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You know I quite like this idea so I'm gonna just keep chucking random things in that I think of.
Now for items I am thinking the players have items that the thing has as well (so the thing can't be caught out by not being able to use a certain item), yet the thing will additionally have his own little trinkets that players CANT get. Basically player items will revolve around escaping from the thing/revealing the thing while Thing items will revolve around tricking players into thinking someone else is the thing so they get killed instead. REMEMBER. You want to make playing the thing just as fun as playing the players and both have an even chance of winning. BALANCE IS KEY.
PLAYER ABILITIES/ITEMS
Smokebomb - blinds everyone in X radius except the person who deployed the smoke bomb. Can be used to get away from the thing if you fear he is about to kill you?
Blink - teleport somewhere randomly, good way to avoid the thing
Propulsion - increases player speed (scourge movement), can use to jump walls and shit
Mute - force everyone EXCEPT The Thing to be unable to cast spells. If you see someone casting a spell once you used this spell, you know they are the thing. You just have to convince everyone else now!
Mute 2 - force everyone in X radius to be unable to cast spells.
Sixth Sense - briefly reveals where all players (including thing) are and what they are doing. Good for players for trying to catch the thing in the act. Good for the thing for tracking down players who are isolated.
Agatha Potion - warmer/colder method of finding the Thing which lasts for X seconds. If this proves to OP you could use it to track down the latest location of The Thing's kill. Eg. someone just dies you smash this potion and quickly try and find the death site and the Thing. Oh yeh good idea: have corpses (flags?).
Agatha Potion 2 - the thing's version could be for tracking down players instead.
THE THING ABILITIES/ITEMS
Curse - forces the player to cast a Thing-only ability, tricking other players into thinking that that person is perhaps the Thing.
Curse 2 - could even make a person look like the Hydralisk for X seconds. Could even fuck around with ally settings as well.
Poison - when a person is poisoned they will die in X seconds. Poisoning someone can be an indiscriminate attack with the requirement of having to be in melee range. The poisoned player could be unaware of the fact he is poisoned. This would force people to keep their distance from each other and then freak out if someone got close to them as they don't know if they were poisoned or not.
Poison 2 - as above - but the poisoning is obvious to who gets poisoned but only after X seconds. Then they can run around screaming aagh it was this guy it was this guy or aggh someone poisoned me before dying. This can then be used as The Thing pretending he is poisoned as an attempt to lure someone or trick someone into killing someone else.
I'm also thinking instead of having just ONE thing per game you should have rounds. Like after the thing loses/wins a new player is selected another round begins. You could split your map up until multiple arenas as well so there would be different arenas layouts each time you play the game not just one. These arenas could have their own little tricks like traps and such as well.
MAP TRAPS
Hiding Spots - you can jump in these and stay in them for as long as possible as long as no one sees you. Being in these places can make you immune to certain reveal spells. People can still randomly search these places though.
Trap Rooms - these can trap you in enclosed areas. The thing could wait in these areas/lure someone to these areas and pounce when the room becomes enclosed. These rooms could also make everyone in them immune to reveal things.
Teleport Rooms - use them for getaways.
You also want to think up ways for The Thing to still be a threat even when detected.
You know I'm thinking you do a radical changeup altogether - take it or leave it just hear me out. Basically I've been playing these PC Game Assassin's Creed Brotherhood its got a really unique multiplayer similiar to the thing. Except everyone is a thing and everyone is also a prey. Basically each person has to kill one other person. People never get contracts for the people hunting them. The higher you score the more people you have with your name on the contract. It is a pretty awesome mechanic because on the one hand your trying to kill your dude but you also have to watch out for the guy who's aiming for you.
Oh yeah that reminds me another thing that game had civilians you could have civilians. Basically NPC Marines walking around everywhere indistinguishable from the players. Players can pretend to act like bots, killing a bot accidently can give away your position.
Anyway that's all I got for now GL with it.