I really like the idea on the alliance portion. However, in the endgame, what really is the point of an alliance? I'd kind of like to see it the way it is now (in the sense that you can't really see what the player is doing behind the scenes.) They can still plan and prepare for the inevitable split and insueing race to the finish. If all players can see what's going on in their members territory, there would be no way (that I can think of at the moment) of stabbing one another in the back. A setup like that would be great if the Alliance itself could win the game, but if it's still "Highlander-esque" than I'm not sure it will work. Make sense? Or did I just ramble?

I for one completely understand your lack of communication, and have stated as much earlier. Though I also understand the other side's frustrations when it comes to server issues/notices and especially current victory conditions. Maybe make it a little easier on all of you developers and post a few stickies about victory conditions on current servers and maybe some kind of auto updating server notice. As it stands now, Tsagoth must physically type each Server update notice. If the Watchdog can automatically fix server issues, there must be something like that for a forum/server notification system. Just my .02 cents.