Quote Originally Posted by lt_murgen View Post
Here are my thoughts:

Each round is 5 years. That kind of negates the idea of a surprise attack. Yes, you can invade without warning, but within a few months pretty much everyone in that country will know. Within a year or two, the rest of the continent will know.

I know that the constant juggling of units, negotiations, PMs and changes in official actions is a pain. But again, that kind of thing is going to happen in the 5 years we are covering?

I actually think it is a good system. Yes, people are going to write their actions on Tuesday and change them on Thursday. And someone else might miss something that changed. But isn't that really what it would be like? No country has a perfect espionage system. Scouts miss a portion of a moving army. Rulers provide mis-direction and misleading official orders. OVer 5 years, especially in warfare, things are going to change- both politically and militarily.

Now, if I could suggest a simplification:

Everyone maintains a single In Character Post. All text for actions should be colored black.
If there is a change to your actions, you strike out the original text and add new text in a different color. You can repeat as often as you like, but you have to strike out and use new text for each change. This wouldn't apply to fluff, of course, just the actions.
THis would allow everyone to scan through quickly and see what has changed. It would also allow everyone to see who is making multiple changes again and again.
Problem is, this game is also designed so that people can make actions once, and then leave until next week. Or some people like to respond with fluff. Changing an action makes two things happen:

1, say I post something in response to something else, say, I go into an alliance with Bob, and Bob's like - let's attack! I'm like, alright! Put up the action, and leave for next round. During the round, Bob gets convinced to pull out, change things, and not attack. However, I posted that I was invading with Bob, and so now I'm invading alone. Next round, I get slaughtered.

2, and this happened in my case Twice this round. I see all that has transpired, and decide to write out fluff in response to a particular action, and then that action changes hats completely, and I'm left with something I can't post because it is no longer relevant.

I think part of the issue is that all time is wibbly wobbly in this game. There's no order of play, turns, or chronology save "this happens within this time period". I'm not sure if there's a rectifiable way of dealing with this, but it stands to be pointed out. It mostly works fine, but in a combat system like the one we've got, it certainly makes things...difficult at times.