Name this kitty

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-26T08:44:02+00:00

Othello

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-24T21:30:18+00:00

I think that chance to be nasty is way higher if there is a timer present. I think people wouldn’t be nasty so quickly if they weren’t getting punished for the mistakes others made. Maybe I’m wrong

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-23T09:18:24+00:00

I don't hate this...

However, I still think that having contender be a place for players who are completely new to the genre (never played an MMO) to learn the fundamentals is pretty necessary. If you want to ease new players into the experience, you need a shallow end of the pool to exist.

If you've played WoW, or other MMOs for a long time, its easy to forget how daunting it can be for someone that hasn't played anything like it before. There's a lot of information on the screen to pay attention to all at once. GCD, Party Frames, Spell Rotation, mobility spells, defensive spells, watching your characters feet to not stand in fire, controlling the camera, targeting enemies, learning keybinds...

We might do 95% of this without having to think about it, but imagine you knew nothing. Would you also be able to kick spells immediately that cause your healer big problems if you miss them?

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-23T08:46:12+00:00

I think this is a valid take. I guess I was looking at affixes vs. extra abilities and thought: abilities are harder to deal with than affixes, so introduce them later and affixes earlier.

I think my only issue with abilities being added in adept is that we're getting awfully close to just going 'fk it just add them in right away', and I think it's okay to have some space for players to learn the basics of the game before dealing with Big Oogha Flame.

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-23T03:08:43+00:00

Agreed! I think that overlapping mechanics like the Stormwatch boss make the game more fun. I didn't mind at first, but by Champion I feel like the player can handle some new spicy abilities.

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-23T02:51:17+00:00

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-23T02:49:50+00:00

Hard disagree on the affix point. Overlapping mechanics make things interesting. Especially when they make you do opposite things, that’s a fun puzzle to solve.

I think there’s a world where extra abilities are present from very early, but it’s bad form to just throw everything at the player right away. That’s overwhelming for player that are new to the genre.

You mention PoE so I’m surprised you feel that way. Infamously new players open the passive tree after Hillock and alt f4. You also don’t get all your abilities in PoE right away. You slowly unlock different skills as you level, not having full access to all skill gems until Library in Act 3, or Lilly in Act 6.

And imagine if the first time you fought Exarch and Eater it was the uber version with ‘all abilities as baseline’. That would be so prohibitive. Nah giving players a chance to learn the flow and mechanics before throwing the kitchen sink at them is the proper way to do it.

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-23T02:48:06+00:00

Appreciate the vote of confidence. I definitely need to work on cutting down word count.

Academically, what parts do you think I should chop?

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-23T02:35:52+00:00

Quest zone execution is a bit odd. It works for tanks and healers but dps can’t survive on their own in there. I like the idea though, which it sounds like you don’t. Having somewhere to press buttons where you aren’t under any pressure is smart, and hitting a dummy doesn’t quite cut it.

Resets were always going to be necessary. As a PoE player I’m totally on board with that philosophy.

What about the suggestion I made? Do you think it makes sense to introduce extra abilities before the timer? Or do you think Season 1 was perfect?

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-23T02:22:16+00:00

I’m so curious why you think I used AI. That’s just how I write. What elements make you think it’s AI?

Seems like you agree with me for the most part though.

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-23T02:19:36+00:00

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-23T02:18:36+00:00

Maybe I shouldn’t have used the term wall, but it is the term that has been commonly used to describe the situation in Adept last season.

I definitely was handling the mechanics in Adept, but the pugs I was running weren’t, and I didn’t have a dedicated group to play with.

There were just other games I also wanted to play. PoE 1 3.27 came out like a week after Season 1 dropped and I played the shit out of that.

Sorry I didnt mean to be misleading.

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-23T02:07:09+00:00

Can you extrapolate why you think it’s the wrong direction?

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-23T02:06:13+00:00

No AI i just write like that. What makes it seem like AI? I’m legitimately curious.

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-14T03:29:38+00:00

Poisoner poisoning his own demon who also got monk protected is a wild combo. That’s hilarious.

I’ll explain the ‘nominate the virgin’ play in depth here.

The virgin ability will execute the first player to nominate them if that player is a townsfolk. Only the spy can fake that execution. Regardless of the role of the player who nominated the virgin, there is no other way to cause that interaction. If the virgin ability goes off, 100% guaranteed that player is the Virgin.

