I have a new game/dlc expansion idea, which I think is somewhat unique but, would work in the Galactic Civilizations III Universe.

Game

The game would be based in the Galactic Civilizations III Universe but, focusing in on the trading/bazaar aspect of the game.  You would start the game as a Trader/Mercenary based at a Bazaar Space Station.  There you would reach out to the core factions of the game to look for work, this would be the beginning of the game where you would negotiate your value (starting funds) with different factions.  Once negotiated you can improve your base ship to specialize in the area you are looking to focus in either as a Mercenary attacking random ships on missions or as a Trader. 

Now the player is ready to begin, jump to the Home World of the faction that hired you.  As a Trader you would fly from planet to planet transporting goods for a profit, mainly raw materials/goods.  One would want to buy low and sell high in the ever changing market, which a portion of your profits goes to the faction which hired you.  Over time if you are not profitable they may let you go and hire Mercenaries to destroy you and you may need to look for other opportunities.

Should the player instead choose the Mercenary path (and, one could do crossover work to Trader/Mercenary if they chose to do so) that player would focus on special missions to eliminate pirates, enemies, space monsters or just run errands around the galaxy for their faction.  Just as the Trader side of things the hiring faction can become angry with the player for not completing missions and fire and take out a contract on the player and, the player would have to look for additional work and protection.  This is a reason the player would need to have weapons on their ship.

Also with this as the player gets more profitable they could purchase additional ships to run separate missions/trade routes or just add to their fleet to help them complete different missions or use it for protection.

Synergy (Unique)

I propose this game as a stand-alone game in the Galactic Civilizations III Universe, however, that could also work as a DLC/Expansion to each game if the player owns both games.  

Owning the New Game with Galactic Civilizations III benifits

Should the player own the core Galactic Civilizations III game with any of the DLC/Expansions, they would be able to not only negotiate with the core factions for a contract but, any of factions of the DLC's or Custom factions the player has created.  They also could load up a map from one of their games and play on one of their game maps (this would work the best in early to mid game maps as late game maps would tend to be lop sided to one or two players).  Also with this the Trader would be able to trade resources or trade goods from Galactic Civilizations III where in the base game they could only trade raw materials/goods.

Owning Galactic Civilizations III and getting this game benefits

Should the player own the core Galactic Civilizations III game and purchase this game the player would be able to negotiate for special Mercenaries/Traders at the Bazaar that they could have run missions/run trade routes for them to provide the player with extra income in the game.  Potentially introduce a different diplomacy options for trade resources that would be introduced to the game only if they have this game as well.  Also with this these special Mercenaries/Traders don't just sit with their base ships until they are eventually destroyed (even though that can happen) but, they can upgrade their ships either with your help (at an extra cost) or on their own as they become more profitable even adding additional ships to run separate missions or to their own fleet, plus other goodies that I can't think of at the moment.

Why could this be a good thing?

First off targets a different type of player, one who may like tycoon type games and introduce them to the Galactic Civilizations III Universe.  Should the game be a success instantly has optional revenue streams for the core Galactic Civilizations III game.  Adds on a new DLC/Expansion for those who love Galactic Civilizations III game.

Down side to current Galactic Civilizations III Founders.

This would be a stand-alone game that works with Synergy with Galactic Civilizations III so would not be included to the founders but, Stardock could always choose to do whatever they wanted to do for the customer

Why?

I've always thought it would be awesome for a company to use one game to introduce or add to another game.  For instance I thought Maxis could have done this with SimCity/SimTower/SimEarth/Sims back in the day but, then EA took over and not much chance for that.  Now they did have a little of this with Streets of SimCity and in Sims 1 or 2 being able to jump in to SimCity 4 (but nothing more than cosmetic) I thought they could have did much more with it.

Other Suggestions/Thoughts?

What do others think about this suggestion? Or how could it be improved or what would we need to do to convince Stardock to look at this type of suggestion?  Too bad I don't have the programming knowledge or skills or I would have done something like this myself  Thank you for your time.