the auto commands have to be all in sync, aka, every computer must register that ship X now suddely feels like doing action y, at the same time.
This means, the more ships, the hard it is for this to happen, and so a lag starts to develop where the autopilot is cycling though the ships slower than the ships finish orders.
Not a biggy. slightly annoying perhaps, but not a biggy, as each players ships are affected in the same way. So it gives more incentive to micro your fleet well.
