The new bonus system will be put into effect in express starting next round (Feb 9th). You can read more about the upcoming change here: http://forums.earthempires.com/Forum.php?threadid=7260

Would it be logical to award express countries more points than other countries because of the short set length? If so, how many?

it absolutely would be logical


there should also be a shorter expiration time

maybe make it give twice more points per vote.

Double the points for half the expiry time sounds like a pretty good deal :)

Yes

having thought about this overnight

not only should the bonus system be different because of the time variances but should also be tailored to an individual game

bonuses for more spy ops
bonuses to drop land
etc

why are you so adamant about being able to drop land. its counter productive to the server to destory land. expecially if someone hasnt had a chance to retal for thier land.

it is no more counterproductive to the server than farmers who deprive the server of food by selling it on the private market

or guys who use NMs to deprive the server of land
or guys who deprive the server of food with GSs
or guys who dump their tech at set end by selling to the autobuyer at $999

no one says to them, "hey do not destroy the server's tech"
or "do not destroy the server's food"

this concept of retalling to get back one's land is the reason most often cited for blocking people's ability to drop land.
it is a flawed concept, an errant notion, an LaEan thought

in a real life battle, one can recover one's land because each acre is a discrete, distinguishable unique parcel,
but at express land is fungible, nondiscrete.
one acre of express land is indistinguishable from another.
one can no more retal/recover one's land than one can get back a particular bushel of food or a particular dollar bill

there is no rule that the country who received $1M and 30k bushels in an LG can not spend that money or eat that food until after the target has had a reasonable chance to recover that food or recover that exact dollar. why not? the argument that one should be allowed to recover one's money is just as reasonable as the idea that one should be allowed to recover one's nondiscrete acre. if you can not drop land until the target has a chance to recover it, let us make a rule that you can not spend the proceeds of an LG or eat the food so obtained.
that new rule would be preposterous, so is the no drop land rule.

comparing food and money gained to land is rediculous.

grab someone for 500 acres and 100k food and 5m.

tell me how long it takes to get back 100k food or 5m dollars?

now tell me how many turns one would be required to take exploring to gain this land back.

VERY big difference here. if you grabbed me and then dropped the land i would take retals until i have gained this land back or i would kill you, depending on my mood and the severity of it.

grab someone for 300 acres $143M and 3M bushels
now it takes longer to replace the cash and food

so now can the attacker drop the land?

i can not understand how the target's emotional reaction to being hit should effect the actions the attacker takes after acquiring control of the property be it real or personal.

because thats unrealistic. someone with 3-4k acres is not going to have 1.5+bil on hand. and someone who has been farmed so hard they are in DR far enough that attacking them only nets 300 acres is also not going to have that much cash on hand.

so with that being said its still counter productive. youre destorying land that could be used by someone else. spending the money and food is not because chances are you are giving that money to another player through purchase of food, military and tech.

well it is true that spending money does have a multiplier effect throughout the economy

it is also true that under the current rule set the tiny countries with unstashed big bank rolls are far less prevalent
when i first started playing last spring there were tons of them
during the dasher era they were also commonplace

"you are destroying land that could be used by someone else"
this is a different argument than "the target has an ethereal right to reclaim his own particular acreage"
staying with the "ethereal right to reclaim" for just a moment since that is the more common argument, if this right demands recognition then write a rule that says that "the attacker's readiness vis a vis the target is reduced 10% for eight hours"
that gives the target adequate time to reclaim his beloved parcel
without unduly hindering the new owner's right to dispose of his property as deems fit
"they tore down paradise and they put in a parking lot"-some girl band, (chrissy hind?)
perhaps the attacker does not appreciate the beauty of his acquisition and the target must have the "ethereal right of reclamation" if so he has eight hours, after that paradise gets paved

back to the "destroying land which someone else could put to good use" argument
this argument was fully refuted on the suggestions thread a few weeks back by someone else

but with respect to express
this argument assumes that there is a dearth of land
hardly seems relevant to the current express sets where 13k acre countries are everywhere

just a suggestion to include the option as a bonus for a solo server

qz has said that his main reason behind it is protecting clans from suiciders so a solo server should be ok

just curious, what was your reason for wanting to drop land? I am tired and cant think of a good reason why dropping land that I just grabbed would benefit me.

one goal of the game is to maximize NW
if you look at your advisor you will see that acreage does not play much of a role in that valuation
the value of land is not accurately reflected in NW
just like people selling tech for $1000 to buy troops does not make much sense in game theory, it is a way to increase NW at set end
tech is not accurately reflected in the NW calculation
all that matters is size of military force

a small country with no tech has a higher NW than a fully teched large country with a slightly smaller military force even though the larger country's army is stronger than the smaller country's and even though the larger country has a much more efficient economy

just one of the vagaries of the game

because land is not accurately reflected all that matters is force size
if you look at the history of express you will see enshula and others winning with countries which have fewer than 1000 acres

they dropped their land to maximize NW

under the current rules, only allx players have the unrestricted right to drop land
the reasons why all-x players should have a massive advantage is shrouded in mystery

if you drop land, you SPAL and tech efficiencies are better able to help you acquire cash for forces and improve NW
land acquired late in the set may diminish one's ability to net

It's not shrouded in mystery,

It has been stated plenty of times why the rule is in place.

It is to stop people going on a grabbing run for 40- 50K land and then dropping all the land making it impossible for people having a chance to get their land back.

Who drops land to maximize NW? Land = NW.

wtf

qz says the rule is in place to prevent one country from wiping out an entire clan

i believe qz not the other commenters

one fully teched I or T who was allowed to drop land acquired late in the set could wreak havoc and score well
that is why the I's spy advantage is cut by 2/3s, why LGers can not drop land and why if they are in GDI they can not go on a giant NW acquisition run in the last six hours

according to qz's posts it has nothing to do with any "ethereal right of reclamation"

Suiciding isn't only on clan servers lincoln,

Also lincoln, the point is that grabbing that kind of land was to hurt players abilities to finish well, losing the land hurts production and then hurts your stocking abilities

That happens on all server, its more important on solo servers, if you grab but don't want the land, all you are doing is trying to get someone to fight you or you are just trying to screw up innocent countries.