One thing I've thought about this game is that each round can become repetitive. I think an element of randomness could make each round slightly different or something like an objective to aim for ( other than just trying to gain credits and CP's! )
Some idea's I have had, some I've possibly posted some years back....
1. Have some rare parts or resources that can be found from killing different types of aliens, they must be hard to find ie 1 in a 100 chance or even more. Gaining enough of these grants you a bonus such as a 24 hour attack shield ( different from a neb in that you can still do encounters aliens etc ), bonus to stash and/or worker production. Or a harder option find for example 5 parts to assemble a powerful item... these parts are so hard to collect all, that there is no guarantee that it will happen each round. The reward for finding and assembling all the lost parts could maybe give a 1 hour invulnerability shield against pve encounters/aliens... think how that could implemented if done wisely!!
2. Have an end of round statistic table.... top PVP attacker based on number of attacks made, most attacked player, player with most aliens killed, most insane attack ( highest percentage fp compared to players fleet of enemy killed ), most traveled player ( turns used) etc
3. Hate to say it in case upsets a few friends I have in the game.... but limit alts! Alts can have a very beneficial advantage, not just to the player using them... even this round I've benefited by using the alts of other players to find encounters.
4. Players having a station on each star in a quadrant gain a 10% production bonus to all facilities in that quadrant.
5. War declarations... alliances can formally declare war on another which then instigates a set timer ( say 48 hours or 1 week ) at the end of the war the winning alliance all gain a victory reward. maybe that could be credits, for example...
total fp lost by opposing alliance - fp lost by winning alliance = X credits
This would benefit a smaller alliance taking on a big alliance and winning that the other way around! The credit pool would be shared equally to each of the winning alliances members ( state of war means that alliance recruitment is stopped, otherwise people might hop onto the winning alliance at the end)
I'm not gonna post about the ship combat formulas etc as haven't been active enough in the last year or 2 to really have an in depth opinion to give my say.. plus as I can see, you all are on the case for that already!!
Feel free to express your opinions on any of the above, they are just some brainstorming ideas to try instigate debate and change. If you think it's all dog's dangly bits then feel free to say so!!