bearing these names or of the people living there, either past or present. This is a story of pure fiction, set in a fictional city, and one drawn from many historical references. Similarly, any resemblance of character to any person living or dead is purely coincidental."

Anything else I can do for you, or is that soap box of yours beginning to make you also feel as foolish as you most certainly look?

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