The current war declaration mechanic is very stale and does not have nearly enough value, Also the current sov system is terrible, time zone tanked capture the flag that only certain people from the defending side can participate in
I think it would be amazing if the two were linked like this
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In order destroy an IHUB or TCU, the attacking party must be at war with the ihub/tcu owner.
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IF you are in a war and allies join your cause, they should be able both agressively and defensivly participate in the entosising of the structures.
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Increase the cost of the war dec’s to be based on the size of the aggressive group. So for example if the cost is 1 mil isk per person and a small 10 man group wants to declare war on some on, it will cost 10 mil per week to maintain that war. but if a larger group wants to declare war then the the cost scales to size. Allies joing the attacker or defender should have the same pay scale for maintaining the war.
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Introduce a treaty system within the war dec mechanic to allow parties to be involved in legitimate agreements that have associated costs involved with maintaining and or breaking the agreements. this needs to be fluid enough to allow various groups to be able to negotiate and put something in play, so for example if Team A decides to do a non invasion pact with Team B to last say 3 months. Both parts agree on a decided isk penalty. In the event either side declares war prior to the treaty expiring, then a fine directly taken from the aggressors wallet and given to the other team. (just an example, i am sure many other kinds of political contracts could be set up)
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Increase the war start time from 24 to 48 hours. this would help to avoid some of the player shenanigans as far as getting smaller corps to entosis lots of stuff, then having bigger allies come in to finish the timers.
i think spicing up the war dec mechanics and integrating them into the sov war system would make the declaration of war something that could be taken seriously once again. Allowing groups to make treaties and agreements that have actionable consequences would put fun back into the diplomatic mess that is null sec.