I got another idea to make credits in the eventual economy.
Say its possible for the player to get his hands on one of those Key things the auto-factories need to produce stuff.
You could make a living by leasing your key for credits.
But there is more to it then this. In the state the world is in right now, these keys are incredibly valuable, not just for monetary reasons, the people's very survival depends on them. You can introduce the element of possibly losing you key depending on the circumstances. Say you have a key that produces a common type of frigate. If you lease this key to a planet deep in Hegemony space and under firm control then changes of your key being stolen of the deal going sour will be minimal as Hegemony values longterm survival and stability, a firm and just justice system is necessary for this so agreements have a higher changes of being honored. Naturaly the rarity of the key makes a huge impact on the chance of any funny business. Hegemony will not look kindly on theft of a key that's common enough that they'll have a good chance of seeing more traders with the same key in the future and will not risk upsetting their reputation for long stem stability. A rare key on the other hand that may hold the salvation of a sector due to its strategic value is a whole other matter, those may force them to bend their rules for once.
Now take the same deal and switch locations to Tri-Tachyon controlled space. These people are probably more interested in acquiring as many key's as they can and will likely even take common ones to keep them out of the hands of the enemy. With these people the strength of your own fleet may very well be taken into account on the likelihood of getting your key back. If you are a dangerous enough target not to be tangled with for the moment then you're less likely to lose your key, however we are talking about leasing key's so there is an element of time. You are unlikely to just sit in orbit of the planet you leased your key to while they use it, you have better things to do in that time, like shooting pirates of what not. However that has the risk of diminishing your fleet's strength, and when you return to get your key back you might be in for a surprise if you are no longer a significant enough of a threat. This can get especially tricky in case of keys that produce warships, which when finished will add to the strength of the planet.
Deals with pirates would be even more of a gamble, if your luck is bad enough you could even lose it to a third party who just nicks it from the both of you, leaving both sides stranded.
Not all keys need to be keys that build warships, you can have a key that just produces supply, or fuel, or something not even game related such as clothes, or pots and pans for civilian use or medicine is a nice valuable one.
I think it allows for enough possibilities to make it an interesting way to make money. But it does have a downside, and that is the loss of something that may have well bin a hard earned asset, its very annoying in games to just get a message saying that you've lost something vital, something you've fought hard for to earn. But that's the gamble, and its probably not a smart thing to lend your key that produces Paragons (if those will even exist) to anyone, nobody will let go of such a priceless thing. Still, if these keys every do become acquirable in the game then this is a possible use for them other then just strait up trading or production.
