at the moment we can found alliances, but contrary to the in-game wiki they aren't full fledged factions.
How about:
enabling alliances to build any kind of station and portal, and instead reduce the amount of portals in the galaxy.
Allow them to tax players and form a simplistic government.
Add humans as a resource to produce and “sell” as crew on stations.
Add a bargaining system
that would make the game a lot more interesting, and could potentially build an immersive economy.
i know this will be a pain to implement, but i think many players will like it.