I think that 2 thing should be available in the new game:



1.Better planet management - I would love to be able to play around with planets more, not just choose exploitation, but to be able to, for example, choose to put farms on the equator, scientific stations on poles, deep mining, that sort of things ...



2.Controled ground battles - at least partial control, like choosing what targets to strike, some high-risk tasks, like trying to sabotage enemy AA defenses, which would help fleets in orbit, and similar stuff ...



I know this would require a lot of micromanaging and not everyone likes that, but making this possible, not necessary, would allow players to choose different approaches in the game.