4.) Add birth of a new Solar System mega event, includes new star and potentially new planets
I like this. Conversely, you could have a supernova mega event that would destroy a star system, creating new asteroids or resources to mine.
There have been many excellent suggestions so far. Some of mine are variations on those:
1. The ability to upgrade all ships of a certain type in a fleet, not just in the whole civ.
2. Have spies not only gather intelligence, but destabilize planetary sentiment so that planets "flip" to your side more quickly.
3. Create a device which allows you to harness the power of a star to say, increase production by 2 or 3 times, but will result in a reduction of planet quality for the planets in that star system. Maybe only allow one of these devices per civ, or something.
4. More robust civ info screens. One thing that really irks me is the inability to sort planets by influence points. This should be a column right next to the income, production and research summries.
5. Planetary economic bonus tiles. I suggested this for Gal Civ2. There are research and production bonus tiles...why not econ ones?
6. Orbital defense platforms of some type.
7. Race-specific victory conditions. For example..for races that build things like temples and shrines, have a victory condition that plays into that, like Arnorian Enlightenment or some goofy name like that.
8. Better auto ship designer. Is it me, or does this feature seem to be somewhat "single minded"?
9. Someone suggested dropping freighters or trading all together. However, I think that it could be tweaked to be a lot more fun. Something like commodities trading, where you have a planet where a highly coveted spice grows wild, and another race has a planet with large deposits of a rare but very strong and light metal occur. You could trade one for the other, increasing your HP, with the other race increasing their happiness level.
10. Gifting fleets as well as individual ships.
Hope that wasn't too long or too stupid.