Kazagistar: Hi there, friend! Would you like to join my very big and powerful alliance? If so, please take your fleets to fight the... BIG ENEMY over there, far away from your planets...
n00b: Alright! a big alliance sounds great! I will do whatever I can to get in!
Haha! With his entire fleet gone on a mission for an imaginary alliance, I can proceed to take all his systems with my fleet parked just out of his sight radius!
... I'm not seeing anyone...
BATTLE REPORT: ALL YOUR SHIPS DESTROYED! ENEMY AT 97%! YOU GOT PWNZRD BY DEFENCES!
Um... that was a test! We were... um... using a minor portion of my, I mean our fleets to test your defences any you passed! Wecome to the alliance!
Welcome! Today, all the evil secrets of the mastermind genius are revealed!
Hi, my name is Astax, and today I shall share my SpaceCiv-dominating secret strategies with you all!
First, I never sleep. That way, I can never be caught off-guard, so don't even try. I also encourage people to band together and attack me because that gives me planets with no reputation penalty.
And most important of all... the one that I have never told a living soul: all of my soldiers are cannibals!
So Erwin, many people have astutely pointed out that it is in fact impossible that you created a game as good as SpaceCiv on your own. What is your secret?
You are right. I do not do this on my own, as I have previously claimed, but rather rely on a large amount of help from various sources...
... First, I have a team of proffesional developers, as well as robot, to help me manage the forums.
We work 16 hours a day without pay, but we still are the best programmer, graphics designer, and software tester in the known universe. Boo-yah!
I AM ERWIN. HEY GUYS WHAT DO YOU THINK? IT IS LOW PRIORITY. THANK YOU. IT IS LOW PRIORITY...
I also have a few... other friends...
Hear ye! We of the Knights Templar pretended to disband our order to hide 'till such a day when humanity would be ready for SpaceCiv.
We help make SpaceCiv to train commanders for humaity's future space wars. Without your help, the evil Zorgokians shall destroy all sentient life in the universe!
...that you surrender to my approaching attack fleet and pay due tribute!
This means a giant rep loss capped at 20% for only one system, making such action... wait, did he just say ATTACK?!?
Lesson 3: If your score is a lot lower then that of the leaders, then their potential reputation loss is the only thing keeping you alive. DON'T ATTACK THEM FIRST!