Organized Real Time Mafia on IRC (yeah!)

[MagicMaster87]

Oh, you can have pretty extreme customization if you allow code snippets to be evaluated, e.g.:

<examples>

The main problem with that system is that it's a gaping security hole (afaik there are no facilities in python to make it safe), but the point is, you could have a system with full customization. In any case, if I was to remake mafiabot, it should be that easy to make new roles, but the host would need to add them to a configuration file, not through the security liability that !addrole would be.

Hmmm, didn't think of the first system, and the configuration file is what I meant by "modding of the bot". However, I think that's beyond my experience to program at the moment, especially in Python...

Speaking of Python, I can't even get the bot to run... Shiv tried to help me a bit last night, but to no avail. Hopefully I can get it up soon...

 

[Mekkah]

I can see a couple of workable times on that list:
11 PM for England, 5 PM for the East Coast (US), 2 PM for the West Coast (US), and 7 AM for Aussies, and the one Mekkah mentioned.

Some people are going to have to wake up early on a weekend in order to play.

Exactly. It doesn't get much better than this. One part is going to have the fine noon/afternoon, another has to get up early, and the last have to stay up a little after child's bedtime. If this becomes a success, we can shift it around later so that for example the USers don't always have to get up early.

I'm fine with the one aska mentioned. For anyone not Australian, these times are very easy to make on weekends. We can also put it one hour further or so, though realize that this is also going to take 1-2 hours. I kind of do not want to make it any later than 2-3AM, especially if I'm doing the hosting (which is tiresome by itself).

 

[shade]

@askaninjask, i dont see why america should get priority in the times to be honest.

 

[LonelyNess]

@askaninjask, i dont see why america should get priority in the times to be honest.

Because there are more American users on Smogon... you pander to the majority in these kinds of things.

 

[Jimbo]

I think at least 8 (or even 9) AM for EST (GMT -5) would be idea for starttimes. This way people in California wouldn't have to get up at 5 to play at all p_p;

also I get up at like 7:30 on the weekend so yea let's do 8 am x)

Also, we could always cycle times to give different timezones more of an opportunity.

 

[Tangerine]

I would actually play a mafia game like this.

 

[shade]

i think a cycle of timezones, like jimbo suggested, would be fairer. at least this way, everyone gets a chance to have it at a more suitable time.

 

[blue_light]

I think 7/8 for the US is way too early, since that is eastern time which means people on the west coast have to wake up on 4-5 AM on a weekend which is kind of unreasonable.

 

[RBG]

Rotating times seems to be the logical way to do this.

 

[jumpluff]

Because there are more American users on Smogon... you pander to the majority in these kinds of things.

actually i think there's a significant amount of europeans involved in the mafia community, and it's mekkah's idea, so presumably he'd be cohosting the first game. so priority should be europe. but i agree with cycling.

 

[Mekkah]

Obviously there will be cycling of timezones as more games follow. Personally, I believe the hosts should always get to pick some kind of reasonable time as they're the ones doing all the annoying ass work.

If you want to look at it from a majority scale, then I need a list of people interested in this. I should make one anyway, since it means I can adjust the player size. For example, I designed an IRC game for 20 players, but if this thread's interest barely makes it to 20 players total, then I should start a lot smaller.

[list of interest moved to the OP]

 

[RBG]

I am interested as well Mekkah

 

[moi]

mekkah how did you forget me

 

[LonelyNess]

I had thought my contributing to the brainstorming in this thread had showed I was interested.

 

[asim]

I am still wondering about gmax's idea on the anonymous aliases. Especially for this first small game, would it be very hard to register about 20 names for use? With multiple co-hosts, the registration could be relatively quick and the names could probably be reused in subsequent games. I could see this being really helpful, and there could even be a thread in Circus Maximus for quick game discussion, ways for mafia to contact a second mafia (if there is one), or ways for power roles to claim without getting killed right away. To combat this, there could be a role that can check a user and find his or her Smogon username as well.

