I second that! And let's have the rate be settable on an empire-by-empire or a system-by-system basis! (Both would be a bit too much to handle, don't you think? Though I wouldn't mind having the ability there for modders to fiddle with as they see fit
) Five and a half minerals a sector per kiloton for you, my dear friend!
I'd like to suggest a simple cosmetic change that wouldn't affect the game much but might add a bit to the suspension of disbelief in RP games... You know how you have an Empire Name and an Empire Type? Well, what about empires that don't classify quite so easily, such as the United Federation of Planets? I've seen games with "United Population" and "United Federation of Planets Population", both of which are kind of awkward... not to mention when the Klingons ask you to declare war on the dishonorable "United people"!
So how about something a bit like Stars!, where you have a noun phrase that's the full empire name (e.g. "United Federation of Planets", "Xiati Empire", or "Star Empire of Romii"), and an adjective phrase that's used to describe the race or their possessions (e.g. "Federation", "Xiati", or "Romiian")? Perhaps there could also be an "Empire Type" so there can be Messages like "Your pathetic empire/republic/federation/whatever is repulsive to us! Prepare to die!"