I’ve put this idea forward a couple times. It’s an escalating non-binary hostility system.
The idea is to 1) allow the hostile group to impose penalties on a target, such as tariffs and sanctions, with the caveat that 2) only the target group would be able to declare an open shooting war.
This would allow a lot of room for dev creativity in the types of sanctions the aggressors could impose. Ideas include economic stuff like penalties to citadels, or combat sanctions like ewar-only wars. The non-binary nature could give a lot more options for both aggressors and targets.
Some other key benefits:
-lots of knobs for balancing the wardec mechanic (different sanctions could have the costs adjusted based on the power disparity of the groups, or even the statistical popularity and effectiveness of the sanction)
-wardec mechanics become useful for non-combat oriented groups
-targets no longer get sucked into a shooting war they themselves didn’t declare
-non-binary nature means the target more options than logging off or dying
-non-binary balancing means aggressors would be incentivized to apply the most effective (expensive) sanctions against targets that would provide the most benefit (killmails, reduced competition, etc.) making smaller groups less desirable targets
-gives a stake to everyone involved, allowing conflict to be more inclusive than the citadels-only mechanic and meaningful for everyone involved
Admittedly this doesn’t necessarily address the how a target can force an end to the sanctions. But maybe that could be done through scaling the costs, or the design of the sanctions themselves such as making them location specific.
I just want to add that I feel the worst thing done to the wardec system was the removal of the watchlist. Not only did it not protect inexperienced targets, it made it harder for experienced targets to fight back, further incentivizing the “just unsub” option. Tools for making the fighting fun (like the watchlist) are also needed, but they should be built on a foundation of the war being meaningful.