And you KNOW there would be the.... OCD person using 5 seconds time increments ALWAYS.
And whats going to happen when someone does an overhaul of their fleet, using 3+ hours planning components and such? I certainly do quite often. Is everyone else going to go and read a book in the meanwhile?
I don't think Aurora is suitable for true multiplayer. Not at all.
Dominions 4 allows asynchronous multiplayer if you want. It has to be set up this way when you start the game, but it can be done. In Dom4 with asynchronous multiplayer on, the players are given X amount of time (I think most people do 24 hours) to complete their turns and send them to the host. Once they're all in or the time is up, the host then goes to the next turn and the process repeats. I think they're sent via the same protocols as email. It's kinda like playing chess by mail like people used to do pre-internet.
What this would allow is players who were not in combat could go do something else while they wait. If something triggers an interrupt, the host can contact the affected players and get them to handle it. So say there's 4 players, and 2 start fighting. The two who aren't fighting just click 30-days, and go play something else for a little while. Meanwhile, the two in combat fight it out at 5-sec increments as long as they have to. If the fighting spills over to a third player, an interrupt would trigger for him, stopping his 30-day increment. The host can call him on the phone or skype or steam and get him to work out the interrupts. Obviously I'm assuming this will only really work if all players know each other. But I think that's a fine assumption, I don't believe many people play Dom4 or Europa Universalis 4 with strangers. Dom4 has no matchmaking at all, and EU4 barely does.
I agree with sloanjh though. This is all just waiting on Steve playing multiplayer with someone. I hope it happens soon.