Post subject: Hidden Agenda
Joined: 7/21/2010
Posts: 3
Hidden Agenda (you play as the President of a Latin American country during the Cold War) is a game that I played extensively, having done an Let's Play of it detailing many important aspects of the game, and then finally getting sick with it. I like the idea of a TAS for this game, but it won't have to be a speedrun, since the game's speed is set to only 81 encounters. Therefore, I guess that you could try to achieve the most "positive" Verdict of History, where Pax Americana praises you. Now, the Verdict of History is rather leftist, so this means I need to implement lots of leftist policies to 'win'. There is already a regular "positive" Run not requiring any 'tools' whatsoever, discovered on Abandonia by 100% Winner:
Here is a guaranteed way to win Hidden Agenda (I've tried it many times, it always works). So warning: this post is kind of a spoiler! (You may not want to read the rest!) 1. When it comes to answering the initial reporters questions, always pick the FIRST choice. 2. Don't appoint any cabinet ministers!!! 3. Go directly to encounters (the telephone). Start in the upper left, and go straight across, left to right (like you're reading). For each encounter, always agree to whatever the person proposes. And that's it! Keep on going through the encounters (always starting in the upper left each season) until the game ends. You'll always win.
I played through this Run as No Cabinet Run 2.0, and it is really swell, although not as swell as 100% Winner would like to say it. Good: 1) You hold elections. 2) You purge the death squads. 3) There is no insurgency (this is the most interesting aspect of this Run, I have never been able to purge the death squads without having the death squads rebel against me.) 4) A left-wing land reform program was implemented. 5) I funded health care and education to the maximum. 6) I did not default on my loans, and in fact, began paying them off (Pax Americana, on the other hand, does not recognize this fact, and will always say that I have a growing national debt). Bad: 1) I did not provide any assistance to land reform beneficiaries at all. 2) Cotton production plummeted after I implemented land reform. 3) I have not invested in infrastructure at all. 4) I have no food subsidies program whatsoever...altough starvation was very low (2%), the game only cares about the last policy I enacted, and the last policy I enacted was abolishing food subsidies. 5) I wasted a lot of Encounters reaffirming policies I already agreed with. Most of these "wasted" Encounters were useful in that they raised my popularity and protected me against two coup attempts, but I still dislike them. 6) Export credits geared towards the rich export crops, and not divided equally between the rich and the poor. I can basically deal with #1, #3, #4, and #6 by appointing a leftist Cabinet Minister, telling him to implement the policies I want, and then firing him. The problem is that the left-wing policies tend to be rather expensive...and what I am worried about is that I might get economic default if I spend lots of money. Then I remembered something: in a previous run, I found out that the time of 'economic default' can vary, suggesting that the prices of food crops also seem to vary as well. What this might mean is that you could "luck manipulate" the game, and therefore control the prices of cotton and coffee. If you could luck manipulate the game to have your country be rich, then you would be able to afford all the leftist programs you want. This could be where the Tool-Assisted part of the Hidden Agenda TAS comes into play, using luck manipulation to pay for government programs. However, I don't know what tools you need to actually do luck manipulation.
Joined: 1/3/2010
Posts: 16
I don't know how entertaining the fastest playthrough would really be.