Just played a single player 4 player FFA. Not seeing the 'super fast games', it seemed pretty normal to me.
Some feedback since I don't know where else it should go:
-Pirate alliance thing is awesome at first, but quickly becomes annoying. With no way to 'shut it off', your popcap quickly get filled with pirates. It's strong if you rush for it and use that as your fleet, but late game it makes it hard to build normal ships.
-Overcharge on Rebel titan seems bugged with the Scatter Shot (shotgun shot thing). It doesn't appear to get any additional bonus from the overcharge once you skill it past level 2.
-Not sure what the point of the new laser upgrade is. An extra 5% isn't going to make cobalts worthwhile late game. I'd suggest either having multiple levels or giving some other bonus to keep their damage output competitive.
-Some of the old, useless techs are still useless. Refineries are still overpriced, bombing tech upgrades are still overpriced junk, TEC beam tech upgrades are still LOL, etc. Some balancing efforts for the old stuff will help diversity in teching paths.
I will try loyalists next.