Dorwyn

Just an idea:

Why not start a thing like "Cluster wars". A player is only be able to start attacks outside a cluster and a player is only able to defend inside the cluster with the normal -1 ETA (ETA 5 for galaxy).
During the first 72 ticks you can join your ally. After shuffle the whole ally is put in the SAME Cluster. Only two or three Allys may be in one cluster (depends on maximum allysize). The rest of the cluster is filled with random planets.
Buddypack sizes should be left as they are. Galaxy sizes should be something between 10-20.
If someone chooses to get in an ally during the round, this planet will be "exiled" to the cluster the alliance is in. And if someone chooses to leave the ally, the planet is teleportet to a random galaxy. Of cource there must be some reglementations to avoid cheating.
A player is still be able to exile. If the player is in an ally and chooses to exile, the planet is teleportet to another galaxy in the cluster and if the player isn't in an ally the planet will get to a random galaxy in the universe.

I think there could be several great chances for the game: Fake nicking is useless; random player will prolly get more help because the cluster needs everyone to help; Alliance politics could get funny ("do I help the other ally in my cluster or should I decide not helping", "lets get strong together"); Old friends could easily play together either in a buddypack or in the same ally (think about joining a buddypack with your friends and joining an alliance -> same cluster). Also here must be a reglementation to avoid having to many alliances in one cluster (buddypack with 5 alliances for example).