A) Give us an option to tune down / tune up Pirates.   Frankly, starting out and learning to play, the pirates take a LOT away from the game.   Without Pirates; boring - with Pirates; too frustrating.

Random events.   "Pirate raiders met with stiff resistance over such and such planet, they won't be seen again for atleast another week as they rebuild!"

C) Caps for the pirate ships.   I kid you not, I played a small game with pirates and went in to clear them out; they literally had 4-500 cruisers.  I had 10 capital ships AND cruisers (I had it maxed out; so however many that is) and got our ass handed to us.

D)  Speed up research.  Again, I kid you not, I was playing a small game and literally walked away for over an HOUR as I went through my research queue.  That's freaking ridiculous

Great game - love it; but there are some really needed tweaks to pirates and research.  Random events would just be cool.