So something I've been toying with in my mind for a while is changing up the war/kill mechanic to make kills take longer while still giving people who love war a way to get accomplishments (like kills).

There have been lots of discussions about special attacks putting countries into DR, making logins/taking turns/etc clear that DR but I don't like a system that effectively promotes not being active.

So with that in mind, I wanted to do a quick brain dump for discussion on a vague concept I've been thinking about: decisive victories in battle.

The way this mechanic would work is that instead of attacking a country until it dies, there would be a mechanic where after a certain number of attacks (based on some yet-undetermined mechanic, maybe # of attacks, total military killed, civs/buildings/etc killed, etc), a country would get the decisive victory attack. This victory could give better returns to the attacker and/or all of the countries that have attacked recently -- maybe give some readiness back to the attacker(s) (morale boost!), maybe give some better returns, lots of possibilities there!

For the defender, it would throw the country into an immediate un-attackable state for some period of time(minutes/hours) or until certain actions are taken (like taking turns) and potentially keep the country in DR for some longer period.

The hope with this change is that you don't lose the days/months of work you put into a country in minutes while you're unavailable while still making getting attacked painful.

For the attackers, it still provides something to shoot for (decisive victories over kills, although kills could still be a thing after a number of decisive victories) and could give some new benefits to attackers.

Anyway, I'm interested in seeing what people think before I explore this idea further.

Thanks!

so the basic idea is you run a warchat on a country damage it then farm it as a reward?

You put said country into a state of protection that removes it from the war. No attacks whatsoever. When the war is finished and one side or the other admits defeat the tag that ceasefired is allowed to play again?

Maybe the destroyed country can send 50% of it's resources to another member that isn't dead and then able to restart at $4717 NW again?

Sounds difficult. I prefer opting for simpler more intuitive solutions as they usually are easier to balance. I think whatever you do the most important thing is to keep an eye on the effect of the changes and be ready to tweak numbers as imbalances are revealed.

A lot of tweaks have been needed for years I would argue that should be prioritized over overhauling the war function.

That said I think the current way of conducting war is problematic in many ways; CD/GS overpowered, walling overpowered, 15 seconds and you lose 45 days work etc.

If your way adresses these issues then Im positive it will be a good change, I just think there might be easier ways to achieve this.

Interesting idea. I would say that there sill needs to be a way to achieve a kill at some point, maybe after the 2nd decisive victory you actually die.

For the protection period maybe maybe it could last 12h - 24h randomized and you can build/ sale stuff on the market etc but cannot attack or be attacked (use turns on anything except spyops and war room).

In addition I would say that everyone who participated in putting them into a decisive victory steals a portion of the resources (both on hand and on the market) which are split up between all participants based on their contribution to the decisive victory (civs killed or something). That way the attackers can still get a reward for a decisive victory and the defender loses something other than the ability to attack, which still can be avoided by walling.

After the protection period is lifted they are able to play as normal and can be killed instead of just being put into decisive victory.

I think the simpliest idea in slowing down kill runs would be a substansial increase in the amount of readniness lost for each non SS/PS attack. You still need to be available to wall, but instead of 10 seconds, maybe you get a minute or two.

It you make it harder to get kills then you need to make it easier to do actual damage. In many wars the majority of goods are hidden safely on a market with NO other way of touching it other than killing the country.

Drastically slowing kills will also lower the importance of warchats and group play.

It's a very difficult balance to find and I don't have a good solution for this.

this coming war id expect to see more stockpile spent rather than saved, both as the war is so late and that you wont get an automatic 50% back worst case scenario

I like the decisive victory idea. Also the suggestion of a boost in readiness due to the boost in morale of the smashing defeat of the enemy forces, but it should probably be keyed to a difference between military power of the combatants. Back in the day when I first started playing at the end of a successful attack, some percentage of the defending forces would defect to the attacking side after such a victory as well, perhaps that is something that should be considered.

In addition some consideration should be made allowing allies to assist in defending special attacks as well as land grabs. Seems unfair to me that your allies cannot assist during wartime operations like they do for landgrabs.