Basic Idea: Have a System Governor's personal Starship provide a minor boost to the Hero's assigned system -- encouraging players to actually equip and upgrade those Heroes' starships.


Two areas spring to mind: Planetary Defense and Economic Aid.


Planetary Defense.


Idea: Have the option to let a Governor's Starship participate in Ground Battles.  If it does, then the starship inflicts a portion of its Offense as damage to enemy attackers -- however, when it participates in this way, the starship also may take damage from the attacker (mitigated by the ship's Defense as appropriate.)  A Hero's ship wouldn't need to be destroyed to conquer the system -- I'm thinking the assigned Hero's ship would become more like a system defensive improvement (along the lines of Tractable Armaments, but weaker.)


Economic Aid.


Idea: Introduce "hero ship only" Support Modules that apply a (small) portion of the Hero's ship's Offense and Defense to a single FIDSI type on system where the Hero is assigned.


For example: A "Science Administration" module which converts % Offense and % Defense into Science for the system.  Something like +1 Science per 100 Offense / 100 Defense  ... or maybe per 500/500?  ... 1000/1000?  I'm sure with some number crunching you could come up with a good ratio so the bonus is a nice little perk, but not overpowering or unbalancing.


Likewise there could be "Economic Administration" modules which convert % Offense and % Defense into Dust for the system, "Industrial Administration" modules which convert % Offense and % Defense into Industry for the system, "Political Administration" modules for Influence, "Agricultural Administration" modules for Food ... and maybe even "Cyber Administration" modules that grant addtional Bandwith and "Military Administration" modules that grant additional Manpower.


Perhaps even include upgraded administration modules unlocked at higher tiers that provide a bonus to multiple FIDSI (Science and Food! ...  Dust and Industry!), or a bigger bonus to a single FIDSI.


End Result


It would be nice to have a reason (other than aesthetics) to upgrade all the systems on a System Governor's ship.  So it would be nice to have those upgrades (whether weapons, defensive modules, or support modules) provide some sort of impact on the game.  Strictly from my own game-play, I find I either use heros as Fleet Commanders or Planetary Governors-- and basically never have any Hero swap between the two roles.  For my Fleet Commander Heroes, I'm constantly upgrading their ships with the latest tech to make them bigger, badder, and more effective ... but my System Governor's ships are left "as is" -- languishing with their low-level modules and empty slots, never getting upgraded.  Given my own somewhat perfectionist playstyle, this incredibly minor point irks me.


Regardless: Keep up the good work on this awesome game!