What an awesome idea!

So I've chatted with some of the mods about this, and as usual they are good at preventing me from just going to town on game changes. =P  I do appreciate them for that though, their perspective is crucial.

Anyway, they had a few strong concerns and great points:

1) It would feel like I'm being spied on.

This is a very valid point.  I think to solve this, we could make it a system in which a player would have to opt-in.  That is, by default nobody can see anything about your empire unless you specifically allow this feature.

2) A rogue player could join and immediately have all the info.

This would be an extension of the above point.  Rather than saying "let my information be seen", you would say specifically "let the following people see my information".  So when a new player joins, he as no access to anything until he gains trust.

3) This removes the need for interaction.

As a whole, this is simply not true.  What it removes is the need for a very specific kind of interaction, being data-passing.  This is probably the most debatable part of this whole idea: is having to depend on communicating with others for the specific purpose of passing data a good thing or a bad thing?  In my opinion, this gets in the way of the real strategy that could be happening.  It also makes the game a slow and frustrating experience.

The counter-point as I understand it is that this kind of communication should be part of the game.  It promotes team work, and those who do well deserve the benefits they receive.  Removing this requirement punishes the active people by taking away the reward they get for putting effort into the game.  It would also cause people to be less active because they don't have to be.

My response to that is simply: not all activity is good activity.  If an active team is already active, this will make their lives easier too and allow all of them more time to participate in conversations about higher level strategy and planning.  I can't stress enough that I'm not suggesting automation or remote control empires.  What I am suggesting is the removal of the need to have to ask for data that should be freely available for trusted members of the family.  The game currently requires too much effort to just play at a basic level.  Removing these barriers would allow the game to be played more casually, by newbie and pro alike.

To say it another way, we should be able to play the game without having to figure out how to play the game.  The current restrictions on information get in the way of the actual strategy in my opinion.

4) The game will become too easy.

I think this will actually have the opposite effect.  The game will become more competitive.

Think of it this way: can every family win #1?  Of course not.  So even if this game is dead-simple to play, the competition will still be there.  There might even be more of it, because now a family can be effective without having to have every single member be online to communicate every single piece of information.  It would no longer be possible to secure a top spot by just having an active family: you would also have to have an active family that makes good decisions.

This would be a benefit for the whole galaxy and as such the entire game.  More competition is a good thing.

5) People will just stop playing if they don't have to communicate these things.

Nobody is going to say "Oh wow... i don't have to send messages anymore.  I guess I'll stop playing."  Instead I think people will say "Oh wow... I don't have to ask for this information anymore.  I can focus on strategy."

Again, not all activity is "good".  If it was required that you type in a CAPTCHA to send any fleet, some people will still do it and they would win.  Most however, would say "screw this game" and stop playing altogether.   I think if anything has caused people to stop playing, it's NOT doing something like this.

I think IC's current playerbase is a reflection of people who are persistent and active enough to play a broken game despite its flaws and inefficient design.  We have effectively filtered out casual players and those who can't play 24/7.  Is that really a good thing?

6) I don't like this!

Great, then don't use it.  The default opt-out mentioned in point #1 and #2 would mean that when a round starts, the game would behave exactly as it does today.  The only people who would be using this are those who decide to.

Just read this idea, BLEW MY MIND how genius it is!

- The Galeonis Empire

[00:26] <&Walking_Corpse> mapgen doesn't work right for me
[00:26] <&Galeonis> yeah yeah same with ur penis

pie we <3 you

4) The game will become too easy.

I disagree, it'll actually allow a full fam effort to be more thorough, knowing whats going on etc etc

I'm for this idea.

I love this idea too...

Agreed, I think this should be its own thing that requires no special tag to participate in.

By the way, it just occurred that this would also remove the need to families to post threads like "upkeep" and "under construction".  More examples of people being forced to pass data around that should be readily available to/from those who are willing to share it.

I voted.

Support!