In all of the server merge discussions, one of the most common complaints has been regarding the use of military bank accounts. These are accounts that players use to store huge amounts of ships and troops, to be used later by others as needed. In some cases, these accounts have been built up to store so much military that the Generals/Military scores are in the millions.
I personally have witnessed an account like this briefly visiting one of my servers, offering its services, then leaving. Many people on the boards here have stated it feels like these accounts offer an unfair advantage to players/alliances who have access to them. Some people have offered suggestions of limiting how much can be stored, or causing gold to be expended during vmode, or limiting use of the black market once out of vmode. Some people have suggested eliminating the use of legal multis. It is my continued belief that none of these suggestions would have the intended effect of preventing the use of military banks. But these would have plenty of unintended effects on people who play by the rules and have done nothing to contribute to this phenomenon.
I do, however, have a suggestion of my own: Eliminate the Black Market completely. People can still trade/sell/donate sulfur to teammates to build up military. People can still support friends and teammates by buying high priced goods. But this way people would actually have to build their own military and not rely on others selling it to them. There would be no point in having an account with a 20 million military score. And this would also be equitable to everyone.
Over the years, Gameforge has added the ability to purchase almost anything with ambrosia: time, resources, speeding up of ships. But we've never had an option to buy military. I believe this was intentional and a wise decision. I believe it's also time to remove that option from player-to-player interactions as well.
(And now, to brace for the incoming objections.)