Old thread
No, I really don't know why on god's green earth I'm here making yet another new map for you slackers. 
But not seeing a map made for this idea in particular has bugged me for a while, so:
Edit: Here's draft 7. It's not the most recent draft, but it's close enough to what'll go in to the final product.
This is a (somewhat) mature draft of just one of several mafia concepts I have. Elements I'm still up in the air about: Mayor, helicopter, bikes, and lockdown/cloaking use. A few more iterations and I should have those covered (hopefully).
I choose this one because it seems like the best translation of mafia into real time gameplay that I can come up with while also staying true to my personal style. I wanted a lot of the elements of normal mafia that we take for granted (such as mafia hits) to have a distinct, logical in-game way of taking place. I also wanted to make this work within the game's 8 player limit. To that end, the "pace" of the game has been increased; day/night cycles are now mere minutes, but mafia hits and other player actions may often take more or less than a single day/night cycle to be carried through to completion, depending upon player decisions. I chose this approach, also, instead of the concept of "lives" since I wanted to try to make the gameplay as contiguous as possible. Opportunities exist for both sides to change their odds throughout the game, many of which I'll leave to the players to discover themselves. This remains a game of wits, skill, and luck.
This draft will probably need more iterations before I'm fully satisfied with it. I will be looking for testers soon, though, since I won't get to see how well a lot of the gameplay dynamics will work out until I get to see them in action. I may have failed miserably to stick to my original KISS plan, but we'll just have to see how that goes.
If anyone wants to help with testing, let me know. Feedback also appreciated on the draft outline.
But not seeing a map made for this idea in particular has bugged me for a while, so:Mafia! v1
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Edit: Here's draft 7. It's not the most recent draft, but it's close enough to what'll go in to the final product.
Quote
- Map layout-
- Town center - An open congregation space in the center of the map with voting beacons for revoking law protection from players.
- Main street - General town area. Not in use yet.
- Suburbs - A layer of houses outside the main town area. Houses can be “recruited” by players.
- Manors - Players' own protective houses on the outskirts of the town. Able to be entered, broken into, or collapsed.
- Outskirts - Semi-wooded area with cliffs and cover. Good for hiding and running to the extent that is possible.
- Town center - An open congregation space in the center of the map with voting beacons for revoking law protection from players.
- Day-
- The main area of the town (reaching up to the fronts of each manor) is revealed for all players.
- Each player is given “law” protection during the day that prevents other players from attacking them.
- A vote is held in the town center to revoke 1 player of his/her law protection.
- Players who fall asleep during the day are not protected by law while sleeping.
- Non-protected players can be killed or simply can have their houses ravaged freely by armed players during the day.
- The main area of the town (reaching up to the fronts of each manor) is revealed for all players.
- Night-
- At the onset of each night, all players with law protection are forced back to their manors.
- Vision over the town is disabled for all players. Only “persuaded” houses and the insides of each players' manors are visible.
- Law protection does not apply at night. Everyone is fair game.
- Mafia have several distinct advantages at night that give them the ability to track down and kill other players gradually.
- At the onset of each night, all players with law protection are forced back to their manors.
- Manors-
- Each player owns their own personal manor that they alone may enter.
- Each manor has two entrances and is represented externally by diamond shapes on the main playing field.
- Manors, once entered, whisk the player to a separate, isolated part of the map representing the interior of their manor. Exiting back out is also possible from here.
- Each manor includes a bed to allow the player to get a restful sleep (hastens sleep time).
- Each entrance of the manor has a destructible hinge that can be attacked to gain entry into the manor by force. Manor owners are alerted when a door is broken down.
- Manors also have destroyable structural supports on their exteriors that can be used to collapse the manor completely and kill anyone inside. These take a while to destroy, though.
- Hinges are automatically regenerated at the start of each day.
- Each player owns their own personal manor that they alone may enter.
- Player functions-
- Footprints-
- As players walk about at night, they leave a trail of invisible footprints behind.
- A player's Reveal or Investigate abilities are able to expose footprint marks.
- No one can tell whose footprints belong to who by examining them; only the direction they lead in can reveal that.
- As players walk about at night, they leave a trail of invisible footprints behind.
- Stats-
- Virtual mana-
- Players have a “mana” meter representing how much use of their special abilities they have.
- While unarmed, a player charges their meter at twice the speed as while armed.
- The meter charges while the player stays still, but lowers while they move around.
- Players have a “mana” meter representing how much use of their special abilities they have.
- Sleep meter-
- Players have a “sleep” meter representing how long they have before they'll pass out involuntarily.
- Players' sleep meters gradually diminish over time, giving them roughly 2 whole days of continuous wakefulness before sleep is required.
- Sleeping recharges this meter, obviously.
- Players have a “sleep” meter representing how long they have before they'll pass out involuntarily.
