Goblin Squad Member
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This is a pretty common feature in sandbox games now. Pretty much every open world PVP sandbox I know of has some kind of war system.
Common features of a war system include:
-War targets being flagged.
-No loss of alignment for killing war targets.
-The ability to attack war targets in usually safe areas.
I personally think... its a HORRIBLE feature. Not just bad but I passionately hate the war system. I have rarely EVER seen it used to good effect and FREQUENTLY see it used as tool of griefers.
90% of the time it is used by older clans with veteran players to get at newer and weaker companies while they are inside cities in order to kill them and steal their valuables, or just purely to make them rage. Most of the older and powerful clans dwell in lawless areas anyway. Out there these kind of tools are not needed. If they want a war, they wage war, regardless of whether they have some official war declaration or not.
Personally I would rather see this game have very limited lawful areas and allow most of the game to be considered lawless. Fighting inside lawful areas should be entirely forbidden except for possibly in the case of a mutually agreed upon duel.
An EVE developer in a video I watched today described the possibility of having a war declared upon you a "Consequence of belonging to a corporation that you just have to accept."
I say that is bullcrap. People should be able to get together with their few buddies and form a little company without worried about getting run through in broad daylight right in the middle of a lawful area while the guards stand by and do nothing.
In real life if Mexico in Canada went to war and fought it out in the streets of the US would the military and police stand back and say "It's a legitimate war! Don't get involved!" as bullets go whizzing around our streets? Of course not. Nor would any other neutral party allow a war to be fought out in their own territory. I guarantee you if you come fight your battles in our hex as two neutral factions, I'm going to send out armed troops to deal with it because I don't want your conflict scaring our locals or passing merchants. Wars should be fought in lawless areas. PERIOD.
I would far rather see a system where people can flag other companies with whatever relation that want, and no restrictions. You should be able to flag your enemies as hostile for an unlimited duration, with no paid upkeep, but it shouldn't give you any benefits. It should just tell your members. "Hey! If you see those guys, kill them!"
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Goblin Squad Member
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Assuming it's settlements and kingdoms which will be the "War Declaration" level, any war is going to involve a lot of logistical effort:
Other buildings can only be damaged by siege engines—huge machines created to hurl boulders or orbs of burning pitch, or similar large-scale weapons. The process of establishing a siege is lengthy and can be attempted only by the largest and best organized groups of players. Siege warfare is therefore the province of player settlements and kingdoms.
So presumably settlement fortifications will keep the enemy out and siege is generally a bad strategy for an army in being resource and logistic hungry. Kingdoms will probably be more interested in alliances among neighboring Hexes, afterall the effort to form a Hex into a Kingdom and control that area probably warrants peace and prosperity mostly vs skirmishes and constant ambushes in less developed Hexes... that is until War does eventually roll around and those player armies tear everything, so meticulously constructed, down!
Namely it perhaps takes very developed Hexes to create War as a possible and positive course of action and that all off the back of alliances of "reputations and alignments". So War is maybe not going to be too high frequency to contend with?
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Andius, I'm not clear how War states can be used to grief since Ryan explicitly stated that a a War state could only exist if both companies agree.
I hadn't seen that. If they stick to that statement then there is no problem but every game I've seen it in, it's been one sided.
I would say don't allow themselves to be pressured into making it one sided. This is probably the single biggest thing they can do to reduce griefing.
Assuming it's settlements and kingdoms which will be the "War Declaration" level, any war is going to involve a lot of logistical effort:
Other buildings can only be damaged by siege engines—huge machines created to hurl boulders or orbs of burning pitch, or similar large-scale weapons. The process of establishing a siege is lengthy and can be attempted only by the largest and best organized groups of players. Siege warfare is therefore the province of player settlements and kingdoms.So presumably settlement fortifications will keep the enemy out and siege is generally a bad strategy for an army in being resource and logistic hungry. Kingdoms will probably be more interested in alliances among neighboring Hexes, afterall the effort to form a Hex into a Kingdom and control that area probably warrants peace and prosperity mostly vs skirmishes and constant ambushes in less developed Hexes... that is until War does eventually roll around and those player armies tear everything, so meticulously constructed, down!
Namely it perhaps takes very developed Hexes to create War as a possible and positive course of action and that all off the back of alliances of "reputations and alignments". So War is maybe not going to be too high frequency to contend with?
I see no need for a war system at that level. Just let them go at it. All this should be going down in lawless areas anyway.