I'm all about bringing in new players, something that we see very little of in recent years.  A tutorial galaxy, in my eyes, is a must...but I feel like it hasn't been done properly around here yet. 

Ok, so Virgo sucked.  Turned into more of a graveyard for new accounts/ a place for veteran players to see how much they could infra whore with 9 planets than a tutorial galaxy.  Having some kind of a tutorial with Supernova is a great idea, but I also feel like having players learn in an SS setting is detrimental to them fitting in a family after the round is over.  Let's face it, in family galaxies people frequently kill off SS players even if the players are vets.  A new player with an SS mindset has almost no chance of surviving the trolls in this game.

My proposal, and this is rough...cuz I need to go to bed soon

-Small galaxy...
-3 families.
-2 families with 1-2 veteran players who are willing to help (and capable of helping) new players develop their skills. 
-1 family containing a "dead" player that a veteran or moderator consistently keeps loaded with planets, we're talking 200 in a galaxy where 10ish planets is the max for other players.
-List of goals that a player must complete before "graduating"
____-These goals should be able to be accomplished in less than 7 days
1. Aid a player
2. Successfully cast an unaggressive op
3. Successfully cast an aggressive op
4. Successfully build 1 of each building
5. Successfully change your science ratios
6. Successfully buy something on the market
7. Successfully sell something on the market
8. Successfully explore a planet
9. Successfully attack and capture a planet
10. Post in the forums
11. Visit the family chat
12. Build 1 of each unit
13. Once they reach 10 planets, and the galaxy moderators feel they are ready, they gradumicate

The dead player could be a new account accessible by the moderators and galaxy moderators in order to keep it up to date.  Building various amounts of lasers, keeping a good market going, etc. 

I would also suggest opening a STRICTLY moderated forum and channel in IRC specifically for new players to come in ask questions.  We're talking a single troll by a veteran player and they get a forum ban (if possible just from this forum).

In my eyes by far the most important part of IC is the community.  I've made some long time friends here, and we are a pretty tight knit group...the down fall of that has been that over the past few years especially it has been hard for new players to integrate into the mix.  Give them a place to get together with some specific friendly veterans who are willing to do the dirty work of acclimating new players...and get them involved in IRC.

Ok I'm done, probably more on this tomorrow.