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SpyParty is a player vs. player competitive spy game. The game takes place in an upscale party with one player playing as the Spy mingling with the other guests inside, and one player playing as the sniper who has a view from outside. Spyparty is available on STEAM early access for 25 bucks. It's been in development outside of STEAM for quite a while, and it seems like the playerbase is growing - with some newfound popularity on Twitch as well. Some of the info below is blank - because I haven't personally had much runtime or am 100% positive on some of the mechanics. But it's fun as hell. GAMEPLAY Playing as the Spy you will be given missions to complete during the party. Missions are varied depending on what difficulty level you are playing on and the map. You may be tasked with such things as "seduce a target" requiring you to engage them in a seductive conversation several times, "replace a statue" which requires you to swap a small statue for a fake, or "bug the Ambassador" which requires you to grope them. All this you will be doing while trying to throw off, avoid, or otherwise confuse the sniper. The Spy can see where the Sniper's screen is centered thanks to the latest in laser sighting technology. Playing as the sniper your objective is to shoot the spy before the spy can complete their missions. Sounds simple, but it's really not. The Spy is thrown in amongst a host of NPC's who will mill around the party, talk to the Ambassador, check their watch, order drinks, pick up statues. Basically all the things the Spy will be doing. It's very challenging to try and pay attention to the sensory overload and pick up on the subtle clues which can lead you to the spy. Victory Conditions
The Sniper will win if he shoots the spy, OR if the spy runs out of time before he completes all the missions. (Note: This means that you DO NOT have to shoot someone as the time ticks down) Spy Objectives
This can be one of the most tricky objectives to accomplish. Several maps have statues which can be picked up, inspected, and put back, or swapped for a fake! There are three statue models. When the spy swaps the statue, the model will randomly change to a different one than the original. What makes this hard to pull off is that MOST snipers will memorize the statues at game outset and be hyper attentive to anyone handling them. When close to the Ambassador, the Spy will reach out as if patting their rear for a moment. It's very subtle and easy to miss unless the Sniper is fixating on the Ambassador. I think it's one of the easiest missions to pull off. At the party, there will be a "double agent" cast member. The sniper may have potential double-agents highlighted - while the Spy knows the real one. (Number of potential double agents the sniper sees depends on map) While in conversation, the Spy can contact him and the phrase "banana bread" will be uttered. The sniper will hear this as well, and be able to deduce that the spy is one of the people conversing. This can be done as a "fake" as well - possibly tricking the sniper into focusing on the wrong people. As simple as it sounds, this objective only requires the spy to pick up and inspect the statues similar to as an NPC would. Very difficult for the sniper to pick up on. For this mission you need to lift fingerprints two times from objects the ambassador recently touched. If the ambassador puts away a book or gets a drink from Toby then fingerprints are left behind. If you're the next person to do that interaction, you get the fingerprints for free with no action test. If you're the second next person to the interaction, then to lift the prints you need to pass an action test that can only succeed on a perfect (green). The prints are gone after the second patron. An alternative source of fingerprints is to lift prints while returning the ambassador's briefcase, as they tend to absentmindedly leave it lying around. The AI behavior for returning with the briefcase is fairly weird, however, so it's sorta guaranteed to look suspicious. For this mission you need to transfer microfilm from one bookcase to another. Which bookcases don't matter, they just need to be different. There are two ways to do this; one is to retrieve the microfilm while reading a book and then sliding it in while reading at the other case. Both actions have a hard-tell animation of the spy moving their hand from their waist to the book, and depending on the action test success it can be quite blatant. The other option is to take the whole book with you and slide it into a different bookshelf. NPCs can and will carry books around, but they will never put one inside a different bookshelf. Books are grey by default, but the sniper can mark them with a color to keep track and make swapping it much more dangerous. Once a book is put away the mark and color are removed. While getting a drink from Toby, you have an option to take the guest list he has sitting on his tray. The mission is complete right away, but you can optionally put the guest list back afterwards. If the sniper noticed the missing list then returning it is extra danger for no reason, but if they didn't notice then you can get away with a mission scott free. This is different for when Toby is at a bar. In that case he keeps the list in his pocket and takes it out when serving. You can pocket the list at the bar yourself, or you can go to a conversation circle and make the nearest NPC go steal it for you. In either case the list cannot be returned to bartender Toby. This one requires you to seduce a particular target in conversation. Seduction depends on proximity - up to ~33% completion per seduction action. There is a short cooldown which goes faster if you put some distance between yourself and the target between seduction attempts.[/u] Not a Mission per se, but the Spy can add time to the round by glancing at his watch at a window tile. It can be obvious to a Sniper who's paying attention - but if there are other things happening it can also be missed very easily. Action Tests Action tests were inspired by, of all things, Gears of War's active reloads.
