8/1/08

For those of you who don't know, a splash screen has been uploaded to SWATCash. It contains an image of some soldiers, including what looks like one soldier capturing another. It also has the text 8/1/08 and the word "CAPTURE" above it.

A lot of speculation has been made as to what will happen on this fateful date. Here's what we know.
1. The WM will be redesigned with more spaces.
2. Everyone's base locations will be reset.
3. The splash image used to say 9/1/08.
4. The map's inactive bases are wiped on the first of the month.
5. Brian has confirmed the possibility that we shall see the new situational space.
6. It was stated that the splash image will continue to change.
7. Alliance's were recently installed but don't have a real purpose yet.
8. The July contest ends on the first, and the August contest begins soon after.
8. Napoleon Dynamite is one of Brian's favorite movies.


Using what we know, we can make some assumptions on what will happen. A lot of people think the 8/1/08 marks the start of alliance wars. Since there were actually two dates, one being a month after the other, we could assume that if the alliance wars did start, it would end on 9/1/08. Of course this could also just be a hint that the big thing that's going to happen is the monthly contest (if the monthly contest isn't the war itself).

I'd like to show you an image that involves seven full-grown men in uniforms with loaded weapons, and one man bound by rope... No it's not that kind of image...
Click me to see the image.
I have brightened the original image SWATcash had uploaded (besides the change in date it is the same as the 8/1/08 one). As you can clearly see, in the middle of the image it has one soldier capturing another soldier. It appears that he bound his arms in rope and is about to pick him up. Even by itself this is a huge hint that suggests the new thing coming out will involve soldiers (members) capturing each other. If you add in the "CAPTURE" text, it's almost guaranteed. Anything beyond that though is just pure speculation.

One thing that we can assume is that this will definitely be alliance related. As in you will only be able to capture soldiers in another alliance. This is really the only way it would make sense. Otherwise it'd be "Hey guyz we got this rogue soldier here who has no ties to anyone, what shouldz we do?" "Aren't we low on food provisions?" And well... yea, it's not a pretty picture.

The point of capturing another soldier remains a mystery. Maybe if you capture another soldier and bring him/her back to the alliance headquarters your alliance gets a point. (Or just bringing the soldier back to your base).

To make it more exciting they could add various ways for you to lose your captive. This also means that soldier interactions could also finally be implanted. So maybe at first the way it could be decided on who becomes the captive could be an equation that factors in the soldiers stats and maybe a little bit of luck, and whoever wins gets a new captive. However, it could be made so that if while holding a captive you come across another person who isn't in your alliance, you have another battle. If that other person wins, he/she gets two new captives. (Or one if he is in the same alliance as the soldier you captured).

Now some rules to this could be the following.
1. Can't capture a member not in an alliance.
2. Failure to bring captive(s) to base within x hours results in their escape.
3. Can only carry x amount of captives at a time.
4. Can't capture Ombre, because you love him too much.

Obviously some new armory items could be implanted in this. Like say if you have a limited amount of captives you can carry you can buy one of those big army trucks or something to let you carry more. Instead of new items this could just as easily make use of the current ones. Perhaps something like this, where the number is the maximum number of captives you can carry.
Bicycle: 1
Motorcycle: 2
Humvee: 3
...

And it just keeps going on like that. They could also use the new situational space to add some excitement. "With Bond like stealth your captive has managed to escape your grasps... And nab your woman!"

Of course all of that was just a shot in the dark. We won't really know anything until the first of August. However, I'm still hoping I'm somewhat right so I can see this image.


Then I can die happy.