Something that could add some charm to the game is to have a few things in the background:
In the background I mean the background of the game where you see the stars, and planets, etc - so non interact-able
- Neutral ships flying
- Ships fighting each other
- Falling stars
- Flying asteroids
This came to mind when I was mining in a zone with nebula, when standing still the game had no movement. At one point I thought the game had frozen!
I like the sound of that.
With mods, you an add more objects like the satellites and old space station, but it would be good to see something more animated in the background.
Hm, it might be a bit difficult to do, but I like the idea also :)
There are a few animated elements already in place. If you park in front of a planet, you can see it rotating. Also there's beacon light on your ship that should be blinking.
In my opinion, space is huge and nebulas and stars are so far away from each other that you aren't going to see them "move" in the short term. If it's something that's really far away, it shouldn't be moving. Also you have to be careful about adding visual elements that may be distracting. Sometimes you don't have much time to react when you're cruising through a system manually careening through asteroids and debris running from aliens or pirates.