Looking to the Stars for Inspiration

First, a confession: I forgot my game idea. I remembered it was a good one, so I came back to this very blog, and reading my posts sparked inspiration for a new round of ideas.

Been thinking about Race for the Galaxy and how they didn't introduce combat rules until the 3rd expansion. I hear it's a bad mechanic, but I like the idea of having a game in which you build your engine toward your goal without someone else tearing it down, though they can obstruct your way as they build their own.

To this end I have been looking at the Star Wars universe as my main source of inspiration, and chewing on whether there is enough in if I remove all the combat.
Political intrigue, trading via legal and illegal means, bounty hunters, and more go along in the background, so I think there is something to work with.

I've also been thinking of some of the 4X video games I've played, such as Master of Orion and Civilization and looking for ideas - possible victory conditions in particular.

As I was typing this, I actually thought to look some things up, and an idea sparked - what if instead of playing a supreme leader type of role players took the role of some sort of galactic criminal. Like Firefly, I guess? (Not a huge fan of the series.)

Galactic Senate - Deck Building

The latest game thought exercise, the tutorial level thing, has brought me back to an older theme: that of a Galactic senate in which culture differences and language barriers pose obstacles to the players. Overcoming these obstacles in the best way possible is how players make points and win the game.

Originally with a worker placement mechanic, I'm now mulling over deck building to tackle the theme.
One way in which it differs from Doiminion and company is that instead of purchasing cards with a hand full of treasure, you would need a card that speaks the same "language" as a card you wish to add to your deck (or a crisis to solve?)
A second difference would be programmable actions, similar to Wings of Glory, where you need to place a card in advance to determine movement, and hope it works out the way you planned.
Finally, in similar fashion to Trains, cards will give you actions (and reactions) to make changes over the player board, such as persuading representatives to your cause, to affect scoring.

4X: Navigating Space

No real reason for being silent over the past week. Updating sort of slipped my mind while I was busy with visitors from Germany, Harucon 2013, birthday party...

Anyways, reporting on some thoughts I've had about my game, concentrating on space, both physically and metaphorically - the board on which the game will be played, representing outer space.
Currently thinking I may have each game played within a single (simplified) galaxy, with several options available for different player numbers or play experience, as less planets may mean more combat but slower research.

Each Galaxy will be made of a number of suns, connected by nodes, through which players could travel. Each player will receive a home system: a planet matching his color orbiting a sun (and perhaps a second mismatched planet for future colonization?) Each other node will have a circular card placed around it. One side of these cards will be unknown (fog of war type graphic) while the other will have between 0-3 planets orbiting it.

Now that I think about it, it would probably be best if both sides had a sun printed on it, both to save costs of punching an additional hole, and of having a clue as to how many and what planets might be in orbit.

Players with their space ship on the appropriately colored planet (similar to their home, or through later research) may be able to place a colony and improve their production/position.