Another thread got me thinking about this. GC2 needs some kind of terrain / obstacles on the map...which is difficult since, well, it's in space! But there are things that can be obstacles in space....like asteroid fields (remember Empire Strikes Back?). They could act as natural fortifications subjecting ships that try to traverse them to damge or even risk of destruction. There could also be blackholes and supernovae which could make the sector they are in dangerous to enter, again the risk would be damge or destruction. You could also throw in comets and other planet threatening entities (like the space monsters for GC1) which if ignored could destroy one of your worlds.

This would force players to use even more strategic and tactical thought before launching ships to particular reigions of space.

Think about it.