JErosion wrote:
Dyson Spheres are problematic BDOs just finding a star candidate would be difficult. It would have to be an Class M Red Dwarf, for the sake of longevity and logistics, that also happens to be stable and not prone solar flares.

Also, it would be cool if there was the possibility to create (or even find: the Endless might have created some too) Jupiter brains. You know, the planet-size analogue to a Dyson sphere! Imagine Coruscant, but 100% technological, even in its core. That would be very simple to implement into the game, as it would just be a new planet type with some rather big innate special effects. What do you think about it?

I hope it will be possible to build a Dyson Sphere  but I would happy too if it would be just a unique Planet (looking in the direction of Auriga) or a Endless Wonder . But offcourse building own spheres would be much better .

I like what Stellaris did.Make them part of the game but only few in number and either derelict and rebuildable with the right tech or limited to a faction.

Slowhands wrote:

Dyson spheres, ringworlds, Dyson nets/swarms/bubbles, and similar megastructures have been coming up in design discussions for a while. Unfortunately there are tons of gameplay complexities and lore weirdnesses that have to be handled, like:

• Do planets outside the sphere (more distant than the sun) turn to barren ice?
• How can you see planets inside the sphere?
• What keeps it in orbit?
• How do you resolve a ground invasion on a surface the size of 5-600 million Earths? You could tie up all the troops of all the factions in the game just to resolve a fraction of the terrain control issues.
• What do you do with a world that could take in the population of the entire galaxy?
• How do you collect the resources for something that requires the mass of all the bodies of a solar system, and if it is destroyed, what happens to all that debris?

All of these can be answered, of course, but it's basically a one-off, specific edge case of pretty much every game system that we have :) 

So, yeah, it's a VERY cool idea that we would love to do, but for the moment it's on the list of stretch goals.

Note: There is also no known or theorized construction material strong enough to withstand the forces of the structure. Luckily, we have Dust  :)

I shall try to answer these points to the best of my abilities.

[Do planets outside the sphere (more distant than the sun) turn to barren ice?] Due to the resource requirements of building a Dyson megastructure, celestial bodies located in-system should no-longer exist. This is because they would have been broken down for resources to create the shell.

[How can you see planets inside the sphere?] Freeman Dyson's original concept was not a sphere or shell, but rather a 'swarm' of smaller orbiting satellite stations or ring worlds. In both iterations the orbiting bodies would remain equidistant to one another. The satellites however would be in a geostationary position relative to the points on the sun's 'surface' below them, and would most likely require the breaking down of planets in-system. This makes them the most cost-efficient and easiest to construct of all dyson megastructures. The only time you would ever want a full shell or sphere around a star, would be to power a matyroshka brain. Building a habitable shell would cost more than it is worth to construct, as it would be so large that the power generated from it would be worth the material expenditure.

[What keeps it in orbit?] The power generated by Dyson megastructures is theoretically so great that you could simply give the station(s) a network of thrusters run by advanced supercomputers to keep the orbit stable, and still have only taken a drop of water from an ocean to do so.

[How do you resolve a ground invasion on a surface the size of 5-600 million Earths? You could tie up all the troops of all the factions in the game just to resolve a fraction of the terrain control issues.] Ideally you wouldn't have to. Due to their size, and complexity, true dyson megastructures would be truly endgame content. The only exception would be the satellite station array variant of the dyson swarm. Which would simply require you ships to spend time shooting them down or blocking the outgoing wireless power supply with some kind of jammer. Besides even if a player build a dyson swarm/shell, the industrial capabilities resultant from a complete megastructure would allow the construction of PLANETS as long as the race who built it had access to the materials to do so (most likely matter pulled from stars and/or black holes via stellar lifting at that level of advancement.).

[What do you do with a world that could take in the population of the entire galaxy?] With the amount of patience required to build one? Probably throw it at another star system with a Shkadov thruster. Or you could use cloning programs to populate it. Or even build an AI capable of essentially playing GOD by simulating entire universes (complete with lifeforms capable of independent thought). The possibilities are endless, but such megastructures would be THE endgame content.

[How do you collect the resources for something that requires the mass of all the bodies of a solar system, and if it is destroyed, what happens to all that debris?] Ah yes, the flow of materials. In this setting you would literally have to mine up and erase star systems in order to gather the necessary resources. If such a megastructure were destroyed however, the orbit of the debris would eventually decay and fall into the star, signifigantly shortening the life span of the stellar body.

[Note: There is also no known or theorized construction material strong enough to withstand the forces of the structure. Luckily, we have Dust  :)] While there is no known material that could do so there are many fictional ones that work well. Dust, like you said, is at the top of that list, mostly due to the fact that it would allow a dyson megastructure to repair itself and have some form of elasticity to survive the tidal forces of the star. Hard light and run of the mill nanomachines/living metal work just as well. The hard light simply to add elasticity and strengthen the station like mortar with brick, and the nanomachines are basically dust, but not dust. So yeah, I think dust pretty much works.

I hope this helps with this discusion, as I too would love to see such structure buildable in game, if there are any more questions or problems with the idea please let me know and I'll try to come up with a solution. If you just want to know where you can find info on these kinds of structures, say so and I will provide links. Thank you for you time.

the one above me made great points, but also regarding the material, if a dyson sphere is made of a satellite swarm, it wouldn't really need to be such a special material, because it's several smaller bodies, not one huge body

I'd certainly love to see a dyson sphere and other mega structures for the super late game

Etzlo wrote:

the one above me made great points, but also regarding the material, if a dyson sphere is made of a satellite swarm, it wouldn't really need to be such a special material, because it's several smaller bodies, not one huge body

I'd certainly love to see a dyson sphere and other mega structures for the super late game

It would depend on how large the collection radius of each satellite is. After all tens of kilometers of solar collector tends to have a large strain on itself. But yes if they are appropriately sized a satellite Dyson Swarm would be ideal for power collection late-early game to mid game.