Frogboy, just wanted to say I have been enjoying the game since I picked it up on Labor day weekend.
But you might want to try playing a few games with people who don't have super low pings, so that you can feel the pain many people are going through. My machine at work has a great connection, but the game still lags like hell when playing sometimes. And my home connection is one of those slower uploads you talk about, sometimes it is OK, sometimes not.
If anything can be done by GPG/Stardock to reduce the upload bandwitdh to make things smoother, I and others would greatly appriciate it. 