quote:(The action in question) These are available on "experienced" mode and are awesome to play around with. Nailing a prompt for a statue swap, for example, can be incredibly effective as the sniper is very likely to shoot the NPC who handled it. Other actions become much more subtle when you get the green prompt. These actions open up the opportunities for some advanced plays: Banana Split: You drop contact (or fake contact) double agent and green prompt it. This enables you to immediately walk away from the conversation - giving you a good shot at a sniper lowlight. A very attentive sniper may sniff this out, and instead highlight you. Fake Banana Split: Same as a Banana split, EXCEPT you stay in conversation and immediately Red prompt a seduction attempt. This will cause your seduction target to walk away - in an attempt to get the sniper to think the seduction target just did the banana split. Framing: Framing is a strategy to try and convince the sniper that an NPC is the spy. For example, you could delegate a guest list purloin to your seduction target, then execute a fake banana split. Alternately you could green prompt a statue or (Waiter Toby) guest list and see who triggers the action. You can then execute a banana split with that NPC in the conversation circle, hopefully marking them as suspicious.
Your only objective as Sniper is to shoot the Spy, but there are several mechanics to discuss which are of use: With this action, the sniper can flag a partygoer as suspicious and "Highlight" them for a closer watch. Some things that can earn a Spy the dreaded "highlight" is hanging out near the Ambassador too much, the Sniper noticing time added when the Spy may have been close / near a window, a "banana bread" call when there's only a few people in conversation, etc. Highlighting is a way to track your "top suspects." Lowlighting Lowlighting is a method to tune out party goers which are considered to be ruled out as a suspect to the Sniper. For example, if a "banana bread" call goes out, the sniper can lowlight anyone NOT in conversation. The sniper can also lowlight the "actors" who will never be the Spy - which include double agent suspects, the Ambassador, the security guard (Damon) and the waiter (Toby). Shooting When the sniper is confident he as fingered the Spy, he can take the safety off his rifle and assassinate the party goer he thinks is the Spy. If he's wrong, he loses. One shot, one kill, one chance. Spy Tips
Sniper Tips
Gameplay Videos Links http://spyparty.wikia.com/wiki/SpyParty_Wiki http://www.spyparty.com/ Thanks to Pigbuster for filling in what I am too noobish to comment on! Tinfoil Papercut fucked around with this message at 12:58 on Apr 19, 2018 |
# ? Apr 12, 2018 13:12 |
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# ? May 7, 2024 21:13 |
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This game looks right up my alley (loved games like The Ship or Assassin's Creed MP) but I have to ask - how 'samey' does it get? I can imagine as the sniper things are more varied as different people playing Spy act in different ways, but as a Spy really you're doing the same thing over and over and just hoping the sniper you got paired against isn't as good, no?
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 13:28 |
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tote up a bags posted:This game looks right up my alley (loved games like The Ship or Assassin's Creed MP) but I have to ask - how 'samey' does it get? I can imagine as the sniper things are more varied as different people playing Spy act in different ways, but as a Spy really you're doing the same thing over and over and just hoping the sniper you got paired against isn't as good, no? I confess that my playtime has been limited - but from what I can tell the maps and the randomness of how the NPC's behave give you plenty of "dynamic" to the party. For example, one round I was sniper literally EVERY STATUE was immediately grabbed by NPCs. There was no chance I could keep track of every one at every time, and I was left confused and dismayed 20 seconds in because I had no idea if the swap happened. As the Spy, you have to capitalize on situations. You can't just decide "I'll run over here and do this now." You have to wait for good opportunities. Is the sniper staring at the other end of the ballroom? Might be a good time to bug the ambassador. Were you about to swap the statue when the laser sight suddenly appeared on your face? Might be a good time to walk away calmly and order a drink. Is literally every NPC in conversation? Great time for a banana bread.
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 13:47 |
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I bought this game probably about ~2 years ago after seeing it at PAX when he first started selling the game. I found it really fun at PAX, but once people were really good in the community, there just wasn't a good space for newbies to come in and have fun. I played several games after taking a couple of months off from it and just got instantly sniped for silly mistakes that every beginner would make, and no beginner would pick up on. For example I recall a guy once told me that I walked to the book case picked up then returned a book, and then walked to talk to people, but in the current programming an NPC would never do that. So he shot me within a minute of the beginning of the game. It also looked nothing like the screenshots above at the time. Looking to get back into this with new blood to be bad with!
