One player can fly a scout to spot a base, one a bomber to destroy the base, and perhaps two more as fighters to protect the scout and bomber. This can all nicely be controlled from the command screen where one commander can give orders and players can acknowledge them. Multiple game types should be supported from pure melee to capture the flag. Lets talk about gameplay. I played the preview beta zero for half an hour or so and was very impressed with what I saw at this point.
Ships use physics based inertia with a fixed maximum speed.
Beginners can fly around Wing Commander style with thrusters burning all the time while experts can strafe and shoot in directions other than the current heading. This is what we've needed all along in space shooters and should hopefully eliminate turning battles. Every team has one commander who can give orders to players via a top down zoomed out screen. Players can choose to accept these orders or not, but I predict the top squads will use this to good effect. If you setup your own server you can have, if I remember correctly, up to 32 players.