@Vasasalo: That's an interesting notion: changing the default premise of warfare altogether! And if that happens, then why not introduce a patrol option for scouts that would allow them to unmask incoming attacks? The functionality would be based on how many scouts are deployed at a time, possibly:
[TABLE="class: grid, width: 860"]
[TR]
[TD]# of scouts sent on each patrol wave[/TD]
[TD]Patrol duration[/TD]
[TD]Deploy/recall march time[/TD]
[TD]Can unmask incoming attack waves that are arriving in[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1 ~ 24[/TD]
[TD]1 hour[/TD]
[TD]1 minute[/TD]
[TD]1 hour or less[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]25 ~ 49[/TD]
[TD]2 hours[/TD]
[TD]3 minutes[/TD]
[TD]5 hours or less[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]50 ~ 99[/TD]
[TD]3 hours[/TD]
[TD]7 minutes[/TD]
[TD]10 hours or less[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]100+[/TD]
[TD]4 hours[/TD]
[TD]10 minutes[/TD]
[TD]20 hours or less[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
EXAMPLE:- I see the "Fog of War" icon on my dash indicating that I am under attack.
- From the Rally Point, under the Commands tab, I select 36x scouts and click on a new button, "PATROL"
- In the next window, I see the following confirmation window:
[TABLE="class: outer_border, width: 567"]
[TR]
[TD="width: 75, colspan: 3"]Back
Button[/TD]
[TD="width: 25"][/TD]
[TD="width: 25"][/TD]
[TD="width: 125, colspan: 5"]CONFIRMATION
PAGE[/TD]
[TD="width: 25"][/TD]
[TD="width: 75, colspan: 3"]Date[/TD]
[TD="width: 75, colspan: 3"]?
Button[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="colspan: 3"]Time[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
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[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 4"]Arrival in:[/TD]
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[TD="colspan: 3"]0:03:00[/TD]
[/TR]
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[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 4"]Origin:[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="colspan: 7"]City Name (XXX,XXX) RXX >[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 6"]Patrol Duration:[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
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[TD="colspan: 3"]2:00:00[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 6"]Effective Patrol Range:[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
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[TD][/TD]
[TD="colspan: 3"]5:00:00[/TD]
[/TR]
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[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 17"]CONFIRM PATROL[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
- I click on "CONFIRM PATROL" and my scouts march out. After 3 minutes, they begin their 2 hour patrol.
- If the incoming attack wave is within a 5:00 HRS landing-time radius, then I receive a PM saying that "Your scouts have uncovered an attack!"
- The "Fog of War" icon on my dash is replaced the standard icon showing how many attacks are incoming.
- At that point, I can either choose to wait it out or purchase and apply the "reveal incoming troops" premium feature per usual.
Of course, this feature isn't guaranteed to yield a successful outcome on the first try:
- I see the "Fog of War" icon on my dash indicating that I am under attack. I only have 12x scouts available.
- From the Rally Point, under the Commands tab, I select all 12x scouts and send them on patrol.
- However, because their effective range is only 1 hour, they find nothing because the attacking wave is further away than 1 hour.
- After 1 hour of patrol, the scouts return empty-handed.
- In the meantime, I've recruited 20x more scouts, so I send out all 36x scouts.
- Even though their effective range is 5 hours (or less), they still find nothing in the first 1 hour of their patrol (attacking wave is further than 5 hours).
...but the player can always recall the scouts resend them with a additional scouts to increase their effective range:
- Continuing from the example above, I've recruited 14x more scouts.
- I recall the the 36x scouts that I sent out previously. After 3 minutes, they all return.
- I re-send them out with the new scouts, for a total of 50x scouts.
- Within 7 minutes, they start their patrol.
- Because their range is 10 hours or less, they immediately see some incoming attack waves and I get a PM notification.
- On my dashboard, the standard attack icon appears with the number 3x, but the fog of war icon also remains.
- This tells me that, at the moment, I have 3x incoming attacks that will arriving in 10x hours or less, but there are incoming attacks that are further away still.
... and so forth.
Or, one could purchase the premium "Telescope" function (25x gold, perhaps) to unmask all incoming attack waves within 24x hours:
- I see the "Fog of War" icon on my dash indicating that I am under attack. I purchase and apply the "Telescope" feature.
- On my dashboard, the "Fog of War" icon is replaced with the standard incoming attack icon, showing 4x. So I have 4x incoming attacks. If I want to find out more about them, I'd have to purchase and apply (4x) "Instant Reveal" functions.
- Within those 24x hours, any incoming attack appears per usual, unmasked.
Also, the "instant reveal" function cannot be used unless the attack is unmasked. So players are required to unmask the wave by either scout patrol or "telescope".
How's that?
-Kaleel