Prefered Role Option

[Zack]

This is probably difficult to implement, but its something to think about.

When game starts while you pick your name you'l also pick the role you wish to occupy out of the list the host made. Now, its possible several people will jump on one role, so not everyone will get the role they hope for. If you get the role you wanted, all's good. However, if you get a diffrent role than the one you selected, then if you stick it out anyway to the end of the game you'l recieve some bonus points.

[Elixir]

The whole point of mafia is that its random and you dont know what everyone goes.

An option like this would see 90% of people choosing mafia or sk and no one choosing escort, masons, survivors etc.

It's not needed

[Zack]

Now, thats what you think. Yes, you would probably prefer SK or Mafia. You want to think most players will want this.

Yet here's something you don't know. It happened to me a few times in a mafia game where either the SK commited suicide on 1st or 2nd night, or other situations where a mafia betrayed me and voted to lynch me, only to leave and suicide right after.

Yes, some people insistingly don't want to be the bad guy. Granted, they fail to realize this is only a game, and that they don't kill real people. Still, call it moral issues or whatever, they don't want those roles. Are you going to force it on them when there are many others who would love to take their place?

[Deolrin]

Uhh, wow.
Well, that never happened to me, honestly.
There is no point if you know what your role is going to be. It's just lame.
The whole idea is that the roles are hidden and on one knows who eachother is.

[Zack]

Who said you'l know for sure what you're going to be? You may prefer a role, but you won't get it for certain. Also, if you choose a Random slot you definatley don't know what you'l be, heh.

Roles are still hidden, you still don't know who is who. I don't see how you managed to come to think otherwise? ;o

[Omgproberush]

Goes against the whole spirit of the game. You get what you're assigned and play it.

[Afumba]

I agree with Elixir... 100%

Its not needed... random is the key of mafia... just ruins the game & raises leavers rate.

[Zack]

Is that so? If you read my suggestion carefully you'l see it will actually discourage leaving.

[Afumba]

Well not sure about that...
Out of 14 ppls at least 50-70% wont get the role they type in...

And i guess lot of ppls that dont get the role they like... just leave and rejoin another game...

[Nameless]

How can you honestly think this will be helpful.

Enough people leave as is, even if they are the investigator or sheriff. It's bad enough, if you put in a mason or a random town (which makes a citizen), people leave. If you give people the option of "preferring" a role they want, they will get even angrier and leave just because they didn't get the role they picked.

DR, do not even attempt to implement this.

[Dark.Revenant]

I didn't post because you guys did a good enough job of refuting this suggestion on your own.

[Zack]

Alright, maybe not prefering a specific role. And not something per game, but something general, per account, like the name DR had us type in. Its a simple preferance option: Aligned with Town, Not aligned with Town, Don't care either way. Once you choose your preferance you cannot go back.

What will this do? It will increase, note - only increase - not make 100% - your chance of being Town, or not being town, depending on what you selected. If you don't wanna be town but you still get town, or if you want to be town but didn't get to be, you'l recieve bonus points if you stay in the game. However, if you picked "Don't care either way" then you will always recieve the bonus points. The advantage to this is clear, if you want to prefer one way or the other you will get what you want more often but recieve less points per game.

[Membrax]

The whole point of mafia is that its random and you dont know what everyone goes.

An option like this would see 90% of people choosing mafia or sk and no one choosing escort, masons, survivors etc.

It's not needed




Enough people leave as is, even if they are the investigator or sheriff. It's bad enough, if you put in a mason or a random town (which makes a citizen), people leave. If you give people the option of "preferring" a role they want, they will get even angrier and leave just because they didn't get the role they picked.


/topic
Whether it's the alignment or the role, the problem remains the same.

[Zack]

I'm afraid that does not end this topic. For more than one reason, but I will take this one thing at a time.

If people already leave due to not liking their role, isn't giving them bonus points for still playing the game an incentive to stay? Consider this more carefully.

Now to the issue I presented in this thread, which you chose to ignore... Serial Killers who don't kill and commit suicide, Mafia people who rat on their pals and leave. Yes those will happen in public games, not inhouse ones. Question is, do you care?

[Membrax]

I'm afraid that does not end this topic. For more than one reason, but I will take this one thing at a time.

If people already leave due to not liking their role, isn't giving them bonus points for still playing the game an incentive to stay? Consider this more carefully.

Now to the issue I presented in this thread, which you chose to ignore... Serial Killers who don't kill and commit suicide, Mafia people who rat on their pals and leave. Yes those will happen in public games, not inhouse ones. Question is, do you care?


... I don't get why you still insist. It has nothing to do with "ignoring" you on purpose or to denigrate public games. This is forum discussion, you can't expect people to always love your ideas, seems to me you simply cannot bear disagreement :P

[Zack]

That is not the case, you only think it is. I've made other suggestions, you don't see me insisting on them all now are you? There's a good reason for this one.

[Elixir]

It goes against the spirit of competition in Mafia to stick to one role you may be more proficient at.

Yes rage quits happen when people roll Citizen or whatever but they will still happen. No one, and I mean NO ONE is going to prefer to be a Citizen. So when 4 people go for sheriff, and 3 get Citizens, you may see rage quits even MORE if this system were put into place because they didn't get their preference

There are more cons than pros to a change like this.

[Zack]

So you guys are fortune tellers, I see. This suggestion has a good basis, players love rewards, more points is a reward for staying in the game even though you're not what you wanted to be. Elixir you didn't even read the whole thread, I changed the suggestion at some point.

I imagine you're just jumping on the bandwagon of "lets come up with reasons why this is not good". But then your reasons are the same as what everyone else has already said. Mindless negative way of thinking.

