I know a lot of you have gripes specifically with how UA played out this round in MW. Let’s hash it out here.
To be clear, UA isn’t going away, but we can and should address the underlying issues it facilitates. This was our first round in a long time without the rule, so there are things we can learn form this if we can dig into the experience.
A good question to ask yourself: what specifically is it that UA makes possible that you most dislike?
Thanks.
I have been observing the game and it seems to be about cliques now. I warned you about this earlier and now it has happened in full extent.
This will kill the game eventually if it will be the new norm.
Cliques will take more and more control and soon those are the only ones having fun. Bankers and ressies around them can still keep their semi-active presence, but real attackers outside cliques will seize to exist eventually. Some new guys will try attacking once or twice, but will give up.
Sorry to say to bankers and ressies, but attackers are the real players and primus motors in this game. Others are just the necessary providers for attackers. When only cliques has talented and active attackers, even they will get bored to fight the same wars against the same attackers.
Dunno if I will be here to say; I told you so, but that is not relevant. You have been warned.
Edit: as a secondary attacker in my fam, I am only providing morale for retakes and attacking small targets, not attacking for real. I know I have skill to be main attacker, but I just do not bother to commit myself anymore, because I am not insider in any clique.
What was your least favorite part of the round? UA/IA
What was your most favorite part of the round? -> Playing with some old friends again, had a great fam this round.
If you had 1 wish for the next round in this galaxy, what would it be? NO UA/IA, but since UA/IA is here to stay i have decided to not play MW in the coming rounds, This is MW round completly killed my IC motivation. The outcome of this round is exactly like predicted. another round like this is not worth for me.
i tried find a scenario where UA/IA will work, but i struggle to find one. My initial thoughts were smaller fams and a capped number of official allainces per fam to make small tri’s or pair’s but thats not UA 
And from my experience as creator of the mag7 allaince in SN, we saw even at 1 man fams IA/UA dosent work well either atleast not for my taste.
If I think of any solutions I will add them.
What was your most favorite part of the round? Met a lot of new people which ironically is largely due to UA/IA. Played on the side of many that I’ve normally been against vs people I’ve normally been with - good to see things from both sides.
If you had 1 wish for the next round in this galaxy, what would it be? Have to agree with AWs comments, I’ll be taking a break or banking next round (same thing 
) and definitely not leading.
Phew, don’t mind the topic juggling!
I really do appreciate your guys’ feedback, it’s just tough wrangling it coming in from different directions. Focused conversations help a ton because they translate better into #roadmap items. Thanks for your patience as we get organized.
Speaking of the roadmap, I’d like to also remind everybody that Official Alliances will eventually formalize UAs. UAs will still be allowed, but probably not preferable to a real alliance. This change in player grouping will be something we can design around and rebalance against.
@Zanharim, rest assured I’m aware of the criticism you mentioned. The idea is to fix “the new norm” you described by addressing the underlying issues we discuss here, as forbidding UA isn’t a real (or scalable) solution.
It’s sad to see the Illegal Alliance rule removed from IC. It’s one of the few things that made IC unique and balanced to me - every other browser game I’ve played basically is a poorly balanced game that tries to make up for it by allowing everybody to team up against someone if they get too far ahead. Which is dumb. IC has great mechanics like OB %'s and empire size %'s and morale and blowing up planets that stop someone from getting too far ahead and unstoppable.
You should be able to work with only 0-1 official alliance. Nobody else. Otherwise the game is just a shitshow.
1 allaince is nothing diffrent from a big family in my tri there were 3 fams with 1 chat and we all market aided and help eacother with ops and swap planets etc etc etc. Maybe just do 3 or 4 big fams could be a solution?
