What is this game about ?
Ever played or heard of a party game called "Mafia" ? If yes, this game will be suitable for you, as it has almost the same objectives and rules.
If no, continue reading and find out what it is all about. Hope you will like it.
*As game is simple and there is no much things to tell about it, i will try to be helpful and talk about some tips for those who are playing this sort of games first time. Hope it helps you.
Gameplay:
Default Mode: This game can be played with 5-8 players. There are two teams - Agents and Hackers (greens and reds). Hackers know who their teammates are, but agents don't, that's why hackers have less players in their team. The objective for agents is to secure 3 nodes from 5. It's not that easy though, they need to find out which players are hackers, because even one hacker is enough to hack a node (sometimes 2 is needed). Hackers need to hack 3 nodes in order to win the game, and need to be careful as there are many things which can make them suspicious.
- How do agents recognize hackers ? There are 3 phases which will help them:
- Talking Phase: Game gives 1 minute for each node to talk, discuss, tell others your theory, or just listen others and make conclusions. It's your choice what you want to do: tell others the truth, lie, or pass 1 minute without talking, but whatever you do, don't become suspicious in either team, as even if you are agent, others don't know about that.
- Voting Phase: After Talking one person will choose a team, which he thinks must go on a "mission". And all players vote for that team either they agree or not. If most of the players refuse that team, next player standing anticlockwise chooses another team. Each person can also pass and not choose any team. If 4 teams are refused, it's called "Hammer". If Hammer gets refused too, that node gets hacked. If team gets accepted, they go for a mission.
- Mission Phase: In chosen team there can be both Agents and Hackers. there are two options : secure or hack. Agents can only secure, Hackers can either secure or hack. Hackers need to be really careful in this phase, as this is the best way agents can find any hackers. After each player's vote, it says whether Node got secured or hacked. As it is possible to have multiple hackers in mission team, it also tells how many persons hacked the node.
There is also vote history, showing who was picked for a mission, who accepted it and who refused. That will be very helpful for agents.
Mainframe mode: New roles are added. Admin, Nuker and Scripty.
The admin knows who all of the hackers are from the start of the round. The Scripty is only available in games with 7-8 people. He does not know who the other two hackers are. The other two hackers also do not know who the Scripty is. However, the admin will know all three of the hackers. As the admin, you want to communicate with your agent team who the hackers are, while keeping your role as Admin secret from the Nuker.
The Nuker is just a hacker, but if agents secure 3 nodes, Nuker has one last chance to win the match for hackers. He picks one agent to "nuke". if that person is the Admin, hackers win the game, otherwise they lose.
Other mode is same as Default one, but Hackers don't know each other either.
Guide for new Players:
Key Terms
While chatting and not only, there are some words, which you need to know in order to understand everything in-game.
Prop: Proposition.
Sus: Suspicious. If person says 'Dave is sus for me...' that means he thinks Dave is suspicious.
Meta: The meta-game. Simply means the strongest current strategy.
n1, n2, n3 etc: Node 1, Node 2, Node 3.
Hammer: The 5th proposition. If this proposition gets refused hacker automatically take the node.
Node propositions
The first node will always go one of two ways. It will either be brought to Hammer or the first proposition will be accepted. Either way, agents don't have any info, so its anybody's guess as to who the hackers are at this point.
Always prop the person next to you (anticlockwise) in node 1, even if that person is your hacker teammate. You may argue that it is risky to propose a node with your hacker friend, but if you know protocol (see below) then you will be fine. Besides, choosing somebody else is not worth the level of suspicion you put on yourself. The only reason why you would ever choose somebody else, is if you can justify it (that person is acting suspicious already - this is rare) or its a bot.
Don't accept outside of node unless you have to !! This can make you suspicious until the end of the game.
Always put yourself in node and it's preferable to do it firstly and only then choose others. Leaving yourself out of node is possibly the easiest way to out yourself as hacker immediately.
