Hello, fellow person of the Subterfuge community who just opened this thread up,
Niverio here. Maybe you heard of my name in a game, or watched some of my recap videos. I am a Turkish player and I think I am one of the most "versatile" experienced players in this game with 117 games under my belt (no offense Math) , by which I mean that I have been in every aspect of Subterfuge. I began playing this game the week it was released, and since then I have played with the top players in the world in rated matches, I played casual games with only newcomers, trying to teach them things, I played in almost every single forum game since I became a part of this community (except alternate account stuff because I am too lazy), I played sandbox games with some people to experiment stuff, I learned some interesting niche details, I hosted some forum games myself, I made recap videos of various games, hoping to teach some people new things, I even talked with 2-3 people to find out if there was an algorithm behind specialist hire patterns. With all of these experiences I gave a month of my own to create a FAQ about this game that I fell in love with, just hoping to make people realize how great this game is. I enjoyed winning battles when people expected me to lose, whether it be the most basic king promotion or a double engineer promotion to change the tides when noone was expecting it to be. I had deep thoughts and analysis' when people outplayed me and won the battles I didn"t expect to lose. I knew numerous numbers of people playing this game, learned some great friends which don't have faces, also came to know that there were also people who would do anything to win, those bastards. In this one year, I had been in this game, and it was an awesome year. But as people say, every good thing will end someday.

Now I heaar people saying "No, Niv is having a sub detox too!". No. I am not leaving anyone. This ain't a sub detox. This is different, in the way that now I feel that I have reached the point where this game cannot give me anything new or exciting- not diplomatically as I had already played with 95% of the people at high rates, and not mechanically. There isn't a single specialist I haven't used till now, and I had seen it in the end, that nothing can beat kings and admirals. I am just tired of seeing the same things over and over. And while it is still nice to talk with people I have came to know, it still never changes the dynamics of a game: Gang bang someone, get a few outposts, mine, rinse and repeat.

It just came to me to write these things. No reason, not a message to you guys. I won't be leaving Subterfuge, I love this game too much for that. And the forum games are still brilliant. So I just wasted your time here.

Best wishes,
Niverio.

Love you niv

roozbeh wrote:Love you niv

Seconded

Hello Niv!

I think you're very much onto something here, and I have to agree. While you mentioned Kings and Admirals, and I think they are the worst offenders, I've begun to notice that all promoted specialists are just a tad too powerful. I think specialists were introduced to give the game that slight bit of randomness that forces you to think and plan out, and the wide variety of them adds to that. When the focus shifts onto the three, arguably best, specialists, Kings, Admirals, and Tycoons, it does reduce the amount of variation that was supposed to come out of this mechanic. I find myself often wondering if I can use my Navigator, Hypnotist, or Smuggler before I have to promote them, as though promotion is an intrinsic part of their function. And the truth is, I do have to promote them, because everybody around me will and I need to keep up. I end up with one basic strategy: Smash. While sometimes somebody will be clever enough to outsmart me, it works more often then not to snag these specs and go to town with some other allies. Once I discovered kings, they became my go-to specialist, simply because they work.

I think the 'Waiting Game' really brought this idea up, and I'd be interested to go back through and look at the rates of which certain specialists were hired. With a few notable exceptions, I think most everybody went for the top three. (And now I'm wondering how that game would have gone down if we banned promotions.) I think forum games are great for breaking up some of the monotony, not to mention that game that comes by that really strains you creativity, but I would like to see something change. I know it's out of development, so speculation is fruitless, yet I still think it would be interesting to think on what would make the game better.

No matter what, I'm glad you're staying Niv, it's fun to play with somebody so experienced.

no offense Math

None taken. You are one of the best players, no doubt about it.

Although I can hardly dream of ever having as many games played as you, I completely agree with you about why I love subterfuge, and I honestly enjoyed reading your open letter.

I've been saying this for close to a year now. Although you also forgot to add tycoons into your list.