The Feature I truely enjoyed about these two games is the inclusion of officers and stats to further add boost to yourself and deepen strategy. I was very very Bored one day at work staring at my office wall wishing i could be playing gal civ 2
So just a few basic ideas that I wont bore anyone to much with but for example, Play Romance of the three kingdoms games or Rome Total War.
BUT before I go into that, I would Really like to see an exturnal engine were we could just build various starships just hull and add-ons for the various races and import them into the game and then once they are in game, ya could make a copy of it and build onto it without ruining the basic design. The ship builder is just way to much fun.
and also it would be cool for a ship exchange, players can take there ships, and export them onto say stardock and players download them, rate them and add them into there own games, for players that just want to play through a bit quicker without spending a while building a ship.
OK main topic now, lets say a pool of premade and custom officers with various stats, Leadership, Fleet Command, Science, Diplomatic, Intelligance, what ever else ya can think of and lets say you choose 10, to start off any match, 6 get choosen to be your advisers in various postions, a diplomatic adviser, war adviser, economic adviser, ect ect.
Now the advice they would give you would vary on there intelligance and skill in the area they are advising, as well as how loyal they are to you, so they COULD give ya very bad advise at times or point ya to some really helpfull advise you may have overlooked. and Not listening to ideas, could lower loyalty and such.
Then other officers are put in the roll Governors on a Colony, that offers bounus, such as a Military Governor would boost planet defence but lower planet moral, a reasearch governer would maybe wave half the cost of flasks but a penalty to starships, a diplomatic governer would raise IP and Moral but a easier to corrupt if not kept happy?
Then Officers Could be put in rolls of a Fleet commander, giving the fleet a bonus which they have, weither its a stratigic, or luck bonus?
Officers wouldnt be manditory but would offer improvements. Other officers could be hired on planets, random events or by taking over a planet and capturing them, at which time you have the opertunity to hold them for randsom, kill them or hire them.
Officers could also be trained and have there stats raised but it would cost a sum, and add an academy branch to the tech tree, also items such as random events,, battles, or a governor keeping moral up would also add to there skills and experiance.
an officer on a tradeship, prehaps a boost in trade or abilty to not be attacked or less likely to be attacked due to trait
A set of espianage officer, his ability would be based on a factor of skills and luck, an officer could be sent to another race and for a hefty sum of money a month you see what they see and depending on the qualifications of the officer, potentaly steal ships, techs, or if they are kept happy and hidden in the serives of a race long enough and moved to a rank of importance, such as a planetary governor or fleet commander, when you wage war, they would wait for you to get closer and then rejoin your command, fleet, or planet with them, but with much unrest and work to keep it.
the ability for a large sum to throw a party 2 times a year, able to invite 2 races which would result in large bonus in friendship and speak on other matters such as waging war on other races, trade routes, betray other races , ect ect, depending on your diplomatic ability. Also your officers could attend and raise there relations.
one officer as a child that could be used as a barganing chip, if two good races were to marry into each other, ie, torrin alliance and alterians they would automaticly be teamed, but the proposer of deal would have to offer many items of value.
Minor races would ask as well. Prehaps you gain 1/3 of there techs, 1/2 of there starship designs and a monthly tribute.
Races need unique techs!!!! Not to steal anything from star trek but cloaking devices? or advanced tanks for use in ground battles? engines only one race gets? I would like to see 3 unique techs per each race, that would only be allowed to be traded if they were teamed with another 
see child idea above
Otherthings I would like to see is, a tech on the tech tree that once you have it would allow you two reasearch two items at a time, but they could not be in the same tree, so maybe one reasearch and one war, or one econ and one socail.
force a race to have to pay tribute monthly for SET number of months.
the ability to hire smugglers and pirates to attack an npc or sell goods on a black market , which is avalible to evil and neutral races, or to protect trade routes, but of course they always go to the highest bidder, if someone else outbids you later on they could betray you big time
Races need unique techs!!!! Not to steal anything from star trek but cloaking devices? or advanced tanks for use in ground battles? engines only one race gets? I would like to see 3 unique techs per each race, that would only be allowed to be traded if they were teamed with another see child idea above
