Wars are a way to settle disputes between player entities (player corporations or alliances) that are eligible to conduct formal wars.
In a declared war, any members of the entities involved in the war may freely attack each other, without CONCORD intervening in High Security Space or any loss of security rating that would be incurred by otherwise illegal attacks. A war will remain active if the respective bills are being paid by the party that declared the war, or until either the defender or the attacker are no longer eligible for wars.
The following terminologies are being used in relation to Wars:
- Attackers - The entity that declared the war onto someone else.
- Defenders - The entity on the receiving end of a war declaration.
- Allies - A player entity offering assistance to the defenders of the war.
Declaring and Ending Wars
Any player corporation or alliance that is eligible to conduct wars, may declare war to any other player corporation or alliance that is also eligible for wars, for any or no reason at all. A war can be declared from the corporation management window, by clicking the "Declare War" button within the "Wars" tab, and then specifying the target corporation or alliance. A structure must be declared the HQ for the war for the declaration to be completed, and different structures may be selected as HQ for a new war.
It is not possible to declare war on any NPC corporations or corporations and alliances that are not eligible for wars.
All parties involved in the war (as well as their shareholders) will be notified about the war starting up and 24 hours later, fights between the two parties involved in the war may occur freely anywhere. The war bill for the first week of war will be automatically paid with the war declaration, and a bill for the second week of war is being issued immediately. That bill for the second needs to be paid manually before its due date in order to continue the war past the first seven days.
A war will end if one of the following events occurs:
- The attackers did not pay the weekly bills for the war in time.
- A surrender offer is accepted.
- Either attacker or defender lose their war eligibility, unless it's a Mutual War
- The attacker's selected War HQ for the war is destroyed, unless it's a Mutual War
- Note: Hull Reinforcement Duration for War Headquarters structures is 24 hours instead of the 4.5 days for structures not designated as a War HQ.
If a war ends, all involved parties (and their shareholders) will be informed about the war coming to an end. Hostilities may continue for 24 hours after this notification before CONCORD will once more intervene in High Security space.
Surrendering
If a surrender offer made by one of the warring parties is accepted by the other, the war ends immediately (with the usual 24-hour cooldown), and neither party will be able to declare war onto each other again for 2 weeks (14 days).
This protection from a new war declaration is only available after surrendering, if the war ends in any other way, it may be declared again immediately by either party.
Loss of War HQ
Should the attackers lose their War HQ for any reason, the respective wars using that HQ will be ended. After losing their War HQ, the attackers will have to wait out an enforced peace for 14 days, meaning they will not be able to re-declare any of the wars that were ended due to loss of their HQ for that time frame. However, the attackers may select a new HQ and declare wars on other war eligible entities immediately.
War Costs
Declaring a war causes a weekly bill of 100 Million ISK, payable to CONCORD, in order to keep the war active, with the first payment being due immediately. This bill will then be due every week and should be paid before the end of the current war cycle in order to keep the War going.
Leaving and Joining Corporations or Alliances with active Wars
A capsuleer is free to leave a corporation that is currently at war at any time but rejoining the same corporation will not be possible before 7 days have passed, or the war has come to an end.
A corporation that is the attacker in a war may not join an alliance until they have ended the war.
However, a defending corporation may join an alliance, in which case the war will be moved to the alliance level as it is when the corporation finishes the alliance joining approximately 24h after their application to the alliance has been accepted. As the war will be copied in the active state, the war will usually be in a state where fights can occur and Alliance leaders have to ensure informing their alliance members if a corporation with an active war is accepted to join the alliance, so surprises once the corporation completes the joining process can be avoided. If the defending corporation has any allies in their war, these allies will drop as soon as the corporation finishes joining the alliance.
Any corporation that is a member of an alliance at war may leave their alliance at any time. At the time of leaving, all active wars will be copied onto the leaving corporation and they will remain active for their current paid cycle. Those wars may be continued if the respective war bills are being paid by the attackers before the copied wars expire. If a corporation leaving its alliance becomes not eligible for wars, the war will still be copied over to the corp, but it will be begin the war cooldown the same way as if losing war eligibility during active wars.
Offering Assistance to a War
A defender in a war may choose to seek assistance in the war and open itself for ally offers. This allows otherwise unrelated corporations or alliances to offer to join into the war on the side of the defenders, either for free or for a fee. Once an ally offer is accepted, the offering entity will be treated as being part of the defenders in the war for two weeks before the offer has to be renewed.
This option is not available for attackers, and entities wishing to join in with the attackers will have to declare their own wars onto the defender, respectively.
Any corporation or alliance that wishes to make an ally offer to an entity at war needs to be war eligible as well.
Allies can enter a war to come to the aid of a entity that has been war declared. After their ally offer has been accepted, hostilities can start 4 hours after the offer has been accepted.