So I've been playing the career mode for a bit and I gotta say I love it to bits. But I think it still has that deep sense of "you're alone", that the career missions don't really resolve. The contractors are cool and quirky, but you don't really know them much at all except as people who give you tasks to do.
So I thought, what if we introduced something that we can interact with, like an entity, a government, an organization, a person? Maybe have entities that would compete with you to get certain contracts (and there would be real effects, but not too terribly big that you'd go bankrupt), or have you collaborate with another space agency to build something bigger with them.
Things like "I need you to build this and this specification for my interplanetary voyager, dock it at X orbit", and then they can offer you like "do you want to control it", or if you don't wanna control it, they'll just send you the news after X years if the mission was a success or not. It doesn't even have to be pre-made crafts, they can entirely be your craft as well.
We could also have events suddenly happening, that could or could not be taken at that moment's notice. Like having a character constantly getting into a plane crash, and now needs your help moving them back to the DSC. You also gain missions from the guy if you have a good relationship with them, you get the gist.
Like, I think adding stories and settings like that into career mode could really make the career mode feel super alive. Anyways, thanks for reading.