Mafia Makeover!

Discussion in 'Mafia' started by Fiery Espeon, Feb 20, 2014.

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  1. Fiery Espeon

    Fiery Espeon The fire never bothered me anyway ~

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    I was thinking that because #Tournaments changed their bot, we should also changed the Mafia Bot to a new one because we have had the same bot for the long time. I kept searching for a Dark Type that would be a nice replacement for Murkrow. Then I thought of Malamar. Because Malamar is both Psyhic and Dark type, it represents two things. The Mafia game as a whole and a Mafia side. The Psychic part of Malamar represents the inspector or the good side of Malamar and the Dark side represents the Mafia or the Poisoner. Malamar is known to be deadly and slowly kill their prey and is a nice XY touch to the Mafia Channel. Also, Malamar has that nice color that will add more of a beauty to the text based Mafia Game.
    The color would be something like this: Malamar
    Or This: Malamar
    If you have any ideas how the Mafia Channel can change visually, and how you can make it more interesting and Pretty, post and reply here with your thoughts.
     
  2. IceKirby

    IceKirby A.K.A. RiceKirby

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    Don't expect the bot's color to be changed. Although it's not impossible to do it, it's very unlikely that will happen.
    IMO, Murkrow is way more Mafia-like than Malamar. Malamar is too Batman's Villain too my taste :x
     
  3. Fiery Espeon

    Fiery Espeon The fire never bothered me anyway ~

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    Don't forget the village in a Mafia Game and that Most Mafia themes have an Inspector, which is most linked with the Psychic type and Malamar is a dual type, Psychic and Dark, leaning to the Dark Side.
     
  4. Joeypals!!

    Joeypals!! Don't you worry 'bout a thing~

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    If the bot is going to be anything besides Murkrow or Honchkrow, it's going to be something with a bad backstory. Yamask and Drifloon come to mind.
     
  5. Shazan

    Shazan Obey to Kyubey

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    Personally if you want a pokemon bot related with the philosophy of mafia, i think that a symbol of deception could be good, like zorua and zoroark.
    But personally i don't see why to change murkrow, it has that hat-like head that remember a bit of a 1920 mafioso's hat.
     
  6. IceKirby

    IceKirby A.K.A. RiceKirby

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    I find the argument about Psychic type weak. It's not necessary to look for a pokémon that can represent all of the game's sides, just having it representing the main aspect of the game (AKA the mafia) is enough. And at that aspect, Murkrow does that job way better.
     
  7. Stocke

    Stocke Wat is dis I don't even

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    I like Honchkrow better than Murkrow though. Makes a better Godfather in my eyes. Malamar is pretty meh for mafia. This is all just my opinion anyway and its ultimately the sMAs decision to change the bot if they even want.
     
  8. Shadow Sneak

    Shadow Sneak came in like

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    Honchkrow or Scrafty imo, Scrafty seems like the mafia/gangster type.
     
  9. The Hades

    The Hades My Wall

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    Banette
    Because we stab each other in the back alot
     
  10. Fiery Espeon

    Fiery Espeon The fire never bothered me anyway ~

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    Well, it has been 4 generations and I think a Pokemon from Gen 6 will make the channel look like it's from 2014, like how Tournament's has Diancie. Also, for a text based game, color adds to the overall feeling of the game. It is the sMA's decision but you can take a survey or a poll for a candidate that best suits as a Bot For the Modern Mafia channel.
     
  11. IceKirby

    IceKirby A.K.A. RiceKirby

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    Having a better pokemon > having a recent pokemon.
    Color has nothing to do with sMA. It's about the script. Like I said, it's really unlikely to happen, and not even a good idea because bot colors are standardized for the server, having a channel with a different bot color would only confuse people.
     
  12. Fiery Espeon

    Fiery Espeon The fire never bothered me anyway ~

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    On the same note, have you thought of anything that will make people from #Tohjo Falls to come to #Mafia? Color and how people see things are a big part of will people join or not. If you make it colorful and interesting, new people will join. The state it is now, to a newcomer, looks like it's really hard to play.
     
  13. IceKirby

    IceKirby A.K.A. RiceKirby

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    Are you even paying attention to what I said? It's not merely about being a good or bad idea, it's about having to adapt lots of the script functions for almost no gain.
    If you want to bring new players, it's not a colorful chat that will make them stay, but having a game easy to learn and enjoyable will.
     
  14. Steam Baron

    Steam Baron The Steamroller Guy

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    It does way more sense than Malamar, although I still prefer Murkrow.

    Hahahahahaha! While I do find this funny, I fail to see the Banette connected to backstabbing.



    Also, the colorful bot thing IS a good idea imo but, like Rice said, it's too work for almost no gain.
     
  15. Fiery Espeon

    Fiery Espeon The fire never bothered me anyway ~

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    No Gain? I beg to differ. I would say that the real gain is to attract more Players to the Mafia Community so there is lively chat almost every single hour. You could say it's a campaign to get more people interested in Mafia by attracting them with vibrancy.
     
