Scummies Ideas, Suggestions and Comments Thread

[Faraday]

Er. You can tell us and we might be able to help? Or PM the scummies account or somethng?

[Magua]

Not to necro the topic, but want to weigh in: I heavily agree that it's the players, not the mod, who most heavily determine whether a game is enjoyable or not. You can have the best setup, the best flavor, be on 24/7 to answer questions and post vote counts, but if the playerbase is apathetic/absent/flaming, the game's simply not going to be enjoyable.

On the other hand, the right player set can have an incredibly enjoyable game assuming even a halfway competent mod.

Or, to put it another way, for an enjoyable game, a great player set is a requirement; a great mod is just a bonus.

[Oversoul]

Best hydra?
What is the policy for hydras and awards anyway?

[xRECKONERx]

Usually, if an award is given to the hydra, it's given to both players (like last year's Best Role went to Sir Elton Hercules John, but UT & I both received the scummy too).

[Oversoul]

Is it tacky to mod hydras for anything play wise?

[xRECKONERx]

im not sure i understand the question

[Oversoul]

mod meant to be nom. brain fart.

[Mr. Flay]

They can be nommed. A few have even won, both players and mods.

[sirdanilot]

I would personally prefer 'best hydra player' being a separate scummie category, and hydras not being able to get the 'best player'-type awards. But yeah my stance on hydras probably differs from that of other people. I wouldn't mind 'best mod' going to a hydra as much.

[Venmar]

A generic "best hydra player(s)" actually sounds like a decent award. It can be given to the hydra of two players that worked together the most to help achieve their win-con. Two people that cooperated the whole game and presented good results, such as lynching scum or protecting other town players, or as scum successfully being manipulative, etc. With any luck, an award like this might even encourage people to stop making garbage hydras and actually try?

Modding hydras I think wouldn't be included and can just keep being considered for best mod anyways.

[Cabd]

A generic "best hydra player(s)" actually sounds like a decent award. It can be given to the hydra of two players that worked together the most to help achieve their win-con. Two people that cooperated the whole game and presented good results, such as lynching scum or protecting other town players, or as scum successfully being manipulative, etc. With any luck, an award like this might even encourage people to stop making garbage hydras and actually try?

Modding hydras I think wouldn't be included and can just keep being considered for best mod anyways.

I'd +1 this

[N]

I think the main problem with a hydr award would be that very few hydras get used more than once or twice so there wouldn't be much to choose from.

[Cabd]

Morph the Cat is practically my main. We're not the only hydra that has become that way.

Beauty and the Beast; for example.

[Venmar]

I think the main problem with a hydr award would be that very few hydras get used more than once or twice so there wouldn't be much to choose from.

It still makes them eligible? We have single game awards for a reason, for single game occurrences, and Cabd gave some examples of hydras that have become mains or simple used often. I mean, again, the award itself helps motivate players to actually make good hydras like I said and avoid what you just mentioned, in a way.

I actually think, considering how popular and big Hydras have become, an award for them seems even more interesting and appropriate.

[AGar]

A generic "best hydra player(s)" actually sounds like a decent award. It can be given to the hydra of two players that worked together the most to help achieve their win-con. Two people that cooperated the whole game and presented good results, such as lynching scum or protecting other town players, or as scum successfully being manipulative, etc. With any luck, an award like this might even encourage people to stop making garbage hydras and actually try?

Modding hydras I think wouldn't be included and can just keep being considered for best mod anyways.

Problems with this:

- Hydra play varies greatly in terms of style. Some hydrae let one head handle the thread posting and simply converse amongst themselves in their QT/domain of choice. Others will let all heads post in thread. Some barely communicate (hydra-bickering is simultaneously hilarious and infuriating) and just post in thread whatever the hell they feel like.

- How do you compare the cohesiveness of a hydra of two people vs. a hydra of three or more (Copper comes to mind as a hydra that I feel had at least 4 heads, although I could be wrong)?

- Not sure how prevalent they are, but secret hydrae - how do you judge how well they worked together? They're not going to give up their QTs, (nor might non-secret hydrae, for that matter) so how do you judge whether it was cohesive or if one head just took over, which is something we see quite often in non-secret hydrae.

- Alignment differences - a hydra that draws scum and a hydra that draws town can be a cohesive unit in two very different ways. How do you compare the two? There's a reason we have Paragon and Don Corleone, and the Best Town and Best Scumgroup scummies, and it's because the alignments require vastly different play styles.

[Venmar]

I received a random hope in this award, so i'll try to answer Agar's question the best I can.

