[Rich04]

Mardik is unable to reply. Having to relocate across the country. He was hoping to have till the end of October before he would have to leave any games he was in. However events transpired that forced an early departure. He didn't even get a chance to post goodbye in any forums. I doubt any of us will hear from him before next year when he will have access to his computer again.

I have read the game forum. So here is my takke.

In that Surrender was never disabled I would say allow his wishes. Duke Fleed pretty much recounted what I knew of things before my departure from the game.

Hell I would have turned my empire over to Darklight if I hadn't been so pissed off by events and hit the withdraw button.

Sometimes a smaller empire will latch on to a larger one that they would never be able to beat. Agreements may be made between the players that if one (player) leaves his empire will surrender to the larger entity. This is far preferable than just being crushed outright. If the cards are played right the smaller empire might even share a joint win with the larger.

Now I am not advocating surrender to some third party just because one is losing to another empire.

In this case it was just a different form of conquest. One accomplished diplomatically.

From what I understand Darklight and Ydath were allies for most of the game. Ydath was not losing a war with anyone. Both were sharing resources and tech with each other. Finally a merger happened.

To say that the only way an empire can surrender is when it is beaten to death by a larger opponent and then only to that empire is childish and narrow minded. Furthermore it isn't even without precedence. Many a time a larger empire can simply demand surrender of an empire while not at war in single player. If you are powerful enough it just surrenders. I guess some would say that must be a 'bug' and needs to be fixed.

No one should enforce thier way as the 'one true way' to play SE4. Unexpected events are what make the game exciting.