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That would be true for a normal King, but for a Ghost King the 8 spaces around it have no special significance; it protects all its pieces everywhere on the board. (But they also suffer an extra attack by the opponent Ghost King, so this sort of cancels out.)

If I understand, the 8 squares around a King can be used as safe spaces for your own pieces against the enemy Ghost King, but not against his other pieces.

Since when did 1.5 and 1 ply become an option?

Already a long time ago, when it turned out that some large games (Tenjiku Shogi?) took unacceptably long time at 2 ply.

It also had to do with an improvement in the AI. Originally I did not want depths so low that the AI would not be able to see checkmate in 1. And it only sees checkmate if it searches deep enough to see the capture of the King. More specifically, in a leaf node, when it generates moves to see if there still is any move it should search (but none other qualify), it would notice capture of a King (but then not search that, but just declare victory). That means it needed 2 ply to see if it can deliver such a mate, and 3 ply to see that the opponent could deliver it. But this is ameliorated by the fact that logical continuations of the previous two ply (i.e. moves that were not possible 2 ply earlier, also when this was in the game history) get an extension. So if you move a piece to a position where it can deliver checkmate on the next move, it would recognize the threat.

But at some point I made the AI aware of check in leave nodes that were delivered by the moved piece, by generating the moves of only that piece for the side that is not on move. And if this could capture the King, extend the search one ply to see if evasion was possible. This took off one ply of the depth needed to recognize checkmate. At least, if it wasn't delivered by a discovered check. I considered that justifiable, as humans can often also be tricked by discovered checks. So it makes the weakness of the AI more human-like.

Since when did 1.5 and 1 ply become an option?

It is a shorthand for a certain combination of square, rim and coord colors that I tend to use for 'Modest Variants'. Other recognized values are BB (Board Painter), DD (Diagram Designer) or SV (Shatanj Variant).

I don't remember putting theme=MV parameter. What it do? (Probably got there from copy paste)

Edit: I see. It's redundant in my comment since I also put lightShade, darkShade parameter.

The author, H. G. Muller, has updated this page.

Interesting. The main difference is that the Emperor from Maka Dai Dai / Tai Shogi could capture the enemy royal if it was unprotected. Then you would not need a piece as strong as a Kraken to checkmate it (although these games did have Hook Movers, which on an near-empty board almost do the same), as you would win after baring it.

Personally I don't think that such a super-powerful royal is a good idea; it makes checkmating in the middle-game virtually impossible, so that every game would need to go on until a late end-game is reached. Especially for a game as large as Tai Shogi that seems a very bad idea.

Tho I've never shared it

Royal Crowned Ravager Chess (or RCRC for short)

Kings can teleport anywhere and capture anywhere, but isn't allowed to capture the enemy King, and Kings are still not allowed to move to a square adjacent to the enemy's King.

Pawn can promotes to Kraken.