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What makes a good town player?

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 6:54 am
by insomnia
Really just looking for your thoughts on how effective town players are...well...effective. Maybe even point out what has consistently worked for you throughout your played games, more interested in what hasn't worked. What should a town player hunt for, etc.

Good scum players can chime in and perhaps give thoughts on what they see as a threat and what traits their n1 kills usually possess that makes them such a threatening target that impedes their path to fulfilling scum's wincon. Who are you generally afraid of, and why? (you can give examples of players in your past games if you wish)

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 6:55 am
by Krazy
Greatest town players are those with the spiciest gifs

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 6:57 am
by insomnia
In post 1, Krazy wrote:Greatest town players are those with the spiciest gifs
Image

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:11 am
by Alyssa The Lamb
this is a very hard question because the most general answer to this question is "being strong at enough of the different possible skills that go into a mafia game."

The biggest thing I consider a staple in strong townplay is the ability to understand how likely your reads, or whatever you're looking to figure out in the game, are to be correct. This is a very good skill to have mainly because it helps keep you in check when you're probably wrong and builds your confidence when you are probably right; this takes a lot of practice and double checking your tracks to make sure your foundation is solid, but that's the type of player I'm always the most afraid of when I'm scum since they're the hardest type of player to predict and/or manipulate.

Flexibility is the other main thing, which kind of ties in to the first. If you can function in a lot of different types of games without being neutralized, then you are simply more consistently strong from game across game. If you can respond to the gamestate and fill in niches that town is missing, then you will help more towns be cohesive and functional. If you can take curveballs and twist them to your advantage to help you get a better read on the game, then you are more likely to see through the scumteam's manipulation. Etc.

Reading the game itself and how you fit into it is ultimately what it comes down to, you can't fit into the same slot every single game and expect it to work consistently, there's far too many variables in play across game after game for that to be viable. Each player only has the personality for so many roles, but it's generally finding which approach for a specific game gives you the highest odds of being able to win the game that will provide a strong boost to your winning chances.

My nightkills tend to be the following, roughly in order of preference depending on what choices there are:
1. High momentum swing (in gamestates where most of the power is in one slot, assuming there isn't another compelling reason to keep them alive)
2. High cohesion swing (slots that will drastically cut town's ability to work together after their death)
3. High potential damage players (slots I expect to cause the most damage to my team over time, generally the night before I believe they will start becoming a threat)
4. High read strength players (players that have strong reads in the moment)
5. Low information kills (kills that give town very little extra to work with)

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 12:33 pm
by the worst
ego

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 12:57 pm
by Krazy
In post 4, the worst wrote:ego
Definitely a succinct answer that quite a few people seem to believe

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 1:00 pm
by the worst
yeet lmao

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 8:47 pm
by Ramcius
ego is integral part of a strong town, you don't call sheeps strong town players, do you? :lol:

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 8:54 pm
by Alyssa The Lamb
In post 7, Ramcius wrote:ego is integral part of a strong town, you don't call sheeps strong town players, do you? :lol:
ego in this case means egotistical

keeping ego in check is part of being a strong town

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:01 pm
by insomnia
good towns have strong gifs and egos

also, they call other players idiots if they don't follow their reads

i think that's it in a nutshell

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:04 pm
by Alyssa The Lamb
ez

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:16 pm
by Auro
I'll drop an ego post here too :D

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:22 pm
by Ramcius
In post 8, Alyssa The Lamb wrote:
In post 7, Ramcius wrote:ego is integral part of a strong town, you don't call sheeps strong town players, do you? :lol:
ego in this case means egotistical

keeping ego in check is part of being a strong town
Thank you, Captain obvious

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:23 pm
by Alyssa The Lamb
Np buddy

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:30 pm
by the worst
In post 3, Alyssa The Lamb wrote:The biggest thing I consider a staple in strong townplay is the ability to understand how likely your reads, or whatever you're looking to figure out in the game, are to be correct.
In post 3, Alyssa The Lamb wrote:Flexibility is the other main thing
More sincerely - i back alyssa harddddd on these points.

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:32 pm
by insomnia
I always thought a player that has high accuracy on their reads is always gonna get cap'd.

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:34 pm
by Alyssa The Lamb
Nah

All it takes is reframing their narrative and manipulating flips that supports that narrative or finding a way to destroy their credibility to lower their threat level

The slots that will give them more of a voice are the slots I'm more afraid of

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:36 pm
by insomnia
so i've been working on the wrong thing all this time

rip

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:37 pm
by Alyssa The Lamb
A baseline competence with reads is a good thing, it just gets increasingly diminished returns after a point

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:38 pm
by insomnia
so how do i get n1'd as town

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:40 pm
by Ramcius
Accuracy doesn't matter, if they can't convince rest of the town

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:43 pm
by Alyssa The Lamb
In post 19, insomnia wrote:so how do i get n1'd as town
Presence

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:44 pm
by insomnia
yeah i definitely can't convince town about my reads, that's a really great skill to have, i just don't know how to really develop it.

a lot of my reads might look like they came out my ass but each of my reads have some form of reasoning for their place and confidence and most importantly, time spent on making them. It's really hard for me to communicate my reads and when I finally do, people aren't satisfied with my methods and in my mind i'm like "bro he's obvious scum wtf are you doing?" and it kind of makes me not even want to post my reasoning anymore because i know that nobody really understands me / doesn't buy my methods.

so i mostly rely on the "scream the scum read at them until it's embedded in their mind and they follow you" but that's exhausting.

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:46 pm
by Alyssa The Lamb
Try blocking town lynches instead of pushing scum lynches, that's a strategy I've had success with when people don't listen to my scumreads

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 10:39 pm
by Ramcius
Hmmmm, Ank, but that's egoistical, is it not? Thinking that YOUR reads is correct and other people are wrong :lol: