Neighbors

ok my question here is:  Do you think an alliance has the moral right to chose its neighbors?  If so to what extent do they have the moral right to enforce that choice or is this only a choice when the alliance decides where to place its clusters?

i live in the usa too and basically all zoning does is tell landowners what types of buildings they may put on land or what activities they are allowed to do.  

yes i agree, zoning isnt exactly what i mean but it is the closest thing i could think of as a RL comparison.  but also in illy we dont have different types of buildings that will have impacts on surrounding areas.  we do have different alliances that can have impacts on their local neighborhood based on the way they like to play.  a good example is the harvesting rules, every forum topic i read asking about them basically comes down to "depends on your neighbors."  some areas of illy it is 5sq others it can be up to 15

before the tortured rl parallels become too...erm...tortured...the appropriate rl parallel for land claims in illy is probably (wait for it) land claims. choose the situation you like best. a very brief "best of" list of problems from one of my favourite land grabs, the americas:
* how much land can i claim with one landing (that is, if i just send units but don't stay)? one colony?
* what happens to the people already in my claim area?
* can powerful figures on another continent really exert control over land just by drawing a line on a map?
and, post-revolt:
* is it right for distant powers to intervene on a continent they barely inhabit?
think for a moment and you'll have many more...and yes, i believe they were all ultimately settled by force of arms.

one might look to antarctica as an alternative model, but antarctica isn't actually the scientific nirvana it is sometimes portrayed as, since claiming nations only agreed to suspend competing claims there for a fixed period, so...nothing really resolved yet.

does USA actually own the moon by virtue of planting a flag? tbd.

Angrim, you're talking about Illyriad as if it's a competitive team game of maps, empires, resources, and armies.