Brow is full so I have some time to write.
I think I know a good balance, something that will not finish too quickly and allow for plenty of enjoyment.
Each system is divided into many battlezones (according to either the number of stations or planets), i.e. something tangable that can be faught over. e.g. the battle for manhatten.
Each battle is divided into a number of encounters (to be determined by the defending side, but a number not exceeding 19).
Each encounter starts off with all players of both teams alive armed and fresh. Each encounter ends when either one side has been eliminated, or concedes, No-one participating in the battle is allowed to respawn during an encounter.
No one is allowed to join a team during an encounter, however players can join or part between encounters.
So on the scale of things, you can either fight for a system, or if you want to think small, battle for a planet.
An example: Team X decides they want planet Y from Team Z. They declare a formal notice of aggression for planet Y at least say 24 hours prior to the event. Team Z acknowledges the notice and says that the planet will be decided based on a 'best of 9' encounters (first to 5), and 2 ahead (so if it were 5-4 then there would be more encounters until one team went 2 encounters ahead). The battle pursues, each team gathers some distance from the planet and within some distance of each other, then the attackers hail 'ATTACK' to begin fighting, no one spawns until one team is dead, or concedes. Once all a team is dead, the remaining team wins that encounter. All dead members of both teams spawn, and retake up positions for the next encounter. And so on until the battle is won/lost.
Did that make any sense?
Edited by - Twex on 14-07-2003 04:25:10