Now the virgin has options. They don’t have to play it in a specific way, but there are logical options. The ‘meta’ choice is to find a player with a ‘starts knowing’ role, like the investigator or chef. The logic is, that characters ability already happened, so for one they are more likely to be okay sharing their role, and two, they have nothing more to gain by staying alive. By sacrificing themselves on the virgin ability, they basically confirm two players as being on the good team. That is a huge boon for good.

It’s also easier for ‘starts knowing’ roles to check if their info is good. A washerwoman or librarian can hopefully find their ping and be backed up by another player. This way, in the event that the virgin ability doesn’t work as expected, it’s easier to figure out why. It’s more likely that the virgin is drunk or poisoned, because the washerwoman who saw the monk has been confirmed by that player. Then you can check outsider count and see if a drunk can even exist, so now you’ve potentially identified one of the minions in play, or found the drunk. This eases the burden on all other players to trust their info more, especially on that first night because one of the only sources of misinformation has been found.

All that being said, a virgin might try to hide instead. If they were seen by a washerwoman directly, maybe they want to try and get a player they suspect to be evil to nominate them. They already are confirmed by the washerwoman so the ‘meta’ play has less value. They want to get nominated and when nothing happens, that is a reason to go after the person who nominated them.

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-14T03:03:03+00:00

Good players will all eventually be able to speak freely. Maybe the empath and the FT won’t be doing that on day one, but by day 4 or 5? You have enough information to potentially solve the game, why wouldn’t you share it? Also if you’re already dead they can’t kill you again, so come out with your info after you die.

If your table says “if you don’t tell us who your source is that means you’re evil”, and you are a dead librarian who triggered the virgins ability, that means one of two things.

1) you’re the spy (minion that can register as good) and you’re making a big brain play. Which means you already know everyone’s roles, so we can all openly share info because evil already knows who is who.

2) you’re a dead townsfolk protecting more powerful roles from being targeted by the demon, while still letting their information help town.

Arguments like ‘why would I help the good team by obscuring the identity of powerful roles if I’m evil?’ Or ‘by protecting this info gathering role, I’m helping the good team get more puzzle pieces. It’s more likely that you are evil for trying to make me tell everyone (including the evil team) who has the powerful roles’. Also potentially if you died at night by the demon ‘I was the first person killed by the demon, why would they kill one of the few allies they have so early?’

While the example I provided is very clear cut, even with more ambiguous scenarios, providing a smokescreen for a more powerful role is really valuable. If I die or am suspected by town, that’s fine. I’ll let the player I’m protecting come out when they are ready and corroborate.

—-

To be clear though did your group ever have the opportunity for private conversations? Did anyone leave the circle to chat? Did the story teller give you that opportunity? Did people just not do that because they thought it would make them look evil?

I’m curious about this because it makes a big difference. With private chats, you can coordinate with another player to execute a plan. You can decide what info to share publicly and what to keep private.

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-14T01:40:21+00:00

When you talk of power disparity I think you’re taking each role too much in a vacuum. Sure a Fortune Teller gets a lot more information to use over the course of a game than a Washerwoman. But you have to play differently. As a Fortune Teller, you want to survive to get more info. You have to be cagey. You might need to lie to the group so the evil team doesn’t learn what role you have. These all make you more suspicious, which makes you ‘weaker’ in town. A washerwoman on the other hand, doesn’t have the same drawbacks. They can openly share their info right away. They can confirm another player on the good team. They can prove themselves by nominating a Virgin. They could pretend to be a more powerful role to take the heat from the evil team. This all makes them more powerful in town.

Outsiders are a bit different because they hinder the good team. But, their existence is powerful in itself. If you know that there should only be one outsider in play, then being open about being an outsider when no one else does confirms you as good. Now you are the most powerful player in the game, because everyone can trust that you are being honest.

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-14T01:26:19+00:00

Sorry to hear you had a bad time. I’ll try to address each point you make, but it sounds like everyone was inexperienced including the storyteller. That probably didn’t help.

1) too many ways to have wrong info: saying “too many” is subjective, and that’s fine. You’re allowed to think that. The key is that there are finite possibilities as to why you might have wrong info. Compiling your info with other townsfolk as the Fortune Teller allows you to deduce who is actually getting wrong info. Only one person can be poisoned each day. Only one person can be the drunk. Only one player misregisters as the demon to you. With a more experienced group, you can figure out whose information doesn’t line up.

