Government types:

Three races can become twelve without much extra work.

'Monarchy' +fighting skill, -economy

'Authoritarian' +cap +production time -research -economy

'Republic' +research +economy -cap -loyalty -diplomacy(except other Republics)

'Federation' (can have different sorts of planetary governments) -loyalty -diplomacy

And for multiplayer, a fifth type 'Anarchy' -research -diplomacy -economy -loyalty, as a handicap for better players.

Also, why not link specific AI player names to specific governments and strategies? Is there a list of race names to be modified?

Ships:

Often allowing minor units to gain personality gives a game extra charm. You could allow all ships to gain experience, with slight bonuses, not just capitals. Include a launch record (time and shipyard), as a non capship 'name'. Also, award ships honours for meritorious conduct, or 'kills', or major engagements.

If ships take damage more randomly it adds to the game, by making combat less certain. Armour penetration could lead to the possibility of explosions. Ships could burn more, as an optional setting.

Consuls:

Civil wars and emergent AI empires would add further elements to the culture aspect of the game. Degrade planetary efficiency further with distance from capital, then if you appoint a consul it can restore the former level and create a sector capital, also controlling planets that are closer to it than the capital. However the consuls could develop a nature dependent upon events- if the planet is bombed they become cowardly, raided by pirates corrupt, victorious in battle they become vainglorious etc. The consuls have a loyalty level and can take part of an empire over to civil war, creating a new AI faction- perhaps if financed by a rival empire devoting funds to subversion? They can be replaced or killed at a penalty to the loyalty of the remainder, or bribed, with a penalty to the loyalty of the envious ones. If the 'loyalty level' was displayed to the player much of the gameplay would be lost, though.

Another use for colony ships, land a diplomatic colony on an enemy capital, otherwise relations are capped below maximum. The embassy is destroyed if there is war. Ambassadors could be a variant on consuls, or another means of being rid of consuls.

Captive populations:

Colonial forces are assumed to fight to the death, but they could become slaves instead, to be worked to death, or returned to their parent culture. A diplomatic penalty with the culture would be one effect of slavery, but also multi-cultural rebellions- if a new AI faction was created in a civil war under the right conditions- had a planet been colonised long enough- it could be multi-cultural, which might be interesting, despite the poor start.

Pirates:

The pirates don't seem to be very piratical, more like mercenary terrorists. If the pirates were also independent AI players, with an economy dependent upon attacking trade and refinery ships, they would be more effective, and would be more active than simply returning to base after a mission and waiting. If the pirates became rich or numerous enough, they could even have the ability to establish further asteroid bases. The bounty would then be only for damage to other structures and ships.

This would make the pirates a pest to all the players if they were continually funded, but there would still be advantages to bounty.

Since cloaking devices are more valuable than gold to pirates, they would want them, and also the ability to disguise themselves as fleets belonging to allies. Cloak might hide them from any ship not large enough to carry advanced sensors. The pirates should have the ability to capture ships, its what pirates get up to! Should they also have a chance to steal discovered artifacts and take them to their base? The concentration on gauss guns seems dodgy... the main pirate base would be better defended if it had some natural protection from a nebula and/or asteroids, that the pirate ships were immune to.

AI:

With all games the developers have only so much time to test AI, which is often the last priority after the bugs, especially for multiplayer-capable games. I was disappointed with some releases that the Hard AI got simple resource bonuses, as this seems better restricted to 'unfair' levels. Also, if you lock two Normal AIs as a team against you 2v1, they were far easier to defeat than one single Hard AI, though I haven't tried thids on 1.12 yet. One solution to AI problems is to have an AI editor where variables or even scripts can be set by the player- then, over time, the community might produce a far better AI than the developers would be capable of making. No developer has yet gone to the final stage of releasing an official update with some of the improved community AIs. Have a scriptable AI battles competition, then profit from the innovations.

Entrenchment:

I haven't got the beta, but from the screens it seems that mines could be a problem for lag- though isn't phase space folded, leading to a possible limit on mine density? Also it seems odd to include minelayers and not minesweepers, perhaps the ships should have a dual role. With the new torpedo cruiser, how about specialised warheads, including anti-mine? An ability to subvert, rather than just destroy, mines might make them less attractive to place in vast fields, and they could also just be pushed out of position in phase space. Mine attacks could be more deadly, to compensate.

Starbases should easily outrange ships, since they have armoured non-mobile detection systems? Even if torp cruisers have to launch in range, they still have the advantage of not having to remain in range, while they recharge for another try, but this would have to be their combat routine. Also, if they are to be kept fairly weak a maximum of two per system, rather than one, would solve all coverage problems..?

Lastly, thanks for the game! Also thanks for leaving out an awful copy protection system. While I'm not fond of Impulse, it's easy to uninstall, and it seems reasonable to register the game to receive updates.