So I was thinking about major settlements and I think it would be a great idea in terms of story progression and/or side quests. (Sorry if someone already posted this, if so, just ignore) Each race would have 1 major settlement which would serve as a capital, where you have a leader. It would feel just like the Outpost, but race-related. You could be directed towards it through the main story, by talking with villagers on smaller settlements or even by reading the coordinates on a book you found. This settlements would be huge and have different people (as in not just villagers and guards). You could also have other planets taken by different races, but they wouldn't be the capital, just an overgrown settlement. Chucklefish wants 1.0 to be a game where you can progress through different ways right? (you can be a farmer, rent property you build, or just kill everyone in your way) so why not implement a system where you can work directly under you "ruler" (E.g. a president on the human settlement or a sort of pope for the avians) as a bounty hunter, hunting the government enemies or deserters, or (my favourite) as diplomats! You could go on missions to try closing an alliance with settlements and it could eventually grow into a full race alliance, where every settlement that belongs to this race would be friendly. TL;DR: Bigger race settlements, one capital with a ruler for each race. You can progress by working with your leader. This is my first thread, sorry if it is a little confusing. Please contribute and share your thoughts!
Let me add something to the idea Depend of the generation, all races has influence radius around their capital and colonies, the influence affect the race of the inhabitant as the system that is inside the influence has more race specific colonies. to be more lore accurate, novakids and minor race won't have any capital, instead they mostly colonise unclosed system. When you gain relationship with certain race or faction, you can participate in a war to take over the system. Each race also have different faction percentage. I'll take apex for example, in an apex colony, they will also have faction counter that decide whether the majority is on the rebels or the miniknog's side. that way a civil war is also happening in real time as the rebel and the authority will struggle against each other until you decided to step in. Same goes to the avian's stargazer vs loyalist. and Hylotl vs Floran.