There are "experience points" that an empire gets for colonizing planets, constructing ships, winning battles, etc. Probably for winning a game as well. Supposedly there is a small bonus for getting higher empire point levels, but so far, nobody has been able to figure out what that bonus is. Mostly it is used for roleplay value of an empire.
The closest we have to a dedicated server is
PBW. It facilitates Play by EMail for multiplayer games. AFAIK, there isn't a server that helps out with TCP/IP play, someone who knows more about multiplayer can correct me on this, though.
Welcome to the Forums and SEIV.
