I think the only thing I can agree with is that diamond/emerald blocks are too high, but I think everything else is more than reasonable. Just to prove my point, I went mining, which I haven't seriously done in years, and to address the rest of your reagent concerns I got: 39 iron blocks, 20 lapis blocks, countless cobblestone, and 95 gold.
This is just me by myself, and I only used 5 iron pickaxes, and I made good progress towards those upgrades just by me mining for an hour and a half. Besides the requirements for basic materials (lapis, diamond, iron, stone, cobble), the other requirements are also very reasonable. I understand conquest points aren't up right now, but if your town captures one of those, farming essence of battle+ the other requirements will not take long at all. Even if you are not interested in contesting a conquest point, you can always purchase the township items from other towns that are interested.
"These sorts of requirements do not promote long term player interest, but rather promote players to find another server. "
I think it does quite the opposite actually. If you could meet all the township requirements quickly, what is your long term interest? I think having harder townships requirements than last map give people a purpose in logging in, something to do.
I also don't think you understand how much the t1 township offers for such a low cost. For only 25 coins, which you can make just by voting, you and your friends have access to an entire chunk of space. Now granted, that does not encourage players to build the nicest looking buildings from the start, but t1 is just the very minimum, we want you to actively be seeking to upgrade.
Upgrading a township is a group process, if you can't meet these measly requirements in the group you currently have I would consider opening up to other players or joining a larger group. But yes, I can understand about the diamond/emerald requirements and will definitely lower those.
