What would be great to see are procedurally generated races. It's a term that's thrown around a lot these days in games, but i think it can make for some unique gameplay every time if it's done correctly. It also allows for some quick but great games if you're not in the mood of creating a race or playing with one of the predefined races. Maybe it's possible to provide a little backstory for the generated races. Also i would like to see deep customization options for you're race. You could unlock more options via the tech tree or some events. For example make you're alien loving tree huggers like the borg and go on a rampage. These are things Stellaris already touched upon but i feel it can be improved. I don't know how yet but these are only some early ideas. Please don't make the tech tree the same like Endless Space 2. It takes away the immersion of progress. I don't like starts where you already start with some ships. It should be a challenge to build you're first ship and explore the stars. This should become easier with the growth of you're empire but new challenges will rise. Last thing. Storytelling. I love to just read upon species, technology and galaxy backgrounds. It's something i can do without unpausing the game for hours. And then play of course.
I do like the idea of preship and prewarp game play starts, where the early years would be focusing on sensors and probe launches, just see whats out there ( the player should not see whats outs there or very little ) combine this with the suggestion given in another thread ( there should be vast distances between the stars) again another opportunity for game start options
Every game of Distant Worlds Universe that I play starts in the pre-warp era, where any ships I build have to travel at sub-light speeds. It is a slow start, but I find it a lot of fun to carefully guide my ships around the solar system, finding out what resources my home system has to offer, and starting up basic mining and research stations. When I finally do discover FTL drive, I gleefully retrofit all of my ships with the new engines and watch them go from snail to cheetah speeds. Then, with basic FTL drives, I go through the process all over again with the 5-10 closest stars, carefully managing fuel and setting up fuel stations wherever possible in order to increase my exploration range. It's when I get to advanced FTL drives and high-capacity fuel tanks that the rest of the galaxy opens up to me, and I love bringing my fledgling empire to that point.
