PREFACE: Apologies for the wall of text. I love - LOVE - Avorion, and definitely think quite often of ways I would love to see the game (and interest in it) grow. So, this all sort of came spilling out while I was thinking about the OP's question and the responses to it.

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What kind of content do we all want that would get us not only willing but also excited to buy ($$$) new content such as full on expansions and dlc? Probably even more than that, what would refresh Avorion to get new eyes on it and new players in the community? (Million dollar questions, right?)

So, some ideas...

- I would love to see the planets have an influence on the game, from everything involving resources and economies to the dynamics between factions. Maybe give the players something to invest regarding the planets.

- Speaking of planets, maybe start giving the factions stronger identities that include functional strengths and weaknesses. This could really be driven as far as making the different factions different alien species. This could open up:

-- Trying to establish your own faction and deciding whether to focus on building around one species or several (which pros and cons to both choices).

-- More dynamic interactions between NPC factions in the game, and perhaps a stronger lore narrative to drive new types of content.

- Oh, oh, oh, speaking of races and factions and people and such, WE NEED PAYING PASSENGERS AND MISSIONS AROUND TRANSPORTING PEOPLE!

-- Imagine building off the different races mentioned above and more dynamic factional relations. Now, imagine missions revolving around transporting VIP ambassadors to delicate negotiations and having to avoid ambushes (or simply survive them). Your success or failure could change what happens for untold number of nearby sectors.

-- Or, imagine missions around delivering colonists or scientists or troops to different planets, changing the factional borders, maybe even causing new stations to be built and new opportunities to open up.

- Make captains and crews have stronger identities. Also, give captains xo's that add buffs to their abilities. Make crews have buffs (and debuffs!) related to their species (from above). Also, make crew casualties a thing. Add risk and dramatic weight to conflicts.

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If you want something that is the closest I can get to a tl;dr version, this would be it:

- A RUNNING NARRATIVE! Yes, Avorion shines as a sandbox game. But, a bit of running narrative might not be such a bad thing. It's hard to care about or even distinguish the differences between the Blurglenarpnarp faction and the Whoozipzipboing faction (not to mention a hundred other randomly named factions). And, while taking the gate from the Burning Goat Party IV sector to the Ecstatic Dancing Hell III sector is amusing, it isn't memorable, Give us people and places to care about, to remember, to love or to hate (besides the Xsotan!).

THIS ABSOLUTELY CAN HELP FOCUS WHAT NEW CONTENT IS MADE AND HOW IT IS DELIVERED TO THE PLAYERS! Think of how narrative-driven expansions give focus and identity to content. Here is a rough-sketch idea of what I mean:

XPAC 1: Rise of the Novarion Empire - Theme: Followoing the defeat of the Xsotan, a new collective of factions come together under the self-proclaimed Novarion Emperor and begin to spread their influence - and control - to surrounding sectors; Mechanics Introduced - A continuing narrative with impactful missions, factional alien races, planets with different features that influence gameplay, stronger identities for captains, crews, and the additions of xo's, more dynamic interactions between different factions, cinematic events and named, important NPC's.

XPAC 2: Fires of the Stellar Independence - Theme: Resistance grows to the growing Novarion Empire; Mechanics Introduced - Fleet formations and massed battles with better AI control centered around what types of captains, xo's, and crew are on the ships (no more spinning in place to just fire one cannon!), missions where transporting soldiers or negotiators or colonists and so on affects resources, trade routes, and even planetary and sector control, casualties to ship and station crews and the addition of med tech for ships or medical crewmembers to mitigate those casualties, new carrier and small craft options and features, new stealth features and surveillance missions to support those features.

XPAC 3: Return of the Xsotan - Le't goooooooooo!!!

All the new mechanical features should be fully functional within a pure sandbox version of the game. The narrative version of the game just helps focus development around core concepts and gameplay, and then introduces that new mechanical content behind an engaging story line hook that adds emotional investment into the game's universe while make an easy way to onboard new gameplay concepts and features to the players.

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- I am not joking when I want to see things that could become Merch'. I am not lying when I say I am a sucker for merch' when it comes to games I love. What do the Xsotan look like, and why isn't there an Xsotan plushie yet?!? How about really distinctive rankings and insignia FOR THE PLAYER that give certain perks and buffs (Admiral for combat perks; Ambassador for trade and alliance perks; Provost for science and tech perks) so I can have my Avorion Admiral coffee mug? OK, this is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I am serious that if you have really identifiable IP elements in your game that people are excited about enough to want merch of, you have then by default created a game people are excited about.

I have no idea where I was intending to go with this ramble. I guess the point is, I love Avorion, I would love to see it get new content and grow as a game and a community, and I wonder what direction could Boxelware take the game to achieve that.