I get everyone's points but I just wanna say that having different effects after 'x' amount of a specialist does seem to weaken the game mechanics. I thought up the idea of 'negative shield' because I wanted the -20 shield idea to be able to keep stacking negatively, without having to change the negative effect after 1 king. So I wouldn't mind the 1 per 4 or 1 per 5 driller ideas, but I think the 'Duke' or changing amounts of 1 per x drillers for more than 1 king does seem to change the fundamental 'stacking' element of the game a little.

zyxe wrote:The only problem I have with the idea of negative shields is the fact that you would start to feel the negative shield even if you only have one king. Many bases only have a shield of ten, and the king diminishes all shields by 20, so your first king would already get you into negative trouble. At that point the king's disadvantages become worse than his advantage. However, I do agree that king stacking does seem to be a very dominant strategy and may need to be adjusted.

I don't think the 'negative shield' with the first king is all that bad. To be honest it only makes sense, and its only 10 shield every 48 hours. If the player with the kings wanted to, they could just let the outpost have 0 drillers and recapture it straight after the other person captures it. However with say, -20, shield this wouldn't work so well because someone would just sent some amount of drillers there and if a player captures it the outpost would then have 20 shield (because I forgot to had forgotten to mention that the unused shield of the sub converts into shield at the outpost if the enemy manages to capture the outpost.)

tw2000 wrote:I get everyone's points but I just wanna say that having different effects after 'x' amount of a specialist does seem to weaken the game mechanics. I thought up the idea of 'negative shield' because I wanted the -20 shield idea to be able to keep stacking negatively, without having to change the negative effect after 1 king. So I wouldn't mind the 1 per 4 or 1 per 5 driller ideas, but I think the 'Duke' or changing amounts of 1 per x drillers for more than 1 king does seem to change the fundamental 'stacking' element of the game a little.

The main problem is the king is a badass specialist with a an equally devastating drawback. But when you begin to stack them the drawback becomes non existent with only positive gain.

Negative shields may be good, but it feels like it would be a weird addition. I can't really think of a reason your shields would ever work against you.

I like the idea of duke as long as it promotes to king when the original is dead, it seems like a cleaner way to do it without creating an entirely new mechanic since the princess is similar. Their can be only one king and one queen, makes since to me.

Dropping the percentage to 1 in 4 or something would also work, but the shield drop would have to be reduced along with it. Maybe 1 in 4 driller count with minus 10 shields. That way their still hitting drawbacks 3 kings in, thoughbthe drawbacks are reduced each time

The King is perfectly fine. The problem is with specialist stacking.

A lot of the ideas in here are way too complex. And they don't address the problem. Which is that the King's negative effect:

• In no way counters it's positive effect. (Unlike other specialists like the Tycoon and Minster of Energy)
• Doesn't stack in a meaningful way. Unlike the positive effect.

Instead of the King's negative effect removing 20 shields at each base, it should instead cut your supply cap by 25-50/King.

topkilla wrote:Instead of the King's negative effect removing 20 shields at each base, it should instead cut your supply cap by 25-50/King.

That's an interesting idea, and would definitely add negative effects to stacking them

I think there's a lot of ways to deal with it. Some of my ideas or ideas I've heard listed before:

1. Use minister of energy side-effects; -1 driller production at each outpost per cycle. Typically, most people never have more than one minister of energy (I almost never have 1 at all) Having multiple kings would stack the same way. If you have 5 kings, you produce 1 driller at each factory per cycle.
2. Localize the King damage - Similar to the engineer or admiral, the king promotion could kill 1 driller for every 5 drillers you have in combat without the king, but kill 1 driller for every 3 drillers you have where the King participates in combat. This could still stack but it would be much less effective.
3. King promotion allows for enemy vision - this could be an interesting drawback. Any player that promotes to a king displays to all other plays the location and outpost/sub where that king resides. This could be a beacon with say the vision of a martyr explosion radius. This would provide the drawback of secrecy and would add detriment to the king if the player keeps the king near the queen. (other players are able to see hires, drillers etc.)


There are some good ideas on this thread already but I figured I could add a couple. I enjoyed the game much more pre-launch when the King wasn't widely used. We could go entire games without ever seeing the king. The strategy and fun that the game provided when not trying to figure out how I can match my opponents kings was exponentially more fun. Now it is just tiring. "Oh great...another king..."

I trust the devs already have something in mind. Looking forward to it.

topkilla wrote:The King is perfectly fine. The problem is with specialist stacking.

A lot of the ideas in here are way too complex. And they don't address the problem. Which is that the King's negative effect:

• In no way counters it's positive effect. (Unlike other specialists like the Tycoon and Minster of Energy)
• Doesn't stack in a meaningful way. Unlike the positive effect.

Instead of the King's negative effect removing 20 shields at each base, it should instead cut your supply cap by 25-50/King.

What are the negative effects of a Tycoon, other than having to lose your smuggler?

v3xt wrote:
What are the negative effects of a Tycoon, other than having to lose your smuggler?

Lol so true

Losing the smuggler is HUGE!

thestash wrote:Losing the smuggler is HUGE!

I know. It's also a crazy good specialist tree. I feel the same way about navi