Merchant Empires is now at least (hopefully) playable and the official beta test opened today. The project is still looking for beta testers and contributors.
The developers of Merchant Empires are looking for players to participate in a beta test. To
join the ME beta test, visit the ME development server and create a user.
The initial release of Merchant Empires can now be downloaded. There is a lot of work and design to do. If you would like to bring a web based game similar to Trade Wars to life please look into this project.
I will upload a tarball soon with the Merchant Empires server that I have working.
I just learned Python last week. However Python is so easily picked up that the basics of Merchant Empires are coming along well: you can log in and move you ship around the map!