Quote from Sasri: “The battle heats up! On Friday, 31st of March and on Monday, 3rd of April we will create special event maps with 4 x faster game speed! Faster production, travel speed, research and more - get ready for the battle that is coming. We hope you are prepared. ” perhaps if it goes well you could add this as a permanent feature?
I got kicked from my alliance because one of their real life freinds wanted to join and the limit was maxed with me. But anyway, I want to join an alliance that is active and respect one another. Also if you are thinking about letting me join message me so I can let you know some planned absences.
You should be able to choose whether a com takes control over you nation when you leave. (For example I had a very good defensive force but the AI attacked a country with them) which caused me to have no units for the time I was gone.
I'm just spitballing ideas but possibly you could make a chemical weapon in the "secret" research tree. There could be an after effect that makes it so units can't move there for a period of time.