i really think what lacks for the game as of now is dynamic evolution of factions
As of today, the only evolutions for factions are on the micro and intermediate levels, allowing them to have a change of exchanges up to a loss of a station or possibly world
but we cannot have them actualyl expand, send exploration teams to discover unexplored reaches and colonise a world they wish to add to their faction
as of now we can decide to do whatever we want with a tropical planet we colonized and the luddic church won't give a darn even if they see the
jungle worlds like a holy relic
-trading planet scans of high quality (IV to V) at a faction's market should make the faction consider about colonizing the planet, even more (95%?) if it's a jungle world with hazard ratings under 150%. it would even decrease the palyer's standing with the faction he traded the data if the player already colonized the planet, possibly even sparking an aggressive expansion if the player's standing is low enough or if the player's faction is weak enough
-factions may initiate searches with generally low maintenance, high storage ships in fleets and:
+sell their discoveries (data documenting systems or more expensive ones covering whole zones)
+initiate colonizing efforts on strategic worlds (high pirate activity, making worlds with laege factories and strong defenses) or high value worlds (planets with high amounts of raw materials or living worlds)
-if the standing between two factions are low enough, one may try to subvert the closest planets or systems belonging to that faction
the faction searches could also appear as mission the player can accept, if the player doesn't accept them other npc could take the job and the expansion would still happen
the mission would only tell the player to go to x systems and make preliminary surveys of each planet there
it'd push the player to go on its own searches, to find valuable planets to colonize before any other faction does it before the player
