-spoon
At the very start, hit the Enter key until you get to the screen below. On the right, leave the Joystick blank in the pull-down menu. This will allow you to use your keyboard.
Select “Buy Plans” and then select a target. This will give you a short text summary, and then offer to sell you the blueprints for the particular target.
This will then open up an Information Folder, from which you can find out more about the value of the goods they stock, security and alarm systems. This information doesn’t come for free, of course.
Select “Hire Team” and select an accomplice (I think you can hire up to 5 or 6). This will pull up a short text history of the person, and will list their 1st and 2nd skill, their fee, and how much of a cut they will take. You then decide whether you will use them or not.
Select “Get Fence” to pick someone who will sell your loot. This opens up a similar text history as above, except you will not have to pay the fence a fee.
When you’re all set, it’s time to “Plan Raid”. Just Enter-key your way through all those annoying pop-ups.
You are now in Move mode. Use your arrow keys to move around the clear space. Each move will take 1 second, as indicated by the timer on the right.
To switch to doing something different, hit Enter, then use your arrow keys to select from the options on the left: Move, Wait, Delete Previous Step, Switch (to other accomplice), Edit and Commit Robbery (only hit this once your plan is ready to be set in motion!).
At an obstacle, say, a locked door, a new row of options appears on the left: Open Door, Close Door, Lock Door, Pick Lock. You’ll need to pick the lock, open the door, then step through. Think very, very simplistically. Since this is a game of stealth, it probably makes sense to close the door behind you too, but I haven’t tested this to see if leaving it open has nasty repercussions.
You’ll have to coordinate your accomplices, planning all their moves according to the timer. For example, I planned for the lock-pick to make the following moves:
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Door unlocked at 00:25, opened at 00:27
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Inner door arrived at 00:37, unlocked at 1:01, opened at 1:03
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Top door arrived at 1:07, unlocked at 1:31, opened at 1:33
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Bottom door arrived at 1:37, unlocked at 2:01, opened at 2:03
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Arrive outside 2:19, close door 2:21
... then I programmed the safe-cracker to follow his moves, based on the recorded times. This is important because your accomplices are stupid, and can end up blocking each other.
Once you hit Commit Robbery, the scene plays out before your eyes. You stay out of the way, but if your accomplices run into any snags, you have the following options: Move, Freeze (when the timer flashes a text warning about cops), Abort Job, Assist (you get out of the car and help out), Run For It, Drive Car (when everyone's back, get the hell out of there!). Not all of these icons will appear at once.
If all goes well, the screen then tells you how much you've made, etc. etc.
