Constructive Feedback on Mafia Game! Please find time to read!

[Brodersen]

Mafia game is one of the best custom games, but heres a few things I hope will change to make it even better.

Worst part of the game is the setup.
Either:
- You have to wait a very long time.
- People get upset and leave.
- You get stupid setup that ruines the game (e.g. 4 mafia or screwed up settings for some roles)
- You ALWAYS have to wait every game. Playing could be so much faster.
- This process is confusing for new players and makes the game seem advance at first, even though its quiet simple.

I suggest you either decide on some game mode that is generally the most fun for most people, and stick with that (change every update to balance or make more fun, listen to forum).
Then the game can start MUCH faster, and we can have more games faster!

I know people like options, but the cost of it is the above list of issues, and imo not worth it. Too many games are ruined by it or takes forever to start (+leavers).



General:
Far to often do players want to discuss and say what they think, but are afraid to do so, because if they get too much attention, SK/mafia will just kill them.
Therefor I suggest all players should be able to, during night, to post an anonymous tip, that everyone see during the day.
This will also give classes that dont have night abilities, still have something to do during the night.
SK/Mafia/e.g can also use this to confuse.

A role such as Doctor can then give anonymous tips to everyone, that he would like investigator/sherif to speak out. This would lead to more debate and suspecions. And players would be able to use their roles better, without giving away their identity so easily.

Also please try to add more choices to some of the roles if you can. Even just small choices of being able to tell someone something, or do anonymous things.


Chat:
When a game is over, please allow chat immediately while seeing the screen flash a color. Then players can discuss and cheer right away!

Also, when people die, give them a message that they died, and can now chat with the others dead (motivates them to stay).
One way to keep the players for longer might be to allow them to guess the roles of the others still alive, and maybe even get extra points for correct guesses, (but other stuff in this list is more important, so maybe forget about that again


Roles:
Witch. It might be challenging and fun to play witch because you try to find out who is who. But seriously this class doesnt add any fun to the other players, and doesnt contributen to the debates or suspecions. It just makes everything more chaotic and random, and "witch" doesnt make sense next to roles like Mafia or Escort. Keep it real and remove Witch role!


Choosing name:
Change -Ford Prefect to "Choose a name with -YOURNAME", so newbies dont get confused ;)
When choosing name, please allow players to see their role, before choosing a name. That might make naming even more fun and suspecious.


Last Will:
Make a button for Last Will, to make it faster and easier to edit your will.
Also explain that this is shown if you should die. many players dont understand this, how to, or what exactly it does. Maybe not all are as good at english :/


Info:
Put more info in the game. Fx Im a doctor, would be nice to know if I saved someone from death that night. Makes no sense that I dont know that. Doesnt really change anything if I know it, and its more fun for me to know that I was useful or useless.
In general more info (even if nothing happens), will help make the game more immersive.


Points:
Points are cool, so you feel progress and reward. But they dont work and is often getting reset! Please fix it
And showing each players points in beginning so players can brag about how good they are, would be nice.
Also show points when selecting model, so players know how far they are to unlocking new models. And show total points in the end as well, so players can see the points of those who won, and how many points they now have.


Keep up the good work with Mafia! It can be a much faster game and attract even more people to play it, including those who are otherwise scared away by the slow and complex looking start screen!


Let me know what you think...

[icarus]

Info:
Put more info in the game. Fx Im a doctor, would be nice to know if I saved someone from death that night. Makes no sense that I dont know that. Doesnt really change anything if I know it, and its more fun for me to know that I was useful or useless.
In general more info (even if nothing happens), will help make the game more immersive.

I'm completly ok with that

Roles:
Witch. It might be challenging and fun to play witch because you try to find out who is who. But seriously this class doesnt add any fun to the other players, and doesnt contributen to the debates or suspecions. It just makes everything more chaotic and random, and "witch" doesnt make sense next to roles like Mafia or Escort. Keep it real and remove Witch role!

Not ok with that. I think you didnt really understood. Witch is a mafia player, even if its a neutral alignement. Witch has to kill towners to win using others players powers and selecting on who to use them. I think its a really interesting rola that has to be preserved.

Far to often do players want to discuss and say what they think, but are afraid to do so, because if they get too much attention, SK/mafia will just kill them.
Therefor I suggest all players should be able to, during night, to post an anonymous tip, that everyone see during the day.
This will also give classes that dont have night abilities, still have something to do during the night.
SK/Mafia/e.g can also use this to confuse.

euh... i dont really see how that can get the game more interesting... what will be the value of those anonymus notes, as any one can write them... they loose all credibility...

[ev1hmr]

And a new role is born:

Town Crier - During discussion / trial, can say things without others knowing their identity.

[icarus]

And a spam filter PLEASE ! I got a dumb ass jester spaming to get him self lynch ... omg

[McJesus]

Setup is the core problem that mafia is only as good as the people playing it. Maybe some minor changes could be made to make the setup easier but you if you want that you can just set up DR's choice and go. If you host your own lobby it really doesn't that much longer to fill then a joined lobby, maybe 1 minute or two.


I honestly don't know what kind of complications that would have but I disagree with your reasoning. My experience of players is rarely ever people being too shy but even if they are shy, are you psychic? How do you know people don't want to draw attention to themselves? Maybe people are just stupid and don't know but don't want to random lynch, maybe people are holding back what they know until they can confirm someone is mafia or not. Also that is why you have doctors, to heal the obvious hit targets.

