war/civil war 101
- faction states can change ones a day, at "The tick". that applies to all state changes. unfortunately the tick moves over time, mainly with updates (currently it is~1600 ingame). if a war ends, it ends with the tick.
- a war/cicil war has a maximum duration of 7 days ("ticks").
- you can see the current days won for each faction at station news.
- as a war will end, when 1 side has won the majority of days anyway, i wouldn't take a massacre mission in a war standing 3:2 or 3:1, or 3:0 with the tick being too close to be safe finishing the mission (a high CZ will end with 15-18 kills).
- easier it might be to check right hand panel -> faction -> status. a war being close to finish will in most cases read as "close to victory".
- but outside of tracking start of a conflict and counting ticks, none of the above will fully counter what you experienced. If you come into a system, war is 0:0 but already runs 6 days, you redeem a bond, you might still end with a massacre mission unfinished. so i personally think a suggestion for a partial payout might make sense.
- another approach would be, to never take more massacre mission kills than you can finish pre current tick - and make sure the war is still on (massacre missions stay on the mission board some hours after war has ended). i tend to never take missions for more than 30 kills, if not winging up, as i know i might not do more than 2 HCZ.
hope that helps - it is not like i can't understand your frustration.
