I was thinking of the problem presented by new nations--fundamentally, they:

1. Require a great deal of playtesting, especially if they have any new systems. If they don't, well get get into the problem of "klingons/feds with different shaped SSDs."

2. Because of the difficulty of fitting new worlds into current maps, they are often either A. conjectural or B. put in new regions, which lead to a need for more species to fight with them, which again, leads to the need for lots of expensive and time consuming playtesting.

3. As SVC has said, most players want to see THEIR new species, and often lose interest in other nations, which presents a bit of a problem in terms of marketing.

So my thought is a series of occasional Captain's log articles focusing on changing the position of a nation, be it in terms of its importance, size, or location, without adding new rules or weapons. It has the benefit of allowing for different settings, which interest some players, without demanding the large pagecount that can turn off other players who aren't interested in such alternate settings.

This idea really struck with me when I saw how small the wordcount could be when i was reading the c6 alternate histories. that makes it ideal for a captain's log article or one of the 5 dollar pdf's like the Nicozians. I have an example, I could post, but the concept should be fairly simple to put together.