New Role: Mercenary (Yes I know it's been said before)

[Captain Interwebz]

As you all may know, the role "Mercenary" or any variation of the sort may've been suggested in the past. However, I think mine is different (Yes I know everyone says that one as well), different in the sense that I believe it is more balanced, per se.

Role Name:Mercenary
Description: You are a private contracter with military grade weaponry looking for your next pay.
Alignment: Neutral/Power

Abilities: The Mercenary is at first, neutral alignment, and has no night immunities or kill capabilities, his only option is to choose which faction he will join. As soon as the Mercenary joins a faction, he gains a passive night immunity that only works the first time he's attacked, but does not stop Arsonist or Serial Killer attacks, and a kill capability that can (if enabled by host) bypass all night immunities. The Mercenary receives a point bonus based on who he sides with. If he sides with a faction with more players than the other faction, then he'll receive significantly less points; but if he sides with the faction with the least ammount of people, he gains a significantly greater point gain at the end.

Win Condition: The Mercenary's win conditions are pertained to his faction (Ex: If he sides with mafia, and they lose, he looses as well.) However if he choses to align with no one the entire game, he receives a very small point gain at the end as well.

Host Options:
1) Exclude Mercenary from Random Neutral roles. [YES/NO]
2) Mercenary has a passive immunity for one night. [ON/OFF]
3) Sheriff can detect Mercenary [YES/NO]
4) Mercenary can bypass all night immunities. [YES/NO]

Pros: This gives losing factions in the game a chance to make a comeback, as well as make a role that can choose to be any alignment without actually changing their role.

Cons: The Mercenary is easily detected by Investigators/Sheriffs

Investigator Message: Your target is a private contractor with an arsenal of weapons, they are most likely a Mercenary

Sheriff Message: Your target is part of the Mafia! (If Mercenary is aligned with mafia at the time of the Sheriff's investigation)
-or-
Your target is a Mercenary (If not aligned with anyone, or if aligned with town.)

Additional Info-
Kill message: (Name here) was found dead in their home last night, they were shot with a military grade grenade launcher.

Playing the Mercenary well will take much skill, as to decide when to align and when to not; this is because if the mercenary waits too long, they can be revealed, but if they don't wait long enough, can result in a lose for them. Though I can see trolling happening with this role, so I suggest that a buffer to prevent this, say, the mercenary goes to kill a town member, instead the mercenary will receive a message like this "You went to kill (name), but doing so would hurt your pay in the contract. You decide that it isn't worth it". The mercenary also doesn't know who's part of their faction unless they try to kill people in that faction, but can still participate in Mafia Night chat and Mason Night chat (if there are masons).

The Mercenary can also be facilitated into cultists ranks, but loses his night immunity, and can only kill once before turning into a cultist.

Feedback on the refined idea of a Mercenary?

[cookies4you]

The problem with this role it's lack of unique taste. Unlike any of the in-game roles, the Mercenary is basically an Amnesiac with the ability to kill. When sided with the Mafia, he's balanced, but once he sides with the town, the ability to kill every night only makes it harder for the other team to win.

In other words, the Mercenary really isn't that unique. The ability to kill just makes him over-powered. 4 Mafia players in a game of 14 makes the game extremely dangerous. With the ability to kill 2 people at night, the Mafia becomes too strong to balance and with the ability to kill every night, the town would become overpowered. Basically, this role would make any team he joined overpowered.

[Captain Interwebz]

Ah, that is why we have forums friend, to notice these problems and to modify them. A few things actually, when you think about it, every class in the game is a variation of another one, seeing as the original mafia party game (before it was put on sc2) consisted of Mafia, Citizens, Sheriff, and Doctor. Ingame the investigator is the same thing as a sheriff, but is less precise on their investigations, where as a detective is the reverse of a lookout, where they can instead see who that person visits instead of who visits that person. Perhaps the host can modify how many kills the mercenary gets, or it can be hard wired to where he has a limited number of kills no mater what the host says.

But my bottom line is that I think this game could receive a new role. The mercenary may be an alteration of the amnesiac, but there are no other variations of an amnesiac. And as I stated before, siding with the side with the most people would be pointless because of the significantly decreased point gain, and that perhaps he can join the mafia and receive more points. But I'm trying to make it so that the mercenary doesn't always join mafia just for the easy win or points.

Perhaps we can remove his easy detectability and replace it with looking like a normal citizen or mercenary, so that people would know that he's there, but not who he works for. But for comprimise we could limit his killing ability; he's not immortal, per se, he's only immune one night, like how a civilian can chose to be, but the merceary's night invuln lasts one night and is triggered when he is attacked only. So after some modifications, he can be balanced.

Edit: Actually it doesn't matter who he choses, actually it's harder if he choses the faction with the most people because of the "kill prevention" thing in place, and if he choses to kill someone of his faction, it just wastes his kill that night. With the addition of a kill every other night, this makes chosing who to kill and who to side with even more difficult. Though it should be a fun role because your faction (Mafia/Town) isn't set in stone, and you still can chose who you want to be with as well as a killing ability and one time immunity to boot.

[Captain Interwebz]

Good news! Whilst I was away at school, I was thinking of ways that the Mercenary could become a bit more balanced. Instead of limiting his abilities to kill, give him infinate kills, but only allow him to kill every other night, sort of like how a Cultist converts every other night. If the faction the mercenary chooses is permanent, then I guess it's ok if a mercenary role always joins mafia, as he'll only be an off/on killer, and that it'd be more risky to do seeing as he doesn't really know who his colleuges are, so he can accidently waste a night trying to kill a mafia. And joining town at start would be unbenefitial because of the almost zero point gain. Essentially speaking the Mercenary I have in mind is a role of patience and cunning, to know who to join, and who to kill.

P.S.: If you haven't noticed, I put a lot of thought into this crap, lol.