I know this should technicly be under modding, or something similar, but it is most relevent to multiplayer...
so...
I've seen some sugestions that Iron Clad should make some basic skirmish maps. No empire Stuff, just start out with some ships, and go fight.
I think, that instead of waiting for IronClad, we should make our own maps. The players will start out with a few planets, and a large fleet. They can try to build an empire (reaserch, and such) But they also have enough ships to start duking it out from the begging.
Simply make the maps, put some mark at the begging of the map like .. "Map Name [skirmish]"
Upload it to some site, and ask people to play.
I know that if I get time, I will try this, but, what does everybody else think?