initial impressions on 'find X person' jobs

[VibroKnife]

Maybe there's something I'm missing or I'm just bad but almost all the 'find out who X person is' jobs I've picked up from payphones have given such little clues that 9/10 times they aren't worth doing especially for only 1k when real murder investigations can be solved in a quarter of that time for 4k.

The latest I got was to search for someone with "no name, no photo, with glasses and no facial hair" who works in an office building... No gender, no first letter, nothing. I've spent literal hours knocking on each door to find someone matching this description and even when I have found people matching the description, I don't think I can do anything to pinpoint if it's them?

No one will tell me their name or give their print and there's no information or evidence in the 'unknown person' descriptions that can even tie it to the person... Oh, besides "Type E" handwriting, whatever that means. So I have to break into each person's apartment who just happens to wear glasses without getting caught and hope they have a name written down somewhere, which can take an extreme amount of time. Then all I can do is guess who it is by searching the names one by one in the employee registry (which btw, should really just show all employees in a list, but whatever).

Anyway, they're a cool idea but there needs to at least be a guarunteed piece of critical evidence for the person you're assigned to find, either a photo or a name or a print, otherwise it's far too vague imo

[Isabelle]

Why didnt you visit the workplace?

If there's more than one person that works there with those features, go to the people's homes, and find their handwriting to compare samples.

That's a very easily solvable case.

[Isabelle]

Like, let me lay this out:

Info-

Facial hair
Glasses
Workplace
Handwriting
Gender (because i dont think the game generates women with beards)

This is enough information to pick that civilian out from the rest in that workplace. If multiple people have a beard and glasses, it's very unlikely they share handwriting type too. If you find somebody who matches those parameters, that's your mark.

[Isabelle]

Bonus info: people who wear glasses will have glasses in their homes.

[VibroKnife]

Originally posted by Isabelle:

Like, let me lay this out:

Info-

Facial hair
Glasses
Workplace
Handwriting
Gender (because i dont think the game generates women with beards)

This is enough information to pick that civilian out from the rest in that workplace. If multiple people have a beard and glasses, it's very unlikely they share handwriting type too. If you find somebody who matches those parameters, that's your mark.

Reminder it says no facial hair which can easily be man or woman.

I'm not sure how the game logs handwriting, because it doesn't do it automatically when finding names written down unless you've discovered the person's name by asking them. Not all homes have handwriting.

I can visit the workplace but half of the workplace has glasses either on them or on their bedstands, so I don't think I can even gloss over people who answer the door without glasses. I have to literally break into every home in the building. (LET ME CLARIFY, their workplace isn't a specific business inside the office building, they work FOR/IN the office building, which covers an even larger area of residentials)

I can't search the employee records because I need a name to search, which I can't obtain unless I confirm the name from the person themselves which they never want to give, and they might not even work on the premises. I've even arrested potential four-eyed suspects and they wont cough up a name for 300.

My original point was that this is too much effort for only 1k-2k when I've solved murder cases in 1/8th of this time with 4-5k in profit because I'm given an actual lead instead of two descriptions, glasses and workplace, handwriting isn't guarunteed.

[Isabelle]

Originally posted by |DoS| VibroKnife:

Originally posted by Isabelle:

Like, let me lay this out:

Info-

Facial hair
Glasses
Workplace
Handwriting
Gender (because i dont think the game generates women with beards)

This is enough information to pick that civilian out from the rest in that workplace. If multiple people have a beard and glasses, it's very unlikely they share handwriting type too. If you find somebody who matches those parameters, that's your mark.

Reminder it says no facial hair which can easily be man or woman.

I'm not sure how the game logs handwriting, because it doesn't do it automatically when finding names written down unless you've discovered the person's name by asking them. Not all homes have handwriting.

I can visit the workplace but half of the workplace has glasses either on them or on their bedstands, so I don't think I can even gloss over people who answer the door without glasses. I have to literally break into every home in the building. (LET ME CLARIFY, their workplace isn't a specific business inside the office building, they work FOR/IN the office building, which covers an even larger area of residentials)

I can't search the employee records because I need a name to search, which I can't obtain unless I confirm the name from the person themselves which they never want to give, and they might not even work on the premises. I've even arrested potential four-eyed suspects and they wont cough up a name for 300.

My original point was that this is too much effort for only 1k-2k when I've solved murder cases in 1/8th of this time with 4-5k in profit because I'm given an actual lead instead of two descriptions, glasses and workplace, handwriting isn't guarunteed.

oh sorry missed the facial hair thing.

anyway about the rest of it, the building itself has offices inside it. ive never seen an npc work for the building itself but i dont doubt its possible.

also yeah at that point its a goose chase. What's funny is, if the "has beard" box was checked, i think you'd have a REALLY good chance of finding the perp.

it's not unlikely that two people at a workplace share a writing type, lack a beard, and wear glasses.

If the game generates a case in which the given clues do not logically point toward one specific civilian, I consider that a failure to generate a logical and sensible case and that should be closed and forgotten about.

[Isabelle]

oh by the way npc's who wear glasses are always wearing them

[Psyringe]

Originally posted by |DoS| VibroKnife:

I'm not sure how the game logs handwriting, because it doesn't do it automatically when finding names written down unless you've discovered the person's name by asking them. Not all homes have handwriting.

Every home has handwriting. Go to the closet where the citizen stores their personal files, find one with their signature, click the signature, and you have the handwriting. The handwriting type will be added automatically to your profile card for that person.

