I think the tendency for development of this game is to give the OPTION for players to automate many (if not virtually all) processes of the day to day operation of their empire(s).

The reason is simply that most people who would play this game would not want to or can afford to spend more than maybe 1 or 2 hours a day logged in to conduct their affairs.

The bottom line is that if semi-active players / or even inactive players could put processes on on automated control, they could have a more thriving empire and have a chance to do well in the round in spite of their inactivity.

IC I don't think can ever attract players because most players will be semi-active /inactive.  When players realise that in order to be successful, they have to log in ultiple times a day and diligently and methodically conduct often mundane data-like entry processes and keep records and take care of of multiple items of concern, they get stressed out, or even bored, and eventually simply lose interest.

Consider these two scenarios:

Scenario #1 (as it is without automation):

Mr. Noob logs in to his empire when he wakes up.  He is dismayed to learn he has to clear about 30 planets that were attacked, and do retakes on about 15 others.  He first has to sift through the records where he methodically keeps to find out how many lasers there were on the planets that had been taken.  Yes.  He spends the time and effort to record on each planet he has taken over the cource of the round how many lasers there were when he took it, so he doesn't have to waste ops on more PIs on silly retakes. He also keeps records on all of his planets, recording how many lasers he had built on each so he knows how many bombers to send to retake any of his planets that might have been taken.  After sifting through his records, then, then sends fleets out to the 45 planets.  Time it takes him to do this 45 minutes.

Next, Mr. Noob sees his fam's fambank has send him some GC and res, etc.  So now he gets his calculator out to see how much of that GC and res he can spend on building more fleet.  He goes through his planet list to see if there is any infra he should build as well.  He decides he can and probably should build some infra on about 30 of his planets, so he goes about 25 minutes.

Next, Mr. Noob wants to make use of his ops, so he goes about reading through his records of infils to find target planets' portals he wants to try and sab. Next, he's got to update his records with his sabbed planets to remind him to send fleets to those planets when portals are down.   Time taken: another 25 minutes.

Mr. Noob has some expos he needs to send, and so he has to spend another 15 minutes finding planets and sending them out.

By now, of course, he's been busy managing his empire for nearly two full ticks.  His fam has gotten attacked, and so he has to check his records again and send fleets out. another 10 minutes.

He gets a message from a fam member asking for some GC.  Now he gets out his calculator and goes about calculating how much GC he can spare without losing fleet by the time he HOPES he'll get aided.  Time taken, aother 5 minutes.

He'd like to do more, but, by now, he has to go to work.  Did he eat breakfast?  Nope.  Too busy.

On the subway, he logs into his empire to see if everything is okay aid in res (because he forgot to do so earlier).

He gets to work, and every hour he sneaks a quick log-in to manage things (some of hios fleets arrived at their destination) and so he has to drop them and recall stationed forces, and notices other planets have been attacked and has to launch more fleets.  He also has to pass  planets to fam members, so he has to spam fam members with in-game messages to take his planets.  Over the course of his work day he logs in to send res again.  Build some infra, recall fleets from where his portals had finished building, etc., etc., etc., etc.  Total time taken during work day 1 hour 25 minutes.

When he gets home, he logs in to send more fleets out, build a little infra, do more ops, explore, and spam fam to take planets.  Suddenly, fam has elected him fam leader.  He goes into fam forum to see what's happened.  Reads up, on fam forum.  Deals with in-game messages from other fam members, allies, etc..  He has to thinks about what the fam plan should be, etc., etc.  more time taken:  1 hour 25 minutes. 

And as the war his fam is having does do well, he's getting, frustrated, stressed-out, and unhappy as the round goes on, because in spite of all his dilligence and effort, many of his fam members aren't pulling their weight, aren't as active, aren't as willing or as able to spend as much time to be be dilligent enough to win the war.  And decides he just can't take it any more and deletes, and forgets IC, never returns.

Scenario # 2

Virtually all of the functions of the daily processes of his empire and his fam members' empires CAN be selectively automated according to each player's preference.  All players can be productive and can contribute to the fam, then, in spite of not being very active.  In fact, because players choose to automate many of th emundane processes of the functioning of their empire, they can spend more time strategizing, discussing, planning, coordinating activities, which has transformed the game.  Now, players are more creative in wars, they have time to conduct and manage wars effectively and players have learned that by conducting wars more effectively fams can actually profit by wars rather than usually just destroying each other.  Thus, there are more wars, and, overall the game is more fun.

So Mr. Noob logs in in the morning, and sees that while he was sleeping, his empire had been attacked and had lost 30 planets, but also sees that 23 of these have already been retaken by the game automatically because they were all within 4 ticks of his closest portal.  Mr. Noob had set it up in "empire settings" for the game to launch retake fleets of 1.3% of main fleet's figs and 0.2% (minimum 2 ground) of main fleet's ground wth a preset ratio of 1 to 0.02 ground:transports and for suficient # of bombers to be sent according to latest intel.  The game would send the appropriate number of bombers simply by having recorded the number of lasers there were on the planet when it had been occupied by the player.  The game also automatically adjusts its intel about how many lasers there are on planets according latest intelligence reports by automatic ops conducted not only by the player's empire but also by fam and allies members.  This and other intel is collectively 'known' by the game automatically, and is displayed in "fam news" (which is a heck of a lot more complex than it is now, but I'll get into it later) and on the map (which is 3D galactic map BTW).  The info displayed is displayed so that players and the game know how old it is, and thus a reliability rating of the intel is also shown.  The point is, that while Mr. Noob was sleeping, his empire automatically sent fleets with appropriate # of bombers for each planet based on what had been 100% reliable intel on number of lasers on each planet.  7 of the planets, however, were more than 4 ticks away thus the game reliability rating of the itel on the number of lasers on those planets FOR THE TICK DURING WHICH THE FLEET WOULD ARRIVE would be less than 100%.  Therefore, the game never sent retake fleets to those planets.  Mr. Noob could have set it so the game would have sent fleets with the stipulation to hover until reliability rating on the intel as to the # of lasers to rise to 100% or until automatic DU ops diminished the # of lasers to the point where the fleets could have taken the planets, but had chosen not to do so, maybe because Mr. Noob dodn't think those planets were worth the ops / fleet / morale needed to keep retaking them.  Mr. Noob also set it so thart 30% of retake fleet forces on planets which were retaken would remain stationed (it is a given that transports and bombers are automatically recalled).

The effect is that when Mr. Noob wakes up and logs in to his empire, he does so to simply make sure that everything is okay, and maybe to adjust some presets for the automation by which his empire functions.  He elects to change the size of fleets to be sent automatically to planets determined to be unportalled by intel reports.  Because aiding into fam bank is also set to automatic, because building infra is automatic, because building fleet is automatic, because virtually everything is automatic, he logs in update himself on the going-ons of the empire and the fam, to discuss with fam members how he should adjust his presents to suit fam changing objectives - takes him  20 minute, which he really appreciates, because that's all the time he has in the morning before going to his job, a job he won't get fired from for logging into IC during work hours.
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The development of automation, is a necessary development.  Not only will it allow for an AI against which all players of all fams might for one round work together against to defeat, but it also lays the foundation for the expansion of this game into intergalactic wars.  Due to automation, players would have able to manage multiple empires in many galaxies simultaneously, and intergalactic "faction wars", which, ultimately, I think is where this game is heading.

Developers, please think about this?