end game, future-minded support within the base game for multiple star systems / procedural galaxy

systems outside of Almagest (or whatever other modded starting system) would only be accessible with a fairly end-game extended-range jump drive, perhaps with a special fuel requirement and/or extended charging time. the game would likely need a "cut scene" animation such as a warp travel effect or whatever to cover the unload of one system and the load-in of another while moving from system to system. existing player bases and NPC's would have to be saved to file space. non-player NPC ships could change from visit to visit but bases should persist, maybe with repairs/regeneration if they aren't destroyed rather than despawning.

if you don't want to do the content yourselves at Keen, that's fine, the modders would happily take it up. but we all know that if Eleon can supply a universe with upwards of 25000 procedurally generated star systems to play in within the mess that is Empyrion Galactic Survival, then Keen can tackle the basic infrastructure needed to allow a similar scope within SE2. let them be generated procedurally for filler or if there are no mods added, but others can be modder generated, be they one-off planets added in the mix or entire modder created star systems or even clusters of stars included as an interstellar empire.

the game play options would be greatly expanded, the DLC and modding possibilities would be as well and the value of this piece of IP compared to every other game out there would be staggering, especially as the game develops over time and more blocks are added. the point is that we could carry on a single game for a very long time, whereas at some point being locked in a single system gives the player a time limit on what they can do in one save without reaching a point where there is no point continuing.

lore-wise, the players have been enroute to Almagest for 10000 years... who knows what has happened in the rest of the galaxy over that period of time. we might not have had the technology for an interstellar jump when we left, but there's no reason that it couldn't have been created within the last few decades or century. doesn't seem impossible that someone could have jumped to Almagest and crashed into an asteroid or planet and left the technology to be found by settlers. they could even have been shot down by earlier waves of settlers.