Town vs Town

Pros of Current Town vs Town War Settings

1. Accessibility and Engagement:

   • Startup Delay (45 seconds) and min_online_each_town (3): These values strike a good balance, ensuring there is sufficient time for players to prepare while also preventing one-sided engagements when not enough players are present. This ensures the war starts off on a fair footing.

2. Cooldown and Win Conditions:

   • The cooldown of 2 days between wars is a great way to avoid burnout. It gives towns some time to recover and regroup after a conflict, allowing players to refocus on building or other activities.

   • Having a max time duration of 48 hours for a town war ensures wars don’t last indefinitely, while still being long enough for strategic play and potential counterattacks.

3. Occupational Control:

   • Instead of dissolving towns after a loss, you've opted for winner_gains_occupational_control. This adds depth to the outcome of a war without completely erasing a losing town, making the consequences significant but not overly harsh. This promotes more activity rather than discouraging players.

4. Surrender Flexibility:

   • Surrender Allowed with options for trading towns and money adds flexibility. This allows towns to negotiate terms, possibly ending a war in a way that both sides can agree upon. It can make the wars more about political maneuvering, which is engaging for players who enjoy diplomacy.

5. Townblock Health Mechanics:

   • Townblock HP allows for territory battles during a war, adding strategic depth. Players must choose which parts of their town to defend, making warfare about both positioning and tactical decision-making.

Cons and Considerations for Improvement

1. Impact of Townblock Ownership and Switching:

   • townblocks_switch_towns: false and townblocks_single_use: false: These settings mean that townblocks will not change ownership or be permanently fought over during a war. This could limit the strategic impact of focusing attacks on certain town areas. Allowing townblocks to switch towns could make wars more consequential, as each block would directly affect town boundaries and power.

2. Winner Takes Over Town (false):

   • Currently, winner_takes_over_town is disabled, meaning that losing a war doesn’t lead to complete assimilation of a town. This makes the consequences less severe, which could encourage more players to participate without fear of losing everything. However, this can also mean that winning a town war doesn't feel as rewarding as it could be. You could consider enabling this for high-stakes wars, though it would need careful handling to avoid discouraging players.

   • Since winner_gains_occupational_control is enabled, the current setup is more forgiving and allows towns to rebuild, which aligns well with your general philosophy of avoiding harsh punishments.

3. Resident and Mayor Lives:

   • Equal Lives for Residents and Mayor (6 each): Similar to the riot settings, the mayor's lives are the same as residents, which might reduce their significance. You could consider giving the mayor more lives (e.g., 8 or 10) to reflect their importance or set mayor_death to true to create a critical win condition.

4. Switch and Item Use:

   • switch_use: true and item_use: false: Allowing switch use while disabling item use is a balanced approach. It lets players interact with tactical elements like doors and levers while preventing chest looting or tampering with other containers. This retains strategic options without introducing full-scale looting.

5. No Score-Based End Condition:

   • With max_score.enabled: false, there’s no clear way for a war to end via point accumulation. While having wars end based on territorial control is strategic, adding a max score as an alternate win condition (perhaps enabled for quicker wars) could give towns more ways to claim victory, catering to a variety of play styles.

6. Neutral Towns in Wars:

   • does_neutrality_prevent_town_war: true: This setting means that neutral towns are exempt from being challenged, which aligns well with a non-aggressive playstyle. However, this might create a scenario where towns simply set themselves as neutral to avoid conflict, potentially reducing opportunities for wars. Consider adding a cost or limit for maintaining neutrality to add some balance.