Why is the UA being kept on? Just a question. Almost every player i have spoken too does not like the UA it has made this round in MW not very fun. I don’t mind if its going to be tweaked in someway but as it stands it just stacks the cards in the favour of people who have been playing for years and years as they seem to know everybody. If i was not lucky enough to random into one of the top tris i would have probs spent most of the round being farmed by them. That is not a good look. In short i agree totally with @Zanharim. I kind of like Airwings suggestion of some bigger fams to help maybe combat people being left out of the pre determined cliques however i think this would be boring as the cliques would then just nap up until a pre arranged fight time not allowing any spontaneous raids too take place. DOWN WITH UA
Just my opinion from playing for the first time ever, but it seems to me that the real issue with UA is the mindset of the people playing. If people are concerned about cliques forming then maybe make up your minds not to form those cliques. Stop making alliances with the same fams every single round. Switch things up and have fun with it. As a new player I didn’t really have fun this round but it didn’t have anything to do with UA, it was due to not being worked with until the very end and having to try and learn on my own for most of the round. I agree with a posting HydroP said where there should be trainers that new players land with to teach them the game cause if not for the fact that I have two family members in this game I want to play with and get to learn the game I wouldn’t come back. No offense to my fam members cause I have nothing against them, but it needs to be said. I randomed into a small fam that didn’t seem overly motivated to work it’s way up in the rankings and that largely seemed to be because of the cliques in the bigger family. This is a game that people seem to take too seriously in that they get their panties all twisted up and hold grudges and then target the same players and their fams every round after that. It’s a game folks and it’s supposed to be fun. Pull those panties down out your ass crack, untwist them, and start trying to have some fun again playing a game that you love. cue panty twisting
I am for UA, I haven’t seen it before - but, I have now.
There is no honor. 
I can’t wait for the next UA round, so many new friends!
So little care about any reason to play with dignity.
Nothing matters anymore, no moral code, nothing.
Sure, Draco 1 was fun.
If that is our new reality, I think quite a few people are looking forward to embracing all the aspects of the game we haven’t explored before.
Don’t run away @Airwing!
Stick around and be seen!
The universe is sounds so much more fun when we all know who is who. 
The big reasons are:
See this post for a full explanation.
If UA were to be forbidden again, the rule would come back with the understanding that anybody who wants to do it will 100% get away with it.
The last 2 or 3 big UA scandals that happened took a ton of my time away from actual game code. I am never going to investigate a UA again, regardless of whether or not the rule exists.
I am also not going to spend time managing a mod team again, as managing moderators is also a drain on dev resources for a rule that I don’t agree with.
We tried “the honor system” before and it doesn’t work, and manually reviewing game communication is not a scalable solution if we ever want to grow to more than ~100 players.
That’s why I keep talking about the underlying issues:
Let’s fix X, Y, and Z.
I’m not running away, this UA is killing my IC addiction rapidly , as always I will do what i need to do to compete and if that is making allainces with my friends in this game i will do it, becouse thats whats needed to be where i am atm #1. but unfortuantly that takes away to much of the fun for me. i will try infitium galaxy next and see what happens there.
alot of the X,Y and Z as i see it are the players, and i dont see them changing much 
Ok thanks for that @I_like_pie i generally just thought this was a new rule meant to enhance the playing experience Which it totally was not doing.
Policing UA has got to be a nightmare.
What a silly waste of time.
Make the game have the aspects that work!
Players who are awesome could still make it work with honor.
I mean we all know I am a “bad player, the worst ever, the biggest joke”… so next round, I am looking forward to emulating the nap breakers, the small fam rape artists, the kill your old allies, they are the true heroes.
Now that we know next round any conception of honor is completely dead - then we can just play however we want - tell everyone “we are all friends right”?
Awwww @Airwing it should be a snap for you once everyone can see your name, and the name of 95% (save for PA) of all your best friends everyone will just tremble in fear right?
Oh wait, we will never know - you quit.
Unless Pie can’t kill anonymity - then bam you are right back in.
Preach brother! Preach. Sorry you didn’t have fun…be sure to give next round a shot.
This is a really important factor that I think isn’t obvious enough to most of us older people playing. It does not surprise me however that a newer player would call this out.
We treat each other like trash a lot of the time, and that has to change. I wouldn’t say “toxic” is the right term, but it’s not far off.
IC has a culture problem. We are only able to see it more clearly now because we can’t hide behind UA anymore.
I’m definitely going to give the game another shot. And hopefully I’ll get to play with at least one member of my family so I can really learn the game. I’ve had to sit and listen to talk about this game for years and finally decided to get on and see what all the hype was about. Lol. It’s been interesting so far in that I’ve learned more about the players so far than I’ve learned about the actual game. Which I find funny.
i didnt understnad what u ment there… all i know i dont feel the urge for another round of UA so i’ll wait untill the X,Y and Z are tweeked, in the meantime you and your merry band of B list players should have an acctually shot at the throne
People don’t like change. That’s human nature. But if more people were willing to accept it and make something good of it this game could blow up big in a good way. Trash talk is necessary to a good game (when done in the right way), but treating players like trash is never ok. No one like a bully, be it in the forums or in the game.