personaly i think this is overcomplicated, and not really realistic. "FUN!" in a trading/economy sim is verry difrent from you avarage shoot em up or even most strategy games lack it entirely (excluding the original TA series, the spring BA, ZK, NOTA, and DF, Aurora)
FUN! is an eco/trading game comes mainly from "economic gain" not sabotage/espionage/warfare. it is far more fun to crush your enemies with a well planned trade embargo/piracy/buyout then it is to poison them, because poison is verry abstract, and limiting their access to goods through economic and subterfuge means is much more enjoyable and robust.
if you want to see a "serious" space economy game, look at the distant worlds series. Being able to set something like that up in starsector would be great
-vastly complex AI managed trade and construction economy
--mostly automated, and pretty "self sufficient"
---frees up the player to do what they want (or micro EVRYTHING)
another game to try would be starship tychoon, probably one of the best space trade/shipping games ever made
-"trade" is performed entirely through contracts,
--you cant "buy" goods, you simply bid on the contract to transport them from one place to another
--progression is done through aquisition of new ships and techs/crew(officers?) to make your fleet better
a third game is Factorio, a factory running game
-the player sets up production lines
--evrything can be made to autonamusly meet supply and demand as needed
--massive amounts of somponents and precursors for the player to make
and finaly there is a fourth: patrician trading/economy game series
-the AI trading capacity in that game is limmited and asymetric
--not all demand is met by the AI
-the player can thus "cotroll" the games economy simply through economic might
--being the sole producer of slat, or tar, or cloth, can be VERRY lucrative if you can restrict its production elswhere
---you can "influence" the world simply by excluding or including cities in your trade routes
also in patritian
-evry building can be bought and built
--city builder rent/income from properties you own
--great fun for those who want to own the world
this image aptly summs up what will get a econ, trading, city/country building, production loving players blood pumping
to econ players that map means alot, its beutifull, its LOVE!
to non-econ players, its like the screen has suddenly been filled with white noise