Also Mekkah, I am interested in playing/hosting, especially when and if we do split time zone games, as I doubt you will be hosting all the games throughout the day.

 

[Mekkah]

I will not make the first game(s) more complicated than they are, as I already expect quite a bit to go wrong. However, I'm keeping anonymous aliases in mind for the future.

 

[Flamestrike]

I'm obviously not well-known here (being new and all), but I'm interested in playing as well whenever I'm available.

 

[Mekkah]

I don't discriminate against new people, so I'll put your name on there. All I can say is make sure you understand everything and ask questions you have before the game starts.

 

[porygon3]

List of players interested:
(add me to this list)

Also I agree, we should probably wait to see if this works out before we decide to try aliases on IRC.

 

[Flamestrike]

I don't discriminate against new people, so I'll put your name on there. All I can say is make sure you understand everything and ask questions you have before the game starts.

Well, I've read through all the mafias here and I know the rules, so except for getting used to it, I think I'll be fine. Thanks!

 

[Umbreon Dan]

poke

edit: to be honest, I don't think we should be trying to get all three big timezones on for one game here. why don't we just aim to cover two of those three timezones with every game?

also, if you want anonymous aliases, the proper way to go would be to use a totally different irc server. if you haven't got a private one, my friend runs one that we can use.

 

[Brain]

I am still wondering about gmax's idea on the anonymous aliases. Especially for this first small game, would it be very hard to register about 20 names for use? With multiple co-hosts, the registration could be relatively quick and the names could probably be reused in subsequent games. I could see this being really helpful, and there could even be a thread in Circus Maximus for quick game discussion, ways for mafia to contact a second mafia (if there is one), or ways for power roles to claim without getting killed right away. To combat this, there could be a role that can check a user and find his or her Smogon username as well.

Just listing issues that have to be covered for anonymous:
- The address has to be properly masked, obviously.
- Whois as well as CTCP version/time/whatever else there is can give away information. Better advise people to play with a special client.
- If a user is connected both under his or her usual nickname and the mafia one, their identity might be given away by events out of their control such as ping timeouts. People with connection problems should probably log out of their usual nickname.

In any case, I don't think it's worth doing for the first game.

Note: the game rules should specify some rules about nicknames that can be used to play. The channel should be +R to reduce impersonation risks, users should be required to be in it and it should be forbidden to use any other nickname than either your usual one or the one that was assigned to you.

 

[Mekkah]

edit: to be honest, I don't think we should be trying to get all three big timezones on for one game here. why don't we just aim to cover two of those three timezones with every game?

I'm worried about not having enough participants if I pick an impossible time for one of the three groups. With two convenient times and one possible one, I'm pretty sure it'll work out. And there's no real reason to shove the possible time into an impossible one either since it has almost no benefits for the other two, usually.

 

[twash]

Basically posting so that you know I like this idea, and will try to participate where possible. The previously mentioned rotatory system seems the best option.

 

[jumpluff]

Just listing issues that have to be covered for anonymous:
- The address has to be properly masked, obviously.
- Whois as well as CTCP version/time/whatever else there is can give away information. Better advise people to play with a special client.
- If a user is connected both under his or her usual nickname and the mafia one, their identity might be given away by events out of their control such as ping timeouts. People with connection problems should probably log out of their usual nickname.

In any case, I don't think it's worth doing for the first game.

Note: the game rules should specify some rules about nicknames that can be used to play. The channel should be +R to reduce impersonation risks, users should be required to be in it and it should be forbidden to use any other nickname than either your usual one or the one that was assigned to you.

you can set +T on yourself (/mode Brain +T) to block CTCP, and change your ident and use a vhost / mode +x yourself. that should solve some of these. if we used pre-registered aliases we could have the ident masked by like blahblah@blah.blah. agreed @ the last point though. the only other way of getting information off people is their idle time in /whois, which appears when you're on the same server for most clients. hmm