Tutorial #3: Arrow of Time

In this tutorial, we will be clearing some doubts on how various mechanics of the time work within the game. There has been various times where this issue about how Time Adds, Overtime and Countdown come into play, yet there has not been a definite source where all of this information is compiled. It is understandable that this is a rather confusing mechanic to newer players, and I hope that this would help you clear your confusion.

First, let us talk about Time Adds. Time Adds come in three flavors: red, white and green (blue, white and black respectively for the colorblind folks). Red Time Adds will add 45 seconds to the clock on both the Sniper and the Spy machine and causes it to beep on both. (Beeps also occur every minute.) White Time Adds will add 45 seconds to the clock on both the Sniper and the Spy machine, but not have a beeping tell. Green Time Adds will add 45 seconds to the clock on the Spy machine and dilate (slow down) the time on the Sniper machine. However, this dilation is capped at a maximum of 2 seconds per tick on the clock. A corollary is that early time adds are hard to spot because of the minimal amount of slowdown, late time adds are easier to spot. Moreover, if the Spy gets a Green Time Add at 0:01 on the clock, the Sniper’s clock will then just stay at 0:00 for another 45 seconds before timeout occurs.

Countdown occurs when the Spy completes his/her last mission. (If the last mission was a Green Statue Swap or Green Purloin the Guest List, he completes it as soon as another partygoer swaps the statue or purloin the guest list respectively. That is, as soon as a hard tell becomes visible on the Sniper’s machine assuming no lag.) It lasts for ten seconds and the Sniper is not informed of this (unless it is Overtime). This is to allow the Sniper to take a shot when he/she notices the Spy completing his/her last mission.

Overtime occurs when the clock on the Sniper says 0:00, and the countdown begun on the Spy’s machine.  It will last until the countdown reaches 0 on the Spy’s machine. It is an indication that the Spy has completed his/her mission and you should always shoot when it goes to Overtime. This is because you will lose as the Spy will complete their mission when the countdown finish, and a blind shot still have a chance of catching the Spy. There are three ways to achieve 0:00 on the Sniper’s machine. The most traditional way is that the Spy only manages to complete the missions in the last 10 seconds on his machine. The other two is due to Lag and Green Time Adds. If a Green Time Add has occurred, it is possible that the Sniper’s clock has reached 0:00 due to the slowdown cap while the Spy still has plenty more time. If the Spy completes his missions then, the Sniper would know as Overtime has occurred. Lag can also de-synchronize the timing between the Sniper’s and the Spy’s machine, giving the Sniper from a few seconds up to a minute less time on his clock then the Spy’s. If he manages to get to 0:00 this way, he would also see Overtime.

This post is not a strategy discussion but going through the mechanics of how Time Adds, Overtime and Countdown work. A knowledge of this is helpful when it comes to deciding when to shoot. Those issues will be covered at a later date. Finally, I hope you have learned something from this tutorial.

Tutorial #2: Principle of Least Action of the Second Kind

Many Snipers have a difficult time on Balcony, due to it’s distinctive lack of hard tells, myself included. There is a sense of being lost, unsure of what to do. In this tutorial, we explore a common motif in SpyParty, and from there derive a strategy which can be viable to use on this map.

There are many different motifs in SpyParty. The first motif that most people encounter while playing is the concept of “Camping”. “Camping” basically states that “There is this subset of missions which I can reliably spot. I also know the Spy must do at least one of them. I will shoot him if he attempts it.”. We can observe that there are various disadvantages of using this strategy, namely, what to do if you have this subset does not exist. This is often the case on Balcony. Here, we explore a different motif, “Avoidance”. Very often, the Spy would choose to avoid doing certain actions because it will impede his progress on the missions. For example, he might decide not to take a drink from the waiter as it would prevent him from doing two-handed actions for a while.

How can we utilize this motif to devise a strategy? Let us consider an action where the Spy would typically avoid in his/her game. A very common advice given to Beginner Spies is that they should always plan where they want to go. They should have a purpose in their actions. Moreover, there is a downside to being too active. Pathing and Collision are both actions that Spies can fail to reproduce accurately. This makes Spies develop the tendency of not moving unless they need to.

From this, we derive the Principle of Least Action of the Second Kind: The Spy will not undergo redundant movement. This would allow us to attain more lowlights (by lowlighting those who violate the principle) and reduce our suspect pool. In an “Any 2 of 3” game mode on Balcony, they would either have to complete a hard tell, or Seduce the Target. Seduction is a mission which requires the Spy to move. With the thought of minimizing the amount of movement, they would try to make every visit to the Conversational Circle count.