  16. IceKirby

    IceKirby A.K.A. RiceKirby

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    Would you really join a game just because the chat is colorful? How would that make people want to stay in the channel?
    Even if a few people actually join the channel because of that, the harm will be greater because it will be a channel with different colors and getting people that are already used to the game confused for no reason.

    If you want to attract players, focus on making the game more enjoyable. Changing the chat aesthetics will not bring any good value on the long (and possibly even short) term, and it will bring lots of issues on the short term.
     
  17. The Hades

    The Hades My Wall

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    Banette stabs it self with needles in the pokedex entries
    Very disturbing
     
  18. Dark Phoenix

    Dark Phoenix Multidimensional Hero

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    Substance > Aesthetics.

    I'm not going to go in depth about it. But literally having to add a new color is of minimal consequence. Would you join a channel just because it has unique colors, but offered little value to you? Or would you rather join a channel that was as plain as any other but offered game play you wanted?

    People will join if they see those flashes from Tohjo to look at mafia. People stay if they like the games/understand it. Outside of that there's not much you can do about it. Adding a palette swap of fonts isn't going to change how the games are played.
     
  19. Roild

    Roild Member

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    I would argue that adding color (we have more than enough now) would not benefit the game in any way. Also, there isn't any need to change out of murkrow. If this thread was about talking about positive changes, that's one thing, but this thread seems more about forcing change because you believe it to be better Fiery.

    Also, excessive visual stimulation to a text game would draw away from the games themselves. The little we have now is pretty good. That said, there are client scripts that can change bot/text colors for the individual. My PO background is dark/black, so I use white text. It works for me.
     
  20. Joeypals!!

    Joeypals!! Don't you worry 'bout a thing~

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    If there's anything that needs to be changed about Mafia, it's our approach to newcomers because, from what I see, we have a pretty solid main group of about 12 users and 6 or 7 auth. What we need to do is make Mafia look very accessible, similar to how Tournaments is. That would help drive up our numbers, add content, and simply make the channel more fun. One can argue this is what we have Mafia Tutoring for but, at the same time, people using that system are most likely at least slightly adjusted to the channel and just need help being good.

    That's how I see it anyway, feel free to argue with or against that. But if we're really focusing on the number of people in Mafia, what we need to do is make it seem more new-guy friendly and simply more helpful to those who are just coming into the channel. If I were to sum my point up, right now we're very vet-cemtral and we should change it so that everyone feels included.
     
    Last edited: Feb 22, 2014
  21. Withoutatrace

    Withoutatrace im a filthy weeb

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    Well it's hard to make it appear 'new comer friendly' when they have no idea what they're doing at all, and Mafia can be a hard game to understand. That tends to turn people off, and while we have Mafia Tutoring we can't broadcast it as much as I wish we would. That's up to the Tutors, and overall players, to help newcomers.
     
  22. Joeypals!!

    Joeypals!! Don't you worry 'bout a thing~

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    What we could do is set up something that's more immediate and have something in the header about people who are online that are willing to help people. It'd run like Tutoring, but short-term. In the process friendships can be formed and there can be a true ''community'' aspect to the Mafia community.
     
  23. sulcata

    sulcata stéphane curry best waifu Forum Moderator Server Administrator Forum Moderator Server Administrator

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    I figured I'd throw this in about the bot. Personally I think the mafia bot is fine, obviously that's up to the sMAs though. The only reason celestial, diamonds, and I change the tourbot so often (literally every 2-3 months) is tradition and because it's so incredibly easy with commands to modify the tournaments configuration. Unless Mafia has that, as others have said it would need a complete refactoring of the code for very little gain compared to what the scripters could be doing such as fixing the simulator or improving themes and other aspects of the game itself. Aesthetics are great and all, but I don't think Mafia really needs to change its current appearances much at all.
     
  24. Withoutatrace

    Withoutatrace im a filthy weeb

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    That's the point of Mafia Tutoring, to have tutors from multiple timezones to step up and tutor people as need be. That's how Roild and I planned it, but very few players roll around. The predominant OS for users is Android, so while there is a Tutor Link, I think, in the topic they can't go to it, nor do people really look at the topic.

    If you know people wishing to be a tutor, feel free to tell them to apply, or apply yourself.
     
  25. Joeypals!!

    Joeypals!! Don't you worry 'bout a thing~

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    I'm not trying to improve forum functions, that's the thing. If you haven't noticed, the majority of new people don't come on here. We need something server-side to help there.
     
  26. Fiery Espeon

    Fiery Espeon The fire never bothered me anyway ~

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    The thing is...Everyone is scared when they look at Mafia first time. Most people on the server are between the ages of 10-19. To someone that's 10-14, it looks like a complicated game that looks dull. We should be able to make it more user-friendly and nicer because if I pretend I didn't no what Mafia was, i would be scared at how people were raging because 'text' said something. So I think the main problem is that Mafia needs to be more user-friendly, or look less complicated and nicer.
     
