2022-01-13 FYI

[Neils Iyssada]

Here is my list of potential abuse of the classic "2hrs - no return fire" noncombattant state :

• Attacker abuse :
  

1. Blockading a noncombattant city with one or more warships, with orders set up to attack once the enemy empire switch to combattant state. Making a rule so an officer can't attack any unit if they were noncombattant at the time you gave the order. Make it so they either can't take combat orders regarding noncombattant units or need you to give them the green light again when the empire switch to combattant state.
   
2. Scouting cities / ships and systems, placing spies and logging alt characters for a future attack, all of this while not being threatened by ships and defenses. Make ships and units able to fire on enemies after some clear noncombattant warning on coms, according to actual officer stance and classic diplomacy rules. Ships can't move but are still unkillable - should discourage any easy noncombattant grief and can even help for point 1 as the blockade would need to be far away to even survive before being effective.
   
3. Attacking with an alt empire to negate any significant counterattack damages. Make the noncombattant state linked to player account instead of character ? I mean when you log in and actually play, all your avatars could be taken into account and all your avatars' empires would be in combattant state. Or could be balanced by being triggered if one of your character's empire have actively attacked another empire.
   

• Defender abuse :
  

1. Using alt empires to freeze a potential war against their main empire ?
   

I definitely see more abuse coming from an attacking player.

My ideas are highlighted in red next to the abuse.

I got another question regarding the noncombattant state : what about automated trading / mining ships ? Are they stopped where they are, or do they continue their missions unaffected by the noncombattant stance ? Maybe this state should only affect ships that have no mission, orbiting any empire's city. Moving / missionned ships should be left unaffected as they can be considered as unprotected or out of empire's protection.