This is probably my only critique about Sins of a Solar Empire! What a fun little game, and the developers might do well to consider cannonizing some of the ideas implimented in a few of the player mods. My point has more to do with one aspect of the game that modding may not be able to fix however.

Getting to the point;

1. I think each hyperspace link should lead to a full blown solar system map with a star in the center and more than 1 planet orbiting it.
2. Not all planets will be colonizeable, but can contribute various resources and rare items.
3. Each planet and some other stellar bodies (asteroids, comets, stars, etc.) should have gravity wells, and a few other stellar bodies, but that these wells do not extend to the end of the system map, but have sizeable fields for the larger bodies.
4. Starships should be able to hop into and out of hyperspace from any of the non gravity well areas.

The idea is to;

1. More acurately represent solar systems in a "galactic" map.
2. Diversify defenisve structure placement based on the gravity well "holes" in their systems where enemies can appear.
3. Unique tactical considerations based on these hyperspace points. Each system would have different considerations.

Feel free to add any ideas or enhancements to this concept. I think it would be pretty easy to program into the game and improve the gameplay quite a bit.