Sabotage Mechanic

Sabotage represents covert, asymmetric interference with an enemy faction’s infrastructure, economy, morale, or logistics. It enables guerilla factions, mercenaries, or cunning states to shape a war through indirect means—without descending into griefing or excessive destruction.

Sabotage is not about leveling bases, it's about surgical strikes, psychological pressure, and strategic disruption.

Sabotage Limits

Note: Guerilla factions are expected to use sabotage as a narrative tool, not a griefing loophole. Their power lies in fear, disruption, and subterfuge—not brute force.

🔧 What Counts as Sabotage?

Sabotage is not full-scale warfare, but a set of discrete actions designed to weaken, confuse, or delay an enemy without direct confrontation.

✅ Allowed Sabotage

These actions are legal under the sabotage rules as long as they are limited in scale and narratively justified. They must also be reasonably localized.

• Disrupting Logistics
  Stealing or destroying small amounts of supplies (e.g., a few potions, tools, or rare items) to impact readiness.
• Tampering with Defenses
  Disabling a limited number of mechanisms per week, such as disabling a turret, opening a hidden door, etc.
• Espionage
  Gathering intel via stealth, disguises, or informants. Includes planting false intelligence or RP misdirection.
• Sabotaging Industry
  Disrupting production systems such as redstone farms, item pipelines, or crafting stations—only if the disruption is minor and reparable.
• Psychological Warfare
  Leaving cryptic signs, threatening books, bloodied banners, or eerie messages to demoralize enemies or pressure defection.

❌ Prohibited Actions

The following are strictly forbidden, as they cross into griefing, power abuse, or excessive disruption:

• Total Destruction of Defenses
  Removing all walls, turrets, traps, or doors in a base to leave it fully exposed.
• Mass Looting
  Emptying entire storage rooms or vaults. Sabotage should feel like a heist—not a wipe.
• Offline Base Gutting
  Completely disabling a base while defenders are offline is considered dishonorable and subject to rollback.
• Griefing-Style Damage
  Actions like lava casting, TNT spamming, terrain cratering, and city-wide flooding are never permitted under sabotage rules.

🚫 Harassment Clause

Sabotage must be narratively justified. Repeated or excessive targeting of the same player or group without clear in-character motivation or escalation is considered harassment and will result in administrative penalties.

This includes:

• Attacking the same player repeatedly outside of war, without any change in goals or storyline.
• Repeatedly targeting new or low-power towns with no political role just to "cause chaos."
• Using sabotage to punish OOC disagreements or intimidate players personally.

If you're not progressing a story, advancing a conflict, or responding to RP events, you should not be sabotaging them.

Distributed Psychological Operations (DPOs)

Symbolic propaganda actions such as placing eerie banners, cryptic signs, or threatening books in up to 5 nations per DPO. These do not count toward regular sabotage limits but must follow stricter standards:

• Highly visible (no hiding underground or in obscure areas)
• Removable within 1 minute
• Narratively justified and non-disruptive (no blocking, disabling, or spamming) Used to spread fear, misinformation, or demoralization across borders without gameplay impact.

Example: A guerilla faction leaves identical red-veined banners and a chilling message at the gates of five capitals.

🕒 Offline Sabotage Protections

Sabotage must remain fair, cinematic, and avoid punishing inactivity. These protections ensure balance between attacker and defender.

• ⏳ Sabotage Limits Per Day
  A saboteur must obey the limit placed on them by their group classification. This may include breaking a door, cutting a line, or disrupting a redstone trigger.
• 🛑 No Full Destruction While Defenders Are Offline
  If no members of the targeted faction are online, saboteurs may only make minor, symbolic disruptions (e.g., block a road, steal one item, leave a warning).
• ⏰ Sabotage Windows
  Any major sabotage attempt (e.g., timed explosives, disabling traps, breaching walls) must occur during agreed combat windows where both factions are likely active. This ensures the event has RP weight and counterplay.

🛡 Counterplay – Defending Against Saboteurs

Defenders are not helpless. The sabotage system encourages RP-based countermeasures and traps that reward creativity and vigilance.

• 🔔 Alarms & Alerts
  Use computers, bells, tripwires, or redstone indicators to detect intruders early.
• 🔄 Backup Systems
  Design defensive layers that reactivate or reroute when sabotage occurs (e.g., decoy doors, bypassed circuits).
• 🪤 Saboteur Traps
  Leave behind misleading information, fake “important” locations, or rigged rooms designed to lure and trap infiltrators.
• 🚨 Patrols & Security Checkpoints
  Roleplay guards, shifts, and lookout posts to maintain defense awareness. If caught mid-sabotage, the attacker may be challenged or hunted.

📸 Documentation & Enforcement

All sabotage actions must be documented by the saboteur and submitted to the Divine Entity upon request in case of a dispute. Screenshots, logs, or video recordings are acceptable.

Sabotage is a storytelling tool—not a shortcut to victory. Use it to add tension, spark fear, and create legendary moments.