I would like to suggest an option to play the game in a turn based fashion as an alternative to the real time version. Each turn would run in a set increment (8 hours?). The game would pause until every player has put in and submitted their orders (asynchronously). The game would then simulate the 8 hours and then trigger another pause and round of turn taking. Options could be set for relaxed (open pause until everyone has submitted their turns) or tournament style (everyone has X number of hours to submit their turns).

This would satisfy the ability for people to play an entire game quickly in an evening if everyone is online at the same time. It would also allow for games to be extended over many days or weeks without it being too disruptive. The downside would be that you couldn't change orders within the turn increment.

Why?

I think this is a great game but I'm sorry I paid for it and I won't be recommending it to anyone. I had fun playing for a week with a few friends but everyone agrees it was too involved and nobody wants to play it again. I like the effort and read the blog about turning this game into a success and I think it certainly could be if it was a bit less time consuming. Many can't afford to have a game take over their lives.

Contrast this with Starbase Orion, a game I talked my friends into all buying and everyone feels they got more than their money's worth out of it as we've had at least one game going between us for over 2 years now. We finish games and start new ones, sometimes we have multiple on the go as well as sub games between us. Some days we only get a turn in each, others we get multiple. It works great across time zones and everyone is pretty happy with it.

Subterfuge is a brilliant concept and brilliant game. It is just too consuming to be enjoyable over a long period of time if you don't have a lot of time every day for it.

Meh not the best idea, I really do enjoy this game I play it for many hours a day. But I like very much the way the game is formatted, because I think it has room for both the casual and experienced player. The casual player only has to log on for maybe 1-5 minutes at a time to quickly build a strategy and react to what others are doing. The expert can spend however long he/she wants to in order to plan a strategy. I hear about all these people saying the game to over there life, but I'm a very intense player and I don't find the game negatively affecting me. I do spend plenty of time on the game, but I also have days where I can't log on much, but I don't feel pressured to check. I don't really care if my enemy takes one base. usually, due to the fact that he took out my shield, I lose less troops than he does and still get the base back. I feel newer players feel pressure to play for long hours when playing and even winning a game doesn't require that level of dedication.

This would break the game. The way this game is made wouldn't work to be turn-based. Speed specialists+assassin/martyr or just a large force in general can kill a queen or capture a base and the defender couldn't do anything about it.Of course you could shorten the intervals but that totally defeats the purpose of making the game turn based.

frenchytheasian wrote:This would break the game. The way this game is made wouldn't work to be turn-based. Speed specialists+assassin/martyr or just a large force in general can kill a queen or capture a base and the defender couldn't do anything about it.Of course you could shorten the intervals but that totally defeats the purpose of making the game turn based.

So you could rebalance the game maybe? Obviously some things would have to change, i.e. the 14 hour queen hire time doesn't fit neatly into 8 hr turns.

You could theoretically shorten the in-game intervals, but lengthen the amount of time for turns to be submitted? i.e. 8 hour wait for a 2 hour time-block in game? Then process the turn as soon as everyone is ready?

roadkiehl wrote:

frenchytheasian wrote:This would break the game. The way this game is made wouldn't work to be turn-based. Speed specialists+assassin/martyr or just a large force in general can kill a queen or capture a base and the defender couldn't do anything about it.Of course you could shorten the intervals but that totally defeats the purpose of making the game turn based.

So you could rebalance the game maybe? Obviously some things would have to change, i.e. the 14 hour queen hire time doesn't fit neatly into 8 hr turns.

You could theoretically shorten the in-game intervals, but lengthen the amount of time for turns to be submitted? i.e. 8 hour wait for a 2 hour time-block in game? Then process the turn as soon as everyone is ready?

Yes this would work but it would stretch out the games so much.

Yeah, it definitely would take forever if it were designed long-form.
So maybe instead, we design it like a board game? Everyone sits down and plays the game through? I know that's contrary to a lot of the spirit of the game, but it could have a small following...

Possibly, but to me that seems like an entirely different game, not subterfuge. You might as well just make another game if you want to change the formula to that degree.

Your so right bro.

I think people are missing where I suggested this as an "option". I'm not suggesting changing the current game style, just offer an alternative option to how you can play.

As an example, I've talked about 10 friends into buying Starbase Orion. Many of us play it regularly with games running over weeks or even months in length. Its so enjoyable a couple friends bought ipads just to be able to play it after seeing how into it we were. I keep talking it up to other friends and people I meet. Its a great, balanced game that doesn't consume a ton of time. That money adds up for the developer. This game is excellent, but I won't recommend it to anyone and none of the friends who played it, especially for free, are interested in another game because it was too involved.

I'd like to see the developers of this game do well. They've put a lot of hard work into it and I think its a really great game, but for non hardcore gamers it is simply too involved. Providing a lighter gameplay option would help expand their sales and user base. It would also encourage more people to have multiple games on the go (which I what I often do with Orion) which means more sales of paid versions. More money in the developers pockets means more they can invest in adding features to the game and perhaps designing and developing a v2 down the road.