Inspired by Ajit's
Forum Economy suggestion, this idea is meant to go with it as well as add something else to do in the forums.
What if, in addition to private boards, there was some kind of 'Arena' board that involved the use of ETG cards? Players could start out with a small but viable group of 'starter' cards and then could use forum Electrum to buy more cards (aka more options for combat). Players with a lot of electrum could pay a large sum to add custom cards to their 'decks' and use them in the battlefield, on the condition that card is balanced. Alternatively, players could pay a large sum of electrum to obtain special 'abilities' or 'classes' that are also represented by a card.
If players want more than just PvP in this 'Arena' board, a mod could assign 'Quests' that any players in the board can tackle - Quests are active for an indefinite amount of time as long as they are not completed. The top 5 players who beat a quest with the most wins/victories/kills/whatever get a small bonus amount of forum electrum + card(s).
It might seem a little overwhelming, but if the battle system could be worked out (I'm currently thinking of a system that mixes MTG and ETG - pillars generate quantum, but creatures can block other creatures and deal retaliation damage, players have much lower HP to make battles go quicker) the rest is probably very simple - the Arena board would contain a subboard for Player Profiles (which they'd be responsible for maintaining themselves), and a mod could easily assign a quest every 1-2 weeks or so (indefinite quests means that players will always have something to do even when the mod is inactive, unless they somehow beat all the quests very quickly.) Given that this forum handles PvP and large events relatively well I'm sure something like this could catch on reasonably well.
If Forum Economy proves too much of a hassle, Reputation could be used as a sort of currency instead. Quests might need a little bit of automated coding for 'attacking' AI creatures played by an opponent, but it shouldn't be much more complicated than the already existing Battle.
Another take on the battle system I had was:
Players get X amount of points/quantum.
Players predeploy cards into a formation, with each card subtracting Y points.
When you attack an opponent, you use the formation you've deployed.
When an enemy attacks you, the formation automates for you.
(Initially, coding would probably be limit defense formations to creatures and weapons due to lack of an existing AI to automate other spells/perms. If someone could convert the AI's using of spells/perms in something like Xeno's deck simulator into this, then it could probably allow spells/perms to be used as well.)
