This official news post is copied verbatim from the WoTMUD website. It is copyrighted by wotmud.org.
For too long, wars have meant nothing in the game. They would drag on forever and there was never a clear winner. Because of this, they became tedious and frequently caused people to play other characters.
"There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare."
This new warsystem attempts to be a solution.
Each city, minus Tar Valon, as they are supposed to be neutral and not wage war against men, has been outfitted with an identical warpatty. No matter the city, the warpatty consists of the exact same mobs, of the exact same levels, with the exact same eq. They are all situated behind a no-mob. This means that whether the patrol is in Amador, Tanchico, Caemlyn or Emond's Field, it will be equally hard to kill. The mobs do not set off call-mob and as said before, are situated behind a no-mob, meaning the city they are in only matters in terms of getting in and getting out. Using this setup prevents a whole ton of city rebalancing, that would never be equal as there is no way we could make Emond's Field and Tanchico as hard as some of the other cities.
It has been suggested all cityheads should be made equally strong, however, that would affect the fading system as the harder cities count as cityhits and the weaker cities like Maradon and Tanchico are just hits for a smaller amount of alt qps. This warpatty setup still requires a hit inside the enemy city, but levels things out as much as we can achieve.
The Rules of War:
Declaring War:
One side in the conflict will have to declare war in a post including "Declaration of War against NATION". This will ensure both imms, players on the opposing side, as well as your side are alerted.
In this post, you must include 5 terms/demands in case the opposition loses. I'm going to use Andor vs *oL as an example. Andor could demand:
-the removal and replacement of Pedron Niall
-the removal of Amador's city gates for a period of 6 months*
-replacing the *oL build-a-patty of Lugard Road with an Andoran one for a period of 6 months*
-a public posted apology of a Child or Hand Councillor
-making Niall kneel before Morgase in public
The opposing side will then have to post their 5 terms/demands within 10 days, RL.** Of course, if you aim high, the other clan might aim high too. This will be important because the losing side will have to cede 2/5 of the demands. It's your choice, aim high or aim low, but there might be consequences to your choice.
Demands for a player's declanning or severe docking are considered out of line, as that would impact player choice/influence too much.
*Changes that affect game balance/clan balance can be for a period of 6 months. If they were permanent, successive losses because any given clan is inactive/ people with OOC grudges gang up on one clan could essentially wipe them from the game, which is not intended.
**If a clan is so inactive that it can't post their terms/demands in 10 days, the terms/demands will default to a mirror of the terms/demands of the clan "who started it". E.g. in this case, that could mean removal of Caemlyn's gates and replacing an Andoran patrol with an *oL one.
Duration of War:
Any war will last for 21 days RL after the first Declaration of War has been posted. After those 21 days, immortals will do a tally of turn ins and declare a winner, or draw.
Objective:
-kill the enemy's general and bring home their banner victoriously, for 10 points.*
-kill the enemy's clan members and bring home their scalps, for 5 points.*
*It is absolutely imperative that you return to your own city and turn in your spoils of war to your general, otherwise they will not show up on the logs and may not count. You are advised to also keep track of these turn ins on forums, so your clan can gauge how the war is going. However, this is not compulsory.
The idea here is that one guy can declare a war, but he will have a flaming hard time winning it. In contrast, an active clan who can muster the people for hits in the enemy city can win more easily. This also means that darkfriends will probably have to be more manipulative and await their opportunity, instead of solo starting a war just to gain a few alt qps.
"Invincibility lies in the defence; the possibility of victory in the attack."
Gaining Quest Points:
If you kill the enemy's general, the participants will gain 2 qp, in a similar way as the extra smob qps.
If you kill the enemy's clan members, you will gain the normal amount of qps, e.g. 3-7.
Council/clan masters are free to add an extra set of council quests for the duration of the war, for up to 30 qps. E.g. in case of Andor vs *oL:
-Kill Morgase for 3 qps for each group member, doable without limitation.
-Kill Tallanvor for 2 qp, doable once.
