That seceding a day before war is fine while seceding a day after war is declared is not sounds like complete bull!@#$. The act, intent, and outcome are exactly the same.
Just because you aren't at war when you secede doesn't mean it can't be a strategic secession. It's more likely to be a strategic secession if you're at war, and people are more likely to call foul if you do. But seceding and
then declaring war (even if it's not until a week later) could still be a strategic secession, if you did it so that you could fight the war better.
It's the intent behind the act, not the diplomatic situation, that counts. Which of course leads to:
The "strategic secession" rule is extremely arbitrary
Yeah, it kinda is. As is any other rule that tries to interpret someone's
intention. It's like a thought crime. It's really hard to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt, unless the accused self-convicts through poor planning or loose lips.
The other rules are very easy to verify. When the people exploited the loophole to generate a ton of wealth in Dwilight, nobody doubted that it was obvious abuse. There was no room for interpretation.
The people doing it sure didn't think it was an obvious abuse. (Or maybe they did, and didn't care?) There is a certain viewpoint (not one that I agree with, mind you) that holds that if the game lets you do it, then it can't be an abuse of the game. I mean, if the game didn't want you to be able to use your family gold as an endless fountain of wealth, it wouldn't let you do it, right?
With these strategic secessions and capital moves, though? Anyone who properly understands the rules can easily stage a justification for what is otherwise a purely strategic act, while other well-intended people will get harshly punished for poorly justifying the exact same act.
Point to any arbitrary rule where that is not the case.
Also, point to any secession that was judged by the Titans to be a strategic secession, and punished.
(FWIW - I can't remember it ever happening the the 5.5 years I've been playing, even though I've seen two that I think were rather blatant.)The rules should, imo, either be completely removed or given some non-fakable criterias. There's no justice otherwise.
So, what would you consider to be some criteria that couldn't be gamed?
