This is my largest wish for MP at this point. If not that a substitute for gaining random ideology points throughout the game as right now what ever you can get through the initial colony rush (or if you spend on a building that creates ideology at that time) is the only way to get ideology. Therefore the "feel" of MP games doesn't match that of SP games because that is missing. I hope sometime in the future, once they fix MP and, get it working again this is looked at.
As far as the general MP issues (crash on starting/unrecoverable saves/stuck on turn after several turns) I'm sure will be solved. Hopefully sooner than later as to this point Crusade has effectively killed the MP game. Frogboy, I know has several ideas on how to get custom factions w/ custom ships back into the MP game, however, I'm assuming this won't be a quick add in but, hopefully that won't be too long either as I know many people, including myself, love their own custom factions.
Just hold in there, I know it's frustrating but, it will be worth it. 