You can have up to 256 auto controller bots, which means they could be the gunners on the capitol ships to create the illusion of over 100 players.
Obviously 256 is overkill and would lag people out and stress the server out even more so.However, I bet at least 35 could be added no sweat. That's a big chunk of turrets occupied, which frees up more players to captain more capitol ships and corvettes/fighters. But of course this would take a lot of work balancing the different bots for different ships and such, and I don't know how thorough the modding ability is on those auto controlled bots.
"Munchkin: One who, on being told that this is a game about politics and intrigue in 17th century Italy, asks to play a ninja."—
Andrew Rilstone