Ohhh. That's true... Lowlives like me would just memorize it... mm.

Update: Minor issue before I hit the v1.1 marker: Should I make the process of apprehending voted players a simple game of tag with the lynching cutscene immediately thereafter? Or should I put in a somewhat more involved procedure of "pulling" the player to the lynching area to begin the lynch sequence? Decisions...

I think I'll try the "pulling" approach first, and see how that goes. A few of the goals I established with this map after my first few drafts was to try to make gameplay elements as contiguous and homogeneous as possible between players and game contexts. The tag method simplifies things but at the cost of abruptness and becoming like a sort of Deus Ex Machina functional injection to the game (heaven knows I've got enough of those already). But I don't know if the "pulling" procedure would become tedious or just simply unnecessary. I suppose I'll have to try it to find out.


So yeah. I just answered my own question I suppose. Aren't I weird?

Update: Another minor update: Instead of free houses, I've decided to give an interesting reward to the player who successfully apprehends and lynches a mafia player: Immunity from the next day's vote.

A strategy crosses my mind whereby one mafia player, upon being revealed to the town, could (voluntarily or otherwise) be "apprehended" by his partner, lynched, and thus give his partner vote immunity. Properly exploited, a lone mafia player gets this time to make up for the loss of his/her partner with opportunity to operate openly during the subsequent day period, if they wish.



Anyway. Almost done with v1.1. v1.2 will have the clues, though. I might skip releasing v1.1 publicly, considering the supposed importance of the addition of clues to the gameplay.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 16 2010, 8:21 am by Tuxedo-Templar.

Hey, i have an idea for that lynching thing.

How about, when you bring the HP of someone who has lost his law protection to 0 (daytime only), he gets sent back to his manor, and is invincible at all times but can't arm himself. Then when the next day starts, all players get automatically sent to the lynching ceremony.

How's that sound?

What's the significance of postponing the lynching?

I like the idea of lynch invulnerability! Patiently awaiting version 1.2

Well, so that it doesn't waste too much law-protected time for other players. I guess you could also jail the to-be-lynched in his own manor or just plain do the lynching ceremony right away (maybe forcing all other players into armed state and ally, then when the judge or whatever says "fire" they unally and he dies? ), and then afterwards automatically send everyone home and start the night?

Just some thoughts.

Heh, I like that execution idea. I'll line that up for v1.2. It's like IRL executions: With multiple people firing the shot, you can't know who's hit the victim, and no one gets the guilt of murder. Or something to that effect, as it translates into gameplay terms.

But I keep wondering:
Hmm. Still confused.

How does it waste law-protected players' time to hold the lynch when an unprotected player is brought to the lynch area at any point during daytime?

Keep in mind the lynch ceremony effectively pauses the game for everyone, so the actual event uses no gameplay time at all.

Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on Jan 17 2010, 2:39 am by Tuxedo-Templar.

Update: One more minor issue before I go to v1.1: Duel mode.

I've realized I'll need to make a few more accommodations for when the game enters its final stretch (1 mafia vs 1 townie, of course). I figure by then there's no more point in mind games, voting, or law protection, as it basically just turns into a straight out duel from there.


In this scenario, the mafia player is pretty much stacked against the townie overwhelmingly with their Hide ability. However, I want to give the townie at least a moderate fighting chance. If the townie has been diligent in recruiting houses, for instance, I want that to count for something. I've thought of two main options:

• NPC houses are consumable for HP and ability mana if unarmed, and stealth mana (for cloaking) and a sleep meter boost if armed.
  
• NPC houses convert to Hydralisks with 2 hp, 20 armor, and 3 dmg. Burrow is an option.

I'll need to meditate a bit to decide which option I should go with.



Edit Edit: Okay, neither of these are going to work. Back to the drawing board...

Post has been edited 9 time(s), last time on Jan 17 2010, 1:08 pm by Tuxedo-Templar.

Maybe you could turn the houses into bunkers with ghosts, so that they have a higher attack range, giving the townie somewhat of a bigger advantage?
Oh and maybe you could make the execution animation everytime different, like the intro. Here's some ideas:

Death by firearms: Everyone is sent in armed mode to the town hall, where they wait until the signal to shoot the person to be executed.

Death by Electric Chair: The person to be executed is held in a DT barrier where once the signal is given, probes spawn and execute him.

Death by Gas Chamber: Again, DT barrier. This time, 9999 HP DTs spawn and get irradiated. Or the player himself, either work i guess.

Death by Hanging: Well, sorta just make the person to be executed stand on the high ground of the town hall, then when the signal is given, just teleport him to the lower ground and kill him.

Death by Pitfall: Have him stand on the floor hatch, then teleport to somewhere else and maybe play a .wav with human screams. And, of course, kill him.

Death by Explosives: At the signal, a pair of spider mines pop up and blow up on him.


Hope this was useful .

Actually I'm already using the pitfall one as a placeholder (minus the teleport; the actual death is vaguely censored ). Thanks for the ideas. I'm sticking with the firing squad one for the reason I stated earlier.



Update: I've thought of an odd solution for duel mode. I still intend to convert recruited houses to NPCs, but rather than have a dumb Benny Hill chase going on the whole time with some hydras thrown in the mix, I've thought of a better idea. But before a solution can be found, the problem must be known:

• Firstly, there's too much open space. Lots of wandering, no tactics.
  
