this will probably be the last thing on a to-do list if it will be implemented, but how about reputation outside of combat?

There can be exploration reputation, scored by a total rarity of each planet scanned. (it will be a off-hand pointer to who has better planets to hack)

There can be political reputation, scored by total political favor gained in the course of the game. (and can surve as a requirement to some new missions)

And one more for combat: There can be honor reputation, scored positively for winning against higher rank opponents, and scored lower for suicide attacks and repeated one-sided combat. (can also be effected by what artifacts you use on other players [not traps])

some of these are already implemented in a way. You can see how many planets a player has encountered in their stats page, for example. Political Favor, since its basically an item, could be part of a mission requirement already.

When I came to the topic I was hoping you were proposing something based on honor/reputation that would make the game more open ended, like possibly 2 ways to complete the same mission, with each leading to a different follow-up. One would be faster, such as destroying a planet's population, while the other would take longer, such as teaching them to defend themselves and making them part of the empire.

I already shy away from missions like omicron retaliation (terrorism), biological warfare (bioweapons), and invasive action (genocide), it would be an interesting twist to have the game move in a different direction for me than someone who goes for those missions.

That was what I was looking for, but I guess I did it wrong. I was trying to create a way for the game to recognize fame. So far, only other players will act differently on reputation, not the game itself.