When a player has been inactive for a month, I feel that their lack of presence would lead to standards dropping on the planets they have colonized.

Therefore I am proposing that their planetary defences should begin to rust, lowering their effectiveness.

It would be low to start with, but gather pace over time till they didn't work at all.

All a player would need to do to reset this, would be to log on.

This would mean that if you scanned a planet owned by an inactive player, you would be able to see at a glance how long they had been gone by the condition of their defences.

It would also mean that planets, currently unused by an active player, would gradually get back in to the game as they would become easier to invade.

A month is long enough that anyone on holiday or ill would have time to get back on, plus as I say it is reversible anyway.

dan has already recently (within the past few months) stated that he has increased invasion chance on planets owned by someone inactive for 6 months
...so don't expect for any more favors in that area anytime soon...

Yeah, I know he has.

But, with respect, I am not sure that is good enough.

Unless I am missing something, there is no indication that the player is inactive, so you have no way of knowing your chances are increased.

Plus, this gives even the newest players a chance of taking a good planet and anything that excites and encourages new players as well as encourages exsiting players to stay active, has to be a good thing, IMO

Problem with rust, is that it's too specific.

Rust is the product of the reaction of iron with water (I hope. :s). It does not occur in other metals, however, you may get a similar reaction, just not "rust".

And invasion chances already rise if player is 6 months inactive, although a flag would be nice.

Corrosion then.

A rose by any other name.....

2 words : governance probe

well if you can target the person directly, you can use a governance probe to tell if they've been inactive for 7 days... and then just wait 5.75 months after that to be sure

or tarnish, erosion, neglect would be good terms

that's not how it works : Spy Probe - Governance
This probe returns data on whether the current planet owner
is active or inactive. (Logged in within the last 7 days)

Which in no way actually helps you take the planet.

I think that the level of defence for active players is spot on and like most things in this game well planned and worked out.

However, I think there should be a far easier and direct way of a) seeing the state of the planet with regards to how active the Owner is and b) Not making players wait a year of more till their guns are big enough to be able to get past the defences, let alone invade.

lots of people moaning about lack of good, available planets in the pool, this should free up some and make everyone happier.

Plus, not going to effect anyone that lays the game on even a semi regular basis, so it should be win/win.

well anyone in a legion can share a planet and get help invading it