Some ideas to make the galaxy a bit more "alive":



Living Galaxy



It would be great if there would be hidden exploration and event sites besides starsystems on the starmap. You could either stumble upon them during travel or activly search for such sites with appropriate modules on ships/starsystems.

• The sites then could trigger events or give a one time buff/debuff. They could therefore replace the random events. It would be less random and it would feel more like you actually found/explored/accomplished something yourself instead of a simple window popping up.
• The sites could of course be guarded by pirates or endless security systems.
• Some sites could actually be pirate hideouts which spawn pirate fleets and can be taken down for bounty/approval/etc.
  
  

Another idea would be something similar to the city states in Civ5. Single Starsystems which are governed by AIs. You could trade with them, invade them, etc.