Anarsim

I think this, along with my previous idea for a 3D galaxy would bring a plethora of new players in and create a wild multiplayer experience. Especially if there was an official hardcore server.

Each sector could be altered to be a whole solar system instead of just one lonely planet or one asteroid field. The star would act as the center of the sector when you enter it, however once you enter the sector it will display as a flat map of the celestial bodies orbits in the system and their associated planets, asteroid fields, and wormholes or stargates. These would then be loaded into like the game's current version of a sector. Planets could then also be claimed and help boost productivity or population growth for the sector's controlling faction. This could open new possibilities for multiplayer servers, as distribution of power for a faction would greatly depend on what systems they control and which planets within, rather than just the sheer mass and fire power of their faction.

Using each sector in the same way, as a star/blip in the center of a square, I think it would work well in this game to create the sector as a cube with the blip in the center still. The map layout would essentially be the same as it currently is, but you could then view it from the top, bottom, any side or even spin it as a 3D model. The size of each plane could be varied as well to create various randomly generated galaxy shapes. Casual God Complex https://martindevans.me/game-development/2016/01/14/Procedural-Generation-For-Dummies-Galaxies/ is an idea for procedurally generating a semi-realistic galaxy that I find intriguing, the link explains for the most part how to go about creating something similar to the what the author made. This could however be paired with the procedural generation for the galaxy, and be used as the "sprinkles" that currently exist on the map to give it depth. In this instance however, their purpose would be to determine where clusters of stars are, thus allowing the galactic generation to create more occupied sectors in those areas. Captain commands would need to be changed so that their AOE is a cubed shape in order to still fulfill commands. The rifts would need to be altered to create a completely random shape that is non-uniform in any direction, but that typically follows a longer axis going one random way to still represent the tears in space like they currently do. I just suggest it be completely random to prevent it simply looking like a flat wall in space.

Wondering if the option to customize the player drone could ever be added. I've put well over 500 hours into the game and this is something that's always bugged me, that it's not a feature. I know it's only supposed to be like a one man craft, so really all it needs is the ability to create or use a fighter model, change the turret(s), and possibly a subsystem slot. This could be a totally different slot size meant only for fighter size ships as well. These could then also be added to regular fighters if players really wanna spend the extra currency on their hangar fleet.