Was wondering if we could get an update as far as priority on these, I got all excited for multi-planet start with the hype letters to be sad when we were in gamma with a patch that hasn't really produced much for me. Been hoping for quite some time Uber would increase the server side cap of players so I can play with 5 armies with 2 other friends (15 players) but no joy thus far. The lobbies seem way buggier, and no longer pre-load maps (ready when green was awesome). Players can't ready up either, which I dislike. Also seem to have issues with the game actually being visible in the list, playing with friends via skype I know their room is hosted (and set to public with open slots) but couldn't see them/join like I could previously.
Multi planet start will be added soon. Hopefully within the next few weeks. Uber has not released any info on when they'll increase the player count. They said they're gonna start incrementally increasing it. We'll see. The pre-loading system bug is a known issue and should be added back in tomorrow morning. "When will X be implemented?" Soon.
The lobby shenanigans whereby you can't see people's games even though you know they are there, seems to be fairly common (anecdotal evidence). I was watching a livesdtream last night (that twitch tab in the main menu sent me there!) and the guy was playing for the first time, but it took him about 3 attempts to even get into a game successfully because of the planet generating bug, not including people trying to join him in the lobby who couldn't even see his game in the list.