I used to play Star Wars Galactic Conquest quite fanatically and was thus quite sad to see it disappear. I only now found out about this mod and I feel it sucks that I didn't know about it earlier.
Anyway, I just started the game in windowed mode and joined a server. Now I'm doing something else until someone joins. I suggest this as a strategy for luring players to a server.
I really do hope that this mod survives! I still think Galactic Conquest was one of the coolest games ever and would still play it now if it was still alive. Though it is said that this game is not Galactic Conquest II, it seems to me that everything that made me love Galactic Conquest is also present in First Strike plus nicer graphics and new stuff. So I can't wait to get started.