Protecting minor faction from other player's

If not protected perhaps just a way to slow down their progress or keep other players out of their systems. I play as a custom race Unfallen and I immediatly reach out to minor races so this could both be a boon and a hinderance to me depending on how I and other players use it.

I'm not too much of a fan of preventing other factions from interacting with a protected minor faction, but sure, something that prevents assimilation and blocks the assimilation quest until your rival has more influence over the minor faction than you, and also changing the minor faction interaction options to allow you to increase your influence when it's already at or over 100... those would be great.

The problem is always going to be that it is too easy to conquer minor faction systems. I've noticed that the Cravers are especially prone to this once they've got decent military; they'll find a big chunk of the galaxy filled with minor factions, then go about invading them nearly every other turn, and next thing you know they have five new systems and all your allies are dead. If Amplitude wants to increase the ability to interact with minor factions, the studio should start by making them harder to conquer, or at least allowing you to liberate them (provided they are still present in their home system).

There is a need of some more change because minor races are always better to assimilate or conquer than just harvest for resoruces...

they should more often have 1 planet max 2 in their system...Or you should be allowed to colonize their systems as well.