Great question! Glad you asked.
The way it works is that I select all the settings for each world, then I submit them for final approval. Fortunately, none of the settings I have ever submitted have been denied as of yet. I also do not submit for approval on settings that I know won't be approved (like Speed 6).
When I choose settings I have to keep two main player bases in mind. The newbies to the game and the more experienced players. As we are still a newer server, and we are growing very rapidly, we get quite a few newbies. (hence the reason worlds are released so often) If the newbies keep being put in worlds that are too challenging for them, they will stop playing and we lose players. Losing players is bad for us and for you. (empty worlds are not nearly as much fun as full ones) If the experienced players keep getting put in newbie style worlds, they will get bored and leave. Not a good option either.
This means I have to keep our worlds balanced. Some experienced player worlds, some newbie worlds. The more vocal players on our forums are typically experienced, so when settings are ever discussed rarely do players say "Ooh ooh, speed 1 please!". Some want a slower pace, but most experienced players do not like anything under a speed 2 and I hear no morale all the time. But again, keeping the balance in check, no morale worlds are very bad for a newbie player. That coupled with a faster speed is even worse. The big issue is that newbies do not know what world is best for them since they do not know much about the game. So they choose the most recent world and if its a more challenging one, they get rimmed, get angry, submit support tickets about how stupid we are and how our game sucks, quit playing, and tell everyone that they should not play Grepolis. You can see, thats bad.
For world Pi, I chose speed 1 because the last 4 worlds released were faster than that. It seemed the right time to release a speed 1. I chose Revolt since 3 of the last 4 were conquest and since of our soon to be 17 worlds, only 5 are speed 1 and of those, 2 were conquest, 1 was Hyperborea, and the other was Revolt. I chose a beginner protection of 5 days because at a speed 1, anything less would be too soon. I almost went a bit longer. I chose morale because 2 of the last 3 worlds were no morale and since Pi is really meant for the newer player (as I posted in the announcement) morale makes total sense.
We also release worlds as we do because as a world ages, it does not make a lot of sense to join it. Once it gets beyond 60 days old or so, new players are pretty far behind. Thats not to say that with help a new player could not catch up, but most players wouldn't bother. In the last 60 days we have released Worlds Mu, Nu, Xi, and Omicron. All of these worlds have settings that cater more toward an experienced player. Xi and Omicron are close to their player caps, but as you all know, players drop out of these worlds. Most of the time, its the newbies who drop out. They will be either quitting all together or joining Pi. That will leave a lot of spaces for our experienced players to join the other 4 worlds. This is an opportunity for an experienced player, or team of players, to join a world and it be a bigger challenge for them.
I posted in the announcement:
I realize that many of the more experienced players want faster worlds, however, this world is being created for those who are newer to the game and/or want a slower pace. World Mu, Nu, and Omicron all are faster and have open spots to join.
I forgot Xi in that post.
So here's the deal. Are you pro? Do you have skills? You have a challenge sitting in front of you. There are 4 recent worlds to choose from. If you got the muscle, jump in, flex your stuff, and show everyone you got it. If you want to play the speed 1 cause it fits your style, go for that too. Each of the last 4 worlds has something that should fit most every player.
Sorry for the length, and I probably forgot something. Anywho.... ON TO PI!