So, I've been thinking. Maybe a better and more satisfying way for an organization to attack another, through whatever mean, would be through a ritual or process of some sort. This process involves variables; it can be done in a number of different ways. Although it could be stopped by interrupting it (IE, killing the right person at the right time), it would take months of sustained effort to complete, and the best way to thwart it would be through a counter-process, the details of which depend on the original process' variables. Discovering those could be done directly (Through spies - the real sort, not people's alts. I hope people will smart up and limit that kind of information to people directly involved and trustworthy) or through some other, alternate means. This is all very vague, but I hope the gist of it got through; the idea is that events unfurl over the course of RL days, and that a proper defense can be set up not only through combat, but also by sustained effort and resource management.

Thoughts?

So essentially... longer, more frustrating and convoluted conflict quests.

I'd prefer more ways for individuals and small teams to impact other orgs slightly but significantly, rather than huge organization-wide quests and counterquests that are yet another endless task to maintain just so you don't get screwed.

The words 'sustained effort' just send shivers down my spine.

The way I see it, you'd start it as a sort of project when you have man-power, resources and Power to spare. It wouldn't be something forced, nor would it be something frequent; it would be expensive, and if you failed, there would be a backlash. It would basically be an act of war, sort of thing; it would work mostly by making tactical choices of one kind or another and by spending resources, not by getting 100 of something and bringing it to some NPC.

How would it not be forced? If Celest quested against Magnagora, do they have a choice in whether they have to suffer any ill-effects? Or will they be forced to act in order to prevent whatever hostile action is taken against them?

If you're talking about strategic and tactical progressions of one side's leadership against another, rather than quest/accomplishment goals of the populace as a whole to achieve... that's a different story. Aetolia had such a system at one point, though I don't remember how it works. If you mean fighting over/tactically selecting how to expand geographically in order to reach certain key installations or targets, that could work. Maybe you could look at opinion of the Basin populace both inside villages and cities/communes as an alternate measure of conflict - where choosing to focus on certain groups with various ways of improving your standing determines who is winning. It's hard to come up with anything simple and easily implementable though.

Wouldn't be forced as in, would be spontaneous and player-started (Like a raid) but ongoing and long-term, (So you can't just do it when nobody is online).