I like the way we can explore a system, with different ships (i would like more choices at the beginning or maybe unlocking ships through the game like unlocking new playable characters)
I also like defending the system, upgrading the ship and moving to new systems to defend.
Oh, maybe having a map (a big one) of what we already explored in the current system would be nice so we can more easily go back to the planets we want to help (i mean while i had not enough materials to repair a shield, i needed to find ressources and after that i sometime have troubles to find that planet i wanted to help repairing the shield :x )
Now you know what i like and have some bonus suggestions :)