I somehow expected a response like that. Somebody in one of my games suggested that it might be a good idea, so I supposed that throwing it out onto the Forum couldn't hurt.

Sorry to whoever was bumped off the bottom of the forum by this posting!

I remember a thread recently where someone asked if they could have a second account so they could play in more games.

The answer was as explicitly straightforward... Such a multi account was not permissable.

What is your 2nd account's purpose?

An alternative way of getting players to take on mercy positions would be to allow play at no cost/no gain. When you take on a country in CD you could have option to either pay points and thus chance to add to them by winning or pay nothing and have no chance of gain or perhaps a small reward, say 5 pts. The former would be counted in stats in normal way and the latter not.

nice idea diplomat61

I'm not sure I like that idea much either, because I suspect some CD takeovers will be used to help other players in the game. I think this is a less traceable form of multi-accounting that is somewhat prevalent.

grr, I thought I replied to this earlier...
No, one account per person.
There is are a few major weaknesses in your suggestion d61. Firstly, the points limit was added partially as a scoring system and partially to stop people playing too many games at once. If they can play for free this will have a severely detrimental effect on their play. Secondly, one could abuse this by getting a friend to take over the CD nation (for free, so no risk) and suicide it for their advantage.
Also, I think this is an unnecessary level of complication. Far more useful and interesting features would be the addition of varients, game/game CD settings etc etc

If we wanted to improve things with CDs is it possible to have them move randomly? Or support hold randomly as that might be more defensive. I'm not talking about a full-fledged AI, just have them put in orders, they don't have to be optimal, but some movement is better then none.

We're attacking this problem from the wrong side. We need to reduce the number of CDs, not make them easier to take over.

Figle, you're probably reading this, can you answer a question on the thread " The Fabled 9 Fleet Convoy! "

Thanks a lot.

I hate the idea of people 'gaming the system' so to speak.

Want to play CD's to have the challenge of playing a nation already in a bad position, do so!
Why does everyone worry about their win/loss records? I know the ghost ratings gets everyone excited, but let me tell you, the top 20 players? They don't have second accounts... they don't play games and are worried about losing their current games because it will drop their rankings... they just PLAY THE GAME.

So... PLAY THE GAME! Quit worrying about powerleveling your login... just play the game and get into the high rankings the old fashioned way. If you like playing CDs, play CDs and enjoy the game. The better way to show you are a better player is winning the league and tourney games, IMHO.

/soapbox