tl;dr at the bottom because I suck at condensing my thoughts and everyone should be disgruntled at me as a result:
Cure wrote:MAKES YET ANOTHER POST TO SAY, it's a shame that we won't have as much information moving forward, but it makes sense why we won't be getting PMs anymore. Potentially clearing up to three townies in a single night makes process of elimination pretty rough for the mafia.
I think we still might be able to deduce numbers with a LOT of cross-referencing if people claim who they were going to pass to, however.
I agree with everything in this post. This also relates to one major reason why Cure will be high on my town list until proven otherwise. I feel like if Cure were mafia, she would very much be disinclined to immediately hop on the speculation and potential clearing of pass PMs because it has the potential to clear multiple town each night. So fostering that discussion would dramatically hurt her if she were mafia. The only way mafia stand to benefit from discussion of pass PMs is if they fake-claimed.
The problem with fake-claiming a pass PM (prior to the announcement that pass PMs would be going away) is that the town that did not receive a PM have no reason to lie about it. This means that only the town that did receive it and the mafia trying to sow discord would be able to make claims at the PM. Right off the bat that brings a mafia into the spotlight of "one of these four people is mafia", which is dangerous for them given that the math will win out once more jersey numbers are available to town. This is a big reason why pass PMs are probably gone since the potential clear each night cannot really be thwarted by mafia without basically saying, "Hey I'm mafia."
So to that end, that Cure would dig into the mechanics of passing and pass PMs and make sure everything was read properly reads as pro-town to me, because if she were mafia I'd be more likely to picture her screaming at Ninfia over the predicament instead of trying to build upon it. That's just my read on the situation, at any rate.
To Cure's last point, I think even without pass PMs that as the phases go on and we get jersey numbers from lynches/NKs, we can also deduce other numbers based upon the truthful town pass claims. Mafia will throw wrenches into this, but I think once we have more numbers to plug in it will be easier for us to figure out which paths the ball traveled through process of elimination, and we'll more easily be able to place players on a chart as a result.
Anyway.
Re: ProbabilityI am not immediately suspicious of anyone posting the math behind the actions, because math is awesome and math can be used to help boost the probability of utilizing the gimmick of these pseudo-vanilla games. I think the math is also good to discuss because I'm sure it is something the mafia had to at least briefly consider--I mean, why wouldn't they? If they want to have some control over which target receives the NK, their initial serve has the most impact. So to that end, the physical outcomes...
- Spoiler:
Mafia serve to Player A. The following things can happen:
1) Player A receives the serve and passes to mafia. Player A is killed.
2) Player A receives the serve and passes to Player B, and Player B passes back to Player A. Player A is killed.
3) Player A receives the serve and passes to Player B, and Player B passes to mafia. Player B is killed.
4) Player A receives the serve and passes to Player B, and Player B passes to Player C. Player C is killed.
5) Player A receives the serve and passes to Player B, and Player B passes to Player D, a spiker. Player D spikes the ball.
Of the five possible outcomes, two can result in Player A dying, one can result in Player B dying, one can result in Player C dying, and one protects the NK. If we continue with the idea that the mafia would specifically want to kill a target, then...
Mafia want to kill Player A:
1) Player A receives the serve and passes to mafia. Player A is killed.
2) Player A receives the serve and passes to Player B, and Player B passes back to Player A. Player A is killed.
3) Player E receives the serve and passes to Player F, and Player F passes to Player A. Player A is killed.
4) Player E receives the serve and passes to Player A, and Player A passes to mafia. Player A is killed.
There are more ways for Player A to die than if Player A received the serve, but in this case Player E or Player F both have the chance to pass to a different player or mafia, themselves.
The actual percentages and probability may skew all of these results, but in terms of physical outcome, I... believe that
if the mafia were specifically trying to kill their target, they would be more likely to serve to that player. And without doing the math, I think it would check out since that player has 4/12 chances to pass to mafia, whereas trying to kill this target in a roundabout manner requires all previous players to toss to them at 1/12 chance. Correct me if I'm wrong, and I may correct myself if I go and do the math later.
I'll re-read some more and post a vote after I take care of some things. Leaning towards the ones indicated by Cure and Kiyo, excluding no lynch because we need player and jersey flips.
tl;dr: Agree with Cure's points highlighted above. Think town can still do process of elimination and deduce player jerseys and probable town. Think Cure is probably town due to her efforts. Not immediately suspicious of people posting math, though agree with comments of others that it could be a way for mafia to look like they're contributing. Personally think that if mafia wished to specifically kill someone, they'd send a serve their way.