From this principle, we can derive a more complete strategy. We will lowlight anyone who made a visit to a conversation circle and leave without talking. Then from our remaining suspects, shoot (or timeout) the most likely person. It is important to note that this strategy is not the emphasis of the article, but the method we used to derive the strategy. By learning how this motif is applied, you can derive strategies of your own. Nevertheless, allow us to carry on the analysis of this strategy.

An important step in every strategy discussion is to dissect the strategy to find it’s weaknesses and strengths. We first note that it is a behavioral lowlight strategy. This has two important consequence. First, it depends on luck whether the NPCs would behave in a cooperative manner such that lowlights can be attained. Secondly, we need to pay more attentions to the lowlighted people. In contrast to hard lowlight strategies, there is a significantly higher likelihood that the Spy would be lowlighted in the process. Moreover, let us consider the most natural counter to this. The Spy can simply not take control till a later time. This strategy does suffer from a natural drawback, it decreases the amount of time the Spy has. A lowlight a Spy obtains may not be detrimental to you as it might imply that the Spy is too slow to complete his missions.

Another question we can ask is how effective is this strategy. Using this, we can lowlight approximately 1-2 people every game. Considering this is Balcony, it is really effective as there are only 7 partygoers. This does lead us to the caveat of this strategy. If the Spy rushes his missions, we will not be able to get enough lowlights before he/she completes. Another flaw is that it is a complex strategy, requiring memorization of who had been talking in the Conversation Circle, which is attention-taxing.

In this discussion, we have seen how we can take a motif, “Avoidance”, and apply it to derive a general principle, Principle of Least Action of the Second Kind. It is too general to apply. So, we have taken the concept of lowlighting idlers to a specific Map, Balcony, to derive a strategy. Subsequently, we analyse this strategy and weigh it’s benefits and limitations, as well as it’s effectiveness. Whether you decide to incorporate this into you game or not, is solely up to you. But I hope that you can devise stratagems on your own, suiting your style of play, which is a vastly superior skill to have.

Tutorial #1: The Waiter Walks.

Recently added to the game is a new mission, Purloin the Guest List. On certain maps, there are difficulties in determining if the guest list has been taken. A prime example of this is Ballroom, where the Sniper’s laser is nearly parallel to the waiter’s tray. This might render the mission difficult to some. However, the sniper has the ability in limiting the spy’s option on when they can purloin effectively. This would be the subject of this post.

We first note that the spy has very few opportunities to purloin on a large map. By letting the game play dice, the spy has to wait for Toby to select the spy specifically and offer the spy a drink. This must also come at a time where the spy is not trying to engage in other actions, such as flirting with the Seduction Target or contacting the Double Agent, as it would lead to the waiter giving up waiting. (This can be avoided if rushing, but the pressure will hopefully cause the spy to succumb and settle for White Action Tests.)

In interest of fairness and not to make the mode impossible, there is an option to call the waiter over. The option would be accessible, if there is a path from the waiter to the spy. (Mostly, there is a bug on various dead spots on the map.) This is where the sniper can exercise his/her ingenuity. Instead of determining purloins, which is tough and attention taking, we can instead focus on the path of the waiter. (This should not completely replace looking for thefts, though.) The waiter follows a very fixed pattern of movement, which learning it can be useful to the sniper.

The waiter will serve people in the same landing pad, then choose another person, repeat. There are a few small details about this, such as the timing when he chooses who to serve next, but these details are mostly unimportant for the practical sniper. However, for the more theoretical sniper, I strongly encourage you to study more on your own. (The details will be covered in the manual, I assure you.) This simple predictable pattern leads us to be able to determine if the spy is calling the waiter over at an inappropriate time. For example, a consequence of this pattern is after the waiter decides who to serve to next, he will go straight to the person and never turn unless the person moved. If the waiter diverges from his initial path, this would imply either his destination becomes unavailable or the spy has called the waiter over.

Using this technique, one could punish spies for calling the waiter at inappropriate moments. Before you play your next few games, I urge you to enter practice mode and have a look on the pathing of the waiter, which is both unique and predictable. A key component of Sniper play is to limit the Spy’s options, I hope that this tutorial will help you in gaining more wins as a Sniper. If you are a spy, be careful when you decide to call the waiter over when you wish to attempt purloin, as this might lead to a bullet in your cranium.