I wrote a long suggestion/rant for a warfare update on discord but decided I should have AI rewrite it to make it shorter and more coherent - and I have decided to show it in an article instead. Let me know what you think! Link is available here for original rant here!
Currently, warfare in War Era lacks strategic depth. Back-and-forth battles feel underwhelming, often resembling "Eco Era" more than a true war game. The current meta heavily encourages the creation of proxy states purely to gain free attack vectors and positional advantages with zero drawbacks. Meanwhile, landlocked nations are heavily penalized, and players who legitimately want to run an independent country are forced out.
This proposal introduces a comprehensive overhaul to the warfare system, adding deep strategic layers, localized regional infrastructure, and guerilla warfare mechanics.
Warfare, equipment, and regions will be divided into three distinct theaters: Ground, Air, and Naval.
Equipment Cost Scaling: Costs scale by theater to reflect reality. Ground is the baseline, Air is more expensive, and Naval is the most expensive.
Dynamic Upgrades: Players can pay a premium cost to upgrade/downgrade equipment classifications.
Combat Overhaul - Battles vs. Raids:
Battles (Conquest): Standard, multi-round engagements meant to control a region. (Consider extending the current timer for these).
Raids (Disruption): Short, single-round strikes meant to inflict damage or destroy infrastructure. Raids are limited by a cooldown/cap to prevent spam.
The Rebellion Mechanic: Occupied countries receive a massive buff to their Raid cap, allowing them to wage guerilla warfare, destroy occupier infrastructure, and force the occupier to constantly defend. MU Leaders of occupied nations could also initiate raids.
Bridges & Ports: Natural bridges exist between sea regions, but connecting a Land Region to the Sea requires building a Port (requires maintenance). Connecting islands/continents requires two Ports within a specific node distance.
Fleets (Mobile Bases): Fleets act as mobile regions with built-in ports.
Controlled by National Leaders, they require travel time (no teleporting).
Have a "Health Bar" (destroyed after X battle losses).
Hidden from the enemy unless an enemy fleet is adjacent or it is parked adjacent to a shore.
Naval Invasions: A Fleet must be anchored in an adjacent coastal region to launch a ground invasion from the sea.
Combat Integration:
Fleet vs. Fleet: Navy equipment only.
Naval Invasions: Invaders use Navy/Ground. If they have the Air Wing Upgrade, they can use Air. Defenders can use all three if an allied fleet is adjacent.
Airfields & Bridges: Aircraft are not limited by terrain. Regions require an Airfield to spawn and maintain an Air Wing.
Air Wings: Like Fleets, these have a health pool and high maintenance costs. If their host Airfield is destroyed, the Air Wing is instantly lost.
Combat Integration:
Air Patrols: Air Wings can be assigned to patrol a region for a set duration, acting as a defense against enemy Air Raids.
Air Superiority: If Nation A launches an Air Raid on Nation B, and Nation B has an active patrol, an Air Battle triggers to determine air superiority.
Combat Integration: Ground vs. Ground remains the standard. However, adjacent Fleets or active Air Wings will allow those respective equipment types to join the ground battle.
High-Value Targets: Because regions can now be upgraded with specific military or economic buildings, Ground Raids become highly strategic. You aren't just fighting for empty land; you are crippling the enemy's operational capacity.
Regional Infrastructure vs. Global Bonuses: Currently, production bonuses apply globally across an entire nation, meaning individual regions lack distinct economic value. We need an Infrastructure system where nations can sink money into specific regions to boost their localized production. This forces nations to choose between spreading their wealth or creating highly productive (but vulnerable) industrial hubs, making them prime targets for enemy Raids.
The Bottleneck of Perpetual War: The current pace of economic production is simply too slow to sustain perpetual warfare. If we introduce advanced, expensive equipment, the system will bottleneck. Players who just want to log in and fight shouldn't be forced into heavy corporate management just to keep the frontlines supplied.
"Locked Inventory" Supply System: To help supply soldiers without breaking the wider economy, a "Locked Inventory" system could be introduced. Nations or high-level players could gift equipment to lower-ranked fighters, but this gear would be "locked"—meaning it can only be used in battles, not dismantled, sold, or traded for profit.
Expanded Building Roster: To fully support the Tri-Force system, the game will need a wider variety of regional buildings to act as strategic targets.
Ground: Barracks (to boost raid capacity), Infrastructure Hubs (for localized production), Ground-to-Air Defenses (allowing defenders to use ground equipment against aircraft).
Air: Airfields (required to spawn/maintain Air Wings), Radar Installations (to detect incoming raids and expose patrolling air wings).
Naval: Ports (for fleet creation and bridges), Coastal Bunkers.
Map Redesign: Capital cities are currently too vulnerable to naval invasions (e.g., Australia, Portugal). The map needs a rework to ensure Capitals have interior buffer zones. A volunteer player team could help design this!
Equipment Shuffles:
Ground Mythic: Tank (Replace the Legendary slot with an RPG/Noob Tube).
Hybrid Weapons: Epic/Rare/Legendary weapons that cross theaters (e.g., Guided Missiles for Ground & Air).
Ocean Resources: Spawn valuable resources in ocean tiles that nations can skirmish over without declaring total war.
Server Load: Can the backend handle the increased frequency of Raids, regional infrastructure tracking, and multi-theater battles? This will require careful optimization.