Personally, I was on quite a bit during the day, but missed most of the evening shift. While I was on, the only empire I did not see represented was Kzinti/Mirak. Federation and (wow!) Lyran were the most popular choices through the early part of the day.
Missions were suitably challenging even against the AI (though I'm a bit rusty). I had two problems. First, when you play Fleet Action in an asteroid hex, the AIs tend to split up on either side of a middle area that has 6 closely-placed asteroids. When an AI finishes its opponents on one side, it likes to run through these rocks to help its ally. Unfortunately, they tend to either take a lot of damage on the chin from dust clouds (best case) or smack into a rock (worst case). I lost a couple Klingons this way; after all, they are an overzealous lot. Second, when I ran a Courier Intercept with Tempest in a neutral hex to try allied coop, even though we lost the mission by letting the courier escape while we killed the other 3 ships, the hex defense went down. Feel free to list any missions you have successful neutral coops with, or any unusual results.
The non-plasma empires tended to have just 2 ships in the shipyard (or a base and 1 ship) at a time, but I knew this going in. This reflects the story/map setup, with the disputed area being in the plasma races' backyard. They get more territory to start, and the other empires have smaller forward enclaves they must build up. As you get more economy, your production will increase, which also reflects the delay in moving ships from your home territory to this front. As Lyran, I saw the shipyard go as high as 3 ships when we added 1 20 econ. hex, and 4 when we added another 20 econ. Ship sizes went from FF to CA. There are plenty of economy hexes (even some 80 econ. asteroids) for players to boost their economy with.
On ships lost, I ran my starter L-DWP into a rock, and then promptly lost an L-DDD (LDR destroyer) to 2 ISC ships when I unexpectedly lost a Klingon AI to the aforementioned asteroid field. I then found myself in an unsatisfactory L-DDP, which I traded in after buying an L-DMP (LDR military police ship). After a few more missions, I was able to snag an L-DCWL (LDR war cruiser leader, price: 4700 range) just before the shipyard cycled it out of the queue. I did see up to a CC while I was on. Most BCHes won't be out for the first couple of days, so don't be surprised if you don't see them right away. DNs and CVs will probably not show up until you get some more economy.
I only played missions with one other player, but had no apparent problems. The server did reboot once during the day while I was on, but overall it was stable. Chat is still down, but we may have a solution shortly. Some players still haven't learned to keep their nicknames to 10 characters or less to receive tells, but most were able to send and receive direct messages fine.