Just want to say that I'm really looking forward to the quest system. That'll be a great addition.
My last bit of feedback aside from that would be in one of the tutorials (after you've done a few missions, as early on smuggling is so great), it'd be nice to give a general guidance in terms of what you'll want to do to form the federation later. Something like "In order to eventually form the federation, you will need several races that you have a strong influence on, as well as them having a positive influence with each other." (Or whatever the general requirements are, no specific numbers are needed for this.)
That'd provide a bit of extra direction in terms of which actions are heading you in that direction, and which ones are doing what I tended to do: beat the everloving tar out of one race and use all the stuff I steal to give to other ones so they like me more.
Don't know if thats a good strategy or not, but it was fun!