[mitchie151]

Obviously, the new countries system is based vaguely on risk and so, I had some ideas similar to risk.

Normally, in a war/battle, the defenders have the upper hand. Normally because they have had time to prepare, or have already fortified the area. I think that the defenders should get a percentage based bonus... Say, 10%. So if they have 50,000 units in a realm, they get 5000 as a bonus because they are defending. This would be a major bonus to the defenders.

My other idea is continents. When you play risk, you get bonus units based on the size of the continent. I'm not certain how they could be balanced, but my idea is to allow players to make alliances between their countries, and therefor create a continent... Perhaps a limitation of this would be that the countries had to be adjacent.

The more realms and countries within a continent, the more units the leaders get as a bonus. This would mean players more willingly join a country named after a real life country that isn't their own....

Either way, alliances should be officially implemented with some bonus to players who create them. People in alliances wouldn't be able to attack their allies countries.

That's all for now, please post your responses.

[mitch1423]

We already have factions which should join together to form a country. We do not need Alliances because honestly I doubt we will have many countries. What do we have so far? 5-10 maybe? Plus why do we need to add an official feature for something that can be arranged in chat? Simply ask another country for an alliance.

[Prodigy9]

I was thinking of another idea that would be related to the defense bonuses idea... the more I think about it the less I like it, but perhaps it would at least be worth offering to the community for consideration. The idea is that players could physically construct structures that give bonuses to their realms. Building a tower gets you +10%, building a wall around the realm gets you +15%, surrounding the realm with both a wall and a water or lava moat gets you +30%, etc.

As I said, I've started liking the idea less as I began thinking it through. A pro/con breakdown should make it obvious why that is:

Pros

• Realism--a realm which looks well-protected actually will be better protected against attacks.
• Option to bolster defenses for small countries that otherwise wouldn't stand a chance against more powerful neighbors.

Cons

• Additional coding required by Intelli.
• Issues with recognizing defense structures. What specific block patterns are needed to qualify as a defense tower, or defensive wall? Is any flexibility in designs permitted?
• A wall or moat would realistically go around an large portion of a country rather than a single 50 x 50 realm--a system like this would be best if it could recognize larger versions of structures that enclose multiple realms, which would of course require even more coding.
• If only one or a few block patterns are allowed for each type of structure, those structures will be very common, and the map will be more monotonous.
• Aside from the monotony, the buildings would probably look out-of-place and therefore ugly in some areas, depending on what the surrounding environment looks like.

Like I said, I'm not so keen on the idea after thinking through some of the difficulties in implementing it, but perhaps someone else can use this as inspiration for better ideas.

[Wxclm]

The 10% defence thing is a very very good idea in my opinion. Would make it much easier to solve the constant expansion of countries early in the game.

[mitchie151]

There is no point having defencive structures bolster realms units. That would need an insane amount of coding and additionally it would lead to lots of repetitive, ugly, defencive buildings.

[JonColmanator]

I definitely like this idea, first of all it would decrease the amount of steamrolling that a large attacking country could do... potentially, and secondly, it'll make the larger powers think twice before launching massive attacks.

[schmidtbochum]

The more realms and countries within a continent, the more units the leaders get as a bonus. This would mean players more willingly join a country named after a real life country that isn't their own....

The Roman Empire showed that Size is a disadvantage. Maybe there should be a weekly tax (Units) for every realm you occupy. The Number of Units on a realm would automatically decrease with every Week.

Only Lucrative Realms (Many Homepoints) would be interesting.

[leoht_reaver]

Completely support the defensive bonuses idea.

[Prodigy9]

The Roman Empire showed that Size is a disadvantage. Maybe there should be a weekly tax (Units) for every realm you occupy. The Number of Units on a realm would automatically decrease with every Week.

That would be interesting... and it would also increase the cost of maintaining a country, which helps its function as a gold sink.

[CirJohn]

Normally, in a war/battle, the defenders have the upper hand. Normally because they have had time to prepare, or have already fortified the area.....

You're Risk analogy is flawed. In risk you defend the borders, which makes sense in Risk. Countries preclude this strategy due to an exponential increase in cost as the country grows. For countries, the fortification is needed at the /sethomes of it's leaders. If I were to pick any place for a defensive bonus, it would only be at the leader's /sethomes.

My other idea is continents. When you play risk, you get bonus units based on the size of the continent. I'm not certain how they could be balanced, but my idea is to allow players to make alliances between their countries, and therefor create a continent... Perhaps a limitation of this would be that the countries had to be adjacent.

Countries already fill the "continent" role; a realm = a territory. The income from tax to funds is the equivalent of a continent bonus. Low-income countries at the edge of the map are Australias. High-income countries in contested areas are Europes, Africas, Asias and North Americas.

Either way, alliances should be officially implemented with some bonus to players who create them. People in alliances wouldn't be able to attack their allies countries.

I have a few issues with implementing alliances.

First, I think it is too soon to add another layer on top of a brand new system.

Second, unless some form of "treaty" mechanic is implemented (with penalty clause), I see no way to effectively enforce peace.

Third, allied countries will need a way to trade border realms. Currently, attacking a 1-unit realm is how this is done. A mechanic would be needed to replace this.