What ever solution is found it is going to be delicate to
get the right balance between giving new players (and
restarts) a fair chance and disadvantaging the effort that
existing players have put in.
One way suggested is to increase the initial CLAIM stock
of wood. I think this sounds great. Add an increase in
gold as well.
Say for every olympian year that has gone by, new players
start with an additional 5 wood and 250 gold. In order
to avoid crys of unfairness from existing players at the
end of each year, increase their claim piles by the same
amount.
This has the advantage of being obviously fair, while materialy
helping the new player more than the established player. To me
now, 250 gold doesn't mean very much, however to a new player
that has no income and has to face a hostile world, thats a
great material advantage.
While you are at it, you could do away with the 25 gold for the
times. The 250 claim/year more than covers any articles that
might be written, so people who are counting on that gold aren't
being disadvantaged either!
Someone else suggested being able to get your free build of a
ship rather than a tower. Sounds good to me, maybe a temple
should be an option as well? Actually I think a temple makes
a better case for being a freebie than a ship given the origional
idea behind the tower is that you couldn't do advanced research
without one...
Bill.