While I was playing a long game of Sins the other day, I was waiting for some research to finish and just staring at my flagship sitting in front of my homeworld.  Then it occurred to me:  Aside from all of the ships flying around the atmosphere of the planet, I really don't get the sense that a vast population of people are supposed to exist on these worlds.  I sort of regard planets in this game like I did with the globe in my high school history class long ago.  It is there, it exists, and it serves a purpose, but other than that, I don't pay it any attention (aside from its importance as far as gameplay is concerned).

I feel that a good way to really make it feel that there are people on the planet could be done through the audio sounds of the planet itself.  In addition to hearing the ships in the atmosphere, I thought it would be nice to hear different radio and communications transmissions of the inhabitants of the planet.  What they are saying doesn't have to be able to be understood.  A good example of what I mean can be heard on the movie "Serenity" (the "FireFly" movie) in the opening of the scene where Mr. Universe is introduced, as the camera is moving through the ion cloud surrounding the planet he lives on.  This could also be a way to drive home the point of how devestating that orbital bombardment your ships are carrying out is.  After an orbital nuclear bombardment, these transmissions could fade into static, as the population or the broadcasting equipment has been destroyed.

I feel that this could be a good way to give a form of life to planets and demonstrate that people actually do live on these worlds in this game.