I enjoy the game a lot, but one of the major problems I see is that you eventually (and with good reason) hit a point where almost nothing harms you. It would be nice if you could turn on a setting(a rule? Or whatever they are) that increases your difficulty % and either A: Makes the other 3 colonies fully, or even permanently hostile with you, or B: They constantly trend towards hostile, and you have to actively try and lower it if you don't want them hostile with you all the time.

By default, the 3 extra colonies are always more of a positive than a negative, but there's no 'increased Difficulty %' for not having them. (I think?)

So it would just be great if we had a rule we could set in the beginning of the game, that made them more of a problem, for those of us who enjoy a more difficult game. Obviously this would have no bearing on players who don't generally go for the highest difficulty, so it doesn't ruin anything for anyone else.