In the Nu Year 0011, during a rare moment of diplomatic unity, the 11 races came to a new strategic information sharing agreement. The new agreement states that any race which has gained information through an alliance or strategic intelligence agreement will not share that information with other allies.
This resolves the "transitive information sharing" problem faced by many races when attempting complex diplomatic relationships during battles. Before the agreement the following could happen:
Scenario: The Feds have an alliance with the Lizards, and the Lizards also have an alliance with the Birdmen, but the Feds and the Birds are not allied.
Before the strategic information sharing act (SISA 2011) the Feds would get information about the Birdmen through their alliance with the Lizards and vice versa. After SISA the Lizards are not permitted to share this information unless they break off the alliance with one or the other races. So the Feds would not see Birdman information unless the Birdmen cancelled their agreement with the Lizards or the Lizards broke off the agreement. In which case they would still know about the Birdmen planets and would now be free to share that with the Feds. - So beware creating alliances and breaking them.
Holiday Mode
A new simple holiday mode has also been created. This feature is for Premium members only. Premium members will see a new "Holiday Mode On/Off" button on their game pages. You can toggle holiday mode on and off with this feature. When holiday mode is on your turns will automatically be marked as "Ready" just before the host run. This will prevent you from missing turns and being dropped from the game. It also keeps the game running smoothly when you are gone. The other players will not know you are in holiday mode or missing turns and you are still welcome to play a turn (or half a turn) if you get a chance.
Game pauses will not occur unless unanimously agreed by the players in a game. Setup your turns so your empire will be ok, set your holiday mode and just miss a couple turns instead so others can continue to enjoy playing.