like mount and blade
IMHO this is the best way to approach the issue!
For anyone who has been living underground on Corvus 1, in M&B the saving option is selected at character creation, being either;
'Standard' saving where the player can scum as much as they like or
'Realistic' mode on the other hand confers no bonuses when selected and performs an autosave action whenever an event occurs such as entering a settlement, engaging in battle or setting up camp.
The save setting of the character generally dictates the style of play where the 'No quitting without saving' mechanism encourages a more cautious outlook but at the same time makes decisions much more meaningful: "Should I attack that castle's garrison with the forces I have before the lord returns with his main host?" Also it is worth mentioning that SF has a simulation mode that (I imagine) will be expanded in future updates to enable testing of whole fleets where there is no analogue to this in Mount and Blade.
I have played through more games of M&B (both modded and vanilla) than I can remember and each time I begin again I always pause to consider what mood I want to set for that particular start.
(It is worth mentioning though that M&B DOES have a facility to export/import your player character at any time, detailing all skills/stats they have where the actual saved game relates to the state of the map such as troop numbers, items and territories. It would be great if Starfarer could incorporate a similar export feature when the character development features are implemented to give players a choice of starting fresh and facing the early-game character development or importing a previously exported character. It would be prudent though to omit the exportation of personal cash as part of the character file as is done with M&B and just stick to the character data alone to avoid exploitation of the feature?)