If i may put my 2 cents in: I highly recommend that you NOT skip the alpha phase.
In real life, there is alpha and beta testing because products have to be ready when launching them. We have the advantage of not needing to get the thing 100% ready before making it public. If everything breaks down, it's not a big deal.
We could do some kind of alpha/beta where we use only a portion of the map and a small number of participants, but the problem with that is that is that if we do not test the whole map with all of its functions, the data we get won't be very useful because once we add more features, everything changes.
I'd like to run this thing like we did with War #1. Carefully plan everything and just go with it, making changes if needed during the event. In WoE's case, I think the best way would be to take a big pile of players, use
all the features, but cut the event short. Then make the necessary changes and restart the event.
Also, how about spacing each element by order of nature? For example: air and light could be a sky region in the top, earth, life, and water in the middle; death and darkness at the bottom and the others just scattered around. I probably left some out but it's the idea that counts.
Why not, but I personally like a more "mathematical" approach like what I did in the current map, opposing Elements facing each other. This way it's more in line with how Zanz designed Elements, not my personal vision on how the land should be divided.
