Originally Posted by
Zauper
The answer, generally, is I know it when I see it.
If you want to be more specific; conflict starts when conflict starts, and when that is varies on the kingdoms in question. (i.e. for a top kingdom, conflict generally starts at cfdrop rather than when kds are hit to hostile, but for a smaller kd it generally starts at UF/hostile, or just any hits being exchanged, depending on the tier). This is generally the case for kingdoms that are able to war eachother -- it's different if you're looking outside of kds in nw-range.
The issue with trying to define what a hostile is strictly is that it creates loopholes. If a 40M kd hits a 3M kd 20 times, that's not a hostile (generally, but it could theoretically be).
Broadly, a hostile ends when the conflict is concluded and kingdoms have had the majority of mana/stealth restored and troops returned home. Do you feel like if you were to be waved, right now, it would be doubling you? Your troops are still out on jerks, but you've agreed to a CF. I look at that and I view it as doubling; there is literally no difference from a gameplay perspective to whether that CF has been agreed to ingame or not, it is purely optics.