Suggestion: Increase the cost of purchasing alien ships. It is very easy to buy ships from other races. Voila! instant colonizers, scouts, and survey ships. Buying other teams' survey ships typically deprives that race of the ability to grab all those goodie huts. Also, purchasing other races builder ships (I forgot what they are called) allows you to immediately command them to make a star base. This expands the player's frontiers. The cheap prices of alien ships twists the 4X progression.