Mafia 2.0 is very good.
Very unpolished and full of glitches as expected in a beta.
But they are beyond forgivable and the new game is still perfectly functional with wisely created setups.
Having three save slots is an INCREDIBLE UPGRADE.
Having no roles that can hear Mafia/Triad night chat (party hosts excluded) is an INCREDIBLE UPGRADE.
Mafia/Triad can finally plan out the match from n1 no matter how imbalanced or troll the setups are through the most important aspect of sc2mafia: COMMUNICATION.
AND... 2.0 hasn't crashed on load screen once after 30 matches... like what happened to sc2mafia for years between 10-5 years ago.
I hope it continues this way.
Everyone is still out of their mind chasing role wins and not creating legit saves... but it is beyond playable and enjoyable.
It's attracted many new players too... which--no matter how much people complain about "newbs"--this attraction is a GREAT THING.
We were all newbs once.
And some of us have become gods... evil, lying, conniving, deceiving, mischievous, sneaky, backstabbing gods.
And that is how you create new gods... in a bigger population... full of Lovers and haters... all on a quest to win and gain power in skill--through both truth and deception.
I hope DR is in on this to some significantly helpful degree.
He is an extremely meticulous, gifted, perfectionist programmer who made 1.0 virtually perfect for the last few years (minus the occasional MM glitch once every dozens of games off and on).
Frinckles, I don't know who you are, but you have done an excellent job and hope you continue to do so passionately and meticulously.
Any host can now offer 3 legit saves for the lobby to choose some... that is such a magnificent thing.
The possibilities in the future are endless, yet, still fully capable of amending for maximum universal playability through wisely created setups.
Everyone should encourage hosts with 3 save slots to let lobbies decide instead of mindlessly repick just to host one's own save (like how it's always been with majority-randoms/infrequent players).
Everyone should encourage every host to be loaded with high chance new role spawns to get more people's feet wet with the new roles while we're in this beginning stage of learning and balancing and creating logical openings and end games that don't rely on excess luck.
I have one request though:
Fix the sound settings. Music is no longer in music. Some of it is under Voices and some birds/water/wind sounds that were under Sound Effects are now under Voices... so now I play it completely in mute because I game (and have always gamed) with my own music on. That's a big deal to a lot of gamers.
Please don't overlook this before the big rollout in January.
Have that fixed and the sky's the limit with how fun and appealing 2.0 could become.
I actually have a second request, but it's more casual:
Can I create the 933 and 8331 preload standards toward a vote of approval?
If so, give me two weeks of modifying and grinding before I submit my final revisions.
If you don't like, then don't use it obviously.
But for a chance of this being approved... I will put on my big brain cap and make it as great and beloved by veteran players and newcomers as it can be.
Also, to help the game grow in the arcade after 2.0 is complete:
Keep the name "Mafia 2.0" instead of just "Mafia" once they are merged.