• Secondly, it's a lot of dumb hide and seek. Dark areas and open terrain leave no information to work with, so it's just pretty much random chance.
  
• Thirdly, the first person to run out of sleep meter juice loses, pretty much. Unless they get lucky and are allowed to rest up.

These conditions kinda suck with regards to making a dueling situation. So far, the map has been built for a fairly large group of players with emphasis on social tension and intelligent deduction rather than direct combat. This means I'd either have to drastically overhaul the entire map (may as well start from scratch if I were to do that), or else add a new element on top of what's there to compensate.


Which is basically what I'm going to do. Though I think now it's becoming gradually more clear that the proper way to do the upcoming v2.0 of this will be to completely redo the entire thing from the ground up. But that's later. For now, I'm looking at a solution that could help address those three problems: Siege'd Tanks! Or more specifically, I want to convert each house into a pair of Hydralisks first (moderate attack, weak health, high mobility), but allow them to convert to Siege'd Tanks (high attack, high health, no mobility) by morphing to lurkers to trigger the change. Tanks can revert back to Hydras by reverting to Tank Mode, too, but note that either change costs ability mana (ore). Furthermore, you can't change to Tanks while armed, and you can't change to Hydras while unarmed. If you're charging up stealth mana for cloaking, you'll need to make your decisions carefully.

Hope that won't make things too complicated. I'm still plotting it out, of course.

Anyway, doing that may help solve the above problems:

1. Open space is compensated for by the tanks' long range attacks working as an effective form of space denial.
   
2. Tanks also uncover large swaths of vision... especially at night. Now there's something to work with finally. Or at least, it's a start.
   
3. Sleep meter is still a problem, but by turning the battle into a matter of positioning rather than chasing, the outcome should get decided a lot quicker. That will suffice.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 18 2010, 2:05 am by Tuxedo-Templar.

I haven't been keeping up...

but Duel Mode and Executions and Clues??
Sounds complicated =_=' ...

I'm still available for testing

• Duel Mode - When 1 townie and 1 mafia are left alive.
  
• Executions - A game of tag for voted players (during the day) where the penalty for losing is a lulzy execution sequence... and a reward for the apprehender.
  
• Clues - Another information layer for players to work with to help stimulate player activity and drama. An alternative to adding a money system, as was your suggestion (which I haven't ruled out for a separate project branch, even still).

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 18 2010, 2:25 am by Tuxedo-Templar.

So that means you're not browsing the executions? Oh well, so much for my ideas .



Well i'd like to mention that i went into duel mode with a friend because everyone else just left, and we met outside his place and then he got lucky cause i missclicked >.>.

How about skipping the whole duel mode thing and just making the person who has the most houses wins? Then maybe make a lynching ceremony where the winning player is in front of the losing player, which is surrounded by:

-If the winner is a townie, ghosts/other units named "Cops"
-If the winner is a mafia, ghosts/other units named "Gangsta"

Then you display a text where the winner says "Prepare, aim, fire!" And the gangstas/cops execute the loser, leading to a lulzy endgame screen .

Just an idea.

That's a good idea, actually. Saves me a lot of work, saves everyone else a lot of complexity, and keeps me from compromising the gameplay by adding elements that go against its intended grain.


Actually I sorta had the idea of a "default end" all along, but I thought a solution like that would be a cop out at the time, so I've been exploring a tangible way to handle the problem through gameplay rules rather than an abrupt cutoff of sorts. However I think you're right at least that that phase of the game needs to be made simplified rather than complicated.


I'm going to meditate a bit more on a good, simple wrap up solution. If I can't come up with one, default it is.


Edit: Azala had the idea of just making it an actual, straightforward, contained duel of sorts. Though I've been trying to run through ways to handle dueling within the rules of the normal gameplay, I think to avoid the problem of complexity (which seems inevitable in trying to retain the basic gameplay model as the underlayer), I really should look into something along those lines now.



Edit 2: Captain's log, star date 1172010. Recruited houses change to Infested Duran units (15hp, 10dmg, 5armor, w/ zerg regen). Survivors and their recruits pack into town center. Town center closes off. Ecstasy of Gold hollers in the background (lol no). Abilities are disabled. Armed mode locked. Gunfight erupts.

Simple and clean.

Post has been edited 10 time(s), last time on Jan 18 2010, 4:48 am by Tuxedo-Templar.

Also, attacking footprints at night causes them to follow you, with epic hilarious ensues, I had an ensemble of 6 zerglings, and then they trapped me. D: Also, there are random times when a person's house is vulnerable during the day, even if they have law protection, not sure why.

Tux, you're forgetting that people lose all of their houses when they're banished, aren't you?

When they're voted, yes. When it's simply 1v1, and law protection pops off, I can control what happens then.

If that's what you're referring to.

Ehh, i think he means, what about someone's banished, and THEN when all his houses have been picked off it goes into duel mode?

That wouldn't be fair, now would it? Unless the enemy didn't have much houses and the banished person is PRO at micro.

Actually, if what you want is that the townie has a fairer chance because the mafia has hide, can't you just disable hiding and lock 'em into the town hall alone?

Oh and maybe you could make it so that either at the start of the game or at duel mode, people can vote wether it is most-houses ending or duel?

Great game. Seems like many people knew about it except me! Most likely the "next big thing" on Bnet