Flickering Lights

MM6: Flickering Lights

You can communicate with your teammates now! Unfortunately, you can’t quite recall who they are. Tough luck.

Setup

There is a 24-hour pregame before the game begins.

There are five rounds, which last 24 hours each. In each round, players will be divided into three teams. Three players are randomly placed on the Red and Blue Teams. The remaining player is on the White Team. Each player on a team has a role, which will be discussed later.

Players will know which team they are on, but the teams of others are private.

Each round will have a different 8x8 grid, which will have an equal amount of red and blue squares. It is guaranteed that all the locations of the red squares would map to all the locations of the blue squares when the grid is reflected horizontally, vertically or rotated by some multiple of 90 degrees. The remaining squares will be gray. Each space begins with a value of 0.

Various items may also appear (also with symmetry): these items are explained the round they appear.

Gameplay

Players can submit a list of distinct spaces on the grid of their color. Players cannot submit spaces with other colors. The White Team player must submit two distinct spaces, one Red, one Blue.

Normally, players can only submit up to two spaces.

The first space a player submits has its value increased by 2, but all additional spaces a player submits has its value increased by 1. Note that this is the opposite order used in MM1.

In the case of the White Team player, both have their value increased by 1.

When the round ends, each space will be processed at the same time.

For each space, all spaces within X spaces of that space, where X is the space’s value, will change color to match the color of the chosen space.

If a space would have its color altered to become two or more different colors, it takes the color of the space with the lowest X value that affects it -- if both colors have equally low values, it retains its original color.

At the end of each round, the resulting grid is revealed. Player alignments (which team a player was on) are revealed at the end of the game, but not at the end of individual rounds.

Roles

Each team has the three of the five possible roles in each round. Both teams will have the same set of three roles. Players will know their own role, but not the roles of others.

Coordinator: This player learns a list of players at the start of the round: these are the two other players on their team, and the other team’s Saboteur (if any).

Sniper: The first space they submit has its value increased by 4 instead of 2.

Demolitionist: None of the spaces this player submits can be adjacent. This player can also submit two additional distinct spaces.

Blocker: This player can submit two spaces of the opposite color to block along with their submission. Blocked spaces decrease their value by 1 (to a minimum of zero).

Saboteur: If there is a Coordinator, this player appears on both Coordinator team lists. This player can submit one space of the opposite color to flip along with their submission. The color of the space is flipped after space values are calculated but before spaces change color. (This means that said space can be flipped again back to its original color.)

The only White Team member is the Mediator.

Mediator: Knows the three team roles in play.

Scoring

Red and Blue Team players earn points equal to the number of tiles they have of their color at the end of each round. If a team has more tiles of their color than the other team, all players on that team add an additional eight points to their score.

The White Team member scores points equal to that of the winning team if the difference in tile count is at most seven. Otherwise, the White Team member scores points equal to that of the losing team.

Player teams are not public, so player scores are not public. The grid will be released at the end of the round, so players will know their own scores.

Variations

Round 1: Theme (No variation)

Round 2: Blockade

There is no Blocker. Players can select one space of the other team’s color to defend. That square’s value of X will be subtracted by one if it is greater than zero (otherwise, nothing happens). This stacks if multiple players submit the same space.

Round 3: Disconnected Connection

Players are only allowed to use pair chats during this round (no game-related messages in #player-lounge, no other game-related channels as well). Additionally, the team with the largest connected group of their color adds an extra four tiles of their color; this applies and counts toward the eight tile bonus. If there is a tie, no team earns this bonus.

Round 4: Fog of War

There is no Coordinator. The board is invisible, except for the center four tiles. Each of the six players on Red and Blue Team will learn the colors of ten distinct tiles. The player on White Team will learn twelve tiles as well, overlapping two tiles with each player.

Players can try to submit any tile for their submissions. However, if they submit an invalid color, they will randomize their submission among any tiles of their color.

(For instance, if in the Round 3 grid, I am a Blue Saboteur who submits A1, H1, Sabotage E1, my H1 submission will be replaced with a random blue tile, and my E1 submission will be replaced with a random red tile.)

The board is not revealed at the end of the round, nor are player scores. They will instead be revealed at the end of the game.

Round 5: Three-in-a-Row

Each team adds one to their tile counter at the end of the round for each three-in-a-row (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal) consisting of only tiles of its color. This additional tile not only gives extra score, but also affects the +8 team bonus. Note that the Mediator's <=7 tile difference condition checks before any three-in-a-rows are calculated.