Hacker protocol
Multiple hackers being in the same mission team can always bring some problems, however a system exists to always make it look like there's only one hacker in node. This is hacker protocol, in order of priority:
1. If a hacker proposed the node, he hacks and the others secure.
2. If a hacker previously hacked a node, he hacks and the others secure.
3. If neither hackers proposed or hacked previously, they both secure. Or better option - which ever hacker appears first in anti-clockwise order starting from the top left hacks and the others secure.
Most annoying and dumb way to win for agents. REMEMBER!
A common strategy that targets new players is for somebody to ask you "what letters are on the
agent badge in the top left ?" Its NTF. They will also ask what it says to the left of the clock. Get an agent screenshot, like the one above, and just say what it says on there, if you have to.
Tips for agents
Only talk when you have toDon't stay silent, but don't be a loudmouth either. Bringing too much attention to yourself will simply make it easy for hackers to make other Agents suspect you.
Ask questions
Ask people questions, as accusing as you feel suits. If somebody finds you suspicious, don't get mad. There may be a perfectly logical reason for it, or perhaps an agent has made a mistake. If somebody finds you suspicious, simply ask them why. If they cant come up with a reason, they may be hacking. Agents don't find people suspicious for no reason.
Watch out for people predicting hacks
If this is hacked, its.... - this is a common hacker tactic to make themselves seem less suspicious right before they hack. Watch out for it. It doesn't always mean they are hacking, but its a common strategy.
Watch out for people who contradict themselves
If somebody just found a person suspicious, and then they put the person they suspected in their prop then they're likely trying to frame that person. Be careful and do right conclusions.
Consider all possibilities
You may be 99% sure that this exact person is agent/hacker, but consider all possibilities. Don't let anything get past you. A secure node does not mean that every player in the node is agent. Consider if it would be in the interest of the player to hack.
If somebody has been outed as hacker right before a node goes through, that player is unlikely to hack (if they're hacker) as they would be confirming suspicions on themselves to be correct. Likewise, if the node is hacked, consider the fact that the player in question may be being framed by another player in the node.
Do not push your theory too hard
Suggest who you think is hacking, but don't push it too hard, or people will think you're hacking. Don't forget, you're not going to be correct 100% of the time.
Tips for hackers Choose your playing style There are various ways to play as a hacker. You can pick either to play as a silent and sneaky one, control the game and make everyone do whatever and however you say, or just play like a regular agent and get some trust from others, while hacking nodes at the same time.
You got caught!
If you think that there's no going back, focus on making sure your hacker teammates finish the game. Don't make them obvious. Distract people. Never directly say that you are hacking. Leave the doubt in their minds.
Don't talk too much
This is arguably more important than agents. You don't want attention brought to you, so don't speak too much. But if you want to look like an agent, you need to speak like one.
Support the theories of agents that don't find you suspicious
If an agent just made themselves look suspicious, point it out. If your hacker teammate made themselves too suspicious, point it out. By exposing your hacker teammate (only for good reason, mind) you can quickly gain the trust of agents. Only do this if you feel like you have to. REMEMBER! Don't be a toxic guy, whether you win or lose. This is just a game and there is no need to get mad on someone for just having a bad game. There are always players playing and thinking worse then your little brother/sister. Positive sides of this game:
- Free-To-Play
- 3 different modes to try them out
- Many skins to buy from the store and differ from others
- Supported Both Keyboard-Writing and Microphone-Talking matches
- Fun game to play with your friends and family.
- Runs on most PCs, even the ones with Windows XP and 1GB RAM
Negative sides:
- Too many pixels. May hurt your eyes after playing it too much without resting.
- Poor matchmaking. It's rare to find casual game with 7-8 people. You need to ask some players to play with you in custom matches...
- May meet some game-throwing players.
a complete article with a useful pictures.
sound balance and interesting to me.
hope you keep it up like this and write more articales like this.