We got the game going finally with far less than the 45+ AI, about 10, lost two players in the process... the first four games started w/ 3 human players... will submit but reports after done playing for the night...
First game had around 50+ AI's in game mostly mine with 5 of one of the other players.... Crashed in starting game...
Second attempt was very similar and crashed as well...
Third attempt dropped AI players to around 30 hung on loading custom ships forever, force closed the game, however, other players got message I disconnected.
Fourth attempt dropped AI players to around 10 hung on waiting on peers to finish loading... forced closed game after 5 minutes waiting...
At this point Steam stated update available at 9:37 PM CST, downloaded and restarted the game.
Fifth game started w/ two human and just the 6 normal races, no custom we each were one of the races... That game finally loaded. However, hung on waiting after first turn had to exit.
Sixth game started w/ two human and 6 normal and 1 custom race, medium map, game loaded and progressed past second turn, froze on waiting after turn 5.
Sixth game reload started w/ three human 5 normal race 1 custom race... progressed past the 6th turn. (We all can see each others homeworld through fog, I know we don't all have that trait. Stuck on turn 7.
Seventh game lost one player gained one with 15+ races 3 human... game loaded, after loading lost both other human players...
Eighth game started 3 human (2 of them custom 1 normal) 7 normal players, game loaded, one human player didn't respond, never got a disconnect notice.
Ninth game I let Raynman start 
joined his game, played w/ my custom race... Game locked up after 8 turns, Ray killed game, got notice disconnected, game crashed...
Tenth game, joined Ray's game again , got disconnected after several turns, peer disconnected. game did not crash... exited normally Calling it a night