Adding choices is cool but options don't make the game better unless they are good options. I could give players the choice of having the sheriff be invunurable at night but that would break the game, if you have any spefic choices to suggest feel free though.

How stupid does a random player have to be to not realize he can chat with other dead players?

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One way to keep the players for longer might be to allow them to guess the roles of the others still alive, and maybe even get extra points for correct guesses
-
+1 actually

Quit knocking on the witch, it is an awesome role. Witches win conditions are favoured to be mafia loyalty however I have seen some witches win it for the town by forcing mafia members to kill themselves. Witches are anti-town and thus you should predict them to have anti-town behaviours.

Agree with -your name but not the role before name choice. That would make way too much speculation as to who is who off of names alone when the point of changing your names is to be anonomoyous.

No knowing info like you healed someone would break the game. If no one dies or there is a lack of deaths one night and you healed someone a lot of the fun is figuring out what happened. If there is a roleblocker and the death didn't happen because of a roleblock you automatically know who is mafia, that kind of information sharing would ruin the experience.

[Deolrin]

Giving you your role before you set your name will make all those "Mafioso", "Godfather", "Serial Killer", "Arsonist" etc names so much more important, seeing how essentially they could be lying, and they could NOT be lying.
So yeah, I disagree.

As for the long setup, that's why save-slot and DR's choice are there. Save-slot is for people who host frequently and DR's choice is for impatient people who just want the game to start.

[Clawtrocity]

I host games all the time on B.net and I always use the save slot, but for some reason half the time my save slot gets reset and I have to rechoose everything the lobby goes crazy and starts complaining about everything. There should be some tip somewhere stating that if you don't like the rules someone else makes then they can host their own game. I'm not sure people realize that there was a switch in the hosting rules.

Also I kind of like the town crier idea if he can act like a spy and get messages at night from everyone in the town, but the unless you are the person saying the message or the Town Crier then you won't know what was said.

Witch should stay it's one of the most interesting roles and it has a unique mission.

The E-Peen board is in the help section you can check there for who is the best and if you want to brag.

[Brodersen]

euh... i dont really see how that can get the game more interesting... what will be the value of those anonymus notes, as any one can write them... they loose all credibility...

For an example, you are doctor or vigilante. Your town is constantly dying every night. Everyone is like obviously like "oh shit" every day because of those they lost. Nobody has clues or takes action (maybe investigator or sherif died).

You want to say something to the town, that we have to start random voting people and hear their roles, because if we dont do anything, we die each night.
But you cant say that, because then mafia/SK will just kill you next night.
Mafia/Sk always wants to kill those they are sure are town, and those who pose a thread to them (such as if someone starts to come up with a plan or suggest to random ask people for their role).

So nobody is saying anything. You cant tell your plan or tell town to start taking action, becuase then you most likely will just get killed next night (and you are the doctor).
Also you cant ask Sherif or investigator to use their role and start replying back what they find.

This is stuff you would like to say ANONYMOUSLY!

Thats why I think either everyone, or some roles should be able to make anonymous messages that all players see during the day.

[icarus]

Well mafia knows who is towner.... cos they know who is mafia and they want also tokill neutral roles as SK or Arsonist cos they can kill mafia. So those anonymus will be just a help to towners, and by the way, a mafia can also write an anonymous saying "thisone is mafia i'm sheriff"... so thats why i think isnt a good idea.

[iDruid]

Is this intended that in setups with 3 mafia members in total without Godfather and with one Mafioso who dies first, other members can't kill until one of them dead? For example, Mafioso (dies first) - Framer - Janitor, the last two can't kill until one of them dead.

And is Consigliere able to kill only when Godgather in game and dead?

I mean it should be some order of Mafioso replacement like Janitor - Consort - Framer - Consigliere - Godfather. For example Mafioso is dead and Janitor replaces him, if there is no Janitor in game then it's Consort etc.

Why no option for Serial Killer to apper innocent? Is the unchecked option of "Kills role-blockers" means he can be role-blocked?

[iDruid]

And my suggestions about new roles I want to play in game.

Tracker. Follows one person at night, knows who that person visited. Town sided.

Watcher. Observes one person's home and knows who visited him. Can't watch over himself. Town sided.

Paranoid Citizen. Owns a huge stock of weapons in his basement. Can't be killed at night. Kills any person (except Witch) visited him at night independent of quantity and alignment. Can't be role-blocked to prevent him from shooting at night guests. Can't kill Tracker because never leaves home at night. Can be controlled by Witch resulting in shooting himself if Witch marked him as target. Appears normal Citizen to detection. Town sided.

Mad Sheriff. The report is always the opposite of what a normal Sheriff would get. Appears as Sheriff to detection. His true identity revealed only if killed at night. If lynched appears as Sheriff. Town sided.

Profiteer. Appears as mafia member to Town detection. Innocent to Mad Sheriff. Does nothing at night. Town sided.

Lawyer. Protects mafia members except Godfather from being revealed making them innocent. Can't protect himself. Mafia sided.

Lunatic. A person escaped from Asylum. Can take the role of a dead person at night with all his abilities left at the moment of death. Neutral sided at start. Wins if allied with winner side.

[S.A.S.Cnl.Alpha]

How about we make a request thread.
one where we ignore every post or occasionally skim over it.

Most of the roles going to be added into the game have already been planned out, around thirty-five of them. Rev really hasn't been paying much attention to new role suggestions since most likely they're already going to be added or are simply absurd.