Here's what I would do if I were to rewrite stars!:

- Strict server/clients architecture

- All information between server and clients in json (or XML if need be)

- Server is a python* program that generates new turns based on old universe plus orders

- Server accepts partial orders as well as complete orders and can be queried for all existing state

- Base client would be a web based client that functions much like the current client

- Other clients could do various automation tasks and store partial orders, notes, messages etc on the server

- AI would also be a client like any other client. Cheating is replaced by 'handicap' flags on the server

By having a very modular server/client design, multiple people can work on different aspects effectively; and multiple clients can exist and compete with each other.

At the moment, I am completely willing to contribute to a rewrite, but I lack the time to do it on my own, so I would only be interested if 2+ more people are willing to commit serious time. I can do back-end or front-end, I don't really care.

something high-level (+portable +open source) like python is probably more efficient than something like C or C#.