The current level of ease in conquest makes one wonder why the Sector, or at least the small indie worlds, aren't already completely controlled by the Hegemony or various warlords.
Hell even the bigger worlds! Once you've got just 3 Mudskippers' or one Nebula's worth of marines and a tanker you can just click>tac bomb>click>invade most planets in a row. At that point rebellions don't matter because the damage is already done (both damage in gameplay and damage to immersion).
btw excited to see what the GUI map for fleet request/operative mission orders is like.
That's why I think besides harder invasions, we need a lot stronger resistance to occupation. Many (most) strategy games make this mistake. IRL creating an empire is not just about conquest, it's about unification, pacification, etc...
If you only raise the required troop levels, the game would still be about map painting. Yes, you have to use more troops, but at this point, they are just a bigger one-time expanse...
However, if we add some kind of resistance mechanism that really controls your (and the AIs) expansion, that would fix the immersion-breaking, at least for me.
Without strong resistance, you could still blitzkrieg the Hegemony, only this time you would need like 20k marines (basically 6 starliners if you stockpile your troops at an independent planet in advance). I know that it SOUNDS expensive, but it's only 4 Onslaught XIV...
However, with stronger resistance, you could no longer rush, because no matter your initial reserves, the occupation costs would bankrupt you, resulting in a general uprising, and ultimately you are back to square one.