Ugh. Much too long.
Since then, we did get to discuss all this on the IRC, and though I'm uncomfortable with the loss of many different setting elements in comparison to our prior site, it's an acceptable one considering this is the beginning. I am however, uncertain about the timing of this. How the main faction or others arrived here is not the most important thing yet, so I'll skip that. Instead, what I'm concerned about is how well established the main faction is since arrival. If they're too established, it will seem ridiculous that they haven't explored much sooner - even a newly established colony in a new world will send out scouts after all. Plus, considering the tech level, pioneering scouts leaving their sole city to explore is well doable. It's something that should honestly happen soon after or even while they're still trying to establish themselves and get a proper base of operations going to be honest.
So far, I've heard during the discussion that they've been there for a long while, and I"m not too fond of that since it makes them look less than competent.
Next, I agree that having multiple factions would be nice, but after discussing it on the IRC, there is also the potential to overstretch the playerbase this way. I would suggest the primary faction start out with multiple species, and through civil war, schism or independence, have more emerge. As much as we don't like conflict, it makes for good RP. Besides that, we could always have some come around via discovery, should there be enough interest. Now, I also miss the idea of having several planets and fighting for them, after talking it out with Eistheid, I find that they are correct in that none of them are fleshed out. We might as well just go with a single main city and make it come alive since this setting will be initially smaller in scale. As for combat, I do agree that power armor should not be the bread and butter - having them both be tough yet vulnerable to small arms fire, and also limited by resources would help a lot.
The next thing on my mind is 'Rift Space' - you mentioned exploratory ships using it on the planet's surface? I'm actually very skeptical about introducing any form of fast travel right now, since it's just one planet. Even though it's four times the size of earth, a good jet traveling mach-only-god-knows can still traverse it very quickly. I'd suggest putting that idea on hold until/if there's a need. At our previous site, fast travel times were an issue in that we didn't want them - they made things all too close, with no suspense, since first responders could arrive far too quickly.
And yes, this is even with your suggestion that it does not come without risks, since we don't even know how it all balances out.
Finally, since we're going to have Neshaten, I suggest examining them from an outsider's point of view. The perspective of someone who is looking to join something. The reason why I bring that up was because I was more or less lead to believe - based off all the artwork that I saw - that the humanoids were all perpetually children. When I learned otherwise, I have to admit that I found it very, very, very frustrating. I even felt mislead. What I'm trying to say is that their outward appearance/presentation could use some work. Think of it as advertising; if what someone comes for, what they saw, and what they got are all different from each other, we may have a problem. This is important because it'll be the foundation of player draw.
First impressions are everything, and in comparison, our previous site was typically consistent regarding the main faction.