I think some of you guys are just asking for too much from a small team.
There is always going to be jerks and, sometimes, you are just not going to be able to do anything about it.
You are not going to completely stop blocking or forced merging. As someone mentioned, they are not Blizzard. Blizzard is so big they can afford to hire people to do nothing but deal with complaints. These guys don’t have that luxury. Just accept it and move on.
And forced merging is part of the game.
I don’t know where this idea that you have a “right” to keep your settlement name came from. It was intended, from the beginning, to be a “take over” system.
That being said, I appreciate all of these changes and think they are for the good.
I actually think they go too far in places, such as the buffer zones. I don’t think someone should have to have permission to join a settlement, despite the fact I will benefit greatly from the buffers. I just don’t. That’s horrible for new players, especially ones who want to solo.
I’m not entirely happy with the idea of guilds having so much power. Other than things like buffs, I don’t believe guilds should have any effect on gameplay. Guilds have a tendency to have too much of a negative effect on solo players when they are just social. Making them so central to gameplay is going to pretty much force you to participate in the guild system. No way you can take over viceroy without it. (Not something I’m interested in, but I understand that’s the main motivation for many players) It also moves too much of the game “offline” (into nonsense like discord, which is about as user friendly as theoretical physics, get off my lawn)
If we are going to cripple the idea of the “take over”, I’d be far more in favor of a settlement name and viceroy “locking” once the settlement reaches a certain prestige.
But, again, I see nothing here that I can’t live with. They are not going to make everyone 100% happy and I think this will keep everyone just a little unhappy, which is the sign of a good compromise.