MAJOR CHANGE LOG:
03/20:
* reduce game time to 2 hours
* add customization options for Private Matches server
* rotate start time for Private Matches server


We're actively working on a pair of new servers designed for players who prefer the warring side of the game.

The Single Combat server will offer a true player vs player tournament style experience. Paired up players will fight in 2 hour games that run from 21:00 GT to 22:59 GT. Each tournament will consist of 8 games with players getting matched against each other according to their records. One game will be fought every 4 days. It is only possible for a single player to win all 8 matches of each tournament. At the end of each tournament, players will be ranked by wins with fewest losses, fewest deaths, most kills, and total networth tiebreakers.

The Private Matches server will restarts daily with 2 hour games, but the start time of the game will rotate to make it easier for players in different time zones. A player with premium access can create a game and share their private code with other players. This server is intended to be a customized version of the Single Combat server. Clans will be permitted. The creator will choose when protection ends and the maximum number of players for the game. Players can use it to practice their builds for the Single Combat server, to engage in friendly duels, and to arrange for quick clan-based warfare. Perhaps some players can use it to resolve their differences instead of bickering endlessly on the forums for years.

There are a number of gameplay differences planned for these servers:

* The maximum number of turns will be chosen to make killing another country difficult, but not impossible.
* One turn will be awarded every 3 seconds.
* Protection will be time-based instead of turn-based.
* Countries will not pay military expenses during protection, but military units will still consume food.
* Countries can sell and recall goods on the public market during protection.
* Countries can perform a single regular spy op during protection which is guaranteed to succeed.
* Spy DR will increase at a slower rate.
* Land drops will always be allowed.
* Population will grow at a slower rate.
* Losing population will not impact the production of unrelated buildings.
* There are no humanitarians rules, including restrictions on attacking at the end of the reset.
* Oil can be purchased on the private market.
* The public market will automatically purchase technology priced below $1001.
* Countries cannot restart.
* Bonuses will not be available.
* NPC countries will play in a separate, private game to help stabilize the public market.

There are a few additional changes for the Single Combat server only:

* A random time for the end of protection will be chosen at the individual game level. Protection will end when 30-60 minutes are remaining in the reset.
* The Dictatorship government cannot be selected.
* Each game will have a random win condition chosen from NW, population, land, buildings, and jets at home. This win condition will be announced at the beginning of each game.
* 3 buildings will randomly not be available. Both players in each game will work under the same restrictions. CS will always be allowed.
* Countries cannot restart. Instead, they will automatically be created for future rounds. There is no concept of early elimination from the tournament.

To give an example, suppose that two players have won their first seven games of the tournament. They will be guaranteed to fight against each other in game A for the final round. They will fight under conditions which are randomly determined. For example:

* Protection lasts for 100 minutes.
* The win condition for the end of the game is most networth.
* Both players cannot build enterprise zones, military bases, and research labs.

Other games in the same round will have different randomly decided conditions.



I am open to feedback on any subject in this thread. All player feedback will be read, but I will likely prioritize spending my time developing the new servers instead of responding here.

Great job for the creativity & a starting point.

I don't think people will fully understand the amount of work involved to do what is outlined above. So keep that in mind.

This is pretty cool - I think it would require a lot of player time dedicated to playing it (well specifically, structured time during those few hours). One option to help with that could be to have the times / days decided in the forums ahead of time so that it rotates some (for global players) and meets schedules for work or hobbies.

Also, is the 8 set in stone or is it partially dependent on number of players?

After it gets going a bit, it might be interesting to add in bonuses for winning each round - it could be like the bonuses we have today (slight bump to expenses or defense) or they get to remove one of the random starting options from the fixed list in the next round, etc.

Would somehow calling it a "Skirmish" be a better name?

should be able to pick preferred time and get matched with others of that time, or that time block needs to be random.

when creating a private match there should be option to set the start time

there should also be a random private match option that puts you in a pool of people that you randomly get chosen to fight

what about an hour long battle option as well?

what about a 5 team option that randomly selects the first 5 against the next 5?

what would max turns be in a server like this? determined by speed of turns?

what about letting players pick all the options:
create new battle:
- select number of players per side [1-20]
- invite only? y/n
- turns / min [3-60]
- start time: [0-24][0-60]
- start date: [date picker]
- allowed governments: [checkboxes]
- game length [0-3 days][0-24 hours]
- allow restarts? y/n
- allow ingame allies? y/n
- win condition: (checkboxes: all originals dead | largest number of kills | highest TNW | ?? )
# of NPC determined by number of players for market stability

Curious only. how many countries can each player have? and how many max turns can be stored?

Llaar, some of your requests are too difficult to do or would cause problems with the public market. However, I did add some customizaton options which should make some of your use cases possible. For example, players could participate in clan battles or could join a game and effectively fight against random people. They would need to arrange things on their own instead of having the game do it for them.

Only the FFA server allows for players to have multiple countries on one server.

I C. I was just curious topic threw me..NEW/ warring serverS/plural ...thx for the answer

I like it!

To really make it a killing server, you could do a royal battle. Give 600 turns to build a country protection, reset turns before start and then last country standing. Killing a country gets you huge bonus. Making it only possible to win by killing.

Interesting 🤔

Shortening the entire game to a small timeframe is a great idea for a server like this. Working to match that time window for players would be an added bonus. I for 1 will probably never be available for the entire 21:00 GT to 22:59 GT time window.

I like the idea of various win conditions, but I would think that starting with 1 win condition would be best. Adding the additional complexity in future iterations is great, but I would think we want to see how the server works in practice before massively changing things.

Will the NPC countries change their play towards the same win condition?

The other game I played initially had the same set up. Once more players got drawn towards the format/game, they introduced timeslots that people could select to have their matchup. Just trying it out and seeing what it does would already be a great step forward! The 1 hour format does sound appealing though. Will be a very intense hour :-)

Could also have a 2 day lead-up to the event, where people get 500 fixed turns or so to prepare a country. Then during the actual event, all mayhem breaks loose

I would like to make the servers rotate times to those that work the best for the majority of players, but players are unfortunately too shy to provide much feedback.

The Private Matches server will be available before the Single Combat server. I'm hoping the experiences of players on that server can be used to tune the Single Combat server before it goes live.

The bots play in their own private game for the sole purpose of generating public market activity. They aren't aware of a win condition.

If the game length is an hour, easy to make myself available any time except for the 5-6 hours of sleep I need. If held frequent enough, no big deal if I miss one.

If it is 2 hours, will require some planning but again not impossible. My experience with previous games using this format is so good, that I will happily move some things around to make it fit if announced some time in advance.

By rotating times and gathering statistics on the most played slots, you can refine the times quickly as well.

Sounds interesting.

I’m still thinking of what could make it fun. This hits some for sure

We can try it, I like the idea of a raffle of all the warring players with team captains like a lotto where they pick their teams, one at a time.

Unfortunately that's really hard to do. There's no way to force team captains to be active at the right time to make decisions. There is an unpublished idea to allow for team-based combat but I can't figure out what the warrers want.

This sounds 🔥