I was considering starting up war again, but after seeing what a failure it's been, I figure the game should be made simpler and more regulated. What I'm proposing was originally an unchanged game of war, but the concept evolved in my mind, and now it's almost an entirely different game.
Call this game
"War Abridged".
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This game was inspired by Sid Mier's Civilization, a game I play quite avidly. Generally, when people are playing war on this forum, it tends to get confusing as to when a particular "attack" hits another player, and turns into bickering and god mode from there.
My version of war, on the other hand, is semi-turn-based. Every post by a participant is considered a "turn". Here's a map with 6 players, to better illustrate the concept: (To keep things simple, the map doesn't wrap around to the other side when you cross from one edge to another).
PARTICIPANTS ARE REQUIRED TO INCLUDE AN UPDATED MAP IN EVERY POST. THIS RULE DOES NOT APPLY TO POSTS BY THE HOST OR NON-PARTICIPANTS, WHICH ARE CONSIDERED MERELY OBSERVERS.
Notice the gridlines. When a player launches an attack on a target from a city, a movement is drawn on the map and posted. Troops move at a rate of one square per post/turn in the thread. The "turn clock" is advanced after any participant posts in the thread. Here's an example of an attack:
In this example, Player 1 (Red) is attacking Player 6's (Green) capital. Since the Player 1's troop movements (marked by the red arrow) cross black gridlines 5 times, they will reach their target after 5 posts/turns in the thread. Since Player 6 put up a fortification to the west of his/her capital, the attack will be delayed by one post. Altogether, Player 1's attack will take 6 posts/turns to reach Player 6's capital. Once the attack reaches Player 6's capital, the capital falls, and Player 6's territory is ceded to Player 1. When attacks are launched on cities, that city falls to the player who attacks. No attack route can cross 2 cities. Only one may be attacked at a time by a single player.
In the time it takes for Player 1's attack to reach Player 6, other players can counterattack Player 1, like so:
In this example, Player 2 (Blue) is allied with Player 6. Since the post Player 2 makes occurs immediately after Player 1's post, a border cross is indicated with an arrowhead. After 2 more posts, Player 2 will have counterattacked and cancelled out Player 1's attack unless Player 1 reroutes his/her troops like so:
In the meantime, Player 1 can call off the attack or try to negotiate with Player 2. If the attack is called off, attack lines are erased, and the troops commit seppuku for failure. A counterattack is successful when one player's attacking troops meet another's on the same square, cancelling out the attacks for both sides. Keep in mind that while you're posting, another player can post out of the blue before you can reroute your troops. This is a game where you have to anticipate each player's movements. You definitely want to enable ninja protection.
The game begins once each numbered territory is claimed by a player. Unlike in the other war, it's not necessary to name or describe your territory. Although, I'd highly recommend you identify your territory and attacks with a color of your choice, like in the example.
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Do you guys get the idea of this game? How about we do a test run with about 4 players and see if it works. The game ends when one player conquers all the territory, or, if two Players remain, they declare peace due to a stalemate. I'll add more rules if neccessary. I believe to start out, there should be 4 Players and 1 host (The host's posts don't count as turns) to make sure everything's going smoothly. The game might be a little too complex to work though... still, I think it's worth a shot.
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ADDITIONAL RULES:
-Again, participants must post an updated map on
every post they make in this thread, even if that participant chooses to do nothing.
-Only posts made by participants (with updated maps) advance the turn clock.
-It's fine to delete or edit your post as long as it's the most recent post. If not, your actions are still considered valid. This is why an updated map has to be posted every turn by participants.
-One can take no actions as long as they have some discussion to contribute (no postcount++), although updated maps must still be posted. This can be used to your allies' advantage, speeding up a counterattack before the attacking player can reroute.
-No developing nukes/obliterating the planet/redrawing the map/godmoding. There's only one type of attack in this version of war.
-No erasing other players' attack routes unless you successfully counterattack them.
-Place your capital wisely on your island's squares, ideally in a hard-to-reach, fortified position.
-The general rule is one city or outpost per square of land. (All squares of territory must have at least one city or outpost to launch an attack from)
-All players are allotted 3 fortifications, which must be placed wisely. These don't all have to be placed at the start, though.
-Any actions which violate the rules result in that action being declared void by the host.
-Alliances are allowed (Although if there's only four players, this may be difficult to implement). I'd even suggest not wasting your posts (which are your turns) discussing this by using PMs. That'll surprise 'em!
-For now, terrain is entirely cosmetic. It makes no difference whether your capital is inland or on the coast... it's going to take the same amount of turns to reach. Perhaps in future iterations of the game I will implement different types of terrain that take multiple turns to cross, but for now the rule is 1 troop movement for post (or turn).
RULES REGARDING IMAGES:
-It doesn't matter what image software you use, as long as you
SAVE YOUR EDITS TO THE MAP IN .PNG FORMAT!
-Make sure your images aren't resized or compressed when you post them
-Use a secure host for images - meaning, the image is guaranteed to stay hosted for quite some time. I know S.N.N. recommends the file bin for these type of image games in the rules, but I personally recommend hotlinking from a
Photobucket account - you get almost unlimited image hosting for free. I have files hosted there from at least half a decade ago. You do have to register for a free account, though.
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I'm willing to make changes to the rules and mechanics before this game is approved. Tell me what you think, forum games mods. Please give this idea some consideration, as I spent at least 2 hours thinking it up. Is there anything I should clarify or change?