The concept is not one of a 4th country...........it is one of a 4th "nation" or group which is divided and redistributed as the balance system sees fit.
There need be no limit to the number of Pawns......indeed the system would work if the whole arena were set as Pawns.
Actually the mechanism would sit (as all things) on the players FE.
An approach could be...............
In the OC there would be a button which when toggled selects or de selects Mercenary (Pawn) status.
This would also toggle on/off access to the change country button.
With Pawn status enabled.
Every time a Pawn accesses a Tower a short piece of coad is run which checks the country balance eny and a timer. If the timer is zero and the eny(of the country the Pawn is in) is above # then a macro is run which changes country to that with the lowest numbers.
The Eny data and country number data is already at the FE.
If the Pawn status is enabled prior to the Pawn entering the arena then this same coad is run as he/she enters the Tower.
Once the Pawn spawns the timer is set to # minutes such that he/she can enjoy a period of gameplay without country switching. Above I suggested an hour. This timer is zero'd when either leaving or arriving in an arena.
Similar timers are already in the game now such as death count max etc.
I am not sure where the perk points are calculated (FE or Server). If in the FE (and then logged with server) then the reward multiplier is simply factored into the equation when the Pawn status is enabled. (IF(P= 1,2,1))
The no icon request is the only one that requires more coms with other players. IMO it is a very small addition to bandwidth or packet size. Server traffic must already include country as part of the update data for each player this will have to be maintained to identify freind or foe. The additional Pawn status tag would identify a pawn regardless of country and simply switch off the country origin icon or replace it with a blank space.
In this manner other players would see a Pawns label colours as freind or foe (as now) but would not see a country icon hence identifying the player as a Pawn.
The lack of icon serves many purposes.
1) It advertises Pawns and the more Pawns there are in an arena the more easily the concept works to balance country numbers.
2) It gives a recognition code for those who do not appreciate the land grab. If purest "Furballers" found Pawnship desirable then they may see and find that enemy Pawns were like minded folk who may enjoy the joust more than the victory.
The lack of an Icon would possibly raise the issue of loyalty...........however Pawns would be mercenaries..................
.. mercanaries did identify them selves in battle.......................
.did switch sides........................
...and only had loyalty to the Great Cod.
