Anything I say, needs deeper discussion on a few different levels.
Animation to the game is needed.
I do not know your road map of idea.
Animated galactic war should be an ambition even if years away. To start with. It could be as simple as pong was back in the youth.
I do not know how deep you want to build the structure of game play. Ultimately I think the game should lead toward Teams of teams working together to supply an army.
A bit like integrating several games in to the one game. Some people like to farm,. A team would need a farmer to have a bigger army. More farmers more people fed.

Battles can be fought for a new planet. Winners of a monthly campaign can gain prizes from a leader board. To have the best farmers on your team you must reward them well. How a team distributes its rewards might make it bigger or smaller.

Start an animation of farmers. It would be just motion. Make them stick men until a time to work on it with detail come about.