The mod as I've released it in it's current state is an ultra-bare bones version of what it COULD be. It's basically because:
1. I gave myself one week to make it before moving on to other stuff
2. The whole setup is kind of hacky

So, that said, I want to list all the fantastic ideas I've had for this in the months before I made it in case anyone ever wants to pick up the torch. Everything I'm about to say is technically 100% possible:

First, I had a concept of adding a big banner trim area beneath the system name which would expose the actual system type on the galaxy screen. So, for example, you'd see that a place was a "mining system" or a "fringe system" or the tiyanki home system or whatever else at a glance. I had it set up with not only text but also some nice flavourful concept art back there, too. I cut it for time (as with everything on this list) but also because I wasn't quite sure how cluttered I wanted the galaxy map to be, as well as not being up for writing the event code. Minor obstacles for a person with more time on their hands.

Second, I wanted to add not JUST the alien species portrait but also a ship portrait, too. The original idea was to have the banner at the bottom, the alien on the top left, and the ship on the top right. The ship element was meant to reflect some sort of "Current Activity" in the system. Such as the fact that an alien empire is sending a colony ship to seed a new world. Or a construction ship to build an outpost. Or a colossus, perhaps to crack a world. I also really wanted to mark the empires strongest fleet - their "capital fleet" - and have that marked, so at a glance you'd be able to see where their badass fleet is parked. This is information the game already gives you in a crappy small icon, but I see the potential for something much more flavourful here because these "activity" ship icons would be able to actually reflect an empires ship class, too! Imagine some nice concept art, like often appears on the dev diaries. Imagine panning around the galaxy and seeing a fungoid science ship here, a reptilian colossus there. My plan was also to have the "capital fleet" icon reflect the biggest shipclass in the fleet, too. So in early game you'd see corvettes, and slowly over time they'd get more powerful. You'd get an instant sense of who is strong and who is weak from this, too. Newly ascended primitives would still be on corvettes while surrounded by all kinds of bigger ship icons. Fallen empires would be rocking titans from day one. Mechanically I think Stellaris is a fantastic game, as you play it's simulating an active galaxy full of cool things happening - but we miss nearly all of them while we sit idle on the galaxy map, which exposes almost no information. I think my proposal here would look absolutely amazing and show you just how much fun stuff is happening.

Third, for the species Icons what I really want (or wanted) was to have large icons marking an empires current capital location, and a small icon representing their home-world. Home-worlds are awesome and don't get enough prominence in the game. I've cut a lot of this stuff because I don't know how to get the original system name back and I don't want every star to be called something generic by the end of a campaign.

Fourth, in an ideal world I would also use the small icons for primitives and vassal states.


Technical game limitations prevented me doing a lot of other fun stuff, which I've listed in the "dear paradox" section of the technical thread.