Delay Army Departure!

Children, Doctors Appointments, Late Work, Early meetings... these are all of our realities.  In order to invest in any game long-term we need a game to accommodate our lives.  Sooner or later even those people who consider themselves hard-core players will get older and have something else they have to do.  To establish a long-term, loyal community Illyriad needs to consider it's players long-term.

The main area where players with inflexible RL responsibilities are ham-strung is in army deployment.  The build and research queue allows for these players to keep abreast of city development.  And time-based harvesting deployment isn't as critical to success in the game.  However, if your alliance needs you to strike at 3:03am when your kid has only allowed you to sleep for 1 hour and you have a 5am alarm to get to the office - well - then there are some problems.  Either the game will take priority leading to a less happy life, or life will take priority, leading to a lost player in game.

For extended absences the Account Sitter mechanics are great.  They don't deal with the day-to-day realities of a shifting schedule that unexpectedly pulls you away.

A) Army's can be scheduled to leave no more than 12 hours in advance. Rationale: This mechanic is meant to allow players with less flexible schedules and responsibilities to be more involved in the game.  It isn't meant to become a once-a-day-auto-play button.

B) Once an army is scheduled to leave it cannot be aborted.  Rationale: Scheduling your army's departure is meant to be done because you will not be available at the time it is optimal to send them.  So it is as if you gave them the command at that time.

C) Spies sent to a city can determine armies that are preparing to leave, their numbers, and (possibly? with more research?) their destination.

D) Assassins killing a commander of a departing army causes that army to abort leaving.

..and so on.  

Consider the areas in which the game would become more challenging: More people involved in wars (not just those that are able to be on at any point in a 24 hour period).  Tactical victories based on strategic movements instead of "I hope he forgets to send his army."  I see armies as the only in game mechanic needing this delay because of the need to coordinate wars.  I don't see why caravans and diplos would need a "delay" option.  Also, the 12 hour cap on delay would mitigate most of this concern.  More people involved, bigger wars, more strategic and less luck based thinking would (I believe) make for a more difficult game if anything.

Aside from that, if what makes the game "difficult" is the amount of RL you have to sacrifice to make it work then it isn't a game that people will stick with long-term.  If the game is difficult because it takes meticulous calculations and strategy - then that is something that is a foundation for a better long-term game.

Please be gentle with the criticism and lavish in your praise!