RE: Drugwars - 48h to get Ready!
Another weakness is the need for a mechanism which prevents an empire to attack the same empire for xx hours (I suggest 72hrs).
Otherwise low investment ROI hunters (guilty as charged) can reset their protection shield from an alt by just sending 2 bouncers. The best low level ROI hunters have 0 troops.
At 8hrs protection and 72hrs cool down it would require 9 alts. That’s still just about manageable but it starts to become a chore already.
Nothing some smart dev couldn’t automate and operate over hundreds of accounts but it minimizes the incentive for most users due to the level of accounts required to make things work. Abuse on this type of mechanics (and chain) will always exist but it should be minimized as much as possible.
The protection reset loophole is too easy right now.
I am aware of no games that allow botting.
While the devs seem not to have undertaken to prevent that yet, I am sure they will - or the game will die. While botting may still be possible (most games continue to have the issue) It's probably not gonna be an easy mechanism to profit from.
I can think of plenty of ways to detect the kinds of bots you are discussing, and ending their disruption of people playing for fun will be essential to make this game worth playing.
It's game, and games are meant to provide entertainment value. Whales swatting players for ROI is definitely gonna decrease the entertainment value of the game for players intent on the purpose of the game.
If you start using alt accounts in the way you describe, expect the alts to be banned soon to prevent the burden of programming the mechanisms you refer to to permit them to be useful in the game.