In the coming days (probably 11/27/2020) a change is coming to the way Tunneling works. Tunneling was an idea that created significant excitement when it was first announced years ago, but never caught on and wasn't widely used. Much of this had to do with match making. Zone leaders had to opt into joining a tunnel and even if directly challenged, they had to accept the challenge for a tunnel to start. If a zone leader failed to accept the challenge in 24 hours, the tunnel never started forming.
If a tunnel did start, there was a 24 hour forming period. This was a kind of "warning" so players would see a tunnel was going to happen near them, start to make plans and notify other players. There was also the option to vote against a tunnel to veto the formation in the first 24 hour "forming" period. After that, the tunnel would be formed, and would last 24 hours, or until one of the zones was completely destroyed. Everything described in this paragraph is staying the same.
Going forward, there will be no match making pool. Zone leaders directly challenge another zone. As soon as a challenge is issued the tunnel begins to form. The leader of the opposing zone cannot decline the challenge. The players in the opposing zone can still vote to cancel/veto the tunnel in the first 24 hours. However, 50% of the bots in the zone must vote no. For zones where players are not active every day, or are retired, tunnels are more likely to start. Under the old rules, the leader could cancel a tunnel, even with only 10% of the total bots in the zone. Under the new rules, the leader votes just like everyone else, and a 50% majority is needed. A lone player sitting on a mountain of retired bots won't be able to stop their zone from being tunneled if they don't control at least 50% of the bots in the zone.
For the few players who held traditional tunnels as a sort of grudge match to see who's group was better, nothing really changes. If the New England Legion and the SoCal Faceless want to battle it out to show who is better, everything works the same.
This feature was introduced to clean up the retired towers in the world, and give players who are in an area with no opposition a way to reach out to remote zones and earn their gold status. This change also means you could get lucky and tunnel the zone of an active player on a day where they were too busy to open the game and notice that a tunnel was forming. You might be able to get a tunnel to start before they can rally the votes to veto it.
One final change to the Tunnel requirements. You must challenge a zone that is larger than your zone. The zone you challenge must be over 1 million bots in size, however your zone can be as small as 100,000 bots. This will give even small solo players in remote areas of the world the ability to build up a zone to the point where it can be tunneled.
To start a tunnel, use the "Tunnels" menu on the web portal.
