I've been following the development of Elemental eagerly for the last months. While I haven't pre-ordered the game yet, due to lack of time to do something constructive in the Beta, as per my latest searches it seems that Stardock will probably not ship the game with a hotseat option.
I think this is a big mistake and I got to break a lance for hotseat right here. Over the years, hotseat multiplayer has been the source of some of my most memorable evenings with friends. I can't count the evenings I've spent with one to three friends playing a game of Master of Orion II before one of our PC's.
I own Galactic Civilizations II and its two add-ons. And, for all my ranting about their greatness to my friends, I couldn't persuade not one of them to buy the game. Their reason: Lack of tactical battles, lack of multiplayer, and very specifically lack of a hotseat option.
I would plead with the developers to include hotseat, since I am sure that this would sell quite a few more units of the game. Even if my friends don't buy the game initially, seeing it in action while they play it would surely move them to wanting to own it, if the game is as good as the developers want it to be. If there is fear of pirated copies, make it also be necessary for hotseat gamesto be hosted on the Stardock servers.
For obvious reasons, hotseat players don't care too much about anything like secret diplomatic negotiations ( although that is theoretically feasible ). They care about playing the game together, in the same room, and talking a bit trash to each other about how their empire is much more magnificent that the others ones.
So, once more, please include the option for hotseat multiplayer in the game. It opens up another category of costumers and its implementation should really not be that difficult, with an already exisiting multiplayer infrastructure.