TL;DR
Make NPC's!You could find other crashed spaceships and trade with their inhabitants!
Also, you could have The Hive, which contain the alien queen, which you could converse with and perhaps even make deals and treaties.
What ?
This is a feature which would improve the story side of the game a bit. You could start with saying that there was actually a fleet of colonising ships, perhaps a logic error leading to all of them crashing into the planet's surface. You could even have a prologue with you on your spaceship, discussing something when lights begin blaring overhead and the planet's gravity begins to suck you slowly in.On the subject of aliens, they look a lot like insects. it would make sense for them to have an intelligent leader coordinating them from the background and that leader be willing to discuss with you if you would only listen. They could give you territory, if you do not attack them and if you stay within that territory. Alien evolution also happens
w a y too fast, so you could scrap that and instead have the Hive Mind/queen upgrade the bases so that they can spawn larger aliens.
Why ?
As I said earlier, this game needs more of a story and there is little that we can get out of our character, so why not get it out of others. I also like that orange box that displays the limited back story you currently have. Try and use it more!