PTB strategy, looking for feedback

[MathyFurret]

I haven't been able to play this game with enough competent humans to really strategise, but below are some plays that seem logical to me, based on playing this game and Secret Hitler (the only two social deduction games I've played). These all assume that all Humans in the game are competent and can communicate perfectly with one another.

Humans:

• Always tell the truth. If you are hacked tell everyone your real prompt. If you aren't hacked but your answer is disputed please still be truthful. Being able to count hacks that are claimed can be a powerful tool in determining who is lying about it.
  
• Use time wisely. Make decisions ahead of time.
  
• Press Hurry Up! as much as possible. ESPECIALLY do this when answers from a test are revealed; this voting phase is the least useful use of time. (In fact, voting for aliens is a good way to get sheeped. Instead try to take your own notes on who was suspect each round.)
  
• Tests in order of usefulness: Drawing Quarters, Writing Room, Deliberation Deck, Opinion Hold. As you can always choose from 2 of these rooms, always choose the most useful of the two; NEVER go to the Opinion Hold.
  
• I haven't had much time to see if the Bio Scanner is worth it, but there are definitely ways to improve your game at it. If you are the captain during the Bio Scanner, describe the symbols concisely and effectively. If you are one of the players activating the Bio Scanner, listen closely to the captain and ask clarifying questions. This part is very important as not only can it prevent ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, it prevents aliens from exploiting vagueness. As for whom to scan, go with the person the group is most unsure on. It should be the whole table's decision, not just yours. Always tell the result of the scan truthfully.
  
• Always keep in mind who is confirmed an Alien from your point of view. If players trust you as a Human they can help you make the deduction.
  
• If you are playing with tutorials ON, the game is a bit more balanced as the first couple(?) rounds can't be hacked at all. Pay extra close attention to suspicious answers in these rounds.
  
• Pay attention to the captain and who they choose. In the first few rounds humans have no idea who is who but aliens do, so Alien captains can pick their subjects strategically.
  
• Save your button presses for the last few minutes. But, if you have a good hunch early on at who are the aliens, make sure you don't forget when the time comes.
  
• The final vote: As pressing the button pauses the global timer, it's best not to press Hurry Up here. Instead use this time to logically piece together all the evidence accumulated over the game. You greatly outnumber the Aliens so all this extra time put together will help greatly. Letting the vote time out is the same as voting "no", so there's no reason to shorten the time you have by shutting down the vote immediately. However, it's important that Humans do actually vote people off the ship, since the Aliens auto-win otherwise. Overall play consciously and fight for Button presses close to the end of the timer.

Aliens:

• Always claim to be a Human.
  
• Always play like a Human. If you aren't speeding up the timer when it's optimal for Humans, you will look like an Alien. If you are screwing with the Bio Scanner, you will look Alien. If you take people to the Opinion Hold, you will look Alien.
  
• If you get the alien prompt you can either tell everyone your prompt and say you were hacked, try to convince that your response is valid, or even make up another fake prompt altogether to throw blame on someone who also had a suspicious answer. If you got the Human prompt but are disputed anyways, you can say you were hacked to throw people off.
  
• Because Humans will be speeding up gameplay as much as possible, use this to your advantage and cause confusion. You can also stall out the timer when you can, but again this is dangerous as it can easily out you as an Alien.
  
• Use hacks effectively. If a fellow Alien claimed to be hacked one round, hack them so they appear Human in later rounds. If a Human got hacked or had an answer that was disputed, continue to hack them so they look more suspicious. In general, hack the players that the rest of the group is unsure on.
  
• The Bio Scanner is a powerful tool as an Alien. Whether or not to use it is still up to the Humans (as defying them will reveal yourself), but make sure to go there if you can. Alien captain will always want to activate the Bio Scanner (possibly wasting time in the process). Agree with the group on who to scan, then feel free to lie about their identity. However, whether you lie or tell the truth, you must live up to your claim as it would always be the truth for a Human.
  
• If a Human is your captain for a bio scan, abuse vagueness in their description to get the glyphs wrong. Even better, use up more time to ask frivolous clarifying questions, as not only does it make you appear more Human, it wastes their time. Just make sure nobody can tell that you're wasting time; remember that your glyph layout is revealed if the test fails.
  
• Always keep track of who is confirmed an Alien from your point of view, assuming you are Human and everything you've said has been truthful. Use this to make a fake, but logical deduction in the end.
  
• The final vote: Play like a Human. Assuming Humans adhere to the above strategies, messing with the vote will simply out you as an Alien, although this suicide play can work if the Humans are short on time. If Humans are trying to vote off another Human, there's no reason to doubt it (unless of course it would contradict your own lies), but being too eager to vote Yes will out you. Overall play carefully and fight for Button presses close to the end of the timer. Having the guaranteed last Button press is extremely powerful for a player from either side.

I would like feedback on these strategies, and also discussion on the following points:

• Do Humans actually want the Bio Scanner? While being able to be certain of someone's identity is a powerful tool, it's a time-consuming task that can be for naught.
  
• How does one prevent panic when time is low for Humans and players need to make their deductions quickly?
  
• Is it important for the balance of the game that Aliens can't hack in the first couple tests? That is, should players always avoid skipping the tutorial for fair play?
  
• How much benefit of the doubt should Humans be willing to give towards answers that are somewhat off, but still believable to some extent? Is it better to aggressively accuse anyone who has a slightly deviant response, or to allow for deviation to avoid the risk that a Human might be cast as an Alien immediately?
  
• Is it worth practicing this game with friends to find better strategies?
  
• Anything I missed?

While PTB isn't a good game for random people to join, it does have potential as a social deduction game with perfect communication.

[bbqturtle]

have you thought of any answers or suggestsions to your questions

[MathyFurret]

I will add that if a player is confirmed Alien, Humans can and should hurry the timer as much as they are able while that Alien is Captain. Similarly, if an Alien has already outed themselves, they should avoid getting timed out and instead force the Humans into a useless test to waste more time.

[MathyFurret]

Just realized that in a 5-player game, if a vote happens to fail, then there must be at least one human among the two people who voted. If they're both aliens then the humans have already lost anyways.

This isn't really a piece of information worth going out of one's way to obtain, but it's worth noting anyways. It eliminates one out of the six possible alien combinations that a human could figure, which makes it harder to waste button presses.