You can also do this with the handwritten name that is in every wallet, and I believe that every citizen has a wallet - though these are usually harder to obtain than their personal files.

The handwritten notes that you can find in the apartments, are actually less useful with regard to handwriting. You can compare the writing visually to the word "Sample" in your target card, but reading handwritten notes does not reveal the handwriting type of the writer (which I think is a bug).

Originally posted by |DoS| VibroKnife:

I can visit the workplace but half of the workplace has glasses either on them or on their bedstands, so I don't think I can even gloss over people who answer the door without glasses. I have to literally break into every home in the building. (LET ME CLARIFY, their workplace isn't a specific business inside the office building, they work FOR/IN the office building, which covers an even larger area of residentials)

Hmm. In every case that I had so far which involved the clue "works at building X", the person worked in one of the offices, so I don't think you'd need to check the apartments in that building. You would have to check all the offices, but that's doable.

Originally posted by |DoS| VibroKnife:

I can't search the employee records because I need a name to search, which I can't obtain unless I confirm the name from the person themselves which they never want to give

You can search the physical employee records, which are in a cabinet, usually either in the CEO's office or in the storage room. That's where you get not only the names, but also whether they wear glasses and/or have facial hair. Looking at photo walls in an office should also help, but not every office has one.

You can also search digital databases without knowing any names. All that the game needs, is an (at least) two-character search term, and one of those characters can be a space. Start with "(space)A", and you'll see a list of all people whose surname starts with "A". Click on every name, click "print", and pin the printout to your case board if it could be your target. Then repeat that for all other letters of the alphabet. You'll find every single entry in the database this way.

Originally posted by |DoS| VibroKnife:

My original point was that this is too much effort for only 1k-2k when I've solved murder cases in 1/8th of this time with 4-5k in profit because I'm given an actual lead instead of two descriptions, glasses and workplace, handwriting isn't guarunteed.

I think the case is easier to solve than you thought, because you weren't aware of some details that would have helped you. However, even with those details, I agree that this case involved more effort than the payment is worth. With two binary criteria (facial hair yes/no, glasses yes/no), a third one that doesn't have a lot of variation either (handwriting), and a population of several offices to check, you're also running a fairly high risk that several people match your criteria, and you can't tell which one is your target.

Personally, I have done such cases and enjoyed cracking them, but my "reward" is effectively the feeling of having cracked such a case, not the money. (Money becomes meaningless quickly in this game.) But if you wouldn't enjoy such cases, then you can of course abandon them, that's a totally valid decision. :)

[VibroKnife]

Originally posted by Psyringe:

Originally posted by |DoS| VibroKnife:

I'm not sure how the game logs handwriting, because it doesn't do it automatically when finding names written down unless you've discovered the person's name by asking them. Not all homes have handwriting.

Every home has handwriting. Go to the closet where the citizen stores their personal files, find one with their signature, click the signature, and you have the handwriting. The handwriting type will be added automatically to your profile card for that person.

You can also do this with the handwritten name that is in every wallet, and I believe that every citizen has a wallet - though these are usually harder to obtain than their personal files.

The handwritten notes that you can find in the apartments, are actually less useful with regard to handwriting. You can compare the writing visually to the word "Sample" in your target card, but reading handwritten notes does not reveal the handwriting type of the writer (which I think is a bug).

Originally posted by |DoS| VibroKnife:

I can visit the workplace but half of the workplace has glasses either on them or on their bedstands, so I don't think I can even gloss over people who answer the door without glasses. I have to literally break into every home in the building. (LET ME CLARIFY, their workplace isn't a specific business inside the office building, they work FOR/IN the office building, which covers an even larger area of residentials)

Hmm. In every case that I had so far which involved the clue "works at building X", the person worked in one of the offices, so I don't think you'd need to check the apartments in that building. You would have to check all the offices, but that's doable.

Originally posted by |DoS| VibroKnife:

I can't search the employee records because I need a name to search, which I can't obtain unless I confirm the name from the person themselves which they never want to give

You can search the physical employee records, which are in a cabinet, usually either in the CEO's office or in the storage room. That's where you get not only the names, but also whether they wear glasses and/or have facial hair. Looking at photo walls in an office should also help, but not every office has one.

You can also search digital databases without knowing any names. All that the game needs, is an (at least) two-character search term, and one of those characters can be a space. Start with "(space)A", and you'll see a list of all people whose surname starts with "A". Click on every name, click "print", and pin the printout to your case board if it could be your target. Then repeat that for all other letters of the alphabet. You'll find every single entry in the database this way.

Originally posted by |DoS| VibroKnife:

My original point was that this is too much effort for only 1k-2k when I've solved murder cases in 1/8th of this time with 4-5k in profit because I'm given an actual lead instead of two descriptions, glasses and workplace, handwriting isn't guarunteed.

I think the case is easier to solve than you thought, because you weren't aware of some details that would have helped you. However, even with those details, I agree that this case involved more effort than the payment is worth. With two binary criteria (facial hair yes/no, glasses yes/no), a third one that doesn't have a lot of variation either (handwriting), and a population of several offices to check, you're also running a fairly high risk that several people match your criteria, and you can't tell which one is your target.

Personally, I have done such cases and enjoyed cracking them, but my "reward" is effectively the feeling of having cracked such a case, not the money. (Money becomes meaningless quickly in this game.) But if you wouldn't enjoy such cases, then you can of course abandon them, that's a totally valid decision. :)

Didn't know about the physical files, that definitely helps, thanks.