mathwhiz9 wrote:And it would take away from the complaining. The only things we complain about in this game are terrible starting outposts and terrible hires. You can't take that away from us

zyxe wrote:I remember this topic coming up a while back. Honestly, I think the idea of a hiring tree is great.

Personally, all the ideas that come with a hiring tree sound wonderful, but it doesn't quite sound like Subterfuge.

If they make a Subterfuge 2 some day (which is very unlikely) I would be all for this idea.

mm1menace wrote:Everyone would start with the same 3 hires. The next round, you would get 3 different ones, again the same as every other player.

Then for every hire after that, you could choose any of those initial 6, or you could promote something you already have. The initial hires offer small benefits, though they get considerably stronger as you move up the tree. Plus, every time you promote, you would have a choice of paths; each path would give you different abilities.

For example, say you break it down in to five separate categories: combat, movement, vision, defense, and utility.
(I am currently using Army = Combat, Navy = Movement, Royalty = Vision, and Criminal = Utility. The names are mostly irrelevant, though, so bear with me.)

So, let's say you start with a combat hire - the Private (kills 5 drillers when involved in combat - the Lieutenant now, without the speed buff).
When you go to promote the Private, you could choose from two (or possibly more) paths.
On one side, you could improve your specialist by promoting to Sergeant (kills 5% of drillers when involved in combat, minimum 5).
Or you could improve your drillers by promoting instead to Lieutenant (when Lt. is in combat, drillers aboard your sub kill 1.1 drillers - this is often referred to as a "leadership" ability).
Then your tree could look something like this:
Private --> Sergeant (above) --> War Hero (kills 25% or 30 drillers, whichever is greater)
or
Private --> Lieutenant (above) --> Major (1.3 drillers/driller) --> Colonel (1.5 drillers/driller) --> General (2 drillers/driller)

Something like that.
If you compare this to the current game, the War Hero (20 drillers/combat) is rarely used because it is relatively weak in comparison to the King (close to 1.3 drillers/driller). (I know, the sentry also is generally better than the situational hypnotist, as well.)
In this case, though, the War Hero is drastically buffed so that there are definitely situations where it would be stronger than the Major. Though the General here is considerably stronger, it would also take two additional hires to get to that strength.

A similar thing could be done with the movement tree.
Sailor: grants 1.5x movement to a sub they are on.
Ensign: grants 2x movement to a sub they are on.
Captain: grants 1.5x movement to subs within its sonar range.
Admiral: grants 1.5x movement globally.
Navigator: can change the course of its sub (like now).
Commander: can change the course of any sub within its sonar range.

And the trees:
Sailor --> Ensign --> Captain --> Admiral
Sailor --> Navigator --> Commander

That is the gist of it. I have tons of ideas, and like you TW, I love thinking about both the theory AND the execution.

I know that this is vastly different than the current game - it would be more like a Subterfuge 2.