Supply attrition zones

[Pulsar]

One thing I remember whenever I started a new empire was getting absolutely curb-stomped by powerful empires within a week of first starting out. Since the neutral zone is getting removed, maybe players who are less interested in PVP can start out in areas with greatly diminished fuel and resources, so the bigger and more fuel consuming starships would starve out. I don’t really know much about fleets because I rarely reached the interstellar phase, but that’s my pitch.

[Yurk Embassy]

Unfortunately, starships can sometimes reach an autonomy that would be numbered in weeks, if not months. Though, I'd like to feed the topic with another idea: replacing the "neutral" zone with remote, poor-resource areas. As in, quality would never exceed 125, or something along those lines. That would make bigger empires much less interested in these sectors, as resource would no longer be a valable casus belli there. Although, that would mean small casual empires who want to stay away from PvP, couldn't really reach an exorbitant tech level in the long run. But that's only fair, if you ask me; with high stakes come high risks.

[Deantwo]

That would make bigger empires much less interested in these sectors, as resource would no longer be a valable casus belli there.

Nobel idea, but that assumes that the big bad empires only newbie-stomp because they want the resources. As we saw in Universe5, some big bad empires will newbie-stomp small empires for sports, pleasure, or worse.

If a big bad empires wants to newbie-stomp weak and defenseless empires, there isn't much that can stop them.

That is why the idea of forcing week long sieges before a solar system can be invaded seem like a better idea. That way the big bad empire has to waste an entire week keeping their ship in your solar system before they can destroy you. In that time you can then try to reason with the attacker for peace, flee to a new home with all your belongings, or call for help from other empires that would definitely help against a bully empire.
See: (Idea thread) Conquest of Solar Systems