No idea on when 1.3 will be out, but there will definately be an update before you get back.  Likely several.  And I guarantee, many of us will still be here.

Impulse phase V looks likely to be its groundbreaking update.

I'm just trying to spur the community into brainstorming some potential ideas

Just got back home. Reading through the forums and things seem pretty bleak for young DG.

Gameover?

I would not get your hopes up.  I really can't see how GPG sees putting a lot of effort into Demigod at this point is going to be profitable.  I don't know there project line-up, but I doubt they're going to sit there saying, "Oh well, we have nothing else to work on, lets pour our resources into Demigod".  Maybe they'll send out a patch 1.3 but I'm not expecting it to jump-start the game or the community.  I hope I'm wrong, cause I'll definitely come back if it does.  Why do clan wars if you don't really have enough people to do clans? Maps are too expensive to make, so are demigods. Maybe lets see if they apply all the community fixes and mods or just do their own.  This game is just fun, so I'll probably play now and then, but nothing as consistent as before.