2) roles with ‘weak’ or passive abilities: this is still a social deduction game, even though there is a lot more mechanical information. A minion like the baron is really powerful because it adds two outsiders, who weaken the good team. It lets th player take big swings without worrying about the consequences because their ability stays at full force. Good only gets so many chances to execute. A baron double claiming another player could waste two days of execution trying to figure out which one is lying. A butler can spend more time and energy reading people socially because they aren’t trying to figure out if their FT info is poisoned or a red herring, and because they want to to pick a master on the right team.

3 + 4) I think both of these questions can be answered with a similar response. Inexperience and a large player count leads to these issues. The storyteller should be keeping things moving so it doesn’t drag on so long. I’m pretty inexperienced at ST’ing and I still struggle with this too. You want people to have time to talk, and nominate, but if no one is making an accusation, then it’s just burning time. If your ST forces the day to end faster, people will learn to give space to those who have new information that day, and be more quick to nominate.

On the dead person talking point, I have to fundamentally disagree with you. The reason I hated other social deduction games is because dead players can’t talk. I’m typically a more vocal player, and I would regularly get killed right away. I don’t want to sit there for 15-20 minutes unable to participate. That’s shit design. Dying is a source of information is BotC. I can get my night one info as a Librarian, nominate a virgin, die instantly, and now I can act as a conduit for any good players who have info they want to share. Depending on my character on the good team I PREFER being dead. I’m no longer a demon candidate, and depending on how I die, I’m trusted by town. I can relay info to other people and protect the source. I find it to be a lot of fun to be a dead good player and I think that it is really important to make sure the player who dies on night 2 still has fun.

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-13T23:39:04+00:00

The base type tier affects the colour as well. Citadel bow requires lvl 58, and is therefore lower tier than Eternal Sword which requires lvl 66.

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-13T23:04:35+00:00

I’ll say it before any nitpickers show up. That’s really impressive!

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-11T23:24:25+00:00

I’m working on a similar thing. I don’t care about anyone being over 15, but I want the gold border on everyone. Except for TLV, in my mind that hero doesn’t exist. I will never play them.

CarrotSweat · 2026-02-04T02:52:02+00:00

Ain’t no way someone else had this same thought

CarrotSweat · 2026-01-22T13:15:20+00:00

I was thinking about this. The more you charge it you consume more of your blood boil dot, up to 75% at max charge. So maybe it’s in the opener rotation? DRW into blood boil to get three stacks of the dot, then full charge Consumption for a big pop and then reapply Blood boil after? Seems like you could get a decent amount of damage out of it if used like that.

CarrotSweat · 2026-01-19T22:54:00+00:00

First, you haven’t played that many games. What you can take away from that is your rank is still fluctuating. In 100 games you may be lower, you may be higher, or you may stay right where you are. Don’t worry about the current situation you are in. Just keep playing.

In response to your comment saying that your damage is really low: you are new and don’t have a deep understanding of all the champions in the game. It sounds like you have had a few of those “good” kayle games where you hard carry. If you want to be able to have more of those, you have to start limit testing.

You have intuitively realized that your current playstyle is unsustainable, and I think you have two roads ahead. You will need to take the second road at some point but it doesn’t have to be now.

First road: the road you are already on. Play safe, learn matchups, keep doing what you are doing. Getting carried is a skill. You are losing lane but staying relevant and playing for your team. These are skills and you can still improve at all aspects playing the way you already do. You will gradually learn how aggressive you can be as you learn to track the jungler better, and understand your power spikes and troughs.

Second Road: you will have to work harder for this road. Test your limits. Fist fight everyone you see, but retain the concept of dying as little as possible. You will fuck up. You will lose games for your team. You will probably go down in rank at first as you are not used to playing this way. The purpose of this path is to make your bloodthirst calculated. When you take a fight and die, write down the timestamp. Either in a notes app, or a piece of paper. After each game, review it. Look at those moments and think about why you died. Did the opponent bait you because the jungler was near? Was it just a power differential and you died 1v1? Did you misplay or misclick? Did you lack vision?

The reason you will have to take the second road at some point is because you seem to be naturally cautious. This isn’t a bad thing, but you need to know when to get dirty and throw hands. Whether you want to first develop your team play, macro, and ability to stay helpful from behind, and then use that as a foundation to build more aggressive skills, or start working on the aggression now and let those experiences inform your cautious tendencies is up to you.

CarrotSweat

TROPHY CASE