Heh, yeah, the N^2 issues have been obvious in everything from data loads in the macro scale to the micro stuff
One idea just hit my brain, though. Having arrived at an “economy” that has more in common with MOO2’s system...
Perhaps the best way to deal with conflict past the newbie period is to be able to fund “interference” missions that, abstractly,
decrease the distance a Market reaches.
Essentially, since we can presume that taking down a major location is difficult, if not impossible (I’m imagining that taking down Jangala, for example, would involve a series of major battles) it’s probably uncommon that a player or AI “emperor” is going to attempt direct assaults.
Instead, we’re going to see more Cold Wars (espionage and insurrection) and direct conflicts mainly via proxies. This would give the mercenaries and most especially the Pirates a much-needed role to play, besides being minor irritants on the periphery of civilization. Pirates might serve as cats’ paws; they’ve never gotten eradicated largely because they’re too convenient for launching... unattributable, regrettable incidents, that make trade lanes untenable.
The opportunity here is pretty interesting. Going back to my Suggestion that Pirates shouldn’t be like other Factions, it’d give them a role and give the game design a good tool for players to act as Pirates, profitably (take contracts, hit stuff, dodge the Defense Fleet and inevitable Bounty Hunter response).
At any rate, I think the core idea (input resources, select a target, cause the “reach” of that Market to contract, maybe, and not get caught, maybe) as an abstract method to handle day-to-day Cold War conflicts might have legs (and not get into N^2).