So I tried my first ranked game and loved it. The establishment of a real meta game and fully participating opponents made it much less of a chaotic dice roll that all my public games were, and allowed for actual strategy, diplomacy and skill.
So one player got early double King which shit me up because of what I'd heard browsing the forum. I instead went for early double helmsman and luitenants and killed a neighbor by day 2. When I eventually fought the king player, it was underwhelming. I'm much more scared of tycoons.
My questions are these: Was he just a noob, and Is a king only imbalanced at high rank play where players can optimally capitalise on the advantage?
But, In a game so dominated by nauance and diplomacy, can you even have imbalance? Surely in high rank play, game theory suggests its everyone's self interest to gank an early King maker, rendering his promotion situational like all specialists? Making it only "imbalanced" in the context of noobs who are to inexperienced to react against the established meta game? How can you even discuss balance in this context when the real disadvantage of a king or tycoon is that it makes you such a target, not that it reduces your sheilds or takes your smuggler?
To me, severe imbalance would suggest a specialist you get, no matter what alternatives there are... There is only one I can possibly think of for my own experience: the smuggler. Although I'd tempted by helmsman or navigator. Do I want it changed? Not really, you need random circumstances to fuel vibrant diplomacy
I've never played a high ranking game, but do they all decend into King arms races? If this is honestly the case then maybe it's imbalanced. But in a game such as subterfuge you can't really argue that one specialist being generally better than others is imbalance, because it ignores the whole dynamic context of diplomacy that the game rests in. If it was a two player game then this wouldn't be the case of course.
These questions are more targeted to high ranked experienced players, whose experience i defer to. But personally I've been thinkinga that balance whiners are just QQers. Is it only noobs pissed at King's, or does it significantly effect high level play?
Thanks for your time