I think it would be great if some of these neutral militia would put up more of a fight or join you for a massive bundle of cash instead of fighting.
Perhaps in the next expansion if the focus is still diplomacy?
yeah, would be great. you do know the colonised miltias that spring up in custom generated maps, they're pretty nice.
in fact, I'd say creating minor races wouldn't even be that hard, except for the diplomacy part which will get reworked eventually in exp 2 anyways. here's what you could do: start the neutrals off with such a planet of their own, the game can already do that and gives variety to that. then, apply the easy ai to it. then increase their cost dramatically, like 2 or 3 times the cost. that should also be possible I think, bc on unfair the ai gets more resources ( or lower cost, something along those lines in any case, for neutrals, just reverse it). that way militias will spread out if unchecked, they will build stuff and become harder to conquer, but they will never be the same challenge as a proper ai would be, bc of their dramatic cost disadvantage and simpler routines. if that is not enough, you could also delay the start of the routines for several minutes, like have them do nothing the first few mins and then start up doing stuff.
the reason I suggest this is because in Gal Civ II I liked the minor races and a mod for Civ IV (revolutions, specifically the barbarian nations part) made this very interesting in that next to the main parties a number of smaller parties would be there to exploit, subjugate, protect, ally or whatever you wish. there is potential here.
enough for now, I'll spill out more stuff once entrenchment is final and dev attention turns to this avenue also.
