[Discuss] new war islands

[Tom]

When I closed down the war islands, there was some protest. From two 
factions, actually. One, from the strategy players who enjoyed a pure 
war environment, and from the roleplayers who feared the strategy 
players would now flood the rest of the game.

So, I've taken some time and re-worked the concept. Remember that my 
reason was that the war islands never worked the way I intended them to.

Opening later today, there will be a new war island ("South Island"). 
The map is slightly expanded, but mostly the same. There are now five 
small realms initially. Some other features have been changed:

* "War only" as you're used to, all non-war features are disabled, more 
complete this time
* Looting has been much improved, to make it a viable strategy

The most important change, however, is that I've decided to finally 
listen to those who want a much more "active" and speedy game. On the 
new war island, turns will run EVERY TWO HOURS. That's 12 turns in a 
day, 6 half and 6 full. This will provide our strategy friends with an 
entirely new challenge, because you really can't expect everyone to be 
active all the time with that schedule. You will have to plan with 
inactivity, something that I hope will then migrate to the rest of the 
game. Day- and Night-Armies are just one of the ideas that hit me.

One disadvantage to the whole thing, however. Since the rapid turns 
would, in theory, allow people to leech gold off the islands very 
quickly, the war island is a one-way road:

* You can't leave once you're there (no emmigration)
* To prevent overcrowing, everyone is mortal on war island (same as for 
heroes elsewhere)
* No family gold sending


I have a few final touches to finish, such as uploading the new map and 
resetting the database, and then later today you'll read a second 
announcement when it opens.