HI and I know I popped up here and than vanished, but ignore that. If you don’t know me then hi, and in this post I’ll be discussing a few things about FoL(Forum of Lies, ToL but here) and while some of the following can be applicable to ToL as well, I’m mainly addressing the forum’s meta, balance, and etc.
Firstly, the meta. What I noticed in FoL 7 at least it seems to be highly claim and role centric, there isn’t much actual discussion outside of the role mechanics, interactions, claims, you name it. While I know this is hard to change, this itself is highly unproductive in the end goal and gives scum an advantage. Scum know who’s lying in the claim battles 99% of the time(excluding neutrals) and while they might not kill a CC’er(assuming that it is one) they will kill a claim they see as a threat, thus eliminating a helpful power role.
“But they help us solve the game!”
Yes, that is true, but having no set massclaim and claiming randomly just makes this worse-you only want to massclaim when town is in MyLo or all out of places and things to discuss. Furthermore, plans made revolving around roles are often highly revolving around scum’s members, but that in itself is unknown. Finally, given how the game revolves around conversion(another thing that is awful, but since it’s the core concept I wonn’t bother) claiming is worse than usual.
Then we have some roles in the game. In general, for newer players, it’s convoluted and confusing(like me, even after reading a few i still mixed and forgot). Let’s look at ToS for an example-all the roles are simple, and clean cut. Investigator? Narrows down roles. Godfather? Commands the kill? You get the point. But let’s look at ToL. Observer? Trakcer/Lookout/Motion Detector. Court Wizard? Rolestopper/Redirector/Ascetizer. The first and last are so similar, and rolestopper completely trumps Ascetizer(unless the rolestopper also protects which I didn’t see). While Observer isnn’t awful keep in mind it’s one of the simpler roles.
Then, we have roles such as Squire, Noble, and Priest, all of which are night immune. Yes, while there is conversion, town should never have night immunity(outside of protection roles doling out protection). It’s extremely unfair to scum, especially given how members must die to get past their night immunity.
There are other problematic roles that at the core are unbalanced but point made.
Last thing, FoL shouldn’t be sticking to heritage, it should be focused on balance. ToL not so much, since it’s a quickshot game but FoL is longer(drastically) and thus should have a different focus. This ultimately, combined with everything else, makes a confusing and sometimes unpleasant experience for new players. Thank you for reading this.
unless we add some type of rule that kills people when they mass claim (which is no fun)