In preparation for several new systems coming in this year, and because,
well, it was long overdue, we're about to do some massive changes to the
way city guards work.

We'll be starting to put these changes live this Wednesday at 0400 GMT, at
which time all guards and guardians will be removed from the cities.
This is a required step to make the transition, and after a short period
of time we will re-allow the acquisition of guards (for free) under the
new system.

The price of guards will be put back to a low figure after 24 hours, and
will remain at that point until tweaks and balances are finalised. After
this point, all guard prices will return to normal.

During this time, there may be a desire to take advantage of this
guard-free environment, but be warned; anyone taking advantage of this
will face administrative punishment -starting- at 30 days shrubbing.

A brief overview of the changes:
--------------------------------
- All guard types have been brought into parity in terms of strength and
cost.
- All guard types have had their health levels and offensive
capabilities significantly increased.
- Guard numbers are limited to 5 per room.
- Total guard numbers are determined by the size of the city (excluding
sewers, house estates, and other selected rooms).
- City barracks increase the total guard numbers by a fixed percentage
for each improvement.
- With the exception of the constable guard type, all dynamic guard
movement has been removed.

Guard types:
------------
Each of the guard types will have their own set of attacks and utility
abilities:

- Constable: Responds to CALL FOR HELP, tracks enemies, has room-wide
attacks.
- Soldier: Powerful attacks against prone enemies.
- Warrior: Prones enemies and breaks limbs.
- Captain: Causes blackouts, has room-wide attacks.
- Archer: Shoots flying enemies, can send them falling to the ground.
- Istani: Webs / hinders enemies, has room-wide attacks.
- Guardian: Increases the relative strength of guards throughout the
city (and additionally further in their room).

- Additionally, each guard type has the ability to summon back enemies
who flee from their rooms.
- Room-wide attacks only affect city enemies in the room.

Syntax Changes:
---------------
There are multiple changes to guard-related command, most moving to the
CITY GUARD syntax:

- CITY GUARD TYPES - Shows guard types and guard numbers / limits.
- CITY GUARD LIST - Lists all hired guards, and their rooms.
- CITY GUARD HIRE <id> - Hire a guard and station in the current room.
Delayed command.
- CITY GUARD STATION <guard> - Moves the selected guard in the current
room. Delayed command.
- CITY GUARD HOLDPOSITION|PURSUE <guard> - Sets constable guards to
react to CALL FOR HELP.
- CITY GUARD RETIRE <guard> - Retires a guard.

- ORDERing a guard to to anything other than PASSIVE has been removed.

After the implementation, we'll let you know when it is safe to resume
any raids/city infiltration/general mischief! We anticipate it may take
some time to get the balance as close to perfect as possible, so we'll
be constantly monitoring and tweaking things in order to achieve that
goal.

We appreciate your patience and maturity while this is happening, and
look forward to providing a much more interesting and diverse city guard
system for you to play with!

Penned by My hand on the 2nd of Valnuary, in the year 559 AF.