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 18:29 |
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Drowning Rabbit posted:I bought this game probably about ~2 years ago after seeing it at PAX when he first started selling the game. I found it really fun at PAX, but once people were really good in the community, there just wasn't a good space for newbies to come in and have fun. I think they updated the graphics at some point not so long ago. The game has been in development for several years - at least as long as StarCitizen - but they look very mature at this point and closer to a "full release" If you look at the player population, it's had some very healthy growth the past few weeks. It's been steadily climbing the Twitch charts as well - I think the STEAM release may catch some lightning in the bottle for them. This is all good because I am also bad and need to play other bad people.
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 18:46 |
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I got brave and played a few games today. Bought it months ago but hadn't opened it until yesterday. My first game I obviously switched the statues and the sniper misclicked on the guy in front of me.
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 19:00 |
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Zesty posted:I got brave and played a few games today. Bought it months ago but hadn't opened it until yesterday.
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# ? Apr 12, 2018 21:23 |
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Tinfoil Papercut posted:I think they updated the graphics at some point not so long ago. Logged into my beta account. I said like 2 years ago, turns out my stats page notes I started up in August of 2012... I can't believe it was that god drat long ago, and apparently I was so jaded by my experience I barely put any time into the game.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 02:46 |
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Is there a sensitivity slider anywhere? In game sensitivity is really high compared to menu speeds.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 04:27 |
This game is bloody amazing and you should all buy & play it. Typo in the OP btw, 'perloin' -> 'purloin'
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 13:03 |
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Forgot that I heard at PAX East that this game was actually being released to a full audience. I hope it takes off, it's fun as hell to watch.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 13:13 |
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Osmosisch posted:
Thanks
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 13:26 |
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Any info on when those of us who have owned it for five years get Steam keys? Dude emailed a few days back saying he'd have another email with details "tomorrow." I know his standing answer is "as soon as we have the ability to" but I was wondering if he made mention elsewhere.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 14:13 |
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I'm pretty on the fence due to the price tag and it looking like not a lot changes from playing game to game. How long is everyone's average playtime? Is online the best way to get the full experience of this game?
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 15:21 |
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I didn't realize there was a thread for this, I picked this up last night and while I had fun I am not sure if I'm going to keep it in its' current state. It looks a hell of a lot more polished than the early screenshots I remember seeing years back and I applaud him for that but there's still so much that feels unfinished (I know, it's still EA so it is literally unfinished but even so..). I know there's been a small but dedicated fanbase for this through the years but I don't see this setting the steam charts on fire, especially not as it is. Seems like maybe a hard sell for the general public at $25, even though it's a more than fair asking price for an independently developed title these days. While I've only done a few games so far I have gravitated towards swapping the statues as the easiest part to identify by far. Finding seduction targets seems almost impossible to me and have had good success just watching the statues constantly and using the other clues to lowlight when I can. This works against me too though as most games I can't find the opportunity to swap the statues without the sniper seeing it. I think I only won once as a spy and it was when I started in front of the statue and swapped them out instantly. Any ideas how to not stand out like a sore thumb while doing this? I feel like it's best to do early before the sniper's already ruled out a bunch of guests. explosivo fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Apr 13, 2018 |
# ? Apr 13, 2018 15:30 |
Basically you want to be playing on a higher difficulty than Beginner so you can just ignore the statues unless there's an opportunity.
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 15:36 |
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On intermediate difficulty it gets much easier for spy and harder for sniper. You get objectives such as "inspect statues" with seduction and contacting double agent. On the pub map the "inspect statue" objective requires only ONE statue to be inspected - so the rest is gravy. Ironically this also means that the sniper is paying LESS attention to the statues, as he considers it a lost cause and that you will take the easiest objectives. So it becomes easier to swap as well!
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# ? Apr 13, 2018 22:34 |
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Just picked this up and I'm really surprised by how compelling and fun it is. A definite "just one more game" type experience. I'm still on beginner but having fun!
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# ? Apr 14, 2018 00:07 |
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How do you set your username? I'm tired of being steam numbers. 'Prompt for Username' doesn't seem to do anything.
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# ? Apr 14, 2018 06:27 |
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Can the sniper and spy trashtalk each other during the match
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# ? Apr 14, 2018 07:13 |
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Yeah, there's in-game text speech and 90% of people chat about what they did right/wrong between games. poo poo-talking mid match is rare because the sniper will be able to mark all the NPC's who weren't actively doing poo poo, unless you are the most dope mis-director of all time.
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# ? Apr 14, 2018 07:53 |
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Here's some descriptions for the stuff the OP's missing. Kinda wordy but they're complicated and I'm sleepy.
