Wow, green text is much easier to read on the black background.
On a side note, there are currently mods planned for Star Trek, Star Wars, BSG, B5, Dawn of Victory, mmaayybbee FireFly.
I imagine it would cost a arm and a leg for SD/IC to buy the rights to make a game out of said intellectual property.
Yes, diplomacy sucks and I don't know if IC (they are the ones who actually made the game) will do anything about it beyond a few tweaks. I would expect though that the expansion they have planned in about a year will improve on this as well as other aspects of the game.
You can also change the speed of any aspect of the game, from overall speed to ship speed and such.