Board Thread:Role Ideas (Neutral)/@comment-35836120-20180616060833/@comment-35356104-20180616150451

" Mafia/Town Plus role isn't recommended. Exception can still be consider if the role possess the impact to balance roles. But to achieve such outcome is more than a challenge. Sometimes adding a little spices can spoil the whole broth - a little buff for strong balanced role can make them insanely OP by leap and bound; a gigantic chunk of buff for UP role can't even nudge them a bit, or maybe a little buff can send them from Hell Tier to the God Tier, etc. etc. etc. If ability of buffing and debuffing adversely influence the overall balance of gaming, it has a huge chance to be call off right away. Just saying, a Plusing role should encourage equality instead of equity when it comes to power distribution, achieving the effect of "making all the roles worth replacing each other", but it is extremely hard to do that.

To be honest, even though it successfully pull off its ability properly and bring about the desirable outcome, I personally still not fond of the idea of relying upon a role to comply with the standard of balance. Presence and abscene of this role is the key of Mafia winning, hence making certain roles not the equivalent substitutes of Tactician. This isn't what we're working on."

- quoted from https://town-of-salem.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:287079 -

Excuse me for being lazy to rewrite review with same concept Some points are still applicable, some are meant for the original post. In short, a "plus" role reshuffle the existing balance state. You noticed some buffs are too OP, some barely did a thing; Some debuff can hunt an UP role to nothingness, some only manage to do some scratches. Its utilities are a bit "swingy" (inconsistent), impact varies under different circumstances. Debuffing a UP role gaps them with good role further, but buffing them somewhat enclose the gap, pretty much depends on da situation. Its swingyness is quite similar to the Amnesiac which was removed from Ranked.

Trivia: Swingy is widely use to refer anything that is inconsistent. Firstly, it has the potential to reach both extremeties of godly good or stupidly bad with uncontrollable & unpredictable factors. Transporter is an example of such. A stupid Transporter can destroy the game really really hard and otherwise, while a lot of unseen contribution from third-party can ruin a good transport. Secondly, swingy can be used to describe ability/role that can greatly influence the game, much like a table turner. Like an Amnesiac, Coven/Mafia can have 5 members, the second NK, extra Town... Sometimes when Town thought they were winning, suddenly a NK pops out. Sometimes Mafia thought they are done losing a member, BAM! Amne comes to rescue, and some plot-twisting surprise blablabla. "Swing" is an imagery of instability. It's like a pendulum. An experienced player know how much force to put to achieve desirable oscillation range. However, other uncontrollable elements like wind velocity are intervening.