Aside from graphical improvements and deeper stories, are any major changes to be introduced to EV3? There were some areas I would be interested in seeing explored.

I've always been interested in the possibility of deeper management of planets the player has dominated. What would people think of the option of delving more into planetary politics and trade management? It could add more spark to play after one has dominated a significant chunk of the galaxy. I think it would be neat to have the option of improving a planet and establishing trade routes between planets. Perhaps allow the player to become an acknowledged power, first among superpowerful corporations and later among stellar governments?

Imagine being able to establish mines (or even colonies?) to create new commodities for a planet, thus enabling new trade routes and altering the tax income? Superpowerful players could war with other corporations and even other governments?

I'd also like to see more options with escorts; it would be great to be able to switch between your ships; a fighter for one mission and then switch back to your cruiser? I also would like to be able to sell ships I have captured (not hired), the only way of doing so now is if you pick up a fighter in a bay.

Finally, I think it would be nice to have a way of expanding your crew, for the purpose of capturing large ships. Classic pirates always overloaded their small ships with men to enable a sloop to capture even a massive galleon; people playing as pirates in EV should be able to hire mercenaries or something at 1 ton per maybe 12 mercs?

Another idea for EV3, would be to have a heads up display for the in game information instead of the simple information box in the corner, and it would be really cool to have the enemy ships info shown with a spinning 3D model, possibly changing from wireframe to solid, and this could be pre-rendered if nessicary. One last thing, the popularity of displays in green is a little odd, considering that we can easily do full colour displays today, and even black and white looks better than black and green.