#Why not both?# Go with your approach first, as it has already been implemented, let's for call it Arj mode for now.

Then implement the other approach later, let's call it Partner mode.

Offering two modes, means offering two servers, with double the effort to maintain. But if one server is offline, the players can still play your game on the other server. You can also sell Partner mode as a game expansion, to cover the costs of implementation.

You and your partner could collect server metrics, and if Partner mode (or Arj mode) shows to have too few players, you can decide to shutdown that mode later.

I can see that both modes growing with different rules could be enjoyable for different reasons. As a player, I would like to play both of them, and to form my own opinion. But over time, your players will stay with the most enjoyable mode.

Even if some rules are weak, together they are strong. Market the rules as features.

For Partner mode:

• Not grind, but extremely hard.
• By being able to attack everyone, total freedom.

For Arj mode:

• Not being able to attack weak opponents, and not being attacked by strong opponents, fair.
• Progression of conquest tile size, dynamic growth.

There is a lot of things that could make Arj mode or Partner mode dead-ends, like powerful players being unable to find opponents, or new players unable to expand. Both modes can fail, so there is still more design decisions to be made. This is why I believe both should be tried.

Why not both?

Go with your approach first, as it has already been implemented, let's for call it Arj mode for now.

Then implement the other approach later, let's call it Partner mode.

Offering two modes, means offering two servers, with double the effort to maintain. But if one server is offline, the players can still play your game on the other server. You can also sell Partner mode as a game expansion, to cover the costs of implementation.

You and your partner could collect server metrics, and if Partner mode (or Arj mode) shows to have too few players, you can decide to shutdown that mode later.

I can see that both modes growing with different rules could be enjoyable for different reasons. As a player, I would like to play both of them, and to form my own opinion. But over time, your players will stay with the most enjoyable mode.

Even if some rules are weak, together they are strong. Market the rules as features.

For Partner mode:

• Not grind, but extremely hard.
• By being able to attack everyone, total freedom.

For Arj mode:

• Not being able to attack weak opponents, and not being attacked by strong opponents, fair.
• Progression of conquest tile size, dynamic growth.

There is a lot of things that could make Arj mode or Partner mode dead-ends, like powerful players being unable to find opponents, or new players unable to expand. Both modes can fail, so there is still more design decisions to be made. This is why I believe both should be tried.