Adonis Parker
|
Sep-4-2007 02:22
This was a weird weird one. I was using Pidgeot's Sleuth Helper.
1. I asked all for motive.
2. Checked alibis.
3. Researched.
4. One suspect immediately turned red, saying PE matched.
(Note that I have not checked PE yet, the Barber in this case)
5. Accused.
6. Correct.
What gives?
|
Cornelius Sledge
|
Sep-4-2007 06:17
It's a rare occurance but it can happen. Sleuth Helper doesn't do anything that some well-tuned logic couldn't achieve.
- All PE match a suspect
- No suspect ever matches more than one piece of PE
- Only 1 suspect with a fake alibi can ever match a piece of PE (the murderer).
So consider a case with 10 suspects and 4 pieces of different PE, all identified (this is the case where its most likely to happen).
One piece of PE is a straigh hair and only one suspect has straight hair. That means that has to be a match. If he has a fake alibi then the case is closed, you have your guy. Lets say he has an alibi however.
The next piece of PE is a righthanded note. Two suspects are righthanded, but one of them is the guy who matched the straight hair. BAM you have a match; it cannot be the guy with straight hair (since he is already matching one piece of PE and CANNOT match another) so it has to be the other guy.
The same can go for the third and last piece of PE and you can actually end up matching all four pieces of PE and finding the killer without ever checking any townies for PE.
|
Pidgeot
|
Sep-4-2007 07:07
What likely happened in this case is that only two suspects were potential matches for the hair. You knew one of them had a fake alibi, and the other one was the person you got info on by researching (who you hadn't verified the alibi of).
Since a suspect cleared by research will never match any PE, the helper quickly deduced the remaining suspect had to match (as there couldn't be any unknown suspects at that time). Since he had a fake alibi, he was obviously guilty.
People rarely realize that these deductions are possible until after the helper makes them - assuming they realize it at all, rather than think it must be a bug.
There's also the possibility that only one person could match in the first place, but you hadn't confirmed that there weren't any more suspects left until AFTER this was determined. Currently, the helper only checks for these things when setting evidence relations, so such a thing can happen. In that event, it should pick up on it when they change (such as by research, or asking a townie).
|
