In two games I have started, when I try to adjust the planet slider that controls military/social it will not move. The main 3 way slider works okay. I uncheck the global spending box and it is still locked.
The only way I can set the social military slider, is to go to the main global sliders and set them where I want the planet to be then click on planets use global settings. Then I go back to the planet and uncheck the global settings box and then go back to the global settings and reset them where I originally hadt them, The planet stays where I want it then, but I have had to go back and forth from the main and planet sliders twice to get it set.
Reading this, it seems somewhat confusing and I may not be explaining it clearly, but it's the best I can do.
I guess the question should just be, Is the social/military slider locking up for anybody but me. 
Other than this playing on normal the AI seems to be doing a little better. I have started 2 games with rare pirates. In the first game withe tight clusters I never saw a pirate through 100 turns and I was ahead of the Drengi about 100 to 50. I quit the game because I thought I had accidently selected no pirates, I had selected them so I guess I got a clear cluster. I started another game on a spiral map and the rare pirates showed up early, They are rare compared to the higher settings but I need to be a better player to deal with them. After about 50 turns my once again neighbor the Drengi are about 50-40 ahead of me due to avoiding pirates and the occasional battle. All my surveyor can stand is one battle with the sombitches and it has to recoup 50-60 hit points
Oh yeah, I had an open borders treaty with the Drengi and Kona rang me up and told me how great it was we had the treaty about every 5-6 turns. Lots of gifting and begging for gifts when you are on good terms.
The game has been rock stable for me. Any new player that has my experience with the game is going to be happy.