Planetary political alliance

One thing I've learned from playing SWTOR is that it isn't really very interesting to have a planet have a political alliance all of the time, or even most of the time. Most planets that you'll visit, with very few exceptions, are either neutral or contested, giving the opportunity for long-running conflicts to spill over from system to system. Think of the Cold War; you weren't likely actively having spy stories that take place in Moscow or Washington DC itself, but you'd have stuff going on in Central Europe a lot, or stuff in Central America, or other countries where Soviet and American guys could reasonably both be found on occasion, although without official standing sometimes, because the Soviet and American governments wanted to keep things discrete. 

I've got plenty to do on the Dhangetan worlds, but after that, I don't want there to be no conflict except local conflict on all of the Bernese colonial worlds, for instance. There should be reasons for any of the major players in the galactic cold war to have at least representatives and probably shady goings-on from the Seraeans, the Bernese, and the Revanchists, as well as maybe the Dhangetans and Cilindareate Arm as well.

I'm not quite sure how this affects my sector map or how I classify systems in it. I'm not quite sure what this means in general, actually, or what would change. But I think it's important, even if it's just a background assumptions change.

But maybe more of my stuff will take place on neutral or unaligned worlds anyway. I've come to think of the Dhangetan worlds in particular to be a fun place to set stuff.

Not 100% sure which of those images of Nar Shaddaa, which could represent any number of shady neutral worlds that have a lot of population actually looks better. The brightness increase might be too much, but my character Graggory himelf looks way too dark.