i'm still here... lurking.......
but seriously: a good start game would be a 6-player game in a small universe with the demo Version, with every player selecting one of the pre-generated races....
I suggest that you (Hugh manate) try to get the name & e-mail of the players that want to play with the demo and ask them to sendo their race files (that will be one of the pre-generated races of the demo with only modifications in the name and simbols), then generate a game.....
Put me in your list, my e-mail is
stevaoaccadrolli@brturbo.com
When you have at least more 4 players (that with you and me will be 6), send a mail to each one requesting their race files, so we can start....