I agree Albatross. I can see the upkeep prices as a way of reigning in the creation of new towns, but the new TP price is a bit steep. A round the map trip to check out potential towns for joining has gone from 20-40 noobz to 200-400.
With that being the only method for finding the location and traveling to the towns, short of knowing somebody in that town and TPA'ing to them, which isn't an option for people just learning their way around our server. That's just my 2 cents worth though.