Spheres of Influence

[number4]

Spheres of Influence would solve a few problems, the most notable of which being the current Territory Auction issue. It wouldn't give us access to a random island on the other side of the planet, but it would at least give landlocked people a chance.

Every nation has its own Sphere of Influence. A SoI would give you a range of which neutral nations you can interact with on the map.
Building on to this; every country you own has its own Sphere. What that means is if this were implemented, I will use the Palkien Republic as an example: My capital is in Alaska, but I could bid on or invade countries in Central America and the Caribbean because of Mexico's Sphere.

What's more: Every connected border could increase the radius of your Sphere. If you own three countries with connected borders, you would have a Sphere that includes countries that normally aren't in your SoI. For example, say Peru is outside Mexico's, Guatemala's, and Cuba's Spheres individually. If a nation owned all three, they could potentially exert influence over Peru and therefore bid on it or invade it, if you get what I'm saying.

This brings me to naval control. Sectors of the ocean would have no Sphere, but owning them would be your only way of getting a nation on a different continent. You would claim a path of ocean sectors to get to a different continent, and once you reach land you can bid on or attack a country to gain a sphere. This would increase the probabilities of naval warfare in the high seas, it could create treaties between superpowers, and it would also give value to naval blockades.

The SoIs would also provide hotspots for conflict zones, immersing the players a little more. Say... Sweden was inside two Spheres. If both nations had no auction house capabilities at the time and they both wanted the territory, they could potentially have a PvP fight over neutral territory.

Now, to fit Serfs into play, a Serf's Sphere would also belong to their "Landlord", meaning a superpower can use their Serf's Sphere to gain territories if they fall outside their own Spheres. However, a Serf would not count as a connected border anymore, thus owning a nation connected to a Serf's nation and nothing else will not earn you a bonus to your Sphere's radius.

Just a thought I had.

[IcyNudibranch]

This sounds perfect! It gets rid of all the problems.

[ProkAdama]

I vote for this if there is a vote.

[alice]

I vote for this.

[Sgtsammac]

I'd like to know how it's to be implemented. We don't exactly have a paper map and a string to mark out spheres. Ofc it can be done digitally, but that's a huge pain that Idk if all of you are willing to put up with. I'll agree that's it's a good idea, but it really sounds like the kind of thing we'd need a full scale program to make feasible.

And I really feel the SoI should only apply to auctions, not things you're allowed to take by force. For instance, Britain would never have been able to take land in such a wide area of the world. And other nations all spread out very far as well, without actually controlling the sea in between. I think a slight compromise should be that any non blocked sea route should count for troop movement to other areas, instead of having to own a route. If you already meant this and I misread, I apologize, and the only remaining issue is how to make it actually work.

[IcyNudibranch]

I have two ideas:

1. Have each country have a sphere of influence of: land area of the country/1000000 x number of countries it borders x 50000

With this formula, Poland would have a sphere of influence of 0.3 x 5 x 50000 = 75000 km.

2. Use RISK (the board game) territories. Ex/ If I control Norway, I exert influence on the territory of Scandinavia, and so on. Obviously, the United States and Canada might not work for this, but we can tweak it slightly to the game.

[Sgtsammac]

The first idea sounds like the best one, but figuring it out every time would be a huge pain, I think it'd be more of a hassle than anything I've proposed to date. Especially since you'd have to find the center of every country in order to measure the sphere from after you did all your math. It's easily what I'd chose to do for a digital version of the game though.

The second sounds a lot like using continents, only even more restrictive... I don't approve personally. But if everyone would want to use that idea we could give it a shot. So long as I'm not to blame if it doesn't work lol

[shark]

personally, I don't have a problem with how things are now.

[asrodrig]

May 6, 2012 3:17:59 GMT shark said:

personally, I don't have a problem with how things are now.

This.

[ProkAdama]

Until I start a bid on Chile.

[asrodrig]

Then he just outbids you.

[ProkAdama]

That isn't my point. I know he will bid back, the whole point of bidding there is to make sure he loses money.

(One of the reasons why I bid on Spain)

Not to mention that I have more money.

[asrodrig]

Then what is your point? Because I really think that this spheres thing will just needlessly complicate the acquisition of new territory.

[ProkAdama]

My point is that... there is no way a random country across the world will submit to your rule simply because you give them a wad of cash. No support, no nothing. And you still expect them to give you money.

[asrodrig]

I agree with that entirely, but again, I think the method presented here might be a little too complicated. Why don't we all just not bid on countries across the world?

[ProkAdama]

Come up with a method. Who judges if you can bid on a country or if you cannot, and based on what info?

[asrodrig]

Well, we had a method before this latest reset, and it worked really well imho. But the mods don't seem keen on bringing it back, so I think the best way is just to make an agreement among the players to not bid on countries that are too far away from our existing territories.

[IcyNudibranch]

I agree. I like the old system best.

[number4]

Again; landlocked territories raise an issue. If we go back to the "borders only" system, if a nation were to completely surround a territory they may as well claim it because noone else will be able to get to it. The same applies to a nation surrounded by other nations. This is why I suggested SOIs, to avoid potentially gamebreaking situations where nations could claim a border around neutral territories and basically get cheap land because noone else can fight for it.

But whatever. :/

[Sgtsammac]

Please remember that you aren't just contacting a country and saying "I will pay you to be mine", they are contacting the world saying "We want to join the big boys, who will have us?" And even in real life, countries on the other side of the world will end up under the rule of another country. It's not unheard of. If the populace, or the leaders, of a country feel they need the protection of a power and they see one they like, regardless of why, they'll ask for that support no matter where they are.