The issue with the Tournament server is that it cannot pay for its advertisement. Which means that a new tournament universe will be manned by two possible sources:
1)Returning players through emails.
2)Active players in existing universes.
While our email pool is big (like 200 000 emails), history has indicated that only a few end up reading these emails and even fewer join up. For some reason, it does not work well. Perhaps it ends up in a junk folder as the volume is high and the timeframe we send them is small (and it has to be small as you need to alert them in a short period, just after the universe launch and before it is late for a good start).
This is why we encourage people to signup here:
http://www.evdaimon.com/?a=nl&sp=generals
and possibly add
webmaster@evdaimon.com and
webmaster@zorgempire.net to your contacts.
This way, we will know how many interested players there are for such a universe so we can plan ahead better. We will open it if we collect like 250-300 interested players there. This is the number we need to ensure a competitive universe which will also create the funds for advertising in the round reset.
This means that if one tournament is successful, then another relaunch will be imminent. Successful means that about 100 people will buy this low-cost plus fee we had for
Generals. We are not looking to make a profit here, we are looking to make it self sustainable first and foremost. Very few paid in the first attempt and
Generals universe has created losses. And I am strictly speaking for advertisement cost versus income. If we were to include development/setup/running costs, this would be a marginal loss. Perhaps we gave too few bonuses for those that paid and perhaps many considered it unimportant to pay.
Ultimately, there will be a relaunch and a second attempt as we have dedicated two whole months designing/running that universe which is quite a considerable time for our workforce. And we don't want to simply throw this time in the garbage.
However, perhaps the TOP reason that we want a relaunch, is that this was a GREAT experience for everyone that participated. There was fierce competition. The game was unbalanced but still the experience was great. So with some balancing tweaks, we can create an even better experience.
So yes, what Istalris says could happen. It could end up as a special event for our playerbase, to keep you happy