It´s likely too late for such an implementation, but what if borders in space had to be enforced forcing you to split up fleets and react to incursions where "enemies" fly in either to provoke or test you...
You would be able to tell ppl/aliens that they should stay out or face the consequences, leading up to diplomatic fallout where you are accused of aggressively destroying their ships and pay reparations and you accuse them of having infringed into your borders. This way skirmish battles could be introduced where only the two participants are duking it out until it escalates into full-blown war or a diplomatically solution is found (or forced, goes along with your space UN @Wiz )
Perhaps this would require two sets of borders "core and outer" where you have to enforce the outer borders with fleets or risk colonies to pop up all of a suddenm and core border infringement is greater and more easily leads to wars with defenders being called into. This would play into the "start" where you haven´t discovered aliens and can attack them, there are no reason to attack them over discovering them, since they don´t really attack you, threathen you or try to force you out with having military ships following your ships for a period before destroying them... In effect it would be cool if I had to react to aliens getting near my planets, when I don´t know if they are hostile or friendly and my reaction would reflect how they see me... When I destroy a friendly and curious alien simply because I wanted to keep them out of my space and couldn´t tell them since I didn´t have the translator...
Having skirmish battles would also be neat in the sense of not having the "total war" mode that is currently in effect when you want to take over planets... What if you could attack or take over new colonies without a war being needed, if you could make UN acknowledge that you had the right or that a response couldn´t be supported... If you are met with a strong empire that does this to you, how do you react... Full on war or skirmish battles where you have a chance of fight-n-flee tactic, could you instead gain support from other aliens who also feel threathened about this empire creating a sort of UN to prevent this.
This would also add into pirates and critters that would spawn and live where you don´t patrol, grow in power as they breed or build up.
You would be able to tell ppl/aliens that they should stay out or face the consequences, leading up to diplomatic fallout where you are accused of aggressively destroying their ships and pay reparations and you accuse them of having infringed into your borders. This way skirmish battles could be introduced where only the two participants are duking it out until it escalates into full-blown war or a diplomatically solution is found (or forced, goes along with your space UN @Wiz )
Perhaps this would require two sets of borders "core and outer" where you have to enforce the outer borders with fleets or risk colonies to pop up all of a suddenm and core border infringement is greater and more easily leads to wars with defenders being called into. This would play into the "start" where you haven´t discovered aliens and can attack them, there are no reason to attack them over discovering them, since they don´t really attack you, threathen you or try to force you out with having military ships following your ships for a period before destroying them... In effect it would be cool if I had to react to aliens getting near my planets, when I don´t know if they are hostile or friendly and my reaction would reflect how they see me... When I destroy a friendly and curious alien simply because I wanted to keep them out of my space and couldn´t tell them since I didn´t have the translator...
Having skirmish battles would also be neat in the sense of not having the "total war" mode that is currently in effect when you want to take over planets... What if you could attack or take over new colonies without a war being needed, if you could make UN acknowledge that you had the right or that a response couldn´t be supported... If you are met with a strong empire that does this to you, how do you react... Full on war or skirmish battles where you have a chance of fight-n-flee tactic, could you instead gain support from other aliens who also feel threathened about this empire creating a sort of UN to prevent this.
This would also add into pirates and critters that would spawn and live where you don´t patrol, grow in power as they breed or build up.
STOP! COOKIE TIME