I'm not sure how much of this has been discussed before, but these are my initial thoughts on additional features.

1. Add the time of day the events will happen when looking forward into the future (both in the Time Machine and when dragging from a base) in addition to how far out in time the even happens.

2. Landscape mode (particularly good for the larger screens).

3. Possibility of playing at 2x speed (or more?)

4. Selectable map sizes.

5. Selectable starting resources.

6. IFTTT integration.

7. Declared Treaties ([timed?] so that if you are officially allied your subs bounce off or can be stationed at allies locations [maybe requiring a diplomatic specialist?]).


More ideas to come later.

FateCreatr

hey fate, some comments about the suggestions:

1. Add the time of day the events will happen when looking forward into the future (both in the Time Machine and when dragging from a base) in addition to how far out in time the even happens.

why do you want this? i'm asking because we've yet to come up with a solid reason to add something like this. one of the big challenges in subterfuge is information density. there is SO much information on the screen at any given time, that it's crucial to not display anything that isn't absolutely necessary, otherwise things get really cluttered really fast.

2. Landscape mode (particularly good for the larger screens).

the world is a 3:4 aspect ratio, so if we add landscape mode you'll just end up letterboxing the thing and wasting a bunch of screen real estate.

3. Possibility of playing at 2x speed (or more?)

yup! that's on our list of post-release items. we also want 1/2 speed for those who don't want to check in as often, and 100x speed for those who want to play an entire game in one afternoon.

4. Selectable map sizes.

i understand why you would think this is a good option to add, but we've played with this type of thing a lot. both outpost density, and number of outposts per player, and changing them has pretty serious ramifications for how the game plays out. we chose to have a specific outpost density and determine the world size based on that and the number of players. there's already enough variance in terms of factory to generator ratio.

5. Selectable starting resources.

i don't understand what this means.

6. IFTTT integration.

sure, except every item on our very long todo list is probably higher priority than this

7. Declared Treaties ([timed?] so that if you are officially allied your subs bounce off or can be stationed at allies locations [maybe requiring a diplomatic specialist?]).

there is something a lot of your suggestions have in common: they seem to com from a place of "wouldn't it be cool if...?"

one of the most important lessons i've learned as a game designer is that designing by adding cool things does not lead to good games. as a designer you have to think about what kind of experience you want the player to have, and when you add something, it has to be because it supports that kind of feeling. everything that doesn't support the kind of feeling / experience you want to create should be removed. something is perfect not when nothing else can be added, but when nothing else can be removed.

this also makes a lot of sense from a practical point of view. there is only so much a small team can do, so best to focus on the things that really matter, because there is an infinite number of ideas that can be added, but very few of them support the game's actual design goals.

hope this sheds some light about how we think about the design of this game.

Yes, they are certainly mostly "wouldn't it be cool if" thoughts, but since I'm just a player (who is ill equipt to understand the scope of the project, work involved in game design, or the production budget and timelines) I have little else to work from. Going forward I will try to keep further commentary more restricted and limit shared ideas.

1. Time of day
-just personal preference. As someone who works full time and has kids, I am always aware of what time a day it is, and at a glance, 3am is more meaningful then 5 hours 20 minutes. I know I have 10 am meeting, I know my daughter walks in from school at 2:20pm... Stuff like that. Like i said, personal preference.

2 landscape.
-I'm playing mostly on an iPad Air. The screen is filled up [no letterbox bars] but sideways from how I normally use it. Again, this could just be a personal thing. I know others prefer portrait.

5 resources
-I meant the number of bases you can start with. This may be too complex since you might have to rebalance world size or timescale... It was just a thought.

6 treaties
-although it plays quite differently and the sessions have endings, I'm reminded of the browser game Ogame to some degree. In it, you can station your fleet at a refueling depot owned by an alliance member and it has a lot of features for coordinating attacks. I guess those seemed they might spiritually fit into subterfuge as well.


Thank you for the thoughtful reply.

totally understand about time of day. i often do the math of "this will happen in 5 hours, when does that actually happen IRL?"

for treaties, we had thrown around a bunch of ideas regarding formalizing agreements and enforcing them with game rules. in the end, we felt that having the notion of treaties completely not exist as part of the rules was the deepest and most interesting way to go. everything is subject to interpretation, an alliance you make may or may not exist, you just never know, kind of like in the real world

ps: noel and i are both dads as well, totally understand the time restrictions, and we definitely designed the game with that in mind.

Perhaps this would detract from the pure diplomacy aspect of the game, but It could be cool for every player have a public "trustworthiness" rating on their profile. At the end of the game or when you are eliminated a simple survey like screen comes up where you rate all the other players as "trustworthy", "neutral", or "untrustworthy". This way players could see how each other generally act and use that information in their plans.

I originally intended to make a new thread for each of my ideas but...

