LEO

Inquiries — Asking the Public

Ask the people of the city a question about an incident, and read the answers without ever learning who gave them.

This replaces asking in the server chat. That worked, but it put investigation traffic in a channel meant for everyone, and it showed you exactly which player answered — so you knew who was involved before your investigation had established it.

Where it lives

On the incident screen, the middle column switches between two views: Live Activity (the operational log) and Inquiries. Nothing moves — it is the same column, showing a different thing.

When to reach for it

This is a canvass. Use it where you would otherwise knock on doors or stop people in the street: who saw the car leave, was anyone else in the building, did anybody hear the shots. It works because it asks the whole city at once, which is the one thing you cannot do on foot.

It is not an interrogation tool. A suspect you already have does not become a respondent, and a question aimed at one person — "who was driving the blue sedan, we know it was you" — reads as exactly that to everyone who sees it.

Treat an answer as a lead, not as testimony. You do not know who gave it, and neither does a court: "Respondent B says" is not something you can put in a report or stand behind. Follow it up in character and build the case on what that turns up.

Asking

Type the question at the bottom and send. Everything in the community sees it for the length of the answer window — 30 minutes unless your admin changed it.

The line above the box tells you what goes out besides your words:

That is the incident title and location, attached automatically so people can tell whether it concerns them. Read it before you send. If the incident is titled Suspected drug lab, asking one question tells the whole city that. Rename the incident first if that matters.

Opening a question also posts one line in the game chat:

[LUX CAD] SAHP 106 started an inquiry for Armed robbery @ Postal 402,
Vinewood Blvd. Check LUX to respond if you're involved.

That is deliberate — chat keeps it in the scrollback, so someone who was busy at that moment can still scroll back and find it.

Reading the answers

Answers come back as Respondent A, Respondent B, and so on. You never see a name, a character or a player.

Each respondent gets their own branch under the question. That is not decoration: respondents cannot see each other's answers. A branch is a private conversation between you and one person, so read it as one.

The letters are stable within this incident and mean nothing outside it. Respondent A here and Respondent A on another call are unrelated people — the labels are deliberately not comparable across incidents.

Asking one person more

Every branch has its own box: "Ask Respondent B a follow-up…". That message goes only to that person. Nobody else sees it, which is the point — a public follow-up naming Respondent B would tell everyone that B said something.

Your original question stays visible to everyone.

Hiding an answer

The eye icon on a civilian message hides it. The message stays in your view, struck through, and disappears for the person who wrote it. Nothing is deleted — hiding is reversible, and the person keeps their place in the thread.

Closing

Close ends the question. Nobody can answer any more, and it disappears from the public side. Closing the incident does the same thing, so a call you wrap up normally cleans up after itself.

Your side keeps everything. Closed questions and closed incidents stay readable for staff — an investigation has to be re-readable.

The counter and the dot

The Inquiries tab carries a number: how many answers are waiting. A red dot appears when an answer arrives while you are looking at the log, so you notice it without watching the tab. Opening the tab clears the dot.

Two things worth knowing

Everyone in the community sees that you asked. The question board tells the city an investigation is running — chat did too, but chat was fleeting and this is not. What you type is the part you control.

Anonymity here is a courtesy, not a lock. It is built to stop the accidental knowing-who-answered that chat forced on you. Treat it as roleplay etiquette rather than a guarantee.