I just played for 4 1/2 hours on a huge map vs 5 and no crashes. It does start to lag on the big battles for me. The mod is big, so you could try what I do If you want to.....
go to the "options" menu and to the "effects" page and check only these boxes:
---Show planet rings ---Use colored skyboxes ---Use deep skyboxes ---Bloom enabled ---Show mesh team colors
Then change the shadow quality to "medium" or less.
Set the..... Planet detail to "higher"
Ship detail---Higher Ship extras---Medium Ship bump---low
Building detail---Higher Building extras---Medium Building bump---low
last you need to shut off---auto save.
