[dogscoff]

I love edkolis' suggestion.

A similar system could be used to track the different abilities of different races on a planet: IE I have 30million Drukshocka with a +10% mineral production bonus, and 8million Fazrah with -2%, so my total mineral production for this planet will be... {insert maths here}.

Also I love the idea of tracking the exact amount of crew on a ship, the amount needed for it to run effectively and the amount of ppl it can hold. For one thing it would be good to have to consider building extra cabin space for 'spare' crew members on your warships, and for another it would add a little meaning and challenge to the "fire on own ship" command- ie you have to have somewhere to transfer the doomed ship's crew to first (or fire anyway and take a morale hit).

Finally, it would make boarding a really interesting part of combat. Should I smash the ship to pieces first so my boarding parties will encounter less reisitance, or should I try to take it intact? Maybe the old crew will surrender and turn into population for my cargo hold?

This crewing malarky might add a little micromanagement, but maybe this could be switch on and offable, or a really good minister written..?

Finally, I'd love planetary population to be monitored at higher resoltion than millions- ideally in individuals (ie planet X has population 12,853,022 instead of simply 13 million). Then, crewing ships could actually have a real (although very small, until you start building Death Stars anyway) effect on planetary populations. Damaged ships could crash-land and set up a tiny survivor colonies, watching the skies and waiting for rescuers... imagine the roleplay potential.