Hoppus... starting out with only 10-12 planets seems too small, but double that, 20-24, sounds reasonable... not too big, not too small, what do you think? And when systems are added to the galaxy map later, we could add another 20-24 at once.
I like what you said about controlling facilities on the planet. I think if you controlled the space in that system and all facilities on the planet you could still speak of controlling that system or planet, but the facilities mechanic allows for the possibility that your income from a given planet could diminish or be cut off entirely despite the fact that not all of your ships, facilities and ground units have been destroyed. That's excellent.
I cringe when I hear the word "bonuses," so I didn't like what I read about "free" this and "free" that. I think everything should cost, whether you pay for it or someone else in your faction pays for it or your faction leader pays for it out of the faction's account before credits are distributed. But the basic distinction between financial facilities that generate income and military facilities that produce units makes good sense and I really like it.
Question: When you said "you can't send troops from Facility A to Facility B when it is under attack" do you mean "you can't send troops from Facility A to Facility B when Facility A is under attack"? If so, I could understand that. But If you mean "you can't send troops from Facility A to Facility B when Facility B is under attack and Facility A is not", then I can't fathom why not. Please clarify.
I like the idea of raiding a financial facility and taking the credits. Small starter fleets instead of a single ship seems fine too.
Question about the influence mechanic you mentioned: After re-reading your post, I think I get it the idea. Financial facilities don't just generate income (credits), but they generate influence points too right? And then you use those influence points to "buy" more facilities and such? Sounds totally artificial. Again, everything should cost: Financial facilities generate credits, and constructing a new financial facility requires x credits (some ridiculous amount) and x weeks (some really long time), the same as purchasing and constructing a new capital ship (except financial facilities should cost way more and take way longer). Alternatively, constructing a financial facility for a reasonable (instead of ridiculous) amount of credits in a reasonable (instead of ridiculous) amount of time would also be fine if we limited it to one financial facility per planet. In that case, the opposing faction could potentially still cut off your income from that planet without having to totally eliminate every one of your ships, facilities and ground units. Either option works for me (limit 1 financial facility per planet and it takes a normal\reasonable amount of credits and time to construct, or no limit per planet but it takes a ridiculous amount of time and credits to construct).
I did like the general idea of "influence" though, and your post got me thinking: what if you accumulated x influence points (IP) for every day that goes by where all existing facilities on a planet are under your control for the entire 24 hour period? The more influence you have on a planet, the less likely the opposing faction can start a rebellion on one of your planets, or the more likely your faction could start a rebellion on one of theirs. Something like that? Just thinking out loud here.
Also, I'm a PlayStation guy myself, but there's an old Xbox game called GUN (Cowboy game), and each town you came across had a Town Patience meter, and if you started shooting people or their dogs or whatever the town would eventually lose their patience and there would be a showdown. Maybe we could have a system patience meter somehow, and if the system's patience went to zero, a rebellion sparks where ground units belonging to that system change allegiance to the New Republic\Alliance\whatever and attack one of the Empire's facilities. Those units would then be controlled by the New Republic\Alliance\whatever faction which could also send in capital ships to support the rebellion if they wanted to.
