Yes, let's take as many players as want to join, though our current five is fine, so we can start as soon as we're all set up. I would suggest we not include any AI empires, because it would create a huge opportunity to try to capture their homeworld. Unless we
want a "King of the Hill" type scenario.
I would like to try to use the 1.5 Version, which I'll try to have ready and send to geoschmo (and post here) by Friday night or Saturday day. I want to take another look at the racial attribute point costs, to double-check the balance, so hold off on tweaking your planned empire abilities.
Dogscoff, PBW is mainly an automated PBEM host - it just makes PBEM faster and easier. PBW will email you the turn files (and offer them on the web) automatically as soon as everyone has submitted their turns. You don't need to be continuously connected, but if every player happens to be playing at the same time, it can go about as quickly as TCP/IP or hotseat can. Hosting is just a matter of setting up the game and filling in web forms on PBW, but I'll be happy to do it.
PvK