Objective: To put focus more on space battles, diplomacy and trade, make colonising systems more difficult.


Ideas:

1. time to colonise systems at least 2 or 3 times longer

2. allow generation of strategic and luxury resources on outposts at most 50% normal rate

3. cost of building ships at most 50% cheaper

4. luxury resource generation in colonies at most twice as fast

5. ai factions at most twice as likely to trade

6. any combination of the ideas above for balance


Intended results:

1. star systems become more valuable due to difficulty of establishing colonies - slowing down growth of empire

2. more skirmishes in uncolonised star systems to protect the valuable resources

3. more war for faster empire growth

3. war resolutions from colony trading has actual impact

4. trading (via the market or through diplomacy) is more important due to less reliable resource generation in uncolonised spaces


Problems:

1. factions that can buy colonies

2. factions that require their colonies to have direct access to their homeworlds

3. AI - they may or may not adjust automatically with the changes above