1. Subterfuge Factions, i wont explain because i made a thread for it:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1191

2. Outside of game chat. (included in the first idea)

3. Spectator mode: A mode in which a player can watch games happen in real time. There are two ways this would work because it wouldn't be fair if players could see the whole map in real time because they could give their friends information that they wouldn't normally have. So either i) Spectators watch the game from one players' perspective OR ii) Players watch the game 1 or 2 days later than when it actually happens.

4. A mode where each player gets to choose 3 specialists (one offense, one defense and one other) and they may only hire these 3 specialists in the entire game. This idea might be stupid, but I think it would be kind of fun to see someone with 10 Generals vs 10 Kings or something like that.

5. A new specialist that can launch subs/specialists from it's own sub

6. A specialist that gives speed boosts or attack boosts to all subs launched from it's current outpost (if the specialist leaves before the attack hits, the bonus is lost). Maybe a Helmsman promotion?

7. 100x mode, it was mentioned in the original post but it's just so amazing, that I put it in my list, too

8. Maybe an official game mode where only eliminations are allowed?

9. A game mode in which there are already pre-planted mines

Most of these ideas are trash, mostly because I intended to write 3 ideas and ended up with 9 off the top of my head...Please, any feedback would be great!

Some more ideas:

1. adjustable time scale - The game creator can choose anywhere between x 0.25 to x500

2. 'Elimination' mode as previously mentioned, but something to be done about princesses, otherwise it would be very hard to eliminate someone with a princess unless you were full on attacking their entire army.

3. A game option where you get specialist hires 3x faster

4. info panel + time machine, integrated by scroll instead of wheel.

5. Sandbox and custom maps as well as pre-made maps with interesting outpost layout

6. User-made tactics (extension of sandbox mode) for people to work on when they're bored

I'm jumping on this feature request bandwagon too.


* I second FateCreatr's request for landscape mode for iPad.

* Eliminated or resigned players are OUT -- no more Chatting.

* Ability to mute a person in chat.

* End game music can be changed to Benny Hill Theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6TXMsvgQg

* Optional Godzilla / moby-dick / giant octopus / 3-headed shark running around trashing random outposts...


* LIMITATIONS TO REDUCE RAGE-QUITTING AND GIFTING:
- Resigning has an 12-hr delay (to prevent rage-resigning when an elimination is inevitable)
- Only 50% of your drills can be gifted at any one time
- Only 50% of your outposts can be gifted at one time
- Maximum of 3 specialists can be gifted at any time
- a Humorous etiquette video on "dealing with betrayal" for rage-quitters.

Improved Menu Creation with following options

-Casual/Private
-Casual/Rated
-Player Count
-Factory to Generator Ratio
-Fog of War
-Option to disable mine building (For a ‘Death Match’ style game)
-Map symmetry
-Option for the host to set up the game and not play. (for tournament purposes)
-Standard game speed and maybe a “live” speed. Where every hour takes something like 10 seconds.
-Option to disable camera replay until after match ends
-Spectator Mode

Improvement on Pirate targeting

As of right now, when there are two ships close together, or a ship is close to an outpost, its almost impossible to target. I would love to see an easier way to use the pirates targeting system without giving away information on ships that could be targeted.

Improvement on sub control in busy areas

Another area that could use improvement is creating subs from factories that are fairly busy with subs arriving, subs leaving, and subs in queue to leave. I have a huge problem with this when scheduling future orders. I’m not sure how this could be fixed globally, but I think 3D touch here could help. At least for those who have it. (For the record, I hate 3D touch)

Also, I have a terrible using the navigator as well.

"Captains Log" Thread in Communications tab.

Additional thread in the communications tab that only you can view. To keep notes on the game.


Invite players by username

Camera Panning

I believe these are already being done, but camera panning to bases when tapped on in chat. Samething for the time machine as well.

Menu Improvements:

Not a huge deal, but I feel like overall, all the menu’s could use a small makeover. Mainly:
-Resign/Leave/Cancel button should be inside the in game menu.
-There should be an In Game Menu.
-The In Game Menu should have the resign/leave/cancel button.
-The in game menu should also contain all player names for easy access to player profile/player notes.
-Game list could user a filter

Ladder Play



These are in no order of importance. But I believe the game creations options are the most important.

+ Not sure if these were raised, but allowing user made content?
-non rated custom maps (both outpost position and other factors)
-turning the game recording to tactical puzzles where the solution is the player executed move

+ king of the hill - timed 7 day mode where 8-10 players compete for control over 1-3 outposts at the end of the week
- "hills" remain nuetural first three days (protected or greyed /inactive?)
- "hills" come with built in sentry

+ miner specialist that produces np mining boost when at mine

+ replace mine with funding headquarters ( produces np a day per driller unit, goal is 10k)