Regarding the Universe News, we speak of a newspaper feature in fact. This is an idea we had in the past (I am unaware if it has been posted by any player, probably not though) and has to do with a separate page in-game that will summarize big events in-game.
The newspaper itself will be generated by both user and automatic feed. Automatic feed will detect big events and add them while users will be able to also post (there will be some delay to user submitted content till someone certifies them -> Although we can add such power to current forum moderators and/or more trusted players to save time).
What we need to actually discuss, since this is a dev idea that does not need much efford to get approved, it to help us with what the Automatic Feed should include. Then we can prioritize it properly and perhaps have it done before the new year.
A quick list is as follows for automatic:
-Top50 rank changes by +-1 (players)
-Top200 rank changes by +-20 (players)
-Top10 rank changes (alliances)
-Big hits
-Big Moon losses
-Milestones for players/alliances (A new list is needed here. For example when an alliance reaches 10,50,100 members, power achievement for players/alliances). Milestones will appear only once for each.
Users on the other hand, can think of their own what to post but only major events will be published at top of newspaprer (first page). Such events can be war declarations.
Generally, we will need to sit down and decide all types of user and automatic content and give a priority number to each one because the system will need to decide what to describe first.
We can include the rankings and various other stats in the newspaper (This will eliminate Statistics and Score Board links from the menu but both and more will be accessible through the newspaper - In well visible locations of course!). In this way, we can give a nice feeling in the game.
I do not know if anyone else sees this in the way I do but I am personally very excited in such a feature. Perhaps because it also fits my role in the game
