The Verse: Universal Econony System

You could introduce a trading system in the Verse game. It would be similar in style to an old 8-bit game from the 80's called Elite. Basically you could buy and sell goods on each planet. each planet would have a different type e.g. the planet's technology level. Different worlds would price goods differently based on their type and world status (e.g wartorn planets, peaceful, etc).
Trading in illegal goods would cause your wanted level status to change. could also add the idea of factions to the game as in the game freelancer. doing missions with one faction causes reputation with that faction to increase and possibly causes your reputation with others to decrease.
also other actions would cause faction rep to go up or down. examples attacking ships of that faction etc.