How much time do you spend on this game, don’t include time you spend chatting it up in the forums about random topics. just really interested in time per day. I’ve found that games like this tend to require very little time at first then the time requirement grows exponentially the more you grow.

The other is related to war. What do you gain out of a war if you win/loose. Is there loot? Do you take over their city? Can you lose your city? When you attack someone do they see it coming, is there some sort of countdown? Does the battle take place over time or is it instant?

Just trying to get a feel for the game.
Thanks for answering my questions!

To #1, I get on every day. And yes, the more you grow the more interested you get in this game

2nd, you can loot money and tech on a nation. You can't take over a nation nor can you lose yours, you can attack a nation until he has 0 infrastructure, he's pretty much done after that. You can attack a nation 2 times a day with regular soldiers, there are other ways of attacking though. If you attack someone, that person will get a message about it, and yeah if they know they're in a war, they will see it coming.

Hope that helps

I spend about 90 seconds a day on the actual game. Much more time is spent on forums, but usually you can decide how little or how much time you want to spend with that aspect.. During war time, I'll sometimes spend as much as 3 minutes on the game.

NearX gave the general answer on war. Usually, war isn't profitable for a nation, and war usually occurs due to politics. There are raiders out there, the kind that do it for fun, and the kind that think they'll profit (until they raid the wrong person and get a beat down). If you like the war aspect, tournament edition will probably be more fun for you.

I usually get on CN a few times a day and check if there is any messages *Mostly from tech deals.*

For an answer to the war Q *Exactly at the Q*
A nation can loot up to 15 percent of a nations money supply, a percent of land and sometimes tech *I usually get 5 tech max from a person during one attack* You can attack twice on land using tanks/Infantry. You can not lose your city from attacks, only from being inactive or deletion. Also, a nation is sent an automated message from "you" saying you declared war and any attacks that you do with a status report of the attack. Battles are done in an instant also, showing the attacker the status report of the war with what the outcome was and whatever he lost/took and how many soldiers were defeated in battle.

Time: sometimes zero, sometimes a few minutes each day. At the beginning, you'll spend a few more minutes than that, maybe up to half an hour, as you try to sort trades, sending messages and offers, and utilize the foreign aid screen, read up and discover strategies, maybe declare a war or two...

Then it goes to almost nothing, when you log in only to pay bills or just send or accept foreign aid (because there's something profitable called tech selling where large nations exchange money for technology from small nations), and then collect often enough not to be deleted.

After that, it starts to rise again depending on your own level of interest. You might be a die-hard, swapping your trades from day to day in order to minimize bill payments and infra cost while maximizing tax collections, or just swapping improvements (for the same reasons), or organizing wars or just fighting them, or just incessantly clicking on your nation even when there's not earthly reason for you to do so... (Of course, by this period, you can choose to extend the thirty seconds or less mantra of before, it's all a choice)

2. war: As a young nation, I recommend doing some raiding because yes, you do loot technology, land, and money from the other nation, but mostly for fun. You probably shouldn't do much fighting because when you hit the wrong target, you lose all profits from the last few... Technology will sort of even out (and won't be so useful since as a young nation you will be exporting technology that you purchase cheaply anyway), but your land gains will help you stand out from the rest (the reason why when I joined MFO after leaving the NPO where we were not allowed to raid, I was so far behind my compatriots). Money won't matter. You're losing money funding your wars.

All in all, do it a few times for the hell of it (or just do it in TE), then get yourself in an alliance or protected body and work on gaining a massive aid/loan boost, or sell some tech. (donations too, will boost you quickly. don't buy your own donations. Buy donations in the name of other players and have them pay you $18+mil for it). Then, you can fight wars when they come up for political reasons, and trust me, wars fought with brethren are much more entertaining than little raids or duels.

... More info: war is instant. You hit 'declare war" and you are in it. You have the element of surprise and can launch ground attacks and whatnot. Each attack occurs instantly, and you get your results back instantly. A war lasts seven days unless you both declare peace prior. After your initial attacks, your opponent will know you are at war and can attack back (this happens instantly when he does it), and you and he will get additional attacks each day (after update time at 12AM server).

I only spend like 3 minutes a day on the game. During war time, however, I will constantly check up on my nation if I'm at my computer.