SUBTERFUGE Forums

This might not be a bug but it is disrupting play to some extent. I think some, if not most of the Specialists text descriptions need an overhaul.

I'm consistently surprised with how the Specialists work when I first encounter or use them and feel that I should be able to fully understand their mechanics prior to their actual use.

In addition to just not getting a clear picture from the descriptions, this kind of thing sets up an unnecessary caste system among players who "know" and those who don't. The strategy of the game is deep enough without creating a larger learning curve.

The use of templating (standardizing the language for abilities so identical abilities are worded identically) may be very helpful to remove some of the ambiguities.

One example is the General.

"Travels' 50% faster than ordinary subs. For each specialist present during combat, general destroys 5 enemy drillers."

I just learned through experience that this ability applies to all locations specialists are present, not just the one the general is at. This was quite a surprise.

Also, I'm forced to wonder, as I have from the beginning actually, does the incomplete sentence "travel's 50% faster than ordinary subs." mean that all subs travel 50% faster or only when the General is aboard?

Do speed bonuses stack? Why is the Helmsman listed at "2x" rather than "200%"?

I really feel that reading the descriptions alone should be able to answer these questions. I play a lot of Magic the Gathering, and templating there has made a complicated game a lot easier to understand when new elements are introduced.

along this same line, I also didn't realize the Diplomat would reveal all of my territory. I don't believe that made it into the description yet.

What do you mean it reveals your territory?

No, I mis-spoke. Not your entire territory, but the location that the specialist is at (and that outpost radar range I believe) is revealed to all players when you have a diplomat.

When I go to in-game help and look at the Specialist Reference guide there is no mention of that but when I was playing and someone created one I was surprised to see additional areas revealed to me.

I'd actually volunteer to re-write the descriptions if I new how they all worked.

Found a tiny bug. Only can't remember which specialist it was, but it had a rather long description/explanation and the combat priority fell outside the description box and was really hard to see because of the background color. So I think an easy solution is to enlarge the description box a tiny bit.

hey guys, yeah, the specialist descriptions are in flux, and far from perfect.

when you encounter something that you think is confusing, or flat out wrong, please let us know. it's easy for us to fix individual descriptions, the hard part is knowing which aren't coming across properly.