Speedgame and Round 16 details

Signups for the first speedgame on the 7th and 8th of January are now open.

Buddy packs are packs of 5 and ticks are set at 1 minute.
There will probably be a 5 minute stop in ticks while the shuffle occurs at 12:36pm.

The second free speedgame will proceed as planned, the same as the first but with 10 man buddy packs as opposed to 5 man buddy packs, and a capture the flag scenario.

From community suggestions, we've rearranged the remaining schedule and extended the free round (round 16) so signups start on the 18th January, with ticks starting on the 27th of January at 21:00. It will last for 8 weeks and end on the 24th of March.

The free round alliance limit will be as follows:
For all alliances, the limit will be 50 for the first 4 days (or 96 ticks). From then on, any alliance not in the top 5 may accept a new applicant every 20 - $current_alliance_rank ticks (minimum of 1), up to a maximum of 100 players.

The galaxy configuration will be the same as in round 15, but buddy pack members will not be able to self exile nor will they be able to be exiled. Buddy packs will have a maximum size of 5 planets as in round 15.

A full list of bug fixes and minor tweaks will be released before signups open.

The alliance competition will now not run until further notice.