Not sure what's gotten into me but I've been thinking outside the box more recently . . .

We currently have several random positive and negative events: earthquake, food boom, oil boom, drought, and oil fires. What about adding some events that can be activated by the player to give temporary bonuses? Player could get access to events on a timed basis (e.g one per 24 hours) or as a bonus (e.g. for fb activity or site voting). I would propose that players not be able to save up these "special moves": only one would be available at a time. These could be a lot more interesting than bonus turns or acres. Examples:

*Institute draft (increased troop/military production for X turns)
*Give speech to increase military pride (boost military strength for X turns)
*Activate national guard (increased defense for X hours)
*Focus on homeland security (increased defensive spy effectiveness for X hours)
*Give speech to increase economic production (boost PCI for X turns)
*Bribe market officials (next market sell is immediate or market fees are reduced/eliminated for X hours)
*Obtain a free spy report on 1 country (not sure what to call this one)

I'm sure others could think of a lot of additional fun "special moves" that could combo with smart thinking to result in interesting outcomes and more versatility in play styles.

The 'free' spy report option is unbalanced. My uber-spy countries have survived FSes more than once because they just couldn't op me in a reasonable number of turns - even if you balance it so that you have to have a high spal to use it you're giving one free op a day to each spy country which after some initial probing they can use on the opposing spy countries, effectively killing the defensive advantage of spies. Spies are expensive to maintain because they're so specialized and operative defensively and offensively. Other than that you've got some interesting ideas.

Particularly the market bribe. I would see that needing to be moderately expensive so it's only useful on rare occasions but it would make turn around in the event of an alliance getting jumped that extra few hours shorter. Could really make warfare a lot more interesting.

Yeah, the spy one might be overpowered. Maybe a "free" limited spy op that could include a few random pieces of info from the full spy op? That way it could be a complete waste of a special move or it could be incredibly valuable. It could be called "interrogate enemy informant" or something.

I only play Primary, Tourney, and Express so I was not thinking about the implications of these additions on the other game types. Other players would have to comment on that.

Other ideas:
*Focus on weapons development (increased or guaranteed missile development in/for X turns)
*Surprise strike (opponent's defensive allies do not have time to respond to next SS. Could exclude player's offensive allies too if this is too OP.)
*Lewis & Clark (increased exploration rate for next X turns)

i like it :)

but i think it should play more into strategy than just getting random things that, if they are beneficial, the player will just use automatically anyway regardless of strategy.

maybe these special moves could be bought at the expense of other production or benefits and be available at any time in any amount?

*Institute draft (increased troop/military production for X turns)
lose pci the more it's used because your people are unhappy
*Give speech to increase military pride (boost military strength for X turns)
eventually negatively effects strength if used for too long (propoganda)
*Activate national guard (increased defense for X hours)
costs more $$ every turn
*Focus on homeland security (increased defensive spy effectiveness for X hours)
loss of pci over time (people are unhappy at increased scrutiny)
*Give speech to increase economic production (boost PCI for X turns)
*Bribe market officials (next market sell is immediate or market fees are reduced/eliminated for X hours)
costs a set amount of $$ and increasing amount of $$, plus a 'you got caught' random that fines you a large amount of $$ or you lose what you sold to the market gods