Territory based system: City center - 9 outskirt tiles

For cities: One fort has two types of territory. The first is direct territory. This is equivalent to one forts sized square of territory around the fort. The second is outskirts territory, which is located directly outside direct territory. It is eight fort sized squares of territory located in all eight directions directly outside of direct territory.

Direct territory: Works exactly as it does now.

Outskirt territory: Outskirts territory can be anywhere between wilderness, to being considered part of the direct territory depending on how built up it is. Each square is it's own district, with it's own name and description that can be set. The more houses/shops/walls/etc are there, the more protected the outskirt is considered.

Watchtowers: Take exactly one fort sized square of territory. A faction may own three, and towns may be built around them. Unlike forts, these can be taken much easier. However this differs on two factors

1. Does the faction have a fort? If no, then the watchtower is harder to take. Taking probably up to a war (like now)

2. How far away is the watchtower? The closer it is to the faction, the harder it is to take. The father away, the easier. This also comes with a bonus modifier described below

The territory System:

A faction may own up to twelve territories at any one time. This includes one direct territory, their fort. Eight outskirt territories, the land around the fort. And three outposts.

Every faction would get a chest that can be only be opened by a factions leadership, as well as anyone that the leadership would give access to. For every territory, this chest would recieve a number of resources daily depending on what territories are owned.

Direct territory: No resources.

Outskirts territories: These would provide very few raw resources, but depending on a factor that would determine how built up each territory was, they would provide a growing number of coins (for example, say, how many active houses are in the area. Up to a cap.)

Watchtower territories: These would provide no coins, but would provide raw resources in the form of ores, stone, wood, and reagents. These would have a modifier based on range.

A watchtower that is very close to a factions direct territory would recieve less raw resources, only getting wood and stone, along with common ores. A watchtower a medium amount away from a factions direct territory would provide an average amount of resources, with less common ores.

A watchtower that is very far away would get the most resources with the rarest ores, with chances of getting even something like Arcanium or a spire shard(rarely)

As noted above this would also come with changes in difficulty for other factions to take them.

Close watchtowers give the least resources but the most security. Medium watchtowers give average resources and are about midling in difficulty for taking. Far away watchtowers give the most resources, but are the easiest to take.

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Tying the territory system into a war system:

To go with this, I propose a new war system based around these territories, with an added points system.

The war system itself: Rather then relying on one or two full scale battles, a war would be spread out over a week. Points would be earned on two factors. Events, and clashes. At the end of the week, the faction with the most points wins.

The events: These are simple. These would be generic events, that could be run by anyone on a moments notice, akin to world events. These could range from something simple like an ambush, to a direct attack on a factions outskirts territory. Each faction would get one chance per day to do one of these. The bolder and more dangerous it is, the more points that a faction earns.

Clashes: These are normal battles. Set up over Discord, similar to outerlands fights. These are worth the least amount of points, but can be done as many times as a faction likes.

Points can be increased of decreased on a number of factors. Such as which faction was the attacker, and the RPL disparity between the two. Upon winning or losing a fight, in order for it to be counted the fight would have to be sent in with all these details.

Taking territories: In war, taking a watchtower territory in a battle is worth the most amount of points, depending on how close or far the watchtower is. However they are also the most risky. A faction attacking an enemy watchtower stands to lose as many points as they would gain if they fail to take the watchtower. However there's a very good incentive to attacking these as well.

In order for a faction to be able to push into the enemy city at the end of the week, they must take at least one close, or medium distance watchtower from their enemy.

Taking an enemy city: In order to take an enemy city, as described above at least one medium or close watchtower must be taken. If this condition is not met, then the defending faction successfully defends no matter the point difference. However if they were losing by a substantial amount, it can lead to various penalties. Such as losing parts of their outskirt territory, and having to rebuild them again.

If a faction manages to take a watchtower however, then on the seventh day of the war they may push to take the enemy city. This is done much like how war is now. Both factions may use their points on a number of bonuses. These would need to be thought up, but they could include, say. Faction wide stat bonuses, war summons, or various other effects that might turn the battle to their favor.

If the attacking faction both holds the most points, and loses the battle, then upon the next war they may skip directly to a city assault on the first day of the next war. If the defending faction held the most points, but lost, then they can immediately launch an attack to retake the city from one of their watchtowers on the first day of the next war.