A pair of sugestions that don´t need to be added to the incoming C aurora version, but I wanted to share them anyway so I don´t forget them later.
First one is to have some rare jumpoints that lead to distant stars when using the real stars option. This would allow us to have nebulae and black holes when using sol start (altugh with a low probability). That got me thinking that as I understand, the center of the galaxy has a lot more radiation from denselly packed stars, I don´t know how much that is but I´ve heard it prevents life from being posible there. Perhaps it would be enough to damage our transnewtonian ships? maybe after days/months of exposure?, maybe shieds can prevent this?
The next idea is to have a ´´damage zone´´ close to stars, the size would depend on the star type and the closer the higher the damage. Again, maybe shields can regenerate faster than the damage (depending on distance and regen rate of shields).
I don´t know if the ideas presented are plausible/´´realistic´´ enough for aurora, but I belive they can ad to the strategic aspects of the game. As it is, other than populations and jump points, the ´´terrain´´ doesn´t play an important role in aurora, ideas like these could help divesify the gameplay.