Release 2004-12-11

There were no official release notes for this, but the following post was written in Game Design^[1]:

Topic: Imminent Blockade Change Poster: Nemo

A few things to lighten the load, hopefully filtering some of the burden out of blockades, yet keeping the fun. These are minor changes in one sense, but sweeping in another. You may have already noticed the weekend-only adjustment a few weeks ago. To round out the "blockades shouldn't force people to be unhealthy, or dictate too much of their natural lives" plan, the blockade rounds will be cropped from 12 to 5. Notice: After this weekend's blockade window (12/10-12/04), blockades will follow this schedule, from 24 hours after declaration- 5 rounds of 45 minutes on each hour. A one hour, 15 minute break after the first three rounds, followed by the two remaining rounds, if necessary. Feel free to discuss. I think the most notable point is that the best of five format removes the previous "defenders win ties" advantage. If another defender advantage is deemed needed to replace it, that can be discussed here too.