  27. Joeypals!!

    Joeypals!! Don't you worry 'bout a thing~

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    Right, and that's what I was saying Fiery. We can make all the internal changes we want as far as bots, themes, QC, Tutors, and MAs go, but until we figure out a way to make Mafia more appealing, we're going to stay in that mid-upper teens area most of the time before we get 4 or 5 peak games.

    What I propose is that we set up a QuickTutor program on the server that would be able to teach new people that come in the basics of Mafia because, like I said, not alot of people come server-side and if they are applying for Tutoring here, they're probably looking for the advanced techniques most of the time and already have some level of knowledge on how to play. I would personally like to be one of those kinds of Tutors, for sure.
     
  28. Veteran Padgett

    Veteran Padgett TFT Main Developer Developer

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    As far as a "QuickTutor" program goes, if you see a new person who just needs to learn how to use the commands or an explanation of the game why not help them yourself? I've sat out from games before in order to guide new people through the game in PM.
     
  29. Joeypals!!

    Joeypals!! Don't you worry 'bout a thing~

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    What I was thinking with the QuickTutor program is that it can go with the new games starting in Mafia announcement. As a result, even people that don't know how to play will be able to come in, learn, and that'll probably drive up numbers. Figured it'd both bring attention to the channel and keep people there.
     
  30. Steam Baron

    Steam Baron The Steamroller Guy

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    Talking about tutors...

    I do think "tutoring" or some similar word should flash the Auth. Because, almost everyone who plays badly is a newcomer who really needs to know the basics about Mafia. The idea would be: instead of people raging because user "x" sucks, they would all go "tutoring", the auth would ask why the flash and someone would explain what happened, taking the new user to a tutor or, in the case of lack of tutors/MAs, to a veteran player.
     
  31. Shazan

    Shazan Obey to Kyubey

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    Personally if we have to use more colours, we should use it to make Mafia easier to understand for new players, instead for fancy things like the colour of the Murkrow bot.

    For exemple it could be useful if every team can have a colour assigned to them.
    So that every role that has "colour": true, will be showed with their team colour inside
    ±Current Roles: like in this exemple:
    This way the new players will have less problems to understand what roles are sided with who, mainly for themes with Fantasy or Exotic Names like Death Note, Romance of the three kingdoms and Monster Hunter.
     
  32. Joeypals!!

    Joeypals!! Don't you worry 'bout a thing~

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    If you didn't have bright colors like pink and just stuck to orange, red, blue, green, purple, and black, you'd be fine.
     
  33. NotMafia

    NotMafia Miltank: Destroyer of Souls

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    This is a fun discussion but I don't think a change is necessary, Murkrow seems pretty ideal. Shazan's idea however I think would be very useful
     
  34. IceKirby

    IceKirby A.K.A. RiceKirby

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    Colored role list, as useful as it would be, would probably bring lots of issues too, mostly technical stuff (like people abusing HTML on the roles names). Also, it wouldn't work well for roles like Miller, which are supposed to not allow some players to know their real aligment.
     
  35. Shazan

    Shazan Obey to Kyubey

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    Yeah, maybe you are right. Conspirators and roles that are part of a random team like Derpy Hooves can simply stays in Black, but millers unless they are able to stay coloured as the role they are disguised as into the Role List will be really problematic.
    And i guess you are right too about the Abusing of the feature, probably even if QC can take part of the problem under control, there will always be some new coder that thinks it would be cool to have all the roles into Rainbow Mode.
     
  36. Sky Sentinel

    Sky Sentinel You see?

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    Just want to mention that nothing specifically FLASHES mafia admins, we just use stalkwords (like slay and botquote)
    Meaning that you could get flashed by them too if you so pleased
     
    Last edited: Feb 23, 2014
  37. Beast

    Beast I do what I want

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    The only other pokemon bot I support is Charizard, but that makes zero sense mafia wise.

    also, there is a /help command that explains a lot of stuff about mafia. At least I think it is /help. It is on the commands list for mafia.
     
  38. Yentero

    Yentero So na Voadora

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    it is true, so dont have people wrote /help in the server, in this case we need to help with communications and colors. The color can help all mafia (novice and expert) to make a next step, so i thinking, the color can work in change side, for exemple, the convert enemy command?
     
  39. The Hades

    The Hades My Wall

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    IF the bot would be changed these Pokemon would most likely be it
    Bisharp
    Gengar
    Mismagis
    Houchcrow
    Dusknoir
    Giratena
    Zoroark
    Liepard
    And weavile

    Most likely top 5 is
    Honchcrow ( do I have to explain)
    Mismagis ( the top of its model looks very murkcrow like)
    Zoroark ( pretends to be something its not)
    Giratena ( looks evil Mafia=evil )
    Dusknoir ( the mystery dungeon series)

    Not really suggesting these or wanting a new bot ( couldn't care less) these just seem the most Mafia related
     
  40. Shikeruson

    Shikeruson New Member

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    Yveltal would be pretty cool
     
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