The game is a work of art and becomes more balanced and user-friendly as new patches come out but one problem i see is that when colonizing, you get no reward for the building or research you've unlocked. An idea I had was give a resource bonus when colonizing. like for every teir 1 building you start with 500 of that resource.
Thanks a lot for this feedback, it means the world to me! I'll investigate post-colonization rewards some more as I balance the game out.