flubbucket: Perhaps this will help.
What I do is read a post from the point of view that
the player is mafia.
I will then read the post from the point of view that
the player is town.
If I presume the player is town, then I can disagree or think they're wrong but they are still town.
If I presume the player is mafia, then I look for connections or possible lies or some such.
drealmer7: Hey that's what I do!
Alright, then I have a request. Please take a look at Trent's posts again, and build a case for him being Town under the assumption he is Town.
drealmer7: I never said wanting to know the info from flips is terrible. Not even close.
drealmer7: How is knowing IF there are alignments shown helpful? (the only way I see it as being helpful is IF you are scum!)
Is it just me, or is there a problem here?
Drealmer, I'd like to hear how you reconcile these two statements.
drealmer7: Then can you please answer the question since trent refuses to instead of treating me like a fucking moron for not seeing it?
Knowing what information is available from flips allows for town to confidently make certain kinds of decisions. For example, if town knows that a player's alignment, character name, and role flip upon lynch, then town can choose to lynch a player to verify claims.
More specifically, if I claim Role Cop, and I claim to have investigated 3 other people, and my claim contradicts one of their claims, then town can lynch one of the two players with contradicting claims to verify information. If, on the other hand, town knows that all town gets from the mod is confirmation of a dead player, then town knows they can't just kill one of the competing claims to determine truth. If town doesn't know
whether they'll get the role information from the flip, the course of action becomes a lot less clear.
Figuring out whether flips are useful Day 1 means a better chance that town doesn't kill someone important and also that town won't find itself in a bind where it really could have used that knowledge. The longer the wait, the greater the chance of eliminating someone important in the process of finding out (and maybe finding out that the wrong decision was made), because there are fewer candidates to choose.
You've mentioned how No Lynch on Day 1 means scum have a wider pool of targets when aiming for power roles. You haven't mentioned how it means Town has a wider pool of targets for hitting scum, and you haven't mentioned how it means that potential town roles have a wider pool for finding scum (in the event the third role was an investigative role) or possibly no pool at all for investigating (coroner). It also means that later, if/when the coroner lays out his reads, there is one less night of confirmed wagon to look at. Sure would be nice for town to know whether HSL avoided finishing a scum buddy, wouldn't it?