Next version, nanoforge will add 4 interest like synchrotron, which means player will attract pathers - lame. Also, with new Industrial Planning change from less demand to less upkeep, player will need to use items to meet demand of some industries, which means pather interest (with any item) and/or inspections (with cores).
That will be unpleasant, if there aren't tools to block Pathers from magically inserting cells and doing ridiculously-OP damage to our industries. "Hey, let's make all player colonies weak by fiat, even if they go around annihilating the Path bases" doesn't sound like Fun to me.
As for the Asharu "incident"; I have something like that happening in my test-game right now. Multiple inbound Pirate Raids and no apparent ability on the part of the Factions to prevent same. You'd think that maybe they'd get intercepted and there'd be a huge battle somewhere that the player could get invited to join on behalf of Civilization.
Speaking of Civilization (as in, the game) it's a little ridiculous that these Size 0 pipsqueak stations in the middle of nowhere create giant fleets that nobody can stop. I mean, I
like how that feels a bit like early turns in Civ, with Barbarians and all, but that's just the really early stages; there's no stabilization period where the barbarians can only strike at the fringes and the main game is between the nascent States.
Considering that even a mere Size 5 colony can output reasonably-sized fleets underpinned by no less than custom-kitted Paragons... yeah, it feels kind of silly.