I definently think this would be an awesome addition to the game, for example, what i loved in "Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion" was seeing this constant movement of trade and mining ships moving through my systems, as well as seeing allied trade ships or diplomatic "envoy" ships entering my planets, it helped immensly with my immersion of a living, feeling breathing empire, and not just me being some warlord with military fleets that just move on my command. :D 

(make it toggleable, though)

Yes really good idea

This is a really good idea, nice bits of flavour to add to the living universe.

I approve of this idea Talfos, anything that adds to the game such as this gets my approval.   The option to toggle this on/off would be important too.

Nyutek wrote:

Hey that make me think but why not make them useful like an indicator of majority political ideology. 

For example if the system is more militarist, we can see more ship with weapons or some spatial checkpoint 

If they ecological, we can see a lot of solar panel 

Scientists, lot of observatory 

Space shop for an industrial political majority 

Etc... Etc... 

That could be useful because people can see visually what people think 

I don't know if people have already ask for that or if it's already planned ^^

Excellent Idea!

Nyutek wrote:

Hey that make me think but why not make them useful like an indicator of majority political ideology. 

For example if the system is more militarist, we can see more ship with weapons or some spatial checkpoint 

If they ecological, we can see a lot of solar panel 

Scientists, lot of observatory 

Space shop for an industrial political majority 

Etc... Etc... 

That could be useful because people can see visually what people think 

I don't know if people have already ask for that or if it's already planned ^^

This sounds realy good!

This is a good idea! Perhaps for scale something like the travelers on roads from Medieval 2 Total War? Then it could double as an indicator of the trade lane there as well!

Example:

Hey that make me think but why not make them useful like an indicator of majority political ideology. 

For example if the system is more militarist, we can see more ship with weapons or some spatial checkpoint 

If they ecological, we can see a lot of solar panel 

Scientists, lot of observatory 

Space shop for an industrial political majority 

Etc... Etc... 

That could be useful because people can see visually what people think 

I don't know if people have already ask for that or if it's already planned ^^

Neat idea, but I think I agree with the stuff said above about being able to toggle it off. Not that it's a worry for me, but it could be for other folk.

Sinnaj63 wrote:

First, it's skirmishes not squirmishes.

Anyway, how would that really work on the Galaxy Overview? Since fleets are still represented by 3D models either between or on systems, wouldn't immersion ships either totally clutter the interface or be so unnoticeable and dissonant from military fleets that you'd be better off not having any at all? In systems and at planets though I really like the idea, but there were such already in ES1 on some planets.

Cosmetic ships would be quite different from gameplay fleets tho. 

- They would be tinier (you want to see them when zooming, not clustering the map)

- They would move in real time.

- They wouldnt look like fleets. In my opinion, fleets are represented in wireframe because they are not "really there", the wireframe is just a tactical view. Cosmetic ships would be a part of the galaxy, and thus having "real" (while low poly) models. 

Some itty bitty things like interplanetary civilian infrastructure would be nice.

First, it's skirmishes not squirmishes.

Anyway, how would that really work on the Galaxy Overview? Since fleets are still represented by 3D models either between or on systems, wouldn't immersion ships either totally clutter the interface or be so unnoticeable and dissonant from military fleets that you'd be better off not having any at all? In systems and at planets though I really like the idea, but there were such already in ES1 on some planets.

I know that Amplitude want to make space 4X feel more "organic", and no cold excel sheets anymore. The politics and demographics of ES2 seem to go in that direction, but i'm afraid it won't be enough to instill life into the galaxy view.

So, i was thinking about something : Why not adding to the game small, purely cosmetic ships and events just to liven up your playthroughs?

Examples :  

 Individual ships going from system to system inside your empire

 Trade convoys between stars once the technology is up and running

 Maybe small squirmishes (no full armada of course, just a few ships shooting at each other) on the border of two empires at war

Key points (in my opinion) :

 You would have to zoom in quite a bit in order to see them (they shouldnt be distracting).

 They would move in real time, so that you can just relax and watch them wander while pondering your next options.

I dont have much hope to see my suggestion getting into the game, but i still wanted to share it. Thanks for reading me and sorry for my poor english. 

I'm glad then, can't wait to see it in action. :)

I actually read your post after it was posted :).

I cannot answer for the more cosmetic civilian ships, but the idea you had about trade feedback is really close to something we discussed internally, so I can tell you we have it on the list - it's just on the "polish" side for now.

Thanks to all of you for your support. Let's hope we get some Amplitutattention now. 

I would definitely like to see a more lively galaxy.

Trade ships moving along trade routes would be especially important, as that conveys valuable gameplay information, much like the caravans moving along roads in Total War games.

A few ships zipping around between planets within a system would be a nice touch, too.

Maby soem smal civilian ships within systems? flying around betwen planets, brining comuters to theyr job on another planet, or tourists from one world to another. And bigger interstellar vacation cruisers sailing slowly from star to star. i think that would be realy nice.

I really like this idea, but i think i have an idea to bring it into reality. Amplitude has already shown that they are very proud of the new Corporation system (and rightfully so!) so why not combine these two ideas? when you go into the amplified view, in the Lumeris demo they've been showing the press and Angry Joe has a corporation spanning quite a bit of space. What if small convoys of trade ships that were significantly smaller than the regular fleet's indicators moved along the already established lines of trade between planets, and they became more frequent as you got closer to corporate HQ or their smaller HQs? 

This would definitely help the galaxy map feel more alive. I love seeing my civilian sector freighters and passenger ships flying around the map in Distant Worlds. I don't need to see anything as elaborate in ES2, something more to the scale of OP's suggestions would be fine, but I definitely feel it would be a nice addition to the game.