EPTOn November 09 2012 04:04 Alsn wrote:
Anyone have any tips for just how I'm supposed to filter all my reads? I tend to always wind up at "null" or slight reads in either direction because I seem to sum up all of a players actions and then conclude "well, both scummy and townie at times! I obviously can't be too confident about either direction!".
Anyone have any tips for just how I'm supposed to filter all my reads? I tend to always wind up at "null" or slight reads in either direction because I seem to sum up all of a players actions and then conclude "well, both scummy and townie at times! I obviously can't be too confident about either direction!".
That's a sign that you're thinking the right way. You want to be considering both town and scum motivations for players and weighing them against each other, as well as the entire context of someone's play. It's very dangerous to come to definitive conclusions early, as you can find yourself relying too much on "gut-reads" rather than substance. Well that probably didn't help at all, so I'll just talk about my own thought process a bit.
In the early game, my mentality is much the same as yours (a lot of slight reads in either direction). If I do make strong reads early (usually town reads), it's often for one of a few reasons:
1) Someone has a clear meta-tells towards their town play.
2) If I feel someone is clearly being honest, active, and open.
3) Super-activity.
4) Random townie idiosynchracies (My read on DP in GSL III is an example: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=376602¤tpage=6#107). Try and avoid these though - you pick these up with experience, and they can backfire at times (see Clothes Mini Mafia).
It's rare to have strong reads on D1, and your major decision as a townie needs to be how to narrow down your suspicions. Barring a huge scumslip by someone, here's my priority list:
1) People making logical contradictions. Tunnel them to gauge their honesty.
2) People I can't read on meta. Tunnel them to get an emotional response then decide from their defense.
3) People that haven't given me any reason to think they're town (often pure null reads). Tunnel them until they give me something to work with.
4) People that when I look at the player-list, I go "oh wait why am I not considering this player again?" Tunnel wooooo!
Basically, when in doubt, I tunnel relentlessly. The way you move a read from "null" to "town/scum" is by getting information. Tunneling is a great way to do this, and let's you gauge very important things such as a player's frustration (are they legitimately frustrated that you're tunneling an innocent guy?), openness (are they saying things they don't need to? are they responding quickly and emotionally?), honesty (what are their excuses? are they trying to dodge them? are they openly acknowledging them?), etc.
On D2 and beyond, you should have more things to work with to form some more definitive reads. If you don't, I suggest being more aggressive. If that doesn't suit your temperament, just try and pay more attention to contextual reads. Always ask yourself general questions:
1) Is this player scumhunting?
2) Is this player acting townie? (Being open/honest/engaged/showing-effort)
3) Does this player have extra info?
At least for me, when I start asking the general questions, it gives me a better way to sort out my reads on a player. All those "slightly scummy" actions are usually townie when you look at them in a broader context.
Uhhhh... let me know if that made sense.
Rambleramblerambleramble.
). Putting someone on the defensive using strong language doesn't further town's goals. It makes them see red, or get frustrated and want to quit. You can get t he info you want out of the person without calling them useless/worthless/stupid/idiot/etc (and I know I've done it too...it's hard not to get too emotionally invested in the argument, rather than the game).![[image loading]](https://i.chzbgr.com/completestore/12/11/8/YNqt6K1rYE68Su2urx0Hag2.jpg)