For this mission you need to lift fingerprints two times from objects the ambassador recently touched. If the ambassador puts away a book or gets a drink from Toby then fingerprints are left behind. If you're the next person to do that interaction, you get the fingerprints for free with no action test. If you're the second next person to the interaction, then to lift the prints you need to pass an action test that can only succeed on a perfect (green). The prints are gone after the second patron. An alternative source of fingerprints is to lift prints while returning the ambassador's briefcase, as they tend to absentmindedly leave it lying around. The AI behavior for returning with the briefcase is fairly weird, however, so it's sorta guaranteed to look suspicious. For this mission you need to transfer microfilm from one bookcase to another. Which bookcases don't matter, they just need to be different. There are two ways to do this; one is to retrieve the microfilm while reading a book and then sliding it in while reading at the other case. Both actions have a hard-tell animation of the spy moving their hand from their waist to the book, and depending on the action test success it can be quite blatant. The other option is to take the whole book with you and slide it into a different bookshelf. NPCs can and will carry books around, but they will never put one inside a different bookshelf. Books are grey by default, but the sniper can mark them with a color to keep track and make swapping it much more dangerous. Once a book is put away the mark and color are removed. While getting a drink from Toby, you have an option to take the guest list he has sitting on his tray. The mission is complete right away, but you can optionally put the guest list back afterwards. If the sniper noticed the missing list then returning it is extra danger for no reason, but if they didn't notice then you can get away with a mission scott free. This is different for when Toby is at a bar. In that case he keeps the list in his pocket and takes it out when serving. You can pocket the list at the bar yourself, or you can go to a conversation circle and make the nearest NPC go steal it for you. In either case the list cannot be returned to bartender Toby. Action Tests Action tests were inspired by, of all things, Gears of War's active reloads. For most cases you can just let the bar expire and you'll be okay, but if you're feeling sassy you can go for the green test to get a better result.
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# ? Apr 14, 2018 09:54 |
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Pigbuster posted:Here's some descriptions for the stuff the OP's missing. Kinda wordy but they're complicated and I'm sleepy. Good stuff, added to OP. Didn't want to comment on stuff I still hadn't had any experience with.
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# ? Apr 14, 2018 15:26 |
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In intermediate difficulty can I not plant a bug while walking past the ambassador? Is that only in experienced? Also why sometimes does a cooldown period occur for the mission even if I haven't been near the ambassador or done anything?
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# ? Apr 15, 2018 09:39 |
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Knifegrab posted:In intermediate difficulty can I not plant a bug while walking past the ambassador? Is that only in experienced? Also why sometimes does a cooldown period occur for the mission even if I haven't been near the ambassador or done anything? I don't think you can, and I think the "cooldown" display is actually the action animation itself. I managed to play some with that setting last night and doing a drive-by bug is satisfying and subtle AF. e: from the wiki: quote:To bug the ambassador in conversation, the spy must stand in a conversation circle close to the ambassador (who is usually, but not necessarily, in the same conversation circle as well), then select the "Plant Bug on Ambassador" action. The action looks like the spy briefly grabbing the ambassador's rear. The circle beneath the Ambassador will be completely filled when you are close enough to him. Tinfoil Papercut fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Apr 15, 2018 |
# ? Apr 15, 2018 14:58 |
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Here's the list of Action Tests and results which I'll add to OP:quote:(The action in question) These are available on "experienced" mode and are awesome to play around with. Nailing a prompt for a statue swap, for example, can be incredibly effective as the sniper is very likely to shoot the NPC who handled it. Other actions become much more subtle when you get the green prompt. These actions open up the opportunities for some advanced plays: Banana Split: You drop contact (or fake contact) double agent and green prompt it. This enables you to immediately walk away from the conversation - giving you a good shot at a sniper lowlight. A very attentive sniper may sniff this out, and instead highlight you. Fake Banana Split: Same as a Banana split, EXCEPT you stay in conversation and immediately Red prompt a seduction attempt. This will cause your seduction target to walk away - in an attempt to get the sniper to think the seduction target just did the banana split. Framing: Framing is a strategy to try and convince the sniper that an NPC is the spy. For example, you could delegate a guest list purloin to your seduction target, then execute a fake banana split. Alternately you could green prompt a statue or (Waiter Toby) guest list and see who triggers the action. You can then execute a banana split with that NPC in the conversation circle, hopefully marking them as suspicious. Tinfoil Papercut fucked around with this message at 13:00 on Apr 16, 2018 |
# ? Apr 16, 2018 12:57 |
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I got this game yesterday after watching some streams. I like it a lot - it has a surprising amount of depth to it, and even better, there is a very good natural learning curve. There are plenty of new players as a result of the Early Access release, and the existing community is the best I have seen yet in an online game, so now is a good time to jump in, if anyone is on the fence. There are just a couple of things I feel should have probably been communicated better: * You can (and should) change the difficulty as the spy. The format of beginner mode guarantees a sniper win. That's not an exaggeration - a sniper with a couple of games under their belt can enjoy a 100% win-rate by watching for a statue swap. It's also very dull for that sniper. So, switch to intermediate after your second or third win if you want to have fun. * Some maps are only available on higher difficulties. * In experienced mode, each spy action triggers a small quick time event - a cursor moves on a bar and you need to click to stop it on the red, white or green section. Red makes your action worse in some way (obvious animation, seduction/inspection takes longer, etc.) white is the default effect and green makes your action better - in some cases, there is a subtler animation but in others it appears to the sniper as if another character did the action which is huge. You can also ignore the quick time event entirely and get the white effect (as far as I can tell). * In maps with a bartender, you can delegate the purloin guest list action to another character by selecting "delegate" and talking to that character within 60 seconds (IIRC). There is also no background music. Overall, the game is top notch even at this early stage. I would absolutely recommend it if you have the slightest bit of interest.
