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| Common Hosting Errors | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 23 2011, 08:04 PM (546 Views) | |
| bloodrayne03 | Dec 23 2011, 08:04 PM Post #1 |
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Accounted for.
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Since there have been a few hosting mistakes popping up now and again, I figure it's worth it to get those addressed and taken care of. Let me just note that this thread is not to call anyone out on some goof they've made, but only to prevent them from happening again. That said, if you think there's something that needs to be added to this list, please do not post it in the thread below. Shoot me a PM about whatever it is, and I'll try to get it up without stepping on everyone's toes. If you have any other sort of questions or comments, feel free to put it in the thread. Sending Action Results Back Early At first glance this doesn't seem like a very big problem. People get their investigations results or what have you a little bit before the phase ends, big deal. However, it can change the outcome of a game significantly. Say a cop investigates a maf, and gets back their guilty. Normally, if the cop would be killed, that mafioso gets lucky and doesn't get outed to the village. However, if the cop is sent back his results early, he can PM someone with his guilty before he dies, taking away what little advantage the maf has. This is fortunately pretty easy to fix, just send out action results at the same time you switch to the next phase. Hints in the Flavor Text Another relatively small problem that can balloon pretty easily. It's not uncommon to see the flavor include something along the lines of, "Such and such visited the doctor, but were killed on their way out." In fact, I've done it myself. However, it can leak out certain information that you don't want spreading around. For example, if the hooker died visiting the doc, and she told her teammates who she was visiting that night, all the surviving mafia now know exactly who the doctor is. The same is true for the village. If the watcher told someone who they were visiting and was killed, then village gets an investigation where they shouldn't have had one. This is also pretty easy to fix, just keep the flavor limited to the person it's about. Conversing With Living Players This one's a little harder to nail down, as you don't always know what could or couldn't be a hint about another player. In general, it's better to simply not talk to living players about the other people in the game. Try to keep the conversation specific to them and their actions, or whatever their question is about, and try not to delve too deeply into hypotheticals. |
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| Nix Machina | Dec 29 2011, 11:23 AM Post #2 |
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Dreams of machine-men and trees and rivers...
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Not Updating Regularly Hosting a game is making a commitment. The players in the game are the ones doing everything, but you can't play the game without a host who can consistently update for each 24-hour phase. This can ruin the game for people - for those of us who were in the Lazy Variant, do you remember that half the game forgot that it even existed after it took more than a couple days to get back on its feet? A lull in updating will give you more inactives than any other reason combined. Also, stickied. This thread is important to have. Edited by Nix Machina, Dec 29 2011, 11:24 AM.
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| TalonJay | Dec 29 2011, 12:49 PM Post #3 |
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Third Party Partier
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Silencing Abilities This one is a little bit more specific. On programmed websites like Epic Mafia, there isn't actually much you need to do to make an ability that keeps one player from speaking during a given round work. It's slightly more complex here, but as long as there is a given understanding that the silenced player is to refrain not only from posting in thread, but also from speaking to any other living player about the game, it's totally workable. That may sound unenforceable, but trust your players a little, they're able to police themselves quite well. What happens if you see proof that the silenced player sent Private Messages out to other players? Enforce your dang rules and kill 'em. The goal of these abilities is to prevent the player from saying anything that can impact the game. If you skimp on the details, they're totally worthless. Edited by TalonJay, Dec 29 2011, 02:04 PM.
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| Nyon | Mar 20 2012, 11:21 PM Post #4 |
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Soon.
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Knowing When to Host. Right, I can see this becoming a problem in the near future, and signs of it are happening now. There's a danger of there being too many games open at one time. This can lead to a lot of things like if players start joining multiple games and run the risk of becoming inactive in one if their attention is focused on another game. Or maybe your game won't have enough signups because people don't want to split their focus. It's should be on the shoulders of the hosts to know if there's enough free players to hold their games. If there are 4 or 5 games already in progress or the signup stage, wait a while before posting your game. You don't want your game to be full of distracted or inactive people, or just lacking the needed amount of people. Which brings me to my second point... Aggressive Recruiting This is more of a personal pet peeve of mine than anything, but it deserves to be said. Sometimes, you're lacking enough signups to start your game. It's been a couple days since there was any activity in your thread and you feel the need to advertise. Bumping the topic or bringing it up in the skype chat is all well in good if done in moderation. It starts becoming a problem if you start sending out multiple PMs or using more aggressive methods to try to bring people into your game. Remember that if someone is either too busy or not really interested in your game from the start, they won't have as much fun as if they had joined voluntarily. |
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7:35 AM Jul 11