Here's an idea for SE5...
Design the game with "handles" that allow players to write their own "plugins", much as in Photoshop or other programs. Don't like the enemy ships database? Write a plugin to convert it to Excel or your favorite database format. Don't like the combat engine? Replace it with one of your own - just make sure it takes the same inputs (ships and planets involved in combat) and returns the same values (ships destroyed and damaged, supplies consumed). This modular design would allow aspiring game designers who have "just the perfect idea" for how the game should work to actually implement it, without having to design a whole game around their idea - just plug it in to SE5! With some help, I think Aaron & co. could pull this one off... by around 2015
