It is difficult to say what the most engaging aspects are when playing endless space 2, but there are a few things in a normal game that can easily be ranked among the more tedious -- some of which I believe have simple to very simple fixes. 

So I wanted to start this collective thread for all things I (or you) noticed that could improve the game experience using very minor changes and fixes. From my part:

1. Show maximum population in systems and spaceport screen: Simply changing the 15 (e.g.) to 15/26 for all currently "empty spaces" on planets would make it a lot faster and easier to decide where to ship population.
2. Auto-upgrade all (ship designs) button: Usually for every new military tech I just go through all my models and upgrade.  Not exactly fun or necessary.
3. Show hero assignment location on skill upgrade popup: Should I take that skill for production per hot planet? Wait, let me get out of these two interfaces, then to the "vanilla" hero screen, then to the system and zoom in.
4. Hide text and/or show quest/hero artwork: This last one may be quite subjective, but I enjoy the questline artwork, and in almost all cases half of it, including essential parts, is hidden behind the text. As an example , in the Vaulters' questline (mild spoilers), I did not notice the Vaulters' leader was speaking to Isyander for a long time. Since he was hidden behind quest text, I thought it was just a picture of her sitting on the throne.

Feel free to add your own ideas, but let's please keep it to minor changes and simple fixes!

YertyL wrote:

1. Show maximum population in systems and spaceport screen: Simply changing the 15 (e.g.) to 15/26 for all currently "empty spaces" on planets would make it a lot faster and easier to decide where to ship population.

I would ask better : the list of the popullation type in each systems in this screen (maybe a Pop Up Help, when your mouse go over a system in the list or over the population number) like there is in the system screen.

Two more minor things I thought of:

1. Restrict colonizer icon to ships with colonizer modules: I'm sure I'm not the only one who uses siege modules on colonizer hulls, and it's always a bit disorienting to me to see that icon on the galactic map.
2. Fixed starting system names: Moreso than with the starting planet, in a lot of situations it's nice to quickly be able to tell which is your home (and usually largest/most important) system. This is something I usually end up doing manually.

Smitty2k1 wrote:

YertyL wrote:

1. Show hero assignment location on skill upgrade popup: Should I take that skill for production per hot planet? Wait, let me get out of these two interfaces, then to the "vanilla" hero screen, then to the system and zoom in.

This would be awesome!!!

I've been asking for this for 2 years now:

- https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/ideas/114-a-link-to-hero-s-star-system-fleet-from-hero-level-up-notification