I've noticed as of late that some people aren't too keen on hitting bases as they have all the silver badge items. I don't have any ideas as to what the item could be, but i think one is needed

To be honest, I think that's hooey. I've got everything but the Tetras maxed out and I'm still eager to base hunt because I want to put as many nexuses on my planets as I possibly can. IMO they're the single most useful planetary installation in the game. Something that's useful on 75% of all my planets. So I can't see myself running out of uses for silver badges any time soon even though I've got all the other good stuff.

Quick fix = stop locking rank 3 bases, man up and start killing rank 4+. Plenty of loot* in those.

*no parsers if your name isn't Remric, though.