Star Trek

Starbases should be seen as the major targets in occasionally occuring war between the factions.  If a border between empires is breached it would more often than not be done to attack a starbase, or outpost.  Starbases and outposts should be necessary for starship repair and resupply and therefore losing one of them would be a severe blow, losing most of them in a short space of time would mean defeat.

Incidents and skirmishes between factions should be an ongoing thing, and every now and then, the management should develop circumstances that would end in open war between two or more factions, with all the intriguing fallout that such a conflict would entail.

If one side loses such a conflict, the win would be recorded and some kind of border adjustment would be made to benefit the victor.  Starfleet of course would not be allowed to engage in what they would see as criminal aggression, but they could be easily drawn into a conflict.

Such conflicts would create a lot of activity for 'crafting' profressions which specialize in things like ship and starbase construction, and for medical classes of course.  Overall it would serve to kind of re-energize the environment from time to time.

A little universal crisis from time to time, builds community.