I feel like if there were going to be new specialist packs in the future which can be purchased, or just some extra specialists, this class of specialists would certainly be interesting. I'm not saying you should be able to pay for these in game as like a one time purchase, because that would make the game 'pay to win'. You'd have to buy the pack, and if you choose to use it upon a game creation, only other people with that specialist pack can join the game.

The idea is that upon hiring this specialist you then have the ability to have it do something to you or your enemy that works for a period of time. Then the specialist is useless unless you have a general. (or maybe the specialist just disappears?)

Here are some examples. Of course, all of them would have names, but I'll leave them to others to name them.
1. +30 max shields for 18 hours. Recharges all of them right after hire. (So you would be able to choose when you would want the period of 18 hours to start, and same with the others)
2. Provides 'double the effects of funding' for 18 hours.
3. Immobilizes all enemy subs that are not gifts coming towards your outposts for 16 hours. (enemy's lose control so navigators can't change course either)
4. Doubles the speed of your subs for 12 hours.
5. Doubles the effect of all your specialists where applicable for 4 hours.
6. You have a limitless driller cap for 24 hours.
7. Triples the number of drillers produced at each of your factories at the next production cycle.
8. Upon being captured or taken control of by an enemy, halves the speed of all their subs for 12 hours.
9. Upon being captured or taken control of by an enemy, destroys 50% of all drillers on subs that are not already gifts.
10. Upon being captured or taken control of by an enemy, halves driller production speed for the next 16 hours.
11. Upon being captured or taken control of by an enemy, renders all their specialists abilities useless for 4 hours.
12. Upon being captured or taken control of by an enemy, disallows them to send any new subs for the next 8 hours.
13. Upon being captured or taken control of by an enemy, renders their shields useless for 12 hours.

the 'Upon being captured or taken control of by an enemy, 'phrase' could potentially give more value to saboteurs and (maybe?) assassins. It could also bear the possibility of an enemy giving an outpost away to the speciliast because they didn't want the effects to work on them at that time.

Stacking would also be interesting, and would seem slightly OP to start with, but remember that they are only temporary effects and they cost 1 specialist hire, so I don't think they would be all that OP. They would provide people in losing situations to have a chance of revival, or people being attacked to defend better, or you attacks to be stronger, etc.

These are just some ideas. Any suggestions, feedback, ideas, or anything else is appreciated!!

sounds too gimmicky. Just an annoyance to deal with.

No, please no. Specialists need to be permanent.

NO!

I'm gonna have to go with everyone else here; I vehemently oppose any purchases which only have temporary effects, because then it will become pay2win

I think some of you are misinterpreting - the purchase involved is the access to a new group of specialists not unlike access to L2 is payed- not like "pay 99c and get this specialist in your game right now". The merits and demerits of this kind of income generating DLC has already been discussed. But on to the actual point of this post...

I like the idea of extremely time-sensitive single-use buff specialists in the game however it would add a couple of new mechanics at once and might push the game too far into RTS style play. Something that might be more in line with existing mechanics might be a specialist that provides these buffs upon capture or in a cyclical time frame eg "increases sub speed by 50% for a 6 hour period every 18 hours starting upon hire" or "upon capture, decreases speed of subs leaving outpost by 2x"

On that topic-I'm really interested in more specialists that take advantage of the unique blend of rts/board game mechanics subterfuge possesses. For instance I'd like to see more specialists that utilize precise trajectories like when you slingshot pirate/navs or coordinate a martyr explosion over an outpost as oposed to targeting it directly.

pandasecret wrote:I'm gonna have to go with everyone else here; I vehemently oppose any purchases which only have temporary effects, because then it will become pay2win

Yes These speciliasts aren't meant to be paid for. What I meant when I said purchased specialists was that you could buy it as a pack, but you can only play games with other people who have that specialist pack as well, if you choose to use it in your game creation.
I mean, I've always thought how cool it would be if you could send a specialist at your enemy and they'd be immobilised for a period of time, it would let you co-ordinate attacks better.
Also people who being attacked on multiple fronts may have a much better chance of surviving by using these specialists, becaise attacks aren't permanent, and neither are these specialists

tw2000 wrote:

pandasecret wrote:I'm gonna have to go with everyone else here; I vehemently oppose any purchases which only have temporary effects, because then it will become pay2win

Yes These speciliasts aren't meant to be paid for. What I meant when I said purchased specialists was that you could buy it as a pack, but you can only play games with other people who have that specialist pack as well, if you choose to use it in your game creation.
I mean, I've always thought how cool it would be if you could send a specialist at your enemy and they'd be immobilised for a period of time, it would let you co-ordinate attacks better.
Also people who being attacked on multiple fronts may have a much better chance of surviving by using these specialists, becaise attacks aren't permanent, and neither are these specialists

I wouldn't hate it if it was restricted to certain games, but losing a battle I carefully planned out due to someone hiring a temporary specialist would be really annoying.

aclonicy wrote:I wouldn't hate it if it was restricted to certain games, but losing a battle I carefully planned out due to someone hiring a temporary specialist would be really annoying.

How is that any different from losing battle due to a hire or promotion within the currently available specialists? Maybe it's a little more powerful at once due to the temporary nature but this isn't chess where everything is already on the table.

pgroot wrote:

aclonicy wrote:I wouldn't hate it if it was restricted to certain games, but losing a battle I carefully planned out due to someone hiring a temporary specialist would be really annoying.

How is that any different from losing battle due to a hire or promotion within the currently available specialists? Maybe it's a little more powerful at once due to the temporary nature but this isn't chess where everything is already on the table.

And another thing. They just 'wasted' a specialist hire. Not really, but they can't use it for something permanent. The idea for these is that you can either have temporary OP global effects or you can go for more solid play with traditional specialists that last for the rest of the game. The ideas are still up for revision, so we can make the time period shorter or the effect less OP.