Been doing some more playtests, and I think I may try out a streamlined version here. Well, streamlined in some ways, but I'm adding in a new dimension as well that gives a 3rd way to get Victory Points.
Changes:
Removed Advanced Machines and Xeno Materials and their attendant buildings. Advanced machines are substituted with 2 normal Machines.
Complexes now benefit from economy of scale, allowing a fully staffed building to produce 3 items instead of 2 (material costs are still 1-1, though).
Survey Station now provides Basic Raw/Rare Raw/1 VP for U/S/E.
Added Rehabilitation center to allow Criminals to be converted into Unskilled.
Adding Military Buildings - These buildings allow you to train colonists into Soldiers or Officers, which can be Deployed off-world during the Trade Phase for VP.
Barracks - Trains Unskilled+ into Soldiers
Officer School - Trains Skilled+ into Officers
Boot Camp - Trains Criminals into Soldiers
Military HQ - Provides the Organize phase ability during Production for your Military buildings. Basically, this lets someone going heavy military actually get a decent production chain going. Otherwise you'd end up behind everyone else since you'd need 4 phases to do everything (Colonize for new people to train, Production to train them, Trade to get the VP, and Organize to get new people into the Military buildings to train).
Military should add a nice dimension to the game. It gives you a way to reduce your number of unused Colonists while gaining VP, and is easy to dabble in. Going heavy into Military requires a fair amount of investment, but should be a viable path.