As usual, Eva put it in far better words than I could. I feel like having the quests start REALLY early is important to make WoE more casual. This WoE was far too PvP focused because the majority of quests were being left out. Ultimately if you want to make WoE Testing successful, you have to START with everything rather than adding it all along the way. We'll be patient! 
I think the real solution involves getting you (SG) out of doing all the work. WoE is gonna run a long time, so in order for it to succeed it is vital that we get other people doing the work. The event should run on it's own, while you concentrate on thinking up ways to improve it and/or work on other projects. I know it takes you some time to teach others, but there's no way around it. If we do take a break, I think it should be to train WoE gamemasters.
^^ These.
Just my humble opinion, but it seems to me like WoE would benefit most from a reset (sorry, team
, I know we were on top and it sucks to lose that, but it's true.) during which SG trains 2-3 WoE Organizers and someone develops a series of quests (or other non-combat ways to gain some early XP.) I, for one, wanted to be an economic powerhouse and wasn't interested in getting into a bunch of fights, and the fact that the only quests that gave XP beyond Expand Borders
all required combat was a real disappointment.
Now, as to the "casualness" of WoE, it's a pipe dream. WoE is a
game, and the only way to advance in a game is to
play it. My suggestion for inactivity is simple: if you don't submit any actions, you automatically spend your turn taking a special action called Work For The Crown, creating 20
for your Element. That way there's still a strong impetus to take your turn, but if you can't make it or you forget or something, you still have some minor benefit to your team. Anyone who Works For The Crown for 3 turns in a row is hired by the crown as a professional administrator and is no longer a player in WoE. Other than that, your inactivity is your responsibility and you have to deal with the lack of success it comes with.
The sheer fact that it's possible in the first place to fall behind means something went wrong.
COMMUNIST!
No, seriously though, that's a ridiculous statement to make in any game, whether it's World of Elements, chess, or rock paper scissors. At any given time, 50% of the people in WoE will be below average, and it makes perfect sense that people who can't be bothered to play are in that 50%.
Also, the problem is the way there's a definite goal to conquer the map set up. I find it simpler if there's a"Questline" you can complete, and then you can keep playing once you finish the quests. This means shifiting the goal from conquering the map as a team to getting stronger as an individual.
OK, two things. One, conquering the map is impossible. There are scores too many other players to kill in one turn, and they all resurrect in different places on the map anyway and can easily neutralize and recap the hexes near their city before you can get to them, much less kill them again. Conquering does exactly two things: it improves your income from Work, and it forces other people to neutralize hexes if they want to expand into your territory. There isn't any more importance to it than that. If you want to make it a conquering game, make it so that when you conquer a team's capital city, that entire team converts and joins yours.
That would make conquering everything (by absorbing all of the players into one team) a solid goal.
Two, quests shouldn't necessarily be set up in a 'line', but there should be minor quests you can do for XP, like "take this MacGuffin from here to the Outlaw City and bring me back a Greater MacGuffin and I'll give you 100
and 10 XP." Maybe a short 2-4 quest-long 'beginner's series' to familiarize new players with basic aspects of play, but other that that, stick with the stuff we talked about in Alpha.
I also strongly support the idea of making WoE more like an individual event, with the quests for a whole team as bonus, not the personal quests as a bonus.
I don't. I think the team should be the primary unit. Though I do think more quests that can be completed as individuals are warranted.
In terms of teams and everything, I honestly think they're OK provided we have 2-3 organizers. Separating the teams from the elements is a bad idea, it takes away too much of the essential flavor of WoE.
