hmm. im having trouble with the capturing land idea. is this game supposed to be uger realistic? if so, it wouldnt make sense that if i drive miles and miles to your land, capture it, an equivalent amount of land would suddenly appear available next to my colony. in op2 there is no real "land economy" ie: the value of land is determined by proximity to natural resources being mines and flat, open land upon which to build the colony. perhaps you could introduce and "upkeep" system into the game. the larger your base becomes, the more workers/scientists are needed to run certain structures. this would effectively limit the rate at which a colony could be built beyond a certain point. this wouldnt solve the issue of land, but it would make demand for it much lower since land requirement would drop as the cost of expanding increases. this would turn the commander toward management of what already exists in terms of structures meaning it is more cost effective to utilize what he/she already has than to expand and invest in ever-increasing cost of contruction and staffing.
as for eliminating the problem of land, in op2 eden and ply arent built right next door to eachother, theyre many hundreds or thousands of miles away. will the game reflect this? the game-world should be large enough that the likelihood of two colonies building into eachother is an ultra rarity. that is the only solution i can think of. otherwise there would have to be some sort of capture system for land.