I can usually find games online, even while at work despite our heavy handed Firewall settings.  My problem is every single game I get in gets server disconnected a turn or two into it. It's frustrating.

How would fog of war work if you can only send ships to planets?   It would have to be carefully designed, or you'd run the risk of sometimes splitting the map into clusters of planets from which no other planets were visible (and therefore reachable).

I think that the best way for it to work is if you could see dim outlines of planets (This is why I would call it 'Nebula of War') but you could not see who owned them or moves made around them.  You wouldn't know the names of the planets until after you've sent a fleet there.

Hmm, one could make it a benefit of taking another empire's homewold that you would lift the Nebula of War from all that Empire's planets. 

How about some sort of defensive facilities for planets?  Something that you can upgrade like a factory, but instead it boosts the power of ships in orbit.  Maybe even prevent small fleets from taking planets (I would have a pretty high defense facility level to enemy ship ratio for this though, perhaps 2-3 levels to defeat 1 ship).

Fog (Nebula?) of War would be nice.  Make it a little bit more of a surprise when you come across an enemy player's planets.

There really should be some more achievements that can only be acquired in Multiplayer.  I got all but the "Perfect!" achievement in the first few hours of play.  Perhaps something based on the number of human or AI players in the game?  I remember an old computer game ad that showed a picture of a computer chip with the caption that said "This opponent is programed to be challenging".  Then it showed a picture of a crazed looking man with the caption of "This opponent wants to rip your lungs out".  That would be a good basis for a pair of achievements, IMO.   

I haven't played too much with customization yet, so this might already be possible.  How about an option to start each faction with multiple planets in clusters?

This idea is probably just the MoO2/GalCiv2 player in me talking, but what about random events that affect the entire map or maybe just one faction?  Nothing game breaking, just minor things like a small bonus or penalty.

Thats all I can really think of in one sitting.   

Easter Eggs are cool.  I'd love to know the story behind the "Am I talking to Miranda now?" Achievement.  That has to be some sort of Easter Egg, especially since there is a Miranda on the board here. 

As for cheats, go ahead and implement them.  But also make an achievement that one can only get by using a cheat code in a game. 

I solved this problem by creating a huge map with 210 Neutral Worlds and a single AI planet.  I then proceeded to kill neutral planets until I finally got the Slayer Achievement.

I let the game sit then while the Achievement Spam flushed itself.  Took about ten minutes before it finally caught up.