- Virtual mana-
- Investigate-
- Each player has, as a free action, the ability to 'investigate' their immediate surroundings.
- The act of investigation takes a short time to complete. The higher a player's sleep meter, the less time it takes.
- Players must hold still while investigating, or they'll interrupt the process.
- Investigate reveals any hidden footsteps, nearby players' identity (useful for cloaked players), and sleep meter.
- Investigate also dissipates the virtual mana of any armed players nearby. Useful for sneakily sapping away a mafia players' stealth.
- Investigate uses a small amount of virtual mana itself.
- Each player has, as a free action, the ability to 'investigate' their immediate surroundings.
- Persuade & Town houses-
- Instead of investigating, when available, a player standing next to an NPC house will try to “persuade” them to ally themselves.
- The process of persuading uses a moderate amount of virtual mana itself.
- Persuading takes about as much time as investigating.
- Persuading houses that others have persuaded have a half change of failure.
- Houses become more difficult to persuade each successive day (failure chance increases).
- Players cannot persuade while armed.
- Persuaded houses produce a swath of vision at night and will attack all non-allied units nearby.
- Instead of investigating, when available, a player standing next to an NPC house will try to “persuade” them to ally themselves.
- Sleep-
- A player can choose to fall asleep wherever they're at when their sleep meter is at least 75% or lower.
- Once asleep, a player must remain so until their sleep meter is fully charged.
- While asleep, a player has no vision over anything in the map (including their own units) and loses all control as well.
- Sleeping players are completely vulnerable to attack during day or night; no law protection applies while asleep.
- Players sleeping in their manor beds will replenish their sleep meters much faster than sleeping elsewhere.
- Players lose all their virtual mana and automatically revert to being unarmed when they sleep.
- A player can choose to fall asleep wherever they're at when their sleep meter is at least 75% or lower.
- Armed mode-
- At any time (while awake) a player can choose to arm or disarm themselves.
- Arming costs a sizable sum of mana and takes a few moments for the process to complete, during which the player is frozen in place.
- Armed players can attack other players, manor components, or enemy houses if need be.
- For armed mode stalking (cloaking), the players' virtual mana must be at least half full to begin using cloak.
- Armed mode regenerates half the virtual mana as unarmed mode.
- Reverting back from armed mode requires no virtual mana or delay.
- At any time (while awake) a player can choose to arm or disarm themselves.
- Reveal-
- In unarmed mode, players gain the ability to use Reveal.
- Reveal costs a large sum of virtual mana and takes about 3 seconds to activate.
- Reveal begins with a noticeable player action (a loud whistle sound) that gives nearby players (especially attackers) short advance warning it is about to take place.
- When Reveal occurs, a sizable area of the map is revealed to all players (complete with detection) for a full 8 seconds.
- The person who casts Reveal becomes invincible during this period.
- Players who have lost their law protection will lose this option.
- In unarmed mode, players gain the ability to use Reveal.
- Footprints-
- Mafia-
- Amongst the player population, and depending upon its total, a small percentage of players may belong to the mafia.
- Mafia players behave virtually identically to other players with the exception of a few night abilities.
- Mafia players are allied and have allied vision at night.
- Mafia players drain their virtual mana at half the speed of the other players (thus allowing them to stay cloaked longer).
- Every so often each non-mafia player on the map is pinged to have their locations revealed at night. Hiding won't save you.
- When mafia living players match or outmatch living townies in number, they win.
- Amongst the player population, and depending upon its total, a small percentage of players may belong to the mafia.
This is a (somewhat) mature draft of just one of several mafia concepts I have. Elements I'm still up in the air about: Mayor, helicopter, bikes, and lockdown/cloaking use. A few more iterations and I should have those covered (hopefully).
I choose this one because it seems like the best translation of mafia into real time gameplay that I can come up with while also staying true to my personal style. I wanted a lot of the elements of normal mafia that we take for granted (such as mafia hits) to have a distinct, logical in-game way of taking place. I also wanted to make this work within the game's 8 player limit. To that end, the "pace" of the game has been increased; day/night cycles are now mere minutes, but mafia hits and other player actions may often take more or less than a single day/night cycle to be carried through to completion, depending upon player decisions. I chose this approach, also, instead of the concept of "lives" since I wanted to try to make the gameplay as contiguous as possible. Opportunities exist for both sides to change their odds throughout the game, many of which I'll leave to the players to discover themselves. This remains a game of wits, skill, and luck.
This draft will probably need more iterations before I'm fully satisfied with it. I will be looking for testers soon, though, since I won't get to see how well a lot of the gameplay dynamics will work out until I get to see them in action. I may have failed miserably to stick to my original KISS plan, but we'll just have to see how that goes.
If anyone wants to help with testing, let me know. Feedback also appreciated on the draft outline.
Post has been edited 14 time(s), last time on Dec 30 2009, 1:30 pm by Tuxedo-Templar.
None.
