Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Sleuth Talk

May-25-2004 21:22

As of now, you should not be able to get two contacts that both help with physical evidence. Nor, should you be able to get two contacts that don't help with physical evidence. So, if your first contact was one of the evidence experts (Barber, Tailor, Shoe Maker or Banker), your second contact will not be another person from that group. Conversely, if your first contact is not from that group, your second one will be.

To even things up. I'm also adjusting those detectives who already have two contacts. I'm reassigning the second contact of those of you who already have two, if they are either both evidence experts, or neither evidence experts.

Does that make sense?

May-26-2004 09:18

Yesh, be patient all. :) Look to Fat Chuck as a paragon of zenlike calm.

May-26-2004 14:31

Sorry Ben, didn't realize the advantage was "unfair". If that is truley the case, you should have (or maybe I should say, could have?)changed it long ago.

May-26-2004 15:21

So you wont be able to have ex: tailor and barber as contact. Insted you will only be able to have tailor and bartender ???

May-26-2004 15:54

I think everybody would agree that there is a pretty big difference between having say, the Banker and the Shoe Maker vs. The Bartender and the Fortune Teller.

Obviously, some people took their possible contacts into account and purposely dropped favors to ensure that they would have two good contacts. I think following that strategy was very smart, and totally within the rules of the game. So, I was hesitant to take those contacts away.

But, the fact remains, that it was a fairly large PERMANENT advantage that some players had over others, and the advantage was largely due (in most cases) to luck. I would like the game to be more equitable than that. I know some of you disagree with me on that, and I am sorry. Anytime I make a game wide change that effects the relative abilities of different players, some people are going to be unhappy with me.

I personally think that this change, in combination with being able to voluntarily drop your contacts (and therefore open up slots to gain new ones) will really help with game balance, and offer some new opportunities for teamwork.

I am sorry to everybody who doesn't like their new contacts as much as their old ones. I have made decisions that turned out to be wrong in the past, and hopefully this will not turn out to be one of those. I am only trying to act in the interest of fairness and fun

May-26-2004 16:51

Hi ben.
As you mention yourself, since two good contacts could be ensured through careful planning, maybe it's not that fair for the people who realizing the rules of the game (as they were back then) decided to drop favors in order to ensure good contact standing. We were just playing according to the rules, and if some people just didn't think about this tactic, or just didn't want to waste favors shouldn't complain about luck and unfairness. Everyone could have 2 good contacts if they really wanted to.

Anyway, although I would certainly prefer having my two good contacts, it's not really that crucial to me, and I was actually able to solve all my cases yesterday without problem.

The thing I am objecting about is that if you are trying to eliminate the effects of luck, then maybe you could make it more fair to me too by allowing me the tailor instead of the barber contact, since I was *unlucky* to spent skill points on adv hair analysis.

The system you're discribing of dropping contacts is not going to make up for it. I also have handwriting and footprint analysis, so if I go for dropping the barber contact with the expectation of getting another one that is not a waste of my skill points, I don't have a good chance to get it. I would be better if I started saving for thread analysis instead.

The thing is that all this time i was playing having an understanding of the rules and purchased my skills accordingly. I don't know if I am right to complain. I guess that I just got unlucky because the rules suddenly changed.
It's just that I never realized that this was the kind of luck I should be expecting.

May-26-2004 17:09

It sounds like enough people are upset about it that I should make a change. So here it is.

If I changed one of your contacts, and you would rather I had changed your other one, let me know and I'll do it.

I'm not going to change your new contact, but I will swap the one I replaced with the new one.

For instance. If you previously had the Barber and the Tailor, and I changed it to the Barber and the Waiter, and you would rather I had changed it to the Tailor and the Waiter, let me know.

May-26-2004 17:11

Thank you for the change, Sleuth Admin. I was stuck with 2 low-value contacts before the change. The funny side is, now I'm stuck with 1 low-value contact and 1 zero-value contact - until I learn to pick up threads. But I'm still not complaining :) I'll just have to pick up that skill next.

May-26-2004 18:25

Ben, I did not complain about my contact changes, just to set the record straight. In fact, I applaud you making this change. It was, in my opinion, very long overdue.

I do object to you using the word "unfair" becasue 1) I disagree that it was/is unfair. Everyone had the same opportunity to recognize the value and select favors accordingly. The fact that many didn't isn't unfair.

2) I don't think you really believe it is/was "unfair" either. If you did, you really should have fixed it right away.

3) Your use of that word taints any game performance that preceded the change. I find that bit the most objectionable.

May-26-2004 23:01

I believe that probably the system is more "fair" this way and it should be like this from the beginning. Noone would object if everyone started playing with these rules.

I'm just arguing that the change itself is probably unfair to some of us who actually cared to do some planning on our contacts beforehand.

Anyway, I understand that most people didn't care/think to do this planning beforehand and didn't like the fact that they ended up with useless contacts (it's NOT unfair, they just didn't think about it). So there was a large number of people asking for this change and you had to do it.

If I can have the right to choose which of my previous contacts I can keep (barber or tailor) I would prefer the tailor, so if you can change that it would be great.

May-26-2004 23:19

Ben, just a little frustration on my part is all. I had a Treasure hunt favor come up with 2 thread clues and then I suddenly realized I had lost the Tailor contact. Just caught me by surprise, thats all. I realize that you can't keep everybody happy all the time. You have made a great game here and have been very open to suggestions from the players and it is much appreciated. Didn't mean to sound like a whinner...it was really just more of a surprised reaction.