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# ? Apr 18, 2018 13:09 |
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Yesterday I executed a perfect banana split while my seduction target was in conversation with the Double Agent. Later, I delegated a purloin to the same target and the sniper took the shot. The only thing better than getting a Spy win with a lowlight is successfully framing someone while you do it.
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# ? Apr 18, 2018 14:15 |
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Pigbuster posted:.Green testing a Time Add makes it so the timer doesn't jump 45 seconds, but instead slows down, essentially adding that same 45 seconds but invisibly. The sniper can still potentially notice the time dilation but it's much more subtle. This is the coolest loving thing. Wow.
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# ? Apr 19, 2018 19:08 |
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I don't know when it happened, but the Steam link from the website was finally added.
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# ? Apr 19, 2018 19:17 |
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:This is the coolest loving thing. Wow. It's important because snipers have *very* limited time to monitor any given event. If you aren't suspicious, most snipers will simply glance up at the time as you check your watch - to make sure time wasn't added. To detect a time dilation - you have to look for a few seconds to verify. Those few seconds could be a missed purloin, bug, etc. Plus you feel so loving smooth when you nail an action prompt.
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# ? Apr 19, 2018 19:54 |
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So is anyone playing rn? E: I guess that's a stupid question because if they were, they wouldn't be reading this thread. Applewhite fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Apr 20, 2018 |
# ? Apr 20, 2018 01:24 |
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Applewhite posted:So is anyone playing rn? I'll be on tonight if anyone's interested in playing. My STEAM name is "Tinfoil Papercut" if you can believe that.
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# ? Apr 20, 2018 14:20 |
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I got this game around two weeks ago and I’m loving it for a few reasons: - The community is super friendly and will give you feedback about what made you lose. - The games are short (~5 mins each) so you can still fully enjoy the game is you’re time-poor. - The netcode is really good and the nature of the game isn’t latency dependent so it’s easy to find people to play with. - The premise of the game is really interesting and unlike anything I’ve played before. I highly recommend buying this game. Play the tutorial and turn up the difficulty once you’re consistently winning as sniper (i.e. once you figure out camping the statue swap is an effective strategy). The difficulty names are a bit misleading because experienced is really the normal difficulty. I’d also recommend reviewing the spy tasks and animations in the dossier in the pause menu to get a good idea of what the hard tells look like (e.g. bugging the ambassador).
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# ? Apr 26, 2018 03:28 |
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I've been playing this since it came out and am up to Experienced and once you get good at the green tests the game gets a whole lot harder for the sniper, but they are still competitive. When you do a drive by on the ambassador with something blocking the snipers vision it feels really smooth.
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# ? Apr 26, 2018 04:12 |
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Well if no one is going to talk about this game I'm just going to have to talk about it to myself I only just discovered in library there is a window pad facing away from the sniper on the left side of the map. Very useful!
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# ? May 15, 2018 01:38 |
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I still haven't gotten the email about redeeming my old beta on Steam...
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# ? May 15, 2018 03:29 |
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# ? May 7, 2024 21:13 |
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I'm not sure an email ever went out, but you can still get your Steam copy right now by linking your account: http://www.spyparty.com/2018/04/16/spyparty-com-to-steam-account-linking-enabled/
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# ? May 15, 2018 03:33 |