-Kill the Baerlon gateguards for 1 qp, doable 3x.
-Kill the Whitebridge gateguards for 1 qp, doable 3x.
"A good commander is benevolent and unconcerned with fame."
Multiple Factions:
Suppose the Red Eagles join Andor in their war against the *oL. Each faction is separate, so no hitching free rides to demands by ganging up on one enemy.
E.g. *ol vs Andor and Red Eagles can result in *oL winning from Andor, but losing to Red Eagles. That would mean that Andor has to concede to some *oL demands, but *oL will have to concede to some Red Eagle demands.
This means that players can't get their alts involved without risking they lose something. E.g. if someone has a Red Eagle and a Lion Warden, they have to pick a side and playing the one will not ensure a win for the other.
"In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity"
The Tally and Results:
After 21 days, the count ends and the immortals will tally each faction's results and post the results. This may include an IC post from the losing side's clanmob.
Winning/Losing:
Within 7 days of a winner being determined, the losing clan has to pick 2/5 of the opposing side's demands. If the clan fails to do so, 2/5 demands will be picked by imms and implemented at our earliest convenience.
The winner's clan will also get 100 qps to divide among those clanmembers who participated in the war.
"For them to perceive the advantage of defeating the enemy, they must also have their rewards."
(All quotes from Sun Tzu's the Art of War.)
(July 13 2018)
There's a weird bug that is making the generals not load their banners if their soldiers haven't been killed in the previous hit. Plenty of smobs that will repop just fine if some of their minions are left alive, so this is new to me. The goal is clearly to fix it, but in the meantime... kill it all.
(July 14 2018)
Two warnings about demands:
-we can't remove coded gates, as this causes coding bugs. We can, however, remove the gatekeeper mobs. That would make the gate act like a normal door.
-we can't alter the clan leader mobs listed in view clan. It might be a good idea if a change of leadership also has a 6 month duration, otherwise it just creates messes.
There's probably more nuances like this, so I'll try to collect them.
(July 19 2018)
Vampa had already posted this, but I will post it here so people who didn't read the 20 page thread will also be able to find it:
When the current wars under the system are over, we will have a one month moratorium on new wars, so that we may review the current setup and/or apply tweaks.
(July 19 2018)
I -may- have figured out a way to make the general assist if you are in your clan area. E.g. it would assist Eagles in the Manetheren War Room, and Lion Warden in the Caemlyn War Room, Children and Hand in Amador and clanned Seanchan in Falme.
This might all go haywire, but it's worth trying. If it fails miserably, I'll pull the mobol first thing tomorrow.
SAY RALLY at the general and he will assist you.
Note, I have only put this in for the clans that are currently warring, e.g. *ol, Lion Warden, Red Eagles and Seanchan clans. If it works, I will have to expand it and include the other clans.
(Aug 2 2018)
As a heads up, since you as players will likely notice the difference with the tallies of the Andor, Mayene and Seanchan wars, I have changed the back end of how the generals record things. That means the tallies of the ongoing wars will look messier, using the old format as displayed in the thread listing the results of the *oL vs Red Eagles war, as well as the new format below.
a banner bearing a white and black circle split by a sinuous line by Elysia
a banner bearing three crescent moons on a field of red and gold by Elysia
the trophy of Elytest the Human slain in the Wilderness - war scalp by Elysia
The adjusted format should make it heaps easier to copy/paste/sort into Excel. Hopefully that will make the tallying on our end easier and more reliable.
Also, I just noticed those are the Tairen and Dragonsworn banners. Coincedence or Foretelling!?
(Aug 3 2018)
The war patties will now issue the local warrant, if said city has a warrant system. E.g. it pretty much covers all cities, except Tanchico, Jehannah and Lugard.
(Aug 11 2018)
With the annoucnement of the winner in the Mayene - Tear conflict, this round of wars is over. We're going to take some time to evaluate upstairs and I'm planning to ask for the participating clans' feedback as well.