Erp erp...wait, I did some digging earlier when I was bored...does this mean I won't be able to have this mental image of you programming aurora on a laptop while in CUCKOO WOODS? I CRY! On that note, good luck with the move
On a serious note, while pondering those changes...FLAGS. For CIVILIANS...as in you can tick the box on a colony 'open for civilians' so you can have a minor amount of control over where the pukes go. For instance, this way you could set up a colony with just enough population to run some maintenance facilities on the outskirts of your empire without having the nasty chav traders mess it all up. This would tie in well with your idea of the civilian gas mining. Add another box to tick next to the first on that colony and let them go to town. Which leads to you being mr fancy pants and applying the flag to the creation of CMCs too...With the caveat that the unions are strong, if you let them get started somewhere you can't just make them go away....So you have a choice of minerals/money from CMC's or claiming all the minerals for yourself, which could be tied into the CMC's being run by in game companies instead of apparently the illuminati...But..flags...easy peasy my well endowed mentally friend, when calculating a trade run check for variable 'oh no you don't', if found, skip to next
Eagerly awaiting my next fix, so get that wife working at a big company so you can apease your masses...er...don't let her read that...