[Paul1980au]

You know the loyalty factor to each and every empire is a good idea - with the increasing abilities of modern PCs yes aaron should take advantage of it. Planets with multiple types of races (ie captured planets with my and the previous races on the same planet would also present some event based sceniros ie revolt, racial genocide by the citizens, peaceful co existance, benefits in terms of production rates, ability to utilise the same technology,) ie enemy race puts up objections to treatment of its citizens, citizens exchanged back to original race for say resources or technology - using the citizens as a bargining tool ! ALso civil war on planets with multiple races (or create a new empire / hybrid empires)

Zoom feature is also a good idea - hex versus a square based tactical combat map.