War and Peace

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   To the game developers who enhance game-play:  Please consider the following.
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With the current set-up, declarations of war and peace create an atmosphere of absolutes.
War / Peace - Black / White - Edward / Jacob <--(bad example).
There is little middle ground short of neutrality and non-aggression pacts (NAP).  

I will attempt to illustrate this below on a scale of 0 to 10.

Declared War                                                   (neutral)  (NAP)                                   Confederation
 0 - - - - 1 - - - - 2 - - - - 3 - - - - 4 - - - - 5 - - - - 6 - - - - 7 - - - - 8 - - - - 9 - - - - 10

Being neutral is almost irrelevant.  Neutrality implies an alliance has made no active decision for or against another alliance.  NAP is just a step above this by declaring that, although they have not decided to be for or against another alliance, no hostilities will be exchanged.  However, when war breaks out, NAP's are the first to go.  The only ones that truly matter are the polarized extremes of War and Confederation.  

War implies that two alliances will engage in hostilities (much like PvP battles in other games) until one side is utterly crushed and offers an unconditional surrender.  This also tends to polarize the Illyriad community when one alliance declares outright war on another.

A possible solution to this has already been created for the Factions.  With slight modifications, it may serve well as an overview / home page for an alliance.

e.g.

Alliance: "War and Peace"

Foreign Diplomacy

					Alliance Name: Current Standing
"Peaceful Alliance"
30
"Alliance that Thieved Us Repeatedly"
-70
"Confederated Alliance"
80
"Alliance that Insulted Us"
-40
"Alliance that Declared War on Us"
-60
"Sister Alliance"
100
"Alliance that Bumped our Caravans"
-10
"Alliance that Sends Armies to Our Vans"
-30
All others 0

Standing Meanings

Standing Meaning

 +90 An extension (sister alliance)

 +75 We will aid this alliance in any endeavor

 +50 May join this alliance against another during times of war

 +35 We will offer help (scouts, spies, resources) whenever asked

+1 to +35 No aggressive actions will be made towards this alliance
0 Neutral
-1 to -35 Aggressive actions may be made towards this alliance

 -35 We may actively use diplomats and magic against this alliance

 -50 Hostilities may occur and armies may be sent to cities

 -75 All forms of war (except siege) will be used at our discretion

 -90 We will attempt to destroy this alliance at any cost

Your Alliance's Standing With This Alliance

                                        |
-100          -50          0         50          100
                                        |

(alliance description here)

(Above: this was quickly thrown together and is not, by any means, the exact set-up I am advocating)

When looking at someone's alliance page, rather than seeing "war" listed, you would be able to see (across a broad spectrum) where one particular alliance, as well as your own, stands.  When hostile actions have transpired, an alliance can set another alliance's standing to something like -15.  When they have started blighting, it could be set it to -40 (etc.).  The setting for outright war could be reserved for only the most extreme of cases.

There could be potential problems with re-doing the Herald diplomacy page, but with time this can be an easy fix.  Rather than announcing "Alliance One has declared war on Alliance Two," it could simply say (for any alliance rating between -1 to -50) that Alliance One has entered into hostilities with Alliance Two.  Then for any rating below -50, it can be stated that they have entered into war.  The opposite of this can be done for positive rankings.  Each player could then go look at the alliance page for further information.

The reason for creating an aggression/non-aggression scale is to help curb the gossip and rumors that spread regarding such declarations.  Alliances could simply rank one another at higher or lower on a scale, and the community would not wonder to what extent one alliance would go to "remove" the other from the game.  Rather, it can be seen that there are only slight hostilities at this time.  

This set-up attempts to remove the Black and White polarization - nothing more.  

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To the community who offer intelligent and valuable input:  Please feel free to comment below.