Ah, it was terro in the end.
Well in addition to quantumT, shiningsword also had the ability (con artist) that coulda countered terro. Originally I had wanted to keep shining's ability secret (it was a result of a self-mutation) even within the little circle, but that got messed up when he apparently revealed his ability to terro. That was really the best check we had against terro, and it didn't last any time at all.
The problem with terro was that he was the very first person I approached after the seer died. He wasn't included in the circle after the fact, he was the start of it. We had to get something going in terms of info, and you pretty much have to start randomly. Was an unlucky choice.
There were 3 basic downfalls that killed us in the end.
1) We'd set up a triangle - quantumT (vulture), shiningsword (con artist), terroking (vulture). The idea was that you were ok as long as all 3 were alive, when FG's kill one of the vultures, you had to kill the other vulture the next round if you want to be safe. If you don't do that, then you're basically betting the game the other vulture isn't the FG. A bet the civy's made and lost. That would've worked better if shining's ability had been secret, but it was still something even without it. Anyway, after the first one died (quantum), the civy's needed to kill the other vulture to be safe. Terro had not really done anything suspicious though, and he'd been in the inner group so long that it was hard to suspect him. I guess he'd become trusted enough to bet the game on at that point.
2) majofa's stealing of my immortality after asking for vulture, basically made him prime suspect #1. That sucked twice as much because the immortality skill meant the civy's wasted 2 turns trying to kill him. I realized he might think that was given at day end because kills was having connection problems when majofa received the tradesman. I pretended to not notice/be on after I got the tradesman ability. In retrospect, this would've worked better if I hadn't told as many people as I did, I should've just told shining and world (the 2 known innocents) instead of the 5 people I did tell. I realized after I was dead that the people I told were just as able to snipe me as majofa, but I couldn't say anything since I was dead, and the group I'd told was too big to glean any info from it anyway. I originally told a large group in an effort to ensure the votes were there to kill majofa, but in retrospect, telling too big of a group also muddied the waters about who had the info to snipe me.
That probably sealed civy's doom right there. If majofa hadn't become suspicious, we really wouldn't have had any good leads at all. It also wouldn't have wasted 2 rounds killing a civy (as well as not leaving me vulnerable, which would've meant someone else on our list might've been crossed off).
3) Terro did some weird plays. For a guy with near full information, he wasted rounds targetting people he should've suspected were protected - the first attempt on shining comes to mind. He was also clever enough not to get caught up in defending other FGs. On top of that, he knew who the doctor was since something like the 3rd round or so, and didn't manage to kill him off for a long long time.
To top that off, a number of civy's towards the end were acting downright suspicious (far more so than terro). There was majofa, with the tradesman stuff. Then there was nilsieboy, who opted not to use abilities to aid civy's twice. The first time was when I was trying to get him to trade with world, in a bid to replace world's immortality with my own fresh one. The second time was when he had armagio, and opted not to use it to buy civy's a round. When deciding who to kill, you start with the suspicious ones. Looking for insider moles tends to be something you do when you run out of suspects, or things stop adding up.
QuantumT wasn't really suspicious, he just had a dangerous ability, and wasn't really interested in getting involved sharing info wise. With terro being inside the group, and quantumT not, when the time to start killing vultures comes, the target is obviously going to be the one on the outside.
A very well played game.
I'd be interested in hearing from our viruses about how they picked targets if they're around.
