[VedalkenBear]

Why not make the provinces go independent, and re-produce appropriate Independent defenders of the provinces? Alternately, if someone 'quits', have the computer zero all of their dominion. That will do the equivalent, but IIRC leaves the national troops in place.

My issue with your proposal is that it gives provinces when they could not have been conquered as quickly otherwise.

AFAICT, there is _no_ problem with AI control of quitting players. I am not sure what your performance measure is, here. You say 'better'. Better in what way? According to whom? Do you mean more challenging? Certainly, it's not. Having a hole in the map (player-wise) leaves all kinds of challenges, most diplomatic. Allied players who only allied to defeat the leaving player now have to reassess their diplomacy _while carving up the remaining territory_. Other players now have to assess this windfall, and what that does to the balance of power. Etc. etc. etc.

Also, if you want to do instant division, you need to make sure it is applied dead last in turn order. Otherwise, you can have players who are allied suddenly invading each other's territory.

All in all, I think this idea is not healthy for the game unless and until better standards can be provided to judge it vis-a-vis the current system.