Nice post Frogboy.
Just off the top of my head the purple skybox is damn sexy!
Couple of tibids you guys might wish to include with the expansion for us MP types is more Game Options. I know you guys have not worked up the whole team placement, but could you at least introduce Shuffle teams option? This would basically shuffle players around before the game is launched, but it would keep the number of players/team.
Other Game options that would be great: Bring back the mineral options. That was probably my favorite options. You used to have Random, Low, Medium, and High. I'm not sure why that was taken out 
But when you bring it back, give it a slight twist! By separating it into minerals per each planet type! That way you can set Minerals for Asteroids, Terans, Deserts, Ice, Volcanic, and Even Neutral sites!
Lastly maybe allow setting of Militia levels. That way you can boost militia levels per each planet, that would give better pacing for expansion. The random assortment can really be unbalancing. But you can leave it as option. Random, Low, Medium, High Militia would be faboulous.
And lastly if you can break the Militia Settings to per planet, much like I wish resoruce settings to be planet dependent, that would be great.
I leave you with a question: Were there any new planet types/sites added to the game?
Keep up the good work. Later
