I had been thinking of how to represent the political divisions and diversity of the Star Wars galaxy in a game like Sins, and maybe add a layer of depth to managing and acquiring territory. Would it be possible to have a max allegiance for certain planets depending on who is controlling them? For example, Bothawui could have an "allegiance cap" of only 20% when controlled by any faction other than the NR. Imperial cultural homeworlds such as Anaxes could have a similar maximum level of loyalty when captured by any other faction. Now, I would only add this cap to a few specific planets that are well-known in SW lore to be the hearts of their respective factions. Fleet presence could also slow the loss of loyalty due to enemy cultural influence, in order to represent the fear of force against civilians.
Also, this planet type could grant an allegiance buff to all of your planets when you capture one, as a representation of the surge in prestige any faction would gain when it captures a crucial territory of it's enemy. Losing one of your own "homeworlds" (either by capture or permanent loss via the Galaxy Gun) would likewise give a system-wide allegiance debuff. Imagine the panic and chaos that would set in across the New Republic if Mon Calamari were to be conquered by a resurgent Imperial fleet. That's the sort of thing I'm trying to implement in an effort to give the in-game galaxy some of the character of the Star Wars universe. Instead of just advancing from planet A to planet B, players may start to think about going after specific sectors to cripple their enemy, and how they can hold them. In other words, strategy! One thing that was consistently annoying to me about 4x games like Sins was how the game was always just a big crawl forwards, as all players just oozed across the map until they ran into each other. Exploration was never interesting again after your first game, because every where you go in the supposedly vast and diverse galaxy is the same.
I had first thought of this system when toying with the idea of a universal allegiance debuff on the loss of a supercapital ship; and I think it could work even better with planets. Similar rules could apply to Coruscant, although instead of favoring any specific faction the capture of Coruscant could give a huge array of cultural and economic boosts to whoever occupies it, with, of course; serious repercussions if you should lose it. This would make the galactic capital the focal point of any map it is featured in.