Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Newbie Questions

Jan-11-2006 01:39

I found that the hints the townies provide are not only useless, but even confusing. I thought that they were somehow helpful. They always provide erroneous advice and you are better off going by chance.

Jan-12-2006 07:02

Easy there, Kenneth, no need to start shouting ;)

The problem (for me anyway) is that sometimes, and I'm not saying it happens a lot, but it does happen, a townie will say that X thinks he or she knows something, but when asking Mr./Ms. X, he or she does in fact not name any of the other suspects at all, which ideally, in my opinion, he or she should for the use of townies to be truely useful :)

Jan-12-2006 07:03

While I very rarely use this option in helping me to find the quilty party, Nobody, I do of one very useful reason for the question. If your suspect list is stalled, especially if its early, like the first susupect or two all clamming up and refusing to give you anymore names, then this questions CAN help restart it. Anyone new named by a townie will show up on your list. However, if they happen to be the guilty party, then you'll need to find a motive for them still.

I do know detectives that before they even begin to question the suspects about motive, they ask the townies what they know to start their suspect list. Personally, I'd rather save the questions for alibis.

Jan-12-2006 07:40

Yes, Greyling, this is what I'm saying.

Jan-12-2006 16:11

Its also usefull when you are stuck and have survilliance (wooh difficult word how do you spell it?).
I use the townie to decide which suspect to follow.

Jan-13-2006 13:24

I think I understand what you're saying Mr. Nobody. If you did in fact ask the suspect in question about every single other suspect, and still got nothing, it sounds to me like you had not yet discovered all the suspects.

Sometimes it's worth paying the $20 to the fortune teller to make sure you have encountered everyone.

Jan-13-2006 13:42

If that's true mr nobody; perhaps you did not discover all the suspects ;)

Jan-13-2006 15:49

One thing I'm having difficulty understanding is how you can ask X who a townie says thinks he knows about all the other suspects. As far as I know you usually get about 5 questions for each suspect depending on their stress level. I've never had more than 5 questions, even at easy level.

Anyway, one thing I find useful about what the townies say is when one says that X hasn't heard or seen anything... I usually check with my contact first on harder level questions to see if I get one of those so I can try to get suspects from that person, as well as an alibi. That particular suspect who hasn't seen anything isn't good for anything else except motives and his alibi.

And in harder level cases, the "thinks he knows" comes in handy when you don't know how many suspects will actually "think they know". I try to avoid questioning that person because it's been very lucky that this person doesn't suspect someone with a real alibi but another suspect with a fake alibi.

Another thing I've noticed is that sometimes you get that X thinks he knows, but X turns out to be the murderer. So that's something to look at too.

Jan-14-2006 10:39

Also, keep in mind that if EVERY townie gave you 100% useful leads (AKA ask Mr. Smith about Mrs. Doe) it wouldn't be a particularly hard game, even on the higher levels. It would simply be a "connect the dots" game, but with text.

Jan-14-2006 13:47

Oh man, I am not gonna read this thread. But I am willing to go out on a limb here that Reda, CFM, and Greyling are right. I would assume their agents would have retired almost 2 years ago when they started playing this game on a daily basis.