I agree that fully rigid is not best, pops.
If there is no accepted-as-optimal hypoclaim strategy, let's try to make one. Here are the four main questions I see:
- Should every player be hypo-targeted each night?
- Should Player X hypo-target a different person each night than Player X targeted on previous night??
- Does the order of who hypo-claims when matter, and if so, how should it be determined?
- Should we hypo-claim for both doctor and hider?
Here are my thoughts. Please let me know if you disagree with any points, think I missed some pros or cons, or just re-post the whole thing with your own new pros, cons, and thoughts.
1. All players hypo-targeted each night.
Pros
- Ensures no mafia slip under the radar by not being targeted
- Limits the potential for a mafia double-kill (as the more hypo-targets on a given player, the more likely one of them is to be the hider)
- Helps disguise the power roles, as hypo-targets will be similar to real-targets with respect to duplicating targets
Cons
- Limits power roles' ability to do what they feel is strategically best. If the hider or weak doctor is always the first to hypoclaim, that will become obvious to scum, and if they are not first, their choices become more limited.
I'm in favor of this one, although not as strongly as #2. The worst things that can happen for town is the hider or weak doc dying in a way OTHER than mis-visiting a scum, as this does not implicate a scum, and may implicate an innocent. Anything that can prevent that is good.
2. Every player hypo-targets a new player each night.
Pros
- Increases the chance that the hider or weak doc will reveal scum.
- Helps disguise the power roles (especially the doc), as hypo-targets will be similar to real-targets with respect to target-hopping.
Cons
- Limits power roles' ability to do what they feel is strategically best. If the doc wants to visit the same person in order to ensure he stays alive (and that his protective powers are being used on a townie), he will not be able to.
- Increases the likelihood of the weak doctor mis-visiting. I'm assuming the hider mis-visiting is pro-town (especially if it comes later in the game), but the doctor mis-visiting is less clear. There is the investigative benefit to his death (i.e. cleared townies and busted scum), but we lose his protective ability in the process, as well as the potential to clear future innocents.
I like this one. It increases the investigative power of the power roles, and without it, the weak doctor would be easier to spot, which is very bad for the town, as mentioned in point 1.
A key question here is if we think the weak doctor mis-visiting is good or bad for the town. I think that if a weak doc death can clear one innocent while implicating one scum, a misvisit it's worth it, which would imply that a night 2 doc misvisit actually helps the town.
3. Does the order of poster hypoclaims matter?
If we decide to follow point 1, it would be to the power roles' benefit to allow them to choose first, as this gives them the greatest personal choice. However, if they always choose to go first, the scum will pick up on this, and be able to deduce a power role.
At the same time, we don't want to have a pre-set order, as we may end up randomly forcing a power role's hand if that power role has to choose last. I think the best strategy is just to let people hypo-claim whenever they want, to give power roles as much freedom as possible.
4. Should we hypo claim for both power roles?
Yes, I think the double hypo-claim is best; it ensures we have a "trail" of innocents to look back on when either power roles mis-visits. Caboose, you said you think hypo-doc claims are good, but hypo-hider claims are bad; why?
Here is a template if you want to respond in the same way as I have; just copy all the text below and paste it into a new reply, filling in the blanks
Code: Select all
[b]1. All players hypo-targeted each night.[/b]
Pros
[list][*]
[*]
[/list]
Cons[list]
[*]
[*]
[/list]
[b]2. Every player hypo-targets a new player each night.[/b]
Pros
[list][*]
[*]
[/list]
Cons[list]
[*]
[*]
[/list]
[b]3. Does the order of poster hypoclaims matter?[/b]
[b]4. Should we hypo claim for both power roles?[/b]
you could MAKE it apply when your town if you wanted to be cool...
