I love the game- previously my favourite stratagy game was Imperium Galactica because of it`s scope and many aspects. Sins of a solar empire comes close. I especially enjoy the requiem mod for entrenchment. Which brings me to planetary warfare.

I`d like 3 ways of conducting planetary warfare..

1. "Nuke it from orbit"

    -if you destroy a hostile fleet and it`S defences but you`re deep in enemy territory and have no hope of holding the

     planet, you can nuke it and destroy everything there. In my suggestion the planet would then be uninhabitable and   

     radioactive until it`s terraformed. First a timed penalty before the process of terraforming can be unertaken.

2. "Planetary bombardment"

    -This is what we`re doing now. destroying everything there and killing the population. 

3. "Planetary invasion"

    This would leave both planet and infrastructure intact and would obviuously be the most beneficial approach if it`s a

    tactically viable. This would entail either some form of limited RTS on the ground of something more extensive.

    The idea is taken from star wars where ground troops are launched to destroyed planetary shield generators before a

    planet can be bombarded from space. Obviously this would enhance the "planetary bombardment" option as well.

    I`m not saying the first iteration of planetary invasion would have to be as extensive as in Imperium galactica, but that

    the functionality could be introduced and then be expanded on by expansions and modders.