SUBTERFUGE Forums

Name- The Altruist
Type- Someone Tell Me
Symbol- Undecided
Promoted From-Martyr
Abilities
Global- Gifted subs sent by the owner of the Altruist gain shields equivalent to the outpost it was sent from.(Not stackable).[Edit: Shields on a gifted sub become inneffective during sub to sub combat between two subs that are both coming from where the other is going.
Local- Enemy subs targeting the outpost the Altruist occupies become gifts if the number of drillers on the sub exceed the number of drillers[Edit: and shields] at the outpost.[Edit: The Altruist turns attacking subs into gifts the moment they are launched, right after the 15 minutes is up, or immediately when the sub comes into sonar range of the Altruist user. If it is not turned into a gift then, it will not be later.]
In Game Explanation-
Global- Gifted subs you send gain the shields of their outposts.
Local- Subs targeting the Altruist's outpost with more drillers than the outpost's drillers become gifts.
Flavor Text- No act of kindness, however small, is wasted.

Counters- Specialists. The Altruists has no effect on other specialists. A 0 driller Assassin demolishes. A Pirate catches mid- journey. Bringing drillers just under the amount defending and then a thief/king/lieutenant/general. A navigator becomes ineligible. An infiltrator infiltrates. A Martyr dies.

Strategies With The Altruist
Local Effect Based Strategies

"Tinkerer+Altruist+Queen"-The tinkerer is at maximum efficiency with the queen's maximum shield bonus, but the queen is left defenseless with no shields. Take all the drillers out. The Altruist makes any sub with any drillers aimed at the outpost a gift.

"Slim Win+Altruist"- You just barely take an outpost, and it seems like anyone could come in and take it right from you. Bring the Altruist along with you and (s)he protects you.

"Slim Loss+ Altruist"- You just barely protect an outpost, and it seems like wave 2 is coming in. Send your Altruist over to protect until you build more driller.

"Revered Elder+ Altruist"- Pretty much nothing can affect this outpost.

"Navigator+Altruist+Smuggler Patrol"- Send this sub around just inside your front lines where there are more generators than factories, or you are running low on drillers. Any time someone decides to make a move, you're already there. Requires constant checking.

"Inspector+Altruist"- Have no drillers but full shields. Cackle maniacally. Even better with a queen.

Global Effect Based Strategies

"Double Queen Protectorate"- Put a queen and a princess on the same outpost. Upon fear of them being attacked, send the princess away as a gift to yourself to another outpost. Now your princesses sub just became a turtle.

Feel free to think of your own! I'll add more as I think of them.

Hello, I'm new to the forum, and don't play often because I'm a student, but I saw specialist ideas and had already thought of my own, so I thought I'd take advantage of my Fall Break with this. Hope you all like. Constructive Criticism and Alternatives Appreciated!

Edits Abound:

I can see how this seems like you just made your outpost some indestructible force with ease, but the point is that you are sacrificing your ability to attack( having little to no drillers at this outpost) for this defense. Also, lets say you spend six hires making three Altruists( assuming she's a promotion), you can pretty safely be indestructible at three outposts. On its own, that sounds broken, but who wins a game by holding three outposts down forever? Probably noone( unless this actually happens, I don't know).
The real power in the Altruist is when it takes risks by becoming mobile and then stationary, mobile and then stationary, in the right places at the right times.

b-but muh drillers

Wow... just wow. I love the amount of detail you put in. I feel this is a promoted spec, seeing as it has a global. Almost all promoted specs have Global's (I'm looking at you war hero) and no first tier have Global's. I love how he plays off of the gifting mechanic, as it is underrated I think.

Wow this is weird. So if she's (altruist sounds like a girl to me) (This looks about right) at an outpost, no drillers higher than the shield can affect her, but drillers under shield total can affect. So, having 1 general and her at a 10 shield outpost makes for a winning combo (other than attacking specs)? Sounds fun.

What I don't understand is her global ability. You gift a sub to someone and... they get 10-20+ drillers based on your shield count? Maybe I'm just confused. Care to explain for a poor mathematician?

The Global is intended to serve as an insurance that your sub makes it somewhere safely.
So while my sub is being gifted it gains a shield equivalent to the shield of the outpost it was gifted from. The shield is only active as the gift is travelling though, it disappears as soon as the sub reaches its destination.
I designed it like this because the presence of an Altruist ends up deterring a user from being heavy on drillers everywhere, so when they are moving specialists somewhere, or the small number of drillers they have, the sub can be a little safer than without the shields. It does not end up working like a thief- double engineer( or double thief- engineer, I forget), where you end with more drillers than you started with.
Ex.

I want to gift a friend some drillers, but there's a suspicious pirate-navigator combo in the area between. Luckily, it doesn't have many drillers- let's say it had 5. So I take advantage of my Altruist's global, and gift to my friend from an outpost with a shield of 5. Now I can go through with my gift of drillers without having to worry about drillers getting lost in the transaction to this pirate- navigator combination.

The part where this comes in handy for my self is when I send a sub from one outpost of mine to another of mine, I still have the option to gift them. So I do that, and what might have been a relatively unsafe travel is now backed up by a portable shield( until the sub reaches its destination).

Ex. 2
The "Double Queen Protectorate" Scenario
So as I'm going through that process, the princess is given a portable shield. Maybe there's a not-completely-developed-queen-hunter nearby( pirate-navigator with some drillers). You just secured your princess from that, because now the drillers have to fight against this shield before they get to you. You are safe during the travel. Now when the princess gets to the outpost you just sent your her to, the shield disappears, and all is fair game.


On a side note, how do I reply directly to posts, instead of the entire thread?

Ah, that makes more sense. That's pretty useful. So, I guess if you send your sub gift to someone, and another person hops in with enough drillers to clear the shield, they would take the sub. I like that.

And it would be very VERY strong when paired with sec chiefs or even gifts from wherever a chief/queen/king was stationed.

To reply directly to posts? You can click "quote" in the top left of a post, and it'll copy down everything the post said. If that's what you mean. But be careful, if the post is really long, nobody wants to read it again just for you to make a 1 sentence comment. So, you can delete out the unimportant parts after quoting it, and then add your comments.

mathwhiz9 wrote:To reply directly to posts? You can click "quote" in the top left of a post, and it'll copy down everything the post said. If that's what you mean.

Thanks

fraudulent wrote:

mathwhiz9 wrote:To reply directly to posts? You can click "quote" in the top left of a post, and it'll copy down everything the post said. If that's what you mean.

Thanks

No,problem

I love the amount of effort you put into this idea, and it is very creative. It's local seems really strong because you can just put it on your mine and be pretty unstoppable.

I think this would easily be a other specialist. I think I found you a quote:
"Appeasement always works"
~Roadkiehl

Say someone sends 20 drillers to an outpost with 30 drillers + Altruist --> not gift, right ? So what happens if during the sub's course you remove 11+ drillers from the outpost ? Does the sub become a gift ?

--> it would be very good if it DIDN'T work, cause this way you can counter the Altruist with good attack timing