Foxy,

Would it make sense to have separate battle-types whether the attacker wants to conquer the territory or steal clones?

Am thinking a setup where, upon attacking, the attacking corp has to decide whether it wants to try to conquer the district or simply try to steal clones.
The two attack forms can then have different conditions and mechanism, such as whether they shut down the clone-generation, beside the notion that conquest does not allow gaining clones, and an attempt at stealing clones does not allow taking over the district.

In the case of an "Steal" attempt, the attacker would not get priority in selecting to attack again; this should protect against farming, since others can jump in and conquer the territory, simply by electing to attack it.

This would also allow the use of different game-modes where applicable, and should add a bit of variation for the Corporations involved in Planetary Conquest, as a hit-and-run attempt at stealing might be more interesting at times.
Skirmish 1.0 would be suitable for regular Conquest, while current Skirmish might be suitable for stealing-attempts. Differences in the sizes of teams could also be relevant (Stealing attempts as 12v12?)


Later, you can then look at sabotage attacks (Game-mode: Ambush), where any-and-all clones sent by the attacker will be lost, but where you can perhaps cripple a district, e.g. by destroying installations, halving clone-production or cause other types of disruptions in case of a victory.

Not sure I'm liking the clone numbers for the defender side if they win. If the attackers are smart they could not ever give the defenders clones if they lose but the attackers will get at least 37 clones after every victory. Seems biased to attackers. Not sure of a solution though.