The Promise
The progress you make this month still matters next year. Here is why Inselnova can promise that, and what it means for the way you play the game.
You spent a season building an empire in some browser game. Then the round ended, the map wiped, and everything you made was gone. The game called it a fresh start. It felt like being fired from a hobby.
Inselnova doesn't do that. Your world keeps running. Your island is still yours after a holiday, after a busy month, after a year away from the map.
A reset isn't a design philosophy. It is a repair job. Old worlds all go bad the same way: the leaders pull so far ahead that nobody new can matter, dead islands pile up, and the map turns into a museum. Wiping everything is the cheap fix.
Inselnova chose the expensive fix instead: keep the world alive without ever tearing it down. That takes three things, and all three are already in the game.
Abandoned land returns to play. When a governor walks away for good, their islands don't just sit there. A force called the Black Tide moves in, reclaims the land, and opens it up for someone new. And when active governors drive the Tide back out, everyone playing in the world that hour shares in the reclaimed stores.
Latecomers get a real on-ramp. Your first three days are protected, so nobody can raid you while you find your feet. Your early fleets carry Newcomer's Favor, extra supplies you can see in the fleet on your first missions to empty islands. Nothing hidden, nothing paid for. Just a fair start, whenever you arrive.
Defeat isn't deletion. Lose a war, even lose everything, and you're re-established on a built-up island with a stockpile to restart from. As long as you are active, your last island can't be taken at all. Setbacks cost you. They never zero you.
It means the work you put in adds up. The harbour you upgrade tonight isn't this season's harbour, gone at the next wipe. It's yours, and it keeps working for you while the map changes around it.
It also means you can live your life. Going away for a while? Shuttering closes your harbours for up to three weeks at a stretch: fleets are turned away, spies come home with nothing, and your island waits for you. You come back to your world, not to a signup screen.
Read more: the FAQ · the Black Tide, in the wiki · your first orders
One world. One island to start with. It costs nothing to claim it, and nothing you build will ever be wiped away.