One suggestion I've seen to deal with this is for the players with the same shipset add an identifying tag to their ship class names. This may not even be needed if they are using different design name files.
If at least one of the players renames his colonized worlds, you can turn on Show Planet Names under (F11) Status/Empire Options.
On PBW, the player list currently will show any custom shipsets being used, but not the standard ones.
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Cap'n Q
My first SE IV mod!
Hypermaze quadrant
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"
[This message has been edited by capnq (edited 17 November 2001).]