The second suggestion gives a greater reward for people who declare that they don't mind playing any role. If you insist on looking for negatives then you will find them, even in currently existing mechanics.

[Elixir]

You seem to be quick to turn onto the personal strikes here.

So you give players greater reward, and thereby incentive, to play any role just like it is now? So then, what would stop the majority of players opting to not use this new system and thus be rewarded higher for nothing?

The people who opt to use the system would feel penalized and opt to not use the system in favor of more points

You're really not explaining how this would benefit the game as a whole. Which is the main point of any major update or major system change.

I can see why it would be appealing to have a system like this as some people would prefer to not play 'the bad guys', but it just doesn't seem like it would add a great deal to the map already. If you learn some players opt to play certain roles, it could compromise the integrity of the game.

Plus it sounds like it would be a bitch to code/script.

[Afumba]

Zack... i think ppls reading ur suggestion got the point...
But as it was stated it is not the spirit of mafia to choose ur role.

Yes u changed u suggestion a bit durring the conversation... but the core point is the same.
Its about choosing... and in my eye it will not benefit the game. This has nothing to do with you making this suggestion but with the suggestion itself.

If u are sasying that it will not encourage ppls to leave... then u are wrong... ppls tend to leave a lot when they get a role they dont like. Giving the option to choose a role or a side raises this behavior... as u will surely get a role/a side u want if u just join enough games. So y bother with a role u dont wanna play right now... or at all.

And i know what i am talking about cuz i play a lot... ppls leave mostly cuz of mason/citizen these days... but the leaving behavior will extend to roles like doctor, escort, survivor,witch,mafioso (when GF included) too... at least.
As these roles are surely not the number 1 or 2 roles for ppls.

Beside the role point... if u implement choosing alignment it will ruin at least every 2nd random game... Seriously it is way easiert to win as Mafia or neutral killer in a random game as as townie... To many bad ppls and "dont give a rats ass" ppls in random games... So y wasting time playing like doctor in a random game... just leave and re-choose mafia side for example.

Sure these arguments can not be generalized... but i dont see an argument from ur side which heavies my concerns out.
If u make one & convince me... i may change my mind... but till then my oppinion stays as it is... It will not benefit the game but even be disadvantage for the game also ruining the spirit of mafia.

Oh... and u talked about point benefit... honestly i dont see how this could benefit points... :)
If u dont mind pls explain it to me... i really dont get it^^

[Zilas]

u just have to live with the fact it will always be random. like others have said, nobody will ever choose roles like citizen and crap since u cant do much , i mean would you want to be a mafio who can kill anyone or some citizen who can hardly do a fuck ;p

[Zack]

Sorry Elixir, I didn't mean for it to seem personal...

Alright, I see. The reason all of you are rejecting this suggestion is because choosing your role or alignment is against the spirit of the mafia game.

Read that sentence above again, very slowly, very carefully.

Now read this...

You can already "choose your role" as it is. There is a hidden method ingame to exponentially increase your odds of being mafia/neutral roles. It involves the name you choose (the letters and the order of the letters) plus the timing of submitting your name, for example the first one to submit the name. I have no actual proof that this method exists, other than my own experience, I have experimented in various ways and confirmed the existance of this method. Not only that, i'm certain other people know it as well. Quite often when I use it I am roleblocked or even killed on the first night, even if I did not end up being a bad guy.

When i'm investigator/sheriff I also take the method into account when I check people at night, and more often than not I hit a mark.

So, completely random? I think not.

[Faceless]

Your initial idea was pretty bad, since it would've encouraged leaving. If someone tried to get Serial Killer so they could be a super-cool killer, and then ended up getting Doctor or Sheriff or something that doesn't appeal to someone with the attention span of a goldfish, they'd see it as a pretty good reason to leave.

Your second suggestion, however, seems like it could work but it wouldn't be on the top of DR's list, I don't think. It sounds like it would work since it's a one-time thing and I doubt people would insist on leaving every time they got something they didn't like.

Most of you may not agree with me, but I think this suggestion is with good intentions and could work. Maybe not the most important thing to consider at the moment, but still, something to consider at some point in time. (I'm of course referring to the 'one-time choose your preferred alignment thing').

[Dark.Revenant]

I'm sorry to disappoint you, Zack, but the random seed is time-dependent. The name you choose or when you submit it does not matter in the slightest.

[Zack]

Are you sure DR? Because with one name, I was most of the time anything but town, and when I was town I was Vigilante - never any other role. Infact I was Vigilante in two games in a row with that name. Was it really just pure coincidence? :o

Then with another name I was Witch twice in a row. I haven't narrowed down the exact thing, but i'm pretty darn sure its not just the time.

[Dark.Revenant]

This is a psychological effect. You're assigning meaning to coincidences, to make a long story short.

Suppose I pick a blade of grass out of a field at random to use as something to study in a chemistry lab. Now suppose you are that blade of grass, considering yourself damned by the sky god that you are being singled out.
Due to lack of perspective, the blade of grass sees itself as special due to the extremely tiny chance of it being picked, but in reality it was just happenstance; there was a 100% chance of a blade of grass being picked, no meaning being ascribed to the one who happened to be the victim.



To spoil your fun further, I'd like to point out that the roles are assigned BEFORE you pick your name, but only shown to you afterwards.

[Membrax]

This is a psychological effect. You're assigning meaning to coincidences, to make a long story short.

Happens all the friggin time when a random process is involved in a game. Anyone who's lurking on video game boards knows that there are crazy theories out there on any game with a random generator ;D



To spoil your fun further, I'd like to point out that the roles are assigned BEFORE you pick your name, but only shown to you afterwards.

Interesting, didn't know that.

[Trenix]

If you prefer something, then select it. It doesn't require to be random.