Typical setup: insane map, 10 majors, all minors, abundant settings for most items, challenging. . . .

• I had the same starbase bug that others have reported. Looks like they have a fix. I fixed this by changing graphics settings to high and reloading the game. Don't know why that worked.
• I had a crash to desktop when I first started a new game, didn't like my starting position at the end of a spiral arm, so started a new map and the game CTD.  I will submit a trouble ticket with the files.
• At turn 150, I have 52 colonies (far less than the 150-200 I have had in recent builds at this stage).  The primary reason is pirates.  I love 'em.  They have forced me to research military tech earlier than I normally would, escort some colony ships and constructors, and form small fleets to take out their fleets and bases.  That has slowed my expansion considerably.  Love it!  Unfortunately for the AI, the two major races I have encountered so far (that is much slower too) don't seem to know how to handle the pirates.  The Iridium only have 11 colonies and the Kyrnn only have 17.
• At high graphics settings and autosaves every turn, the game is very stable.  Good job.
• Diplomacy and trading feel about right now.  I like the timed nature (50 turns) of treaties and trade good trades.  Great addition.  Not being able to trade every turn with the AI is also good.
• Of course, the custom-ship-part resizing bug is still in the game.  Grrrrr.  If someone knows a workaround for this bug, I would love to hear (see) it.  Otherwise I will have to completely rebuild several designs.

That's it for now.  More to follow later in the game.