Update 29SEP10

How about we have a dispel magic spell that actually works on other people's towns so that when we attack we can cast a spell to dispel a Ward of Destruction(250 kills) or any other spell in effect.

My suggestion to go with this new scout/spy update:
Increase Generic Kill Rune Cooldown Time
-and/or-
Allow Saboteurs to temporarily disable ability to produce Barracks/Consulate Units and/or disable the Mage Tower/Spell Casting (choose your target)
-and/or-
Allow Military 'Raid' attacks that attempt to temporarily disable ability to produce Barracks/Consulate Units and/or disable the Mage Tower/Spell Casting (choose your target)
-and/or-
Commander Magic Resist should effect runes [Already in the works...]
-and/or-
Advanced Spies able to see what sort of rune is up with # of charges.

Why:
It is expensive to deal with kill runes, especially the 250 kill runes, which players can put back up every 16 hours.  That is 250 free kills of expensive units, every 16 hours or so.
Compared to the 75 kill rune, which has a cooldown of 13hr 20m.  (Huge jump to kill count but, barely any for cooldown....)

This lends to the idea, finish the battle as soon as possible.  Siege does that most effectively.  You set up a camp and muster the forces to defend it, not having to touch that rune.

On a somewhat related note: Give more military options/incentives that can disable your foe more substantially then just killing their soldiers.  Else, it becomes more sensible, economically and tactically, to just siege and destroy them right from the beginning...

Diplomatic Unit Changes

• Scouts & Spies no longer trigger Generic runes
  
  Generic protection Runes, Wards & Glyphs that slay or fear any hostile units are no longer triggered by either basic or advanced Scouts & Spies. Given that their intention is not strictly or wholly hostile, only the four Runes of Seeking are now capable of slaying scouts or spies.


• Advanced Scouts report more information
  
  Sending an Advanced Scout to a city will now report not only on what units belonging to that city are abroad, but also where they're going and the orders that they are going to carry out.


• Scouts now report on Resource Gathering Caravans
  
  Scouts (Basic & Advanced) sent to a Resource Node now report on the amount of resources remaining on the square, as well as the number of caravans present on that square and to whom they belong.

Quest distances

We have substantially reduced the distance to quest locations. The map changes have meant that some squares are now further away from a player than is actually "doable" in the allotted time.

This may require further tweaking in the future; so please Petition if you get brand-new quests that are too far away for completion in the time limit.

Edited by GM Stormcrow - 29 Sep 2010 at 17:10