Last night, we talked in chat about the current state of the game. We agreed on several things, including that conflict is important for both keeping interest in the game and to grow empires, especially those of new and/or small players. One part of it is that players with at least two or three nations have a larger power and resource base, and thus also can help others more easily. The obvious problem with this is the established power bases, and that war is more likely to result in the destruction of said smaller players if they participate. Followed by, worst case, ragequits.
Now, to incentivize said smaller players to actually go into war, I had an idea of "limited engagements". Wars that are limited in scale, but otherwise honest fighting, therefore (hopefully) being within the rules of giving away nations versus taking them by force.
First, to keep small players from getting mauled, these regulations can only be invoked if the defender agrees to it. No attacking newbs and claiming you can't be counterattacked.
As for the actual limits. There are two: number of troops, and time.
Once a declaration of such an engagement is issued, the offender's side has one week to send a total of 3000 units to the attacked player(s). Not per tick, not daily, in total.
The other side then also may counterattack with 3k units total, in the same time frame.
Third parties can try to capitalie on it by attacking either side (thereby opening themselves for retribution as well), but have to keep to the same limits, with the time limit beng he original one, regardless of when said third party gets into the fight.
A "side" of the war may be only one player, it may be more. Regardless, the troop limit counts for a whole side. Players from the same alliance are always on the same side (and no, just leaving for this doesn't count), but otherwise players may cooperate (or not) at will.
If three or more parties exist, each side can send their allotment of troops to each other. So you don't need to split.
That's it. Note that, apart from being able to send only a limited amount of troops for attack, all other shenanigans are allowed. Gang up on people by getting out-of-alliance help, asking bigger players to aid in defense (or even attack, as long as the limits are followed), whether with resources or troops, and pretty much everything else. It's war, after all, not a balanced and fair competition, and this is a game about networking, so learn how to use it.
As for the keeping to these rules, I expect we players police ourselves in this. All sides are heavily encouraged to keep (and share) screenshots of incomings and battle reports, and violations may or may not be seen as actual declarations of war.
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Now, to get across the finer points on what is and is not allowed, an example:
Honeycomb decided he wants another Burro, so he challenges me to a limited engagement. Yes, he's a bigger player, and it's not encouraged he uses these rules, but he can.
I have agreed, possibly days before and to no one in particular, that I'm willing to honor these rules, so I can't bring in Myrami to just crush Honeycomb.
Honeycomb sends 1000 units, which I defend against, and mount a counterattack of 500. A day later, Honeycomb follows up with 700 units more. Further, DictatorDuck also decides he wants a nation, so he barges in with 1200 units en route to me.
Seeing as I'm struggling, I ask Myrami for help. He gives me equipment and resources, and with that I can both defend and mount an attack of 1000 units to both Honeycomb and Duck. Myrami also sends 1k units to each.
By now, Honeycomb sent 1900 units to me, Duck sent 1200, and my side (Myra and me) sent 2500 units to Honeycomb and 2000 units to Duck. Honeycomb and Duck have not sent anything to each other, but that doesn't make them allies yet.
Now, let's say that I want to bring on more hurt, with Myra's help. I can only send 500 units more to Honeycomb without violating the limited engagement, and 1k to Duck. Further, I have to keep Myrami from sending more, too.
Now, Danube also wants in. He hopes he can crush Duck with one decisive strike, and sends 3k units at once. Regardless of his success, his role against Duck is over.
I hope that, by keeping it as war-like as possible, it's within your rules, admin.
And no, I don't expect many such attacks will be successful. But neither would most regular attacks in a real war, and this can still provide exellent practical experience for anyone who wants to learn how to war.
Please feel free to share your opinions on this. Especially the troop limit. Ideally, the actual limit for most players should be their resources, not the actual limit, so 3k might be a bit too low. The limit is in place to keep the big players' influence to a manageable level, not to restrict the actual fighting.