Wishlist: Capitulation

[Zapmeister]

This wishlist item (the only one I've ever done) is about addressing the problem of game dropouts.

When a player loses interest in (or the ability to continue) a game, their withdrawal often has serious side effects in terms of game balance which detracts from the remaining players' enjoyment of the game, mostly because the AI is not competitive.

The wish, then, is for an action I call "capitulation" to replace the current practice of "going AI". Capitulation should be enforcable on the server, to cope with password-setting AWOLs that disappear without a word when the going gets rough.

When you capitulate, the Dominions server uses some algorithm based on dominion and the proximity of forces to divvy up your territory between your neighbours. Your former nation is thereby extinguished, leaving nothing for an AI to control. Perhaps also, the special sites in your capital (if you still control it) should be destroyed.

I imagine people might argue for a while about the fairness of the division algorithm but, in my view, any half-decent system would be better than leaving an abandoned nation in the hands of the diplomatically fickle and militarily incompetent AI.