And this will give time for other people to respond to the potential stacked king^

If you haven't sent the email yet. Two other features would be nice.

(1) A notification when the game starts. Why there's a notification 4 hours before the game starts and no notification when the game actually starts has always confused me.

(2) Slightly less variation on travel distances for starting bases. (For example, one player shouldn't be able to travel from his farthest bases in say, 14 hours; while another player has bases that are all pretty much 14 hours apart. And his farthest bases are roughly 30 hours apart.)

janitorialduties wrote:Seeing as no new ideas or opinions have been put forward, I will email the Devs of Topkilla's recent post. Are there any last words or statements anybody would like to make?

TK, I agree with most of the solutions, but the visions specs? Those are completely balanced in opinion. When you choose a vision spec you are giving up the option to hire something else that can be used in combat. That within itself is enough to balance the vision specialists out.

nojo34 wrote:

janitorialduties wrote:Seeing as no new ideas or opinions have been put forward, I will email the Devs of Topkilla's recent post. Are there any last words or statements anybody would like to make?

TK, I agree with most of the solutions, but the visions specs? Those are completely balanced in opinion. When you choose a vision spec you are giving up the option to hire something else that can be used in combat. That within itself is enough to balance the vision specialists out.

It's not though. Not with stacking. Someone has already said this exact same thing and I already explained why. With pictures. Go back a few pages and look. <3

nojo34 wrote:TK, I agree with most of the solutions, but the visions specs? Those are completely balanced in opinion. When you choose a vision spec you are giving up the option to hire something else that can be used in combat. That within itself is enough to balance the vision specialists out.

topkilla wrote: Someone has already said this exact same thing and I already explained why. With pictures. Go back a few pages and look. <3

That might have been me. While you do make a good point, i still think all the vision specs are balanced. Even though they are great at there job of seeing more of the map. I must not have seen your reply in the sea of posts. [Found it and im about to make my stand]

topkilla wrote:It's not though. Not with stacking.

Yes, but my same argument applies. What would you rather have. A king, tycoon or general. Or two intel officers?

topkilla wrote:Yes, the vision specs are absolutely 'fair' in the idea that they cost a hire.

No. They really are not balanced. At least, when they are stacked. See, vision/fog of war is an extremely important aspect of the game. - It directly relates to diplomacy.

Seeing more of the map does directly relate to diplomacy; however, diplomacy is not the only aspect of subterfuge you need to win. You also need to fight some wars. Have you ever tried to win a game from purely diplomacy, fighting nobody and trying to mine with your 10 starting outposts? As fun as it is, you have to mix diplomacy and war. You need a balanced and wide range of specialists to win (except the king, but everything has already been said about him.) I personally think hiring two of any vision spec is a bit much.

topkilla wrote: Even with a single Intel Officer hire, which doesn't sound like much, you get a massive boost to your vision. - Allowing you to see roughly 2, maybe 3 bases into your neighbors. As opposed to the 1, maybe 2 bases of standard sonar. That effect removes all immediate risk of initiating an attack.

No. A immediate risk of an attack is still present. You can see 1 maybe 2 more bases into the enemy territory. Being able to see an attack early allows you to prepare sooner, it is much harder to defend when you are 1-2-3 combat specs behind.

nojo34 wrote:

nojo34 wrote:TK, I agree with most of the solutions, but the visions specs? Those are completely balanced in opinion. When you choose a vision spec you are giving up the option to hire something else that can be used in combat. That within itself is enough to balance the vision specialists out.

topkilla wrote: Someone has already said this exact same thing and I already explained why. With pictures. Go back a few pages and look. <3

That might have been me. While you do make a good point, i still think all the vision specs are balanced. Even though they are great at there job of seeing more of the map. I must not have seen your reply in the sea of posts. [Found it and im about to make my stand]

topkilla wrote:It's not though. Not with stacking.

Yes, but my same argument applies. What would you rather have. A king, tycoon or general. Or two intel officers?

topkilla wrote:Yes, the vision specs are absolutely 'fair' in the idea that they cost a hire.

No. They really are not balanced. At least, when they are stacked. See, vision/fog of war is an extremely important aspect of the game. - It directly relates to diplomacy.

Seeing more of the map does directly relate to diplomacy; however, diplomacy is not the only aspect of subterfuge you need to win. You also need to fight some wars. Have you ever tried to win a game from purely diplomacy, fighting nobody and trying to mine with your 10 starting outposts? As fun as it is, you have to mix diplomacy and war. You need a balanced and wide range of specialists to win (except the king, but everything has already been said about him.) I personally think hiring two of any vision spec is a bit much.

topkilla wrote: Even with a single Intel Officer hire, which doesn't sound like much, you get a massive boost to your vision. - Allowing you to see roughly 2, maybe 3 bases into your neighbors. As opposed to the 1, maybe 2 bases of standard sonar. That effect removes all immediate risk of initiating an attack.

No. A immediate risk of an attack is still present. You can see 1 maybe 2 more bases into the enemy territory. Being able to see an attack early allows you to prepare sooner, it is much harder to defend when you are 1-2-3 combat specs behind.

This is why I've proposed linear stacking.
Using that model It takes 5 princesses to cover as much as 3 princesses would have.

janitorialduties wrote:Seeing as no new ideas or opinions have been put forward, I will email the Devs of Topkilla's recent post. Are there any last words or statements anybody would like to make?

While you're at it could you also include my ideas? They're on page 3. I'll admit some of them aren't all that practical like the last two, but I think some ideas in there will really help balance things out (like the chancellor (I love that idea) and potentially the spy)
I mean I would appreciate it if the Devs could just read this entire topic, but then that would be a pretty long read.

For thier possibly last update the devs said they wanted small or simple changes- changing the entire format of the hiring system or drawing up a new specialist is neither.

janitorialduties wrote:For thier possibly last update the devs said they wanted small or simple changes- changing the entire format of the hiring system or drawing up a new specialist is neither.

Yeah the following satisfy those requirements:

Princess
Increases her outpost's sonar range by 50% of the standard sonar range (i.e. the radius grows linearly) . If you lose control of your Queen, the closest Princess becomes the new Queen. (The idea here is that the sonar range no longer grows exponentially, meaning it is a lot harder to cover the whole map.)

Sentry
Fires on an enemy sub once every 2 hours while at an outpost. Each shot destroys 5% of drillers rounded up. Sentry's range is half of its outpost's sonar range. Target is chosen to maximize damage. Only 1 sentry can target each sub.
Promotes to: War Hero

Intelligence Officer
Adds 25% of standard sonar range to all your outposts' sonar range. Shows you the type of all outposts that are outside your sonar range. (same idea as princess)

Hypnotist
Takes control of all captured specialists present at his outpost, resists being hypnotised by hypnotists.
Promotes to: King

King
Global: Destroys 1 enemy driller for every 3 of your drillers that remain after shield phase in every combat you are involved. All shields reduced by 20, except at king's outpost, where it is increased by 20. All your generators produce 10 less electricity.

Tycoon
Increases driller production rate by 40%. Produces an extra 3 drillers at a factory.

Hypnotist buff is unnessicary.
Sentry is already getting nerf by range. Princess and Intellegence officer have already been stated.
King nerf might make sense, thought I don't know how hard it might be to implement.