- Hydra play varies greatly in terms of style. Some hydrae let one head handle the thread posting and simply converse amongst themselves in their QT/domain of choice. Others will let all heads post in thread. Some barely communicate (hydra-bickering is simultaneously hilarious and infuriating) and just post in thread whatever the hell they feel like.

The award (by my definition) would make hydras that are 1 person dependent un-qualified, as I said the award would go to the hydra that WORKED the best, where BOTH players contributed to their slots success in a game. I think the basis behind my suggestion is that it rewards hydra's for being true, actual hydras of two people working together. I think the idea behind one of the people posting and the other helping is generally acceptable since the person posting seems to be posting the agreement between them, so it still resembles them working together.

- How do you compare the cohesiveness of a hydra of two people vs. a hydra of three or more (Copper comes to mind as a hydra that I feel had at least 4 heads, although I could be wrong)?

I would imagine the cohesiveness of a hydra with more than two people is generally hard to come up with simply because most people who make hydras that large don't really intend to play seriously or cohesively to begin with. If a hydra does seem to be able to surface as a good one, consisting of say 3 or 4 heads, then it would be debatable I think. In general, the award might be well off to be limited to just 2-headed hydras simple because any hydra's larger seem to get out of hand and stop staying in the expectations of the award. (Thought I could in theory see 3-headed hydras qualify?)

- Not sure how prevalent they are, but secret hydrae - how do you judge how well they worked together? They're not going to give up their QTs, (nor might non-secret hydrae, for that matter) so how do you judge whether it was cohesive or if one head just took over, which is something we see quite often in non-secret hydrae.

Secret Hydra's wouldn't qualify since they wouldn't be willing to prove their legibility, plain and simple I think. I personally don't like people who do secret hydra's since it's inconvenient for the mod and everyone else.

- Alignment differences - a hydra that draws scum and a hydra that draws town can be a cohesive unit in two very different ways. How do you compare the two? There's a reason we have Paragon and Don Corleone, and the Best Town and Best Scumgroup scummies, and it's because the alignments require vastly different play styles.

Well my suggestion of course, was just a suggestion. Should it ACTUALLY be considered to be made into an actual award, we would obviously have to split it in two, into a "Best Town-Performance Hydra", and a "Best Scum-Performance Hydra", with a possible third "Best Third-Party Hydra".

I realize that hydras would be hard to judge since quite a bit of them are 1-sided, and some people can abuse this just for a nomination, and I realize that generating three new awards is tiresome, but it's a valid possibility that acknowledges the new popularity and trend of hydras, and eliminates any current problems of hydras being nominated for OTHER awards.

[Mr. Flay]

If we must try to reward good Hydra play, one award for the first year is plenty. I don't think they're so different as you think, Town/Scum/SK. The important part here is the 'worked well together'.

[Venmar]

Yeah, but of course the three way split is always an option if needed for future years.

[Oversoul]

Copper is a 4 headed hydra?

Best Hydra should be a body of work award, no specific alignment awards.

[Faraday]

Copper is a 4 headed hydra?

Nope!

[quadz08]

3, I believe.

[sirdanilot]

A generic "best hydra player(s)" actually sounds like a decent award. It can be given to the hydra of two players that worked together the most to help achieve their win-con. Two people that cooperated the whole game and presented good results, such as lynching scum or protecting other town players, or as scum successfully being manipulative, etc. With any luck, an award like this might even encourage people to stop making garbage hydras and actually try?

Modding hydras I think wouldn't be included and can just keep being considered for best mod anyways.

I'd +1 this

+2

[sirdanilot]

With the addendum that hydras should be excluded from all other player-related awards, of course.

[Venmar]

Copper is a 4 headed hydra?

Best Hydra should be a body of work award, no specific alignment awards.

Well I still think plays between alignments does differ and has different outcomes, but best hydra can be a body of work award for the first year, and then we can split it if needed. As long as its made

[xRECKONERx]

We should really not be giving awards to hydras. First off, it's not necessarily a practice that we want to indulge since there's already enough controversy about hydras in general. Second off, a hydra can already be nominated for any of the main awards, why create an award just for hydras? Third off, I think it would create an environment for people to try and hydra in games more just because there's an award for it -- and if it didn't do that, then there wouldn't nearly be enough nominations to justify the award. And finally, hydra play is a very subjective thing -- some hydras sign their posts, some don't, some have multiple people in them, some have split personalities, some speak with one voice, and I don't think trying to quantify those values as better or worse than the others is a good idea.