Running a small galaxy game with Zenox.

I've seen twice now that an independent colony becomes a full fledged empire, randomly. To be clear: it's not being colonized by another empire. It becomes its own new independent empire.

The galactopedia never suggests that this is possible. Any one else ...

Not sure I understand. Buildings don't need new designs as I understand it. They just unlock with tech.

I noticed you can upgrade buildings once you have the required tech.
I have my automation set on "recommend" and yet I've never had the AI recommend to me to upgrade a building, even though it would be a very logical thing to do.

Upgrading all buildings